Piccolo, Bardock, Gohan, and Videl were all sitting atop a tall pillar of rock watching the spar before them with interest. Goku was currently flying backwards ducking and dodging as Appla's feet and fists flew at him at high speeds. She'd had the most trouble keeping up during the month since they'd started and had been thinking about training with Hotaru and the two Humans.
The only one in their group she could easily match was Videl. But Goku and Bardock had talked her into sticking around, at least for the time being. And now she and Goku were having a little one on one match. Which, thanks to Appla's exceptional ability with the Kaio Ken, the female Sai-jin was winning. "Wah!" Goku's eyes went wide and he ducked quickly, the red blast of energy from Appla speeding over his head missing him by only inches.
Before he could move again her knee smashed into his chest and knocked him back into another rock pillar bringing it crashing down around him. Groaning he pulled himself out from underneath the debris and gazed up at his mother who was panting lightly above him. "I can barely even keep up..."
Appla's red aura sputtered and then vanished. "I'm beat..." she breathed floating down and landing. "I never... I never imagined I'd be sparring at this level... But still, I was maxed out and you..."
Goku grinned and scratched the back of his head. "I was too and couldn't keep up..."
Appla shook her head. "You weren't using the Kaio Ken or transformed or anything. Not exactly the same Goku."
"She has a point." Bardock said floating down to them. "Still, you've come a long way Appla. You were never expected to pass 20,000 and you're already over 30,000 without the Kaio Ken. Over a million with it. That's beyond impressive."
"I just don't think it will be enough in the end." she said with a sigh. "I mean, you and Goku and Gohan are all Super Sai-jins and that wasn't even enough in the other time-line."
"Well, we've got warning this time." Gohan said. "Thanks to Sakura and that guy. So we'll be ready."
"Not if we stand around talking all day." Piccolo said. "While Goku gets his breath back we can do a couple more spars."
Bardock nodded. "Right. Videl, you're with Gohan this time." he said looking over to the young half Sai-jins. He then turned and looked at Piccolo. "You ready?" he asked grinning.
The Namek grinned and floated into the air above the rocks before taking a battle stance. "Whenever you are."
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Capsule Corp:
Hotaru ducked to the right, slipping around the kick from Krillin and then shot up over the punch from Yamcha. Fighting the two Humans at the same time was certainly giving her quite the workout. One on one she could handle them easily enough but these two on one spars were what really got them going. It proved the most challenging for her, and the most plausible for them. Her eyes went wide and she leaned back just barely dodging a kick from Yamcha. "You're getting fast." she said grinning before spinning around behind him and smashing her knee into his back. "But not fast enough."
Yamcha grinned as the gravity machine in the center of the room hummed on. "We'll see about that. Nibai Kinryoku!" With that he charged in at her again and the two began swinging at each other rapidly, both dodging or blocking the other's attacks. Krillin watched them go looking for a good opening but not finding one. After a moment he crossed his arms and frowned. The two had obviously gotten caught up in their little one on one.
"Alright, change of format!" the short Human called bringing the two before him to a stop. "You two against me."
"Against you?" Yamcha asked grinning. "Sorry Krillin, your days of being stronger than me have passed."
"Oh? Huh... I didn't know that." he said scratching the back of his head. "And here I thought I was a little stronger than you."
Yamcha and Hotaru glanced at each other wondering what the short Human meant. "You're holding out on us, aren't you?" Hotaru asked at last.
Krillin grinned. "Just got the hang of it last night." he said bracing his body. "Nibai Kinryoku!" In a flash the silver aura flared up around him and Krillin's power shot up over both Hotaru and Yamcha's. Though neither were at their full power. Even so, Yamcha's maximum was just barely below that of Krillin's. And at their current levels, a two on one spar against Krillin would be the perfect workout.
The three warriors floated in silence for a moment, the only sound the continuing hum of the Gravity Machine. Then, Hotaru and Yamcha glanced at each other and Krillin recognized the faint glow in their eyes. They were using their link to talk telepathicaly. He took that as his cue to charge in and the spar was back on. The short Human used his size to his advantage. He was smaller and faster than both of them which made it easier to dodge around their attacks and land good solid blows against them.
