Chapter Four - Preparations Begin
Goku nodded. "Ya, we should worry about what we can do something about for now..." he said. He then turned to the others and tilted his head. "What's with the outfits?" he asked looking from one person to the other. Only Piccolo and Vegeta were in their usual outfits.
"We were having a picnic before the Embassy detected Cold's ship." Bardock explained.
"Oh, that explains why Piccolo is dressed like normal." Goku said grinning. "He doesn't know how to have fun."
"Neither does Vegeta." Bulma said. "He's been keeping himself locked in his room all day since he got here."
Vegeta snorted. "Mind your own business."
"Touchy." Krillin said. "Anyway, Goku, what's with your odd clothes?"
Goku looked down at the unusual outfit he was wearing. A pair of dark red pants, a dark red shirt, and a dark blue vest with white trim. "Oh, this? Well... Elder Grivor gave it to me."
"Who?" Bulma asked.
"Well, it's kind of hard to explain." he said scratching the back of his head. "I'm not too sure of all the details exactly myself. This guy that said his name was Elder Grivor just suddenly... appeared out of nowhere back on Namek. I guess he was an alien or something. Anyway, he rescued me and took me back to his world. He didn't explain much. Just said he'd been watching things on Namek and was grateful I'd stopped Frieza and once the battle was over he decided the least he could do was step in and rescue me.
"Then he gave me his name and this new outfit, I guess it's the fashion there. After that he gave me an old space pod, I guess it crashed there a long time ago or something. Neither of us had a clue how to operate the thing so I just flipped a bunch of buttons and off I went. It took a while but I eventually landed on Planet Yardrat. The natives were really nice and smart too, they figured out how to work the pod and then programmed it to come here. They even repaired the outfit Grivor gave me, it got kind of torn up in my training."
"Wow." Krillin said. "Man, you had an adventure."
"Ya, tell me about it. It was fun though. The Yardrats aren't very powerful but they had some really neat skills so while they were figuring out the pod they taught me a few."
Yamcha grinned. "I knew you wouldn't come back empty-handed. So, what'd you learn?"
Goku scratched the back of his head again. "Well, they tried showing me a lot of them but... I only picked up three of them, and even then I can't do them completely right."
"So, what are they?" Gohan asked interested.
"Well, there's Restoration, Relocation, and Perception." Goku said. "They're pretty useful."
"Ummm, what exactly are they?" Yamcha asked.
"Well, the only one I can actually demonstate is Relocation so I'll leave that for last. Restoration is a way of healing your body quickly with Ki. Not just the mending we can already do but even so far as regenerating lost limbs. I can't do it that far yet, but I can fix cuts and even broken bones. But it's only physical healing and it uses up Ki to do too, so you can't recover lost energy."
"Wow, that's cool." Krillin said, wide-eyed. "What else Goku?"
"Well, the other one I picked up is called Perception." he said. "You put out what the Yardrats called an 'energy net' around you and it allows you to detect presences and movement."
"Can't you just sense that though?" Appla asked.
"Well, this works on anything." Goku said. "Like, the Yardrats had these little rolling robot things that cleaned their homes. I kept tripping over them and getting run into at first. But with Perception, even though they didn't put out any Ki, I was able to notice where they were so long as they were moving. It's not as effective as Ki sense but it can pick up things that Ki sensing can't."
"Neat!" Gohan said.
Goku nodded. "And the last one, Relocation."
"That's the one you can show us, right?" Yamcha asked.
"Yep! Want to see?"
"Sure!"
"Ok, here goes. First I need to lock onto a Ki... ah, Master Roshi! That'll do!" Goku cried putting two fingers to his head. "Later!" And with that, he vanished.
"Wha-where'd he go?" Krillin cried looking around. "I can't even sense hi..." The short Human was cut off as Goku suddenly appeared again, wearing Master Roshi's glasses. "Master Roshi's all the way around the world!"
Goku just grinned. "I can move to any location instantly, as long as I can find it by locking onto someone's Ki. Not quite got it perfected yet. I have to really focus, and I can only do it if I'm stationary. If I'm moving I can't seem to pull it off. I tried three times when I senesed Frieza nearing the Earth. But each time nothing happened..."
