Episode 47

Long Time No See

It was pitch-black with dimmed red lights flashing throughout this unknown area. An emergency alarm can be heard faintly ringing from a distance. Looking from the outside, Bulma and the others had entered this black, diamond-shaped like ship just floating in the universe.

Everyone just started to wake up.

"Aah! Where are we?" Bulma asked, still terrified about what happened earlier.

Krillin looked around. "I don't know. It's very peculiar though. I thought there was another ship that looked like ours and then-"

"BOO! Hah! I'm an alien!" cried Gohan who tried to scare the wits out of them as a harmless prank. Bulma and Krillin jumped in surprise, but Raditz and Bardock did not even flinch.

"Gohan!" Bulma exclaimed, her hands crossly on her ships.

"That's not funny at all, Gohan," Krillin scolded.

"Sorry!" Gohan smiled. "Uncle, Grandpa, you guys weren't even scared!"

"You think we have time to play games?" asked Raditz. "We're practically in the middle of nowhere!"

Bardock, however, was not the only one who was smiling. "Not exactly…"

"Huh?" they all asked.

They went out of their own ship and stepped outside into this new and strange location. Krillin looked up at the highest peak of this diamond-shaped ship and he almost felt like he was floating.

"Woah, this is pretty cool," Krillin remarked.

"So what do you mean by 'not exactly'?" Bulma asked Bardock, referring to what he said earlier.

"Friends of mine live here," Bardock told her.

"Friends?" asked Gohan. "They actually live in this ship all their lives?!"

"Not really…it's a long story," Bardock said, remembering a memory from the past. He only met them once a year ago. He wondered how they were doing now.

"Well, let's go meet them," Bulma encouraged everyone. "Besides, I'd like to give my feet some exercise. It's been days since we were on that ship."

"Are you sure?" Krillin asked, seeing how the place was still in red code alert.

Bulma was already moving forward, leaving them all behind. "Come on, let's go!"

"Hey, wait up, Bulma!" Gohan ran after her.

They left their ship for a while and headed to this opened gate in front of them, which was the only door in the room. Bulma was at front, casually walking and humming a tune. Everyone thought it was going to be fine until when the last person left the room, the door behind them suddenly shut closed.

"Huh?!" everyone was surprised.

Krillin was almost blue in the face. "H-hold on, but our ship's in there!"

Raditz touched the handle and tried to open it, but it was locked completely. "We can't get in…"

"What did you say?!" Bulma panicked.

Click!

Now, they heard this sound and they immediately turned to the direction where they heard that. They gasped in shock and in response, they huddled together after they saw three high-tech machine guns pointing at them straight in the eye.

"O-okay! New plan! We need to get out of here!" Krillin cried out.

"B-Bardock! Y-you said… they were your friends!" Bulma's voice trembled, almost screaming at the top of her lungs while her hands were clutched onto Krillin and Raditz so tightly she almost hurt them both.

"Darn…they must've mistaken us for enemies," Bardock thought with uneasiness, his eyes still focused on these weapons pointing at them. He noticed there were sensors attached to these, which meant if one of them tried to move out of the weapons' range, they would certainly hit them.

"This isn't happening! No! I want to live! I'm too young and pretty to die! WAAH!"" Bulma cried, still clutching onto Krillin and Raditz tightly.

"Bulma!" Krillin and Raditz shouted to try to calm her down, but only to be hit by her panicking fists continuously.

"Hey, just keep quiet! You think panicking will solve anything?" Bardock asked and then, he came up with an idea. "Okay…on the count of three…"

After Bardock made the countdown, everyone jumped as fast as they could, with Krillin carrying Bulma, up to the ceiling as high as possible. Due to their incredible, superhuman speed, the high-tech guns were not able to shoot them and instead, the bullets shot the floor, leaving several holes on the metal floorboards.

"That was close," Raditz said, looking straight to where they were standing before.

"Raditz, watch out!" Bardock yelled suddenly.

"What?" when Raditz turned his head, two quick javelins and daggers dashed towards him without warning. He gave a back-flip to avoid them and as a result, the weapons pierced the ship's walls instead. Then suddenly, another set of javelins and spiky daggers tried to hit Gohan, Krillin, Bulma, and Bardock, but thanks to their non-human powers, they were able to avoid them all.

"AAH!" Bulma was still crying out.

"Okay, okay, okay!" Krillin breathed heavily to calm himself down. "Man, Bardock, I have a feeling your friends don't recognize you!"