He dodged to the left quickly and then blocked a kick aimed for his head, turned quickly and deflected the punch that had been coming at his back. His two opponents spun around as if to move behind him but instead lanced out with their feet and he was then caught off guard as two feet smacked into his stomach and knocked him back into the gravity machine. Hotaru and Yamcha landed as the dented machine sparked, whined, and then shut-down, the room quickly dropping from 50 times Earth Gravity to normal.
Krillin moaned and rubbed the back of his head as his and Yamcha's silver auras vanished. "That telepathic link of yours is cheating." he muttered, both of them laughing. Turning to look at the machine he sighed. "It's broken. Guess Bulma's going to have to fix it... Never thought we'd be the first to damage one though. I haven't even felt Vegeta training lately..."
"I haven't seen him for a couple of days." Hotaru said. "I don't know where he went... maybe he decided to find a more open training area? These rooms are decent size but he may have wanted more room..."
Yamcha shook his head. "And lose the benefit of the Gravity Machines? Not likely. I looked in on his training last week, he had the thing up to 180!"
"Not suprising." Hotaru said shrugging as the three of them exited the Gravity Room and started across the courtyard for the house. "That's only 18 times higher than what he's used to. But you do have a point... unless he went off to train with Goku and the others I don't see him passing up the use of the Gravity Machines."
"Are you talking about Vegeta?" Bulma asked from where she sat in her lounge chair sun bathing. "I doubt he's out with Goku. His ego's too thick to admit he could benefit from training with him, Bardock, and Gohan."
"So, any idea where he's gotten to?" Krillin asked.
"Not a clue. He comes back around sunset every day, his outfits have been so torn up I've just thrown them out. Don't know where he goes or what he's doing though."
"Guess he did just go out for more area." Hotaru said in thought. "Hmmm, I wonder... he could be developing a new technique. For something like that you'd need a lot more room than the Gravity Rooms offer..."
Krillin grinned. "Ya! Now that's what we need. Some sort of new super technique. Oh, hey, think we could learn some of those moves you and Yamcha mentioned? That Siko-Shinda and those other ones?"
Hotaru shook her head. "It's Shika-Shidou, and I doubt it. The Shika-Shidou uses mental energy and the only Humans I know of that can use that are Tien and Chaotzu. As for Aiko's moves... I don't really know anything about them." She sighed and looked up at the sky. "I still find it hard to believe..." she said after a moment. "Beings stronger than Frieza..." she shook her head. "We have to find a way to stop them somehow. We can't let them off the Earth, we can't let them take over the galaxy."
Bulma blinked and then suddenly sat bolt upright in her chair. "Hotaru, you're a genious!" she cried smiling.
"Huh?" the three warriors asked together.
"Keep them on the Earth!" Bulma said as though that explained everything perfectly. "I've been catching up on the technologies of the galaxy ever since the Embassy went up... the Sai-jins developed what they call a Barrier Field Generator, they use them mainly for containment of prisoners but also as a perimeter to their battle competitions. I'm sure father and I can manage to make something big enough to cover the Earth..."
"So, you're saying we trap them down here?" Krillin asked. "Well... that could work. At least if they can't leave the Earth, the rest of the galaxy is still safe, even if we can't stop them..."
Bulma nodded. "It's worth a try... Hey, Hotaru, how much power can one of your Erido Generators put out?"
"Hmmm, well, the Sai-jins have started using them to power their ships... so at least five thousand Vilors." she said. "I don't think we've ever maxed one out to tell the truth, we don't really use much energy on Tanaria unless there's something special happening, and our ships don't need more than five hundred Vilors..."
"Hmm, five thousand at least... and a Barrier Field Generator can cover an area of fifty-thousand square miles with that much power. This could be doable..." Bulma said, deep in thought. "Mind giving me a hand in the lab?"
"Sure, no problem."
"What about the Gravity Machine?" Krillin asked.
"I'll send someone up to fix it." Bulma said turning and walking into the building with Hotaru right behind her.
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Zulmai-Zubri Mountains:
Vegeta stood atop the mountain of ice upon a small ledge gazing down into the large canyon below him. He'd been coming to this frozen wasteland for a week now working on a few new attacks and working at perfecting and improving some older ones. The mountains had proven to be a far more challenging opponent than he'd expected. His blasts only made small cracks and breaks in the thick ice. At first it had been insanely frustrating, after all, it was only ice. But then he'd picked up on the faint energy emantating from the ice.
