The smoke rose in large puffs from the deserted Red Ribbon Base. The eery silence of the crumbling compound permeated the valley. Gero and his past self had watched Goku and Gohan's entire engagement remotely from their cave laboratory, one of them far angrier than the other.
"I can't believe those goddamn children destroyed the entire Red Ribbon Army! I see now why you were so interested in those boys, Doctor Hamilton, they aren't even human!" He stuttered quite severely before spewing more frustrated words. "And now without the funding from the Red Ribbon Army, we can't even enact our revenge!"
The older, disguised Gero cracked a smile at his younger self's naivety. "Ah, not so, not so, my young friend."
He placed a sheet of paper down on the table in front of his younger self. On it was a bank balance of three-hundred fifty million dollars. Gero had managed to embezzle the funds remotely, hacking into the Army's primitive security system and stealing the majority of the money during the chaos of the attack.
"Doctor Hamilton, you're a-... you're a goddamned evil genius! This will allow us to continue our research for years!" Gero said. "But I suppose, more importantly, this will allow us to take revenge on those two brats for destroying the Army."
The older Gero nodded although he wasn't paying too much attention, strangely he felt disconnected from the situation. He turned his back and walked out of the observation room they had constructed for the sole purpose of keeping an eye on the two young saiyans "Pardon me, but, I think I'm going to go for a walk."
"A walk? Old man, you have all the time in the world to go on a walk. Right now we should be getting to work on the next batch of androids. Do you know what kind of parts we can buy with this much money?"
Gero seethed with anger in silence; his younger self's arrogance was as infuriating as his ignorance. He was especially insufferable when constructing androids because of his lack of experience in binding organic matter to machinery, not to mention his novice wiring abilities. Gero also had his progress slowed by just how little his past self understood about ki and energy control, but he put up with it because his lab's equipment was both crucial and irreplaceable for the construction process.
"I'm taking this walk Gero so go start it yourself." He said before leaving through the labs two large sixty-centimeter thick steel doors. The snow crunched beneath his feet as he made it past the mouth of the cave, the freezing cold temperatures would be too much for any normal man but due to his mechanical body, he felt nothing.
As he walked along a path of his own choosing, he pondered over the events that had unfolded in his month and a half being stuck in the past.
This entire ordeal is tiring. Despite being mechanical I still feel the wear of age that the original Gero felt as he grew older. I no longer feel the firey, angry spirit I once felt when constructing my original android warriors. If anything, I think I feel... rather empty. I create each machine with such precision and care only to instill in them the same hateful mission over and over again: Kill Son Goku, kill Son Gohan. And somehow they never win, despite all my efforts and all my talent, somehow Gohan keeps winning.
Perhaps he's right in a way, perhaps I would feel better if I created machines for the benefit of humanity.
He cursed himself, how could he let the words of a child sway him so much?
God, what a pestilent, infectious boy with his constant niceties...
A snow-white rabbit hopped in front of his way and stood there staring at him. For the first time in his life, he didn't feel the immediate desire to crush its stupid, thoughtless head and fling its body into the snow. He felt something different, an emotion he didn't have the words to describe. He bent down and the rabbit allowed him to caress it.
Why do I feel this way? Why don't I feel the same disgust for this rabbit that I have felt for his kind my whole life? Why do I find myself gravitating towards its innocent stare and fluffy fur coat? Was my template bordering senility, or could it be that I am, truly, not a perfect copy?
He picked up the rabbit which seemed to take to his hold rather naturally, it was at this moment he felt its bony ribs. The creature was starving.
"Come my... little friend, we will go back to my laboratory. Once we are there I'll fetch you a blanket and find some em... celery for you. You like celery don't you?" He asked. The animal's brown eyes stared back at him as it neared itself to his chest, attempting to escape the cold's abusive sting. Gero felt an odd familiarity in the creature's demeanor and opened his coat, shielding it from the subzero temperatures. Once he zipped the coat back up, he began his walk back to the lab.