"Look." Bardock said gazing up. Everyone turned their eyes skyward and saw an odd object floating in the sky. It looked like three space pods had joined together, two in the front and one in the back. In each of the front pods was a window, and through those the gathered warriors could see Sakura and the boy. The two waved and then, in a flash of white, they and the machine, vanished.
"So, we've got a little under three years then." Piccolo said. "And then it's all or nothing."
Goku nodded, the cheery look on his face changing to a determined one. "Right. But... they didn't say where these Androids would appear..."
"Maybe they don't know?" Krillin said. "They did say they'd make an announcement. I guess we'll just have to wait for that."
"Right." Piccolo said. "Listen, if you don't think you'll be of any help come time, don't show up. We'll need to be fully focused and ready to deal with this. We'll fail if one of our own is holding us back."
"Just worry about yourself, Namek." Vegeta said turning. "Oh, and Kakkarotto... You better not get yourself killed by these Androids this time around. Once we've dealt with them you and I are going to have our own fight." With that he lifted into the air and flew off.
"Gee, grumpy as ever I see." Yamcha said watching him go.
Krillin nodded. "But what was that about? He wants to fight Goku?"
Bardock sighed. "That would be his pride talking. I doubt he likes that Goku is stronger than him, or that he beat him to becoming a Super Sai-jin."
"Ya but... you and Gohan are Super Sai-jins too..." Krillin said.
"But Goku was the first to beat him, Goku's the strongest of the three of us, and Goku only had a power level of two when he was born, the lowest birth power on record." The Sai-jin shook his head. "And Goku was the one who beat Frieza, even if it was that girl from the Future that killed him... had she not been here..."
"Vegeta's got the biggest ego of any Sai-jin I've ever met." Hotaru said looking off the way he'd gone. "Though, I guess being the weakest Sai-jin royal in known history probably stuck a bug up his butt."
"We should all go off and train, together." Bardock said after a moment. "We'll do better, I think, working in a group."
"You guys go without me." Yamcha said. "I wouldn't be able to keep up with the likes of you."
"Me either." Krillin said shaking his head. "I'll train with Yamcha."
"Same here." Hotaru replied nodding.
"Alright then, it's settled." Piccolo said. "We'll head off a bit further into the mountains where Frieza landed and train there for now."
Goku handed Roshi's glasses over to Krillin. "Give these back to Roshi when you see him." he said turning and lifting into the air.
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Capsule Corp:
Vegeta landed and saw just who he was looking for standing right out front of the building. "Perfect." he said grinning, walking up to Dr. Briefs. "I heard that Bardock and Kakkarotto trained in up to 150 times this world's gravity on the way to Namek."
"Hmm? Oh, yes, yes. My gravity generator."
"How high can that thing go?"
Dr. Briefs furrowed his brow in thought. "Well, it can go up to five hundred, but I'm not sure if the machine could withstand that... why?"
"Because I want one. I need to get back to my training. I've been sitting around so much these last few weeks my power is starting to drop! How long will it take you to build a new contraption?"
"Well, actually Vegeta, you're in luck. I just finished building a new addition..." he pointed off toward a new dome off to the side of the main house. "There are three different gravity rooms, each with it's own machine. I thought Bardock and Appla might be interested, and Goku once he gets back."
"Kakkarotto is back..." Vegeta said walking off toward the dome.
"Oh? Well, wont Gohan and Chi-Chi be happy..."
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Roshi's Island:
"Master Roshi!" Krillin called as he neared the island, Yamcha and Hotaru flying along behind him. As he landed he saw the old martial arts master down on his hands and knees looking under his lounge chair.
"I've got ghosts!" Roshi cried, popping his head back up. "Goku's ghost! It just appeared and stole my sunglasses ten minutes ago!"
The three warriors started laughing as Krillin held out the sunglasses. "Actually, that was Goku. He's back."
Roshi took back his sunglasses and put them on. "Wait, Goku's back?"