Bardock looked from left to right, to see if they could move on now. "They're just traps implanted in this ship. I couldn't really blame them though why they have to do this…"

"What do you mean?" asked Gohan.

"Couldn't blame them?!" Bulma began to get angry at Bardock. "They nearly killed us! You need to teach your friends a lesson or two how to properly behave around guests especially around a pretty woman like me!"

Even Bardock was now slightly getting irritated at her for rambling on and on without letting him explain himself; however, there was no time to argue or linger.

"Come on," Bardock took flight and went to another direction while the rest followed him.

The Z-fighters had to find and negotiate with Bardock's friends in order to get back to their spacecraft. Bardock led everyone and tried to see if there were any familiar places in the ship. For now though, he can only trust in his senses.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Krillin asked.

"Just be patient," Bardock told him.

Steadily walking as they could, the Z-fighters now found themselves in a vast and dimmed hallway, but there were still no signs of Bardock's friends anywhere. As they walked farther, they realized the hallway was beginning to curve and the atmosphere felt more mysterious than ever. When they proceeded to two more pathways, in front of this particular path, they found these camouflaged holes on the walls that had appeared and initiated machine guns in every corner and side of the hallway. They clicked at once, signaling a warning for them.

"Aah!" Bulma shrieked as she clutched onto Raditz and Krillin once again.

Raditz tried to move his arm away from her, but she kept holding it. "Do you mind?!" he asked, but she was not listening.

"Guess they've really mistaken us for aliens!" Krillin's voice was muffled, seeing how Bulma's entire arm was covering his mouth.

Seconds later, the pistols clicked again and launched rapid fire of bullets, leaving the pathway with very little space to escape or move towards it. The guns were firing non-stop.

"AAH! HELP!" Bulma screamed.

"What are we gonna do now?!" Gohan asked worriedly.

Raditz took a step forward while placing his hand in front of him. Without the slightest effort, he gathered just enough energy to stop these traps once and for all. His palm formed a blinking sphere in the middle and then, he discharged an invisible force field. The waves almost disrupted the structure of the air, somehow resonating throughout the hallway. The force field instantly disrupted the high-tech guns and crushed them all at once.

Krillin blinked his eyes for a moment. "…what didn't I think about that earlier? I just realized we were superhuman!"

"You did it, Uncle Raditz!" praised Gohan.

Bardock nodded to them. He began to advance. "We need to move. Let's go."

As they continued their brief and dangerous expedition, it irritated them all to see themselves ending up in a dead end.

"What the?" Krillin asked.

"Way to go, Bardock!" Bulma complained, her hands gripped tightly on her arms, shaking her head. "You've led us to so many traps and we all ended up at a dead end! We should've just stayed back!"

Bardock kept his temper, but he was becoming to be more and more aggravated with her. "Can you stop complaining for once? Who was the one who wanted to give her feet some exercise, may I ask?"

Bulma did not listen and just turned her head to the other side.

Raditz looked above him and saw a strange-looking plate on the ceiling with a handle on it. "What's that?"

Everyone looked up.

Raditz flew towards it and pulled the handle, which actually led to another level of the ship. Raditz peered over to see what was on the second floor. He quickly made his way there and the rest tagged along. Bulma came next with a bit of help from Krillin. Gohan then followed Bulma and his uncle. Bardock and Krillin were about to go next until suddenly, the door closed shut!

SLAM!

"Huh?" they noticed something very peculiar. The handle and the door mysteriously disappeared from the first floor as if it was not there in the first place.

"What the heck?" asked Bardock who was beginning to feel frantic.

"Hey, open this door!" Krillin slammed the door many times, which had now turned into a ceiling many, but he cannot open it at all.

"Grandpa Bardock! Krillin!" shouted Gohan who was trying to pull the handle, which was still present on the second floor.

"What's going on?!" Bulma screamed with fight.

Raditz was worried until he felt a presence of a figure coming by. Slowly, he turned to look with vigilant eyes and to his surprise, he saw three gigantic robots standing before them. Each had a different look in terms of colors and weapons, but their narrow, elongated heads were similar to that of a skull with glowing red eyes. Their mouths looked like they had two rows of canine teeth. Their bodies were equipped with heavy chest guards, its hands and legs geared with metal shin and arm guards. One robot had two machine guns equipped as its weapon. The other had an axe with a sharp edge. The last one possessed a laser gun and a sword to go along with it.