But if the boy is right, and I'm not really Doctor Gero then who am I? Am I just a machine destined to do the bidding of a man long since dead? A murderous, rampaging fiend hellbent on destroying the fabric of time? There must be a purpose for which I serve, something as meaningful as the revenge I've pursued for so long.
He felt the rabbit squirm inside his jacket disturbed by the lack of fresh air. At that moment he observed himself feeling, feeling responsible for the protection of this helpless animal.
Yes, yes that's it! I'll take my feelings out of the equation! I'll do a complete memory wipe and reinstall Gero's original template, ridding me of this disgusting melancholy I dread so much and reinvigorating my want for revenge! I'll just need something to prove that the wipe worked...
"You'll do that for me, won't you, my furry companion?" He asked as the rabbit's head peeked out from his coat. "I'm not hearing any objections so I will take your silence as a resounding yes."
He quickened his pace back to the laboratory and in no time he was standing in front of the massive sixty-centimeter thick steel doors. He pressed a button disguised as a part of the cave's entrance which activated the automatic greeting system.
An empty robotic voice greeted the doctor. "Password please."
"Golf, Echo, Romeo, Oscar."
Waiting for his handprint pad to spring out from the cave's curved stone wall, Gero was surprised when the robotic voice greeted him once more.
"Password Denied." it said.
Damn, I forgot this was before I installed the new security measures.
"Hm... Romeo, Echo, Delta?"
"Password Accepted."
Good now onto my personal study.
He walked briskly through the main room where his past self drew new blueprints for the next androids. He was stopped by his younger self's baritone voice
"Quite a fast walk doctor. Enough time to clear your aging mind?"
There's that damned ego again.
"Quite enough Gero. Quite enough."
The rabbit squirmed within his jacket once again, serving as more motivation to get to his study. Hearing no witty response from himself, he exited the room and walked down the lab's long main hall. The walls of sheet metal were still stainless, having only been there for a few months and the lights were still bright and energetic; a stark contrast to his lab twenty years into the future. Once inside the safety of his study, he opened his coat allowing the rabbit to crawl around freely, at least for the moment. He breathed a sigh of relief as he sat down in his swivel chair, the morning already had taken a lot out of him.
He started his personal computer, and even with the technology of the past limiting him somewhat, he was pleased with the speed of the boot. He ran diagnostics and made sure that his systems were all functioning at peak performance. Once he was sure everything was optimal, he plugged himself in and opened the Gero template. He hovered over the 'wipe and reinstall' option, at this point all he needed to do was press the enter key to begin the sequence. His finger sat gently over the key, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't press it. He couldn't start the sequence.
Perhaps tomorrow...
Yes, perhaps tomorrow...
Bulma tapped her screwdriver gently upon the table. She had been fiddling with the internal components of the dragon radar for almost an hour now. She had explored every possible angle, every conceivable crevasse of the device, and yet, she found nothing mechanically wrong with it. She even reinstalled the dragon radar program on the off chance it was a software issue but still no luck. It still only showed six balls.
"Man, I don't get it. It should be working just fine," she said exhaustedly.
Goku frowned, it wasn't like Bulma to seem so defeated. "Well, Bulma, we could see all seven just a little while ago. What do you think happened?"
Her eyes lit up and her defeated tone was replaced by curiosity. "Wait, so you saw the seventh on the radar and it just happened to disappear? It wasn't gone the whole time?"
"Yeah, we definitely saw seven at one point," Gohan said while sitting closely between Goku and Bulma.
"Well, I guess that means something ate the dragon ball. It wouldn't show up on the radar then." Bulma said.
Goku sighed, looking at the six balls organized neatly out on the table. "Well, how are we gonna find it."
Roshi, who had been trimming his beard at the time, placed his pair of long scissors down and cleared his throat. "You could always visit Fortune Teller Baba. Her clairvoyance will help you find that seventh ball in no time."
"A lady friend of the great Master Roshi I assume?" Yamcha said.
Roshi was nauseated, his sister did not inherit the same good looks as he did. "I just visit her whenever I need help finding something I've lost."