It didn't take long for him to track the source of the energy that flowed through the ice back to this canyon. He could barely make it out several hundred feet under the ice, a large building of some kind, completely encased in ice. It was the source of the energy that filled the ice and made it incredibly resistant to attack. He wasn't sure if it was accidental or on purpose but didn't really care. Now that he had a target he had a goal to work for. For the last four days he'd been chipping away at the ice around the lab and was now quite close to breaking through completely.
Once he had it open he figured he may as well explore it. If he was lucky it would be the location of these Androids they'd been warned about and he could deal with them now instead of in three years. With a grin he floated into the air above the lab and pulled his arms back and to one side, purple energy sparking up between them and then soon engulfing his entire body. Soon the purple light bathed the entire mountain range and seeped through the ice itself. He only charged for a few moments, he didn't want to accidently destroy the lab.
With a grin he thrust his arms down. "Gallick Gun!" The purple energy swirled, pulsed, flared, and then exploded down toward the ground in a thick beam as big as him. The signature move of the Sai-jin Royal Family slammed into the ice with a crash and sent sparks of energy out in every direction. He could feel the ice breaking, cracking, and melting beneath his beam but at the slowest rate yet. It seemed the closer he got to the lab the harder the ice was to break. It was understandable though, since the lab was the source of the reinforcing energy that filled the ice. It also only made the determined Sai-jin push on harder.
With a grunt he pulled his arms back a little and then thrust them back down. The energy stream grew thicker and brighter as it swelled even larger. He had to give this ice some credit. He was hitting it with enough force to completely obliterate the planet and was only making a little headway. A moment later he both heard and felt it. His energy stream was moving a little faster and there was a loud cracking sound echoing about him. Quickly he ended the attack, the purple stream of energy fading into nothing. He watched on in interest as cracks began to snake along the ice around the lab.
And then the ice began to glow blue and the mountain range began to shake. "Now this is unexpected..." Vegeta said watching the ice around the lab melt and shatter. A moment later the entire thing was free of its frozen confines. "Hmm, I guess the energy was meant to free the lab, not make the ice stronger... I guess the amount of ice was just too much and was causing it to have the reverse effect. Heh, well then, lets see who's inside that wanted out."
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Capsule Corp:
Bulma grinned as she moved from the blueprints she had just been looking at and back over to the large computer that took up one wall of the lab she was in. Her father was going over the data that was coming in from Tanaria while Hotaru spoke with King Vegeta. The Human was rather ecstatic about her recent discoveries. The power output of a single Erido Generator could manage an output of over fifty thousand Vilors and maintain that output, without recharge, for a period of about six months. However, fit them with solar panels and collector nets for recharge and they'd last forever.
Fifty thousand Vilors... that was enough power to generate a barrier five-hundred thousand square miles in size. The Earth was several thousand miles around so it would take multiple systems. They'd need a field larger than the Earth by a considerable amount to prevent interference and to keep the satellites that would be generating the field in orbit... She did some quick calculations in her mind to figure out how large a field they'd need. The Earth was approximately 197 million square miles in size.
Bulma sighed as she did the mental calculations. Considering satellite altitudes they'd need to cover a size of around 200 million square miles. At 500 thousand per system that would require 400 Erido Generators linked up each to it's own Barrier Field Generator. The good news was, according to the king, they already had a stock of five hundred Barrier Field Generators. Plus they were building more Erido Generators already, adding to the one hundered they already had. It'd only take a few weeks to develop the needed parts.
Her father even thought he had a way of strengthening the field's power with a few tweaks. Yes, this would all be very doable. In fact, by her estimates, they could have at least twenty of these complete planetary systems developed and ready by the time the Androids appeared. "Hey, Bulma..." Hotaru called over from where she was. "King Vegeta just... well, he came up with a small hitch to your plans."
"Oh?" she asked moving over. "What is it?"
"Well. The Barrier Fields only work up to a million. Beyond that and it is possible to break through. You mentioned you could strengthen the systems, but to get it to the level needed to contain something more powerful than a Super Sai-jin..."
Bulma furrowed her brow in thought. "You said the new scanners have read Bardock at around 18 million... no telling how strong he'll be come the Androids..." She sighed. "You're right. A field with enough strength to contain the Androids is out of the question. But maybe we can come up with something..."
"What about a Space-Time field?" Dr. Briefs suggested. "We install a Space-Time compressor in each Generator Unit as a fail safe. Should the barrier break at any point along it's area the Space-Time compressors could detonate."