"What the?" Raditz had never seen anything like this before. His nephew, Gohan, began to back away a little, but he quickly stopped himself, knowing this will be a battle he needed to face.

"What's that?" Bulma shivered in fear until her eyes showed interest to the three gigantic robots. She gasped and said, "Wait! Those things! They look like-"

"-those pirate robots we fought in the Red Ribbon Army!" Krillin exclaimed who, as well as Bardock, were encountering the three exact enemies. They were sliding towards them, their feet acting like sled. They were equipped with different kinds of weapons as well.

"You fought these before?" Bardock asked with his hands and feet in fighting position already.

"Yeah, only they kinda look different from the ones we know. Anyway, Bulma, Goku, and I fought something similar to this in the Red Ribbon Army years ago. We were just teenagers back then," Krillin explained who was readied in his stance as well.

"Red Ribbon?" Bardock asked while remembering his visions. He recalled seeing the young Goku battling Red Ribbon Army's fiercest enemies.

"You fought them before?" Raditz asked Bulma who was telling him and Gohan the same story.

"Of course! But I think we should call them space robots, not pirates! And they look much stronger. Whatever they are, I wanna get out of here!" shouted Bulma, hiding behind Gohan and Raditz.

The space robots were getting closer and closer, their weapons prepared to strike at will. The isolated Z-fighters from the first and second level huddled together and were ready to begin battle.

"Ready?" Krillin asked.

Once the robots were a few feet away for them, it was that signal.

Krillin took his first attack. When one of the space robots took a swing from its gigantic sword, Krillin avoided it and gave a surprising kick to its face, trying to break it as quickly as he can. The second robot pointed its gun at Bardock and fired countless bullets, but thanks to Bardock's phenomenal powers, he leaped quickly to evade them and then, he went for a straight kick to its face. The third took sets of daggers and tossed them like boomerangs. Together, Bardock and Krillin crushed those weapons by releasing force fields from their palms. The two then teamed up together and threw fists towards the third enemy with great power and immense force.

On the second floor, Raditz fought the first space robot, evading its rapid fire bullets from its two equipped machine guns. It continued to fire, but Raditz was able to get between its mechanical legs, slid behind it, and went for a crushing kick to its back, shoving it many distances.

"Aah!" Bulma suddenly screamed, seeing the third robot was about to launch a grenade at her.

"Bulma!" Gohan exclaimed. In an attempt to save her, he quickly pushed Bulma her of the way, letting the grenade explode on the floor instead.

Bulma covered her eyes from the blinding lights. She then looked up. "Gee, thanks, Gohan!"

The young warrior stood with focused eyes and launched a rapid elbow strike to the third robot.

It was pushed back, but little damage was inflicted to it. The space cyborg took out its laser device and fired consecutive laser beams, making its last attack stronger. Gohan almost froze to his feet, but he kept a clear thinking ahead and protected himself with a barrier he made from his own energy to cancel the last beam.

"Hyah!" immediately, Gohan then leaped in air, but was about to get attack again by the foe's sword. It swung its blade at him, but Gohan evaded it. With power and courage, he gave a sidekick to the third robot's face, sliding it against the first robot, which Raditz was fighting with.

The two robots collided with each other, and because of their heavy, metal weight and composition, the two fell to the ground instantly. Gohan and Raditz were ready to finish off them off until the second cyborg suddenly struck from behind, using its sword to blow this gust of winds. It then took out its axe and attacked with it three times, leaving a surge of white, damaging energy from it. These attacks had hit Gohan and Raditz, but the damage was only little. It was more of the bellowing winds that took them temporarily on the ground.

"Hey!" Bulma suddenly shouted to their enemies. From her space-suit skirt, she quickly took out her own high-tech gun from her pocket and aimed it at the second robot. "Listen, big guy! No one messes with my friends like that! Now eat this!" she pulled the trigger and as quick as a jet flies, a bullet with massive energy creating an aura on its tip was shot out to the robot's weapon which was its axe. With another pull of the trigger, Bulma fired a much more powerful bullet and it shot that same robot at one of its mechanical legs this time, causing it to malfunction a little.

Gohan and Raditz were amazed to see Bulma joining the fight with them. They would have never guessed she also had the "fighting spirit" within her.

"Wow," Gohan said.

"So, she can actually do some useful things other than complaining?" Raditz smirked.

Bulma continued to fire more bullets until suddenly, there was a shadow looming over her. She quickly turned around only to see two of their enemies ready to annihilate her. Bulma shook and froze completely until Raditz and Gohan flew above her. All at once, they went for roundhouse kicks to their faces, finally breaking some of their wires.