The old man walked into his bedroom and came out with a wrinkled, yellow map that smelled musk and mothballs due to its age. He traced his finger along the paper until he found the semi-circular lake that marked his sister's palace.
"There it is. That's Baba's palace."
Goku stared confusedly at the paper. "It's a nice picture Master Roshi, but I don't see how it's going to help us find where she is."
"It's a map Goku. It's basically a set of directions that lead you to the place you're trying to get to." Gohan explained.
"Yeah, and from the looks of it, Fortune Teller Babas palace is about... fourteen miles from The West Valley." Yamcha clapped his hand excitedly. "I guess that settles it, I'm coming with you two! I'm just as eager as you guys to find her. I want to see if she's the real deal or not."
Puar chimed in excitedly, "Me too!"
Goku, Gohan, Yamcha, and Puar all look expectantly at Krillin. The bald little monk sighed and stood up, stretching his knees. "All right, all right let's get going..."
"You coming along too Bulma?" Goku asked.
"Not this time Goku. My dad's been working on something really big and he's gonna need my help to finish it. Knowing him he'll probably forget where he put his wrench and need me to find it for him and have me help put a few things in. I usually don't do a whole bunch when helping, but I do play an important role in making sure he's able to actually finish the project."
Goku wasn't happy that she wouldn't be able to tag along, but he understood why she had to help her father. "Okay Bulma, take care then!" He said energetically, following Yamcha and the others out of Kame house's front door.
Yamcha threw his plane capsule out onto the beach, and from the smoke appeared a little six-seater airplane for the group to travel in. He stepped in and started heating up the plane's main engines.
"All right, everyone pile in. My navigational computer is a little older than others so the ETA might be a little off, but I'm sure it's gonna be a while." he said.
Goku and Gohan stepped in first, the cabin of the plane was actually quite nice considering it was one of capsule corps older models. Naturally, they sat close to each other and strapped in for the long flight. Krillin stepped in and sat behind the two, he hadn't gotten plenty of sleep the night prior so he was content with having two seats to himself, it was easier to nap that way. Once Yamcha said his goodbyes to Bulma, he and Puar stepped into the craft and sat in the pilot's seats. Yamcha donned the headgear while checking the plane's fuel and systems. He smiled as the system pinged and a green 'go' light lit up; he had forgotten the last time he was able to use this plane, it brought him back to memories of his bandit days when he first stole it.
Goku waved goodbye to Bulma, Roshi, Launch, and Oolong as their plane lifted into the air. His old master smiled mischievously as they took off, he had kept the details of Baba's payment for her services to himself, sure that Goku and the others would find out soon enough.
It wasn't even an hour into the flight when Gohan found himself feeling a little bored, but who could blame him? There wasn't much to do on the plane. His father was busy staring out the window, and Krillin had already fallen asleep so he decided to peer over Yamcha's shoulder at the Navi-Computer; it estimated their time of arrival at around twenty-two hours from then. He sighed which Goku took notice of.
"You alright Jack?" Goku asked.
Gohan sat back in his seat, turning from the Navi-Computer to his father. "Yeah, it's just that we're gonna be flying for a little while and we don't have much to do."
"I could tell you one of grampa's stories if you'd like. I may not remember all of what he said but most of his stories were really good."
Gohan was excited, he hadn't heard one of his grandfather's stories in forever, and it sounded like a good way to pass the time. "Sure Goku, that sounds nice."
Goku concentrated, he imagined his grandfather telling him the story and tried to emulate the way he would structure it
"In the land of giants, a small boy walked. He wasn't the bravest or the strongest of his people, but he was the kindest.
He lived in the village's barn with all the animals because he didn't have any parents, and everyone else said no to letting him live with them. One day an old man, tired from walking, stopped in his village to rest near night-time. When no one would allow him to stay with them, the boy came up to the old man and said, 'You can come stay with me. I live with the village's animals, but everything I have you can have too'.
The old man was touched by how nice the boy was and said, 'You have been more than kind to me. I-"
Goku struggled to pronounce the word "hum-bly accept your offer'.