Yamcha nodded. "Ya. He just landed a little while ago. Seems trouble isn't far behind though. We got a warning about a new threat coming in three years... one that we lose to this time. So we came by to see about more training."
"Er, well... there isn't much I can do for the three of you. You're all well beyond my level at this point." he said, putting his hands behind his back and looking at them. "Last time I talked to Dr. Briefs he did mention something about gravity rooms, you might find better luck at Capsule Corp."
"And be stuck around Vegeta all day?" Krillin said frowning. "Well, I guess there's no way around it. Being around Vegeta is better than ending up dead."
The three of them turned to take off again and Hotaru glanced over her shoulder at Roshi. "And would you stop staring at my chest every time I come by?"
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Son Home:
"You've got to be kidding Goku! You just got home and now you want to go off again training for three years? And what about Gohan's studies?" Chi-Chi cried.
Standing outside the small Son home Bardock and Appla grinned and Piccolo hung his head sighing. "The one battle Goku will never win." he said softly.
"She's definitely got a Sai-jin spirit." Appla said laughing.
"Well, you can forget it mister!" Chi-Chi's voice sounded again. "You can just go train with Piccolo and your parents on your own. Gohan can't grow up to be a scholar if he's constantly getting his brain knocked around!"
"But... Chi-Chi... we'll need his help training!" Goku pleaded. "If we don't stop these Androids then Gohan will have to spend the rest of his life fighting them!"
Chi-Chi opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. Goku didn't realize it, but he'd just made the perfect arguement and her mind was processing it. Let Gohan train the next three years to help Goku and the others prepare so they could stop the Androids and then Gohan could spend the rest of his life studying... or have Gohan study for the next three years and then spend the rest of his life fighitng. Her shoulders sagged and she hung her head a little. "Alright Goku... you win. But just these next three years, you got that! After that it's back to the books!"
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Deep Space:
"This is... most interesting." the man hidden in the shadows said, his golden eyes glistening in the light from the monitors. "I always wondered how this other timeline progressed. And this Sakura should make things interesting too."
"So then, only three more years until we meet these famous Androids." Ravenna said looking back at him. "I still don't see how these people could possibly do this..."
"You need to give these Sai-jins and their friends more credit." Razor said walking into the room. "They'll free us, even if they don't know they're doing it."
"But... that level of power..."
"Is nothing your father can't manage on his own." Raven said. "But the power must be pure and it must exist outside our little prison. Since we can't leave, only influence things from afar, they are our keys to escape."
"Indeed." the man said standing, his tail wagging behind him a few times before wrapping around his waist. "It will be either Goku or Gohan who sets us free, I can assure you of that. The Shugotenshi will not be rid of us as easily as they seem to think." He turned toward Razor. "And we owe you for this opportunity..."
Razor shrugged. "Grivor always was a fool. Using a temporal prison on another Shugotenshi was a foolish mistake on his part. It may contain me but I can manipulate the field even from the inside." The man walked towards one of the monitors and watched as the two timetravelers vanished, returning to their own time. "Still, it's Raven's technology that allows us to do anything from the inside."
"And you're sure... these people can free us?" Ravenna asked.
Her father laughed. "Ravenna, you forget who they are, who I am, what blood they have flowing in their veins. Eventually either Goku or Gohan will generate enough energy to bend the fabric of time-space and enough pure energy to weaken the Black Field."
Ravenna turned to face her father, smirking. "Careful father, your ego's showing."
"He's right though." Razor said. "It's ironic, really. Everything the other Shugotenshi have done to protect the universe will actually be its undoing. Our presence and plans threaten the universe, and in turn, the Sai-jins. To counter this the Guardian powers have awakened."
"And it is those powers that let our plan work and that will free us." the man said. "And it is those powers that will bring the universe under our control. All we must do is wait."
"But how long?" Ravenna asked. "We've already waited five thousand years."
"Not much longer." Raven replied. "It shouldn't be more than another decade at this rate." She then turned to Razor. "Assuming, of course, all is going as planned in Otherworld?"
"Of course." he said grinning.
The man nodded. "Good, good. Soon we'll be free once more. I'm going to my chambers, contact me if anything of importance occurs." With that he turned and left.