Bulma wiped the sweat from her face. "Phew!"

"From the looks of it, they're about to back down. Let's keep ruining their circuits," Raditz said to Gohan.

On the first floor, Krillin was seen evading one of the space robot's gigantic sword. The enemy took a good swing at it, letting out a strong gust of wind, almost blowing Krillin away; however, the monk warrior was able to ride on the blade's lustrous surface instead. The robot tried to swing Krillin away from its sword while the Z-warrior tried to keep his balance without falling off.

"Woah! This is complicated!" Krillin exclaimed. Once the timing was just right, Krillin hopped away from the blade and went for a straight punch to the enemy's chest, but was able to avoid his attack. Krillin, being smarter than he looked though, dashed backwards, behind its neck, and gave a good fist at it.

The robot almost lost balance and was about to fall straight towards Bardock. Bardock looked to see his left to see the first robot throwing thousands of oversized needles. Because of his tremendous speed though, he managed to evade those attacks and was able to deflect one of those needles straight to its upper body. Bardock took strength in grabbing its large arm and threw it against the second robot. Both of them fell to the floor.

The last robot crept behind the two fighters and was about to fire one-hundred bullets per second from its oversized machine gun. Krillin and Bardock focused at it and were prepared to take action. Then, all of a sudden, instead of bullets, the robot's mechanical hand switched to a launcher, forming an energy attack instead from the center. The glowing energy instantly became a ball of dangerous light and was launched towards Krillin and Bardock immediately.

Of course, for them especially to Bardock, it was nothing more but a game. Bardock grinned while instantly deflecting the energy ball back at the robot. The enemy was hit by its own attack and was pushed off to its other two companions. All three of them heavily fell on top of another.

Together, Bardock did a Full Power Energy Wave while Krillin fired a Kamehameha wave at the space robots. Their special techniques took high speed and instantly destroyed the enemies leaving with only remnants of some of their mechanical parts.

Bardock grunted and wiped the dust from his shoulders while Krillin said the battle was easy.

On the second level, Gohan and Raditz also took their final attacks with Gohan doing a Masenko and Raditz raising his right hand to fire a Saturday Crush. Their special techniques also destroyed their enemies in an instant.

The space robots had finally been defeated. The door on the ceiling between the first and second floor appeared once again with its handle. It was strange to Krillin and Bardock how this "door" had reappeared and they suspected someone had been watching their every move. They pulled the handle anyway and were able to get to the second floor. They were relieved to know that their friends and family were safe.

"Thank goodness you're okay!" Bulma cried. "I hope we won't have to face more of those again!"

"I hope so, too. We have to move on," Bardock insisted. The rest followed afterwards.

They eventually ended up seeing a double door in front them. They opened it and entered, seeing how this room was vast and colossal. A few mechanical crates and boxes were stacked on one another. Its walls were made of steel and there were many dark corners.

"This place is really nothing," Bulma looked around. "Don't tell me this is another trap!"

"But everything looks clear now," Krillin thought.

For Bardock, he felt like he had been here before.

Once again, there was another click and before they knew it, mysterious people in armor and heavy suits surrounded them all at once. Some sprung from windows and hidden doors while others had already been there. They were heavily armed, carrying different kinds of weapons in their hands, ready to fire at will.

"What?" the Z-warriors gasped and then, they fell silent.

Afterwards, two teenagers slowly walked towards the front. One was the leader of this group while the other was his friend and second-in-command. As they walked, they had pistols in their hands.

The leader finally spoke."State your identities. You are not welcome here."

"Wait," Krillin tried to calm the tensions down. "What's this all about? We're not here to-"

"Be quiet!" ordered the second-in-command. "The people I hate the most are the ones who deceive and lie."

"Wait, hold on!" Bulma tried to explain herself. "Aren't you Bardock's friends?!"

Immediately, the leader and the rest of his companions gasped in surprise.

"Bardock?" asked the leader.

Bardock finally showed himself from the shadows with a smirk on his face. "Been a long time, Zeshin."

Zeshin, his ally, Bun, and rest of their companions and relatives realized that it was indeed him.

"Bardock!" all of them cried at once.

Emi, the young girl holding her alien toy, said happily, "Mr. Bardock, it's you!"

"It's really you, Bardock! Oh my gosh," Bun then pushed his goggles he was wearing against his hair. He then ordered everyone to put their weapons down.