So the old man came back to the barn with the boy and stayed the night. When the boy woke up the next morning, the old man was gone. He thought to himself 'I wonder where he went' and when he walked outside he found a huge wooden house made just for him.
The old man stepped out from the front door and showed the boy inside, he said to him, 'You were the only person who treated me nicely here in this village. This house is a gift for your kindness'.
The people of the boy's village saw what kindness can do for them and became much nicer people after that. They kept retelling the story of the boy in the barn and the old man for years and years until-"
He felt Gohan's head rest against his shoulder, apparently, his story was more like a lullaby than a way to pass the time. He decided he wouldn't bother waking him up considering they still had over twenty hours left on the flight and the story was just about finished anyway. He yawned and shifted around in his seat until he felt comfortable. Telling stories the way his grandpa told them was difficult and took a lot of mental energy. He laid his head on top of Gohan's and closed his eyes, letting the humming of the plane carry him off to sleep.
When Goku awakened it was sunset, and the pilot seats were vacant. Gently lifting Gohan's head off of his arm, Goku laid him down on his seat. He then exited the craft and was instantly hit by the sting of drifting sand. Once he was able to open his eyes again, he observed the western town they had landed in. The general store was just across the street from them and to its right were the dentistry and tailors. He walked down the plane's steps and saw Yamcha refueling. "Hey, Goku, you're up? That's surprising considering it was impossible to wake you just a couple of minutes ago. We're still roughly thirteen hours away from Baba's so go ahead and stretch your legs while we're here."
Goku nodded, but just as he began to stretch, he went wide-eyed as he heard both his shirt and pants rip. Lifting his left arm into the air, he felt the new hole around his stomach with his right. And, although the hole in his shirt wasn't necessarily cause for concern, the rip on his pants was; it was right below his tail. Luckily, with both hands at his side, and his legs close together, the rips were hardly visible due to the slight bagginess of the clothing.
Yamcha giggled. "Hey, don't sweat it Goku. There's a tailor right over there so we'll get you some new clothes, just let me finish refueling the plane okay?"
After placing the fuel nozzle back into its station, Yamcha stepped inside the plane and woke both Krillin and Gohan up. He wanted them to come with him to deter any local thieves looking to take advantage of a landed plane with two sleeping boys guarding it. He made sure to lock the door behind them as they exited the craft before motioning his hand and leading the way to the tailors.
Gohan was the first to make it to the front steps of the old tailor, pushing open the creaky wooden door as he entered. Most of the clothing that was on display was tacky and styled like the old west. There were tall cowboy boots and brown leather vests, even corsets in the women's section, definitely not a place for warriors to shop.
He looked over to see his father carefully slipping a green vest on over a light blue button-up shirt, struggling to not ruin the bowtie. Puar dropped a cap onto his head while he buttoned the vest, she thought he looked adorable. The shop owner smiled and nodded, he was proud of how nice the outfit he put together looked.
Gohan frowned he could tell the clothes were humiliating for him.
"This is too tight and scratchy. There's not even a hole for my tail! I don't see how anyone could fight in this." Goku said unhappily. "Could I just have my old clothes back?"
Yamcha struggled not to laugh, but he agreed with Goku that he looked completely ridiculous in normal clothing. He turned to the shopkeeper and asked, "Can you tailor a gi like the one he came in wearing?"
"Of course but it will take a couple of hours" the tailor said.
A couple of hours was a lot of time, a lot of time he didn't feel like waiting. "You know what, I'll throw in ten extra Zeni if you can make it in an hour."
The tailor tapped his lip with his pointer finger. "Ten Zeni, you say? Well...I'll do my best, but I won't sacrifice the quality to get it done faster"
"Good enough for me" Yamcha replied while shrugging his shoulders.
The group then walked out of the store, unsure of how to spend the next hour. They walked back to their ship and Goku stared at the empty sixth seat in the cabin.
Upa! he thought.
"Hey, guys I'm gonna go get Upa and bring him back here. He's been by himself all this time and he should probably be with us when we get the seventh dragon ball."
"You want me to come with you Goku?" Gohan asked.
"Nah that's okay, it