"And create a temporary Space-Time Bubble around the Earth with a series of Space-Time Tears!" Bulma cried. "That could work. We'd need to manage the power of the Compressors, develop something new and stronger than current... or just pile up a hundred into a single Generator Unit. We'll also need to make sure the system is high enough above the Earth that the bubble wont effect the population."
"Um, what are Space-Time Bubbles and Tears?" Hotaru asked.
"Oh, well, it's simple really." Bulma said. "The Capsules use Space-Time Compressors to operate. Each Capsule generates a small compression field to create a controlled Space-Time Bubble. The Capsule is made of a material that can contain the bubble and there's a small computer inside that manages the field as well. It's called a "bubble" when a field of Space-Time is wrapped around an area of normal matter, such as what's stored inside the Capsule. If the Capsule is destroyed the Space-Time field is destroyed generating a tear in the fabric of Space-Time. Theoretically it's how Time Travel works... that aside, it's a barrier that nothing can cross. The abscence of Space and Time causes anything that enters to be destroyed at the atomic level, not even a Namek could survive that."
"Couldn't we use one of those to destroy these Androids then?" Hotaru asked.
Dr. Briefs shook his head. "An uncontrolled Space-Time Tear within a powerful gravitational and magnetic field such as a planet is asking for trouble." he said. "They feed on gravitational and magnetic forces to expand. When small enough it's not a threat, it'll disspate on its own, but if the field is large enough it'll continue to expand as it's pulled upon by the gravitational and magnetic fields of the planet until it reaches the Point of no Return. At that size it can't dissipate on it's own and not even our Reducer Fields can eliminate it. It'll continue expanding then until eventually it reaches a point were it generates a Nilron Flux Paradox."
"Nilron Flux Paradox?"
Bulma nodded and explained. "Think of it this way. You tear a hole into a piece of paper, that paper represents Space-Time. Now, your hands tearing at it are the gravitational and magnetic fields. As the hole widens it becomes easier to tear the paper because there's less resistance. Now, imagine that the hole gets so wide that it began to tear. The hole itself is made of nothing, but because of the pull created by gravity, magnetic forces, and the expanding of Space-Time, it's being ripped apart. How does nothing tear, though?"
Hotaru and the King both blinked, neither having an answer, but both fascinated by the explanation. Dr. Briefs continued. "You see, that's the point. You can't tear nothing. But since something has to give it tears anyway creating the Nilron Flux Paradox. The very edges of the Space-Time tear appear in the center of the tear. The tear is creating its own gravitational and magnetic forces at this point, from the inside. The tear wont stop expanding, ever. Until it reaches the edge of Space-Time. And then it'll implode, comrpessing all the matter of the universe down to a single atom in size."
"That." Bulma continued. "Will create an intense amount of heat and energy which will break the Space-Time field, cause a massive explosion, and restore the fabric of space creating a brand new universe. While it's not the end of existance it is the end of this universe and everything in it. Since we haven't a clue how big a Space-Time tear can be before it reaches the Point of No Return, we wont risk creating one inside the gravitational and magnetic fields of Earth. But around the planet, that's safe."
Dr. Briefs nodded again. "Exactly. That's why Black Holes don't expand into infinity. There's no external pull on the tear, only intense internal pull, and so they stop."
"But then..." Hotaru said in thought. "Wouldn't it stop eventually anyway? Granted, it'd take out this sytem at the least, but, the tear would stop, just like Black Holes do..."
Bulma shook her head. "Black Holes also maintain a material existance. Inside a black hole is a star. Small, strong, and bright. We just can't see it because the gravity is too strong even for light waves to overcome. Because of the material's existance, they're more like a bubble than a tear. They have a solid center, not a void."
"So no Nilron Flux Paradox?" King Vegeta asked.
"Exactly."
Hotaru rubbed her forehead as she absorbed the technical matters. She wasn't nearly as intelligent as Bulma or her father, she doubted there was anyone on any planet that was, but she did understand the basics of what they'd said. Tear on Earth bad, tear in space ok. "Alright, then if we make a barrier out of these tears surrounding the Earth, the Androids wont be able to leave..."
"It's only temporary." Bulma said. "It'll fade on it's own over time, without a strong enough external draw. But it'll give those off world time to put a new barrier up around the Earth..."
King Vegeta nodded. "That will work, I think. If it comes down to it we can maintain that system for several years while we come up with something more permanent."