Zeshin approached his friend. "Bardock, I can't believe it. We never thought we'd see you again."

Everyone then began apologizing sincerely for making them go through all those traps including the six space robots they had to face.

"We are so sorry, Bardock! Please tell me nobody was hurt," Bun fretted. "We were just caught in the moment and we're just trying to protect ourselves!"

Bardock shook his head. "No, no one is hurt. You should be thankful that we're not ordinary warriors."

Bulma crossed her arms as she lectured the children and teenagers. "Being a scientist, I'm impressed by your technology, but I don't like the idea we nearly got crushed by them. You guys should know who your enemies and friends are!"

Zeshin, Bun, and the rest had their head downs, red on the cheeks, feeling ashamed and embarrassed.

"But I guess I can forgive you especially with that cute face of yours," Bulma winked.

Bun realized Bulma was the one who gave him that wink and he became even redder than ever.

Zeshin then suddenly approached Bardock, having a question in mind only for him. "So…have you found him yet?"

Bardock stared at him for a moment, knowing who he was talking about. A lot had happened since this past year, many events taking a different turn. Bardock will continue wait until that day comes, whenever that will be. Lately, his instincts had been telling him that their journey to Namek might finally accomplish one of his main goals in life he had always wanted to accomplish.

Bardock shook his head.

Zeshin gave a rather sad look, but kept a hopeful attitude. "Oh, I see. Well, don't worry. Sooner or later, you'll meet Frieza and when we do, it's payback time!"

Bardock grinned slightly, but from the inside, he felt troubled.

Gohan, Krillin, and Bulma had no idea what they were talking about obviously, but Raditz might seem to know.

Zeshin then looked at the rest of Bardock's friend and family. "Huh? Who are they?"

Bulma, Krillin, Gohan, and Raditz introduced themselves. Zeshin and Bun did the same as well and were much honored to meet them.

"Well, better make sure you don't point your weapons at anybody unless they're your friends," Bulma highly suggested while giving another wink.

This time, both Bun and Zeshin blushed lightly again.

"Yes, we will remember that," Bun said to Bulma.

"But I'm surprised, Bardock. I didn't know you have a son," Zeshin remarked after Raditz told him he was the eldest son of Bardock.

"I have two actually," Bardock held up two fingers, "My youngest is on Earth now, recuperating from his wounds from a great battle we recently had."

"A battle, huh?" Bun said as he placed his hands on his hips. He then remembered. "Oh, I forgot to ask the most important question of all! Why are you guys traveling in space anyway?"

Gohan decided to tell him. "It's a long story, but we're on the hunt to find the DragonBalls to wish our friends back to life after we had a huge battle back on Earth, where we all live."

"Wish your friends back to life? Are you serious?!" Bun could not believe a phenomenon like that could be possible.

"There's no way!" cried Zeshin.

The rest of their companions began to mumble amongst themselves, astounded by this new information they were hearing.

"It is very possible," Krillin told him with a smile. "You may be well surprised there are lot of amazing mysteries and lying out there."

Zeshin and his crew agreed with his words.

"Hey, you guys must probably be tired," Zeshin believed. "If you like, you can stay here for a while to recover."

"Well…forgive us, but we can't stay for long," Bardock apologized. "I know it's a bit short, but we're on our way to Namek. We have a mission we need to do there."

Zeshin's eyes suddenly widened. The word "Namek" sounded very familiar to him. "Wait, did you just say Namek-?"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

They were all interrupted, however, as the entire room became dimmer and was now surrounded by red alarm lights. Code red was activated and an emergency voice machine was turned on.

"Red code alert! Red code alert! A meteor storm is approaching from the northwest direction in less than five minutes."

"A meteor storm?!" everyone shouted in great shock.

A young boy suddenly came out from the main sector of the spaceship where the main controls were located there. He called out to their leader and second-in-command. "Zeshin! Bun! Come here, quick! A meteor storm is coming! And the asteroids are moving really fast!"

Without any delay, Zeshin and Bun sprinted to the main controls of the ship. The young boy who informed them was on his seat, calculating the time when the meteor storm will hit them. Zeshin and Bun looked outside, noticing shining dots coming right at them and were getting larger by every minute. They calculated that the speed of the meteors was traveling dangerously fast, they were not sure if they had enough time to retreat from this cluster of asteroids. Bardock and the rest tried to see what was going on. They looked out of the window and they, too, saw the fast-moving meteors coming right at them. They began to worry and wondered what they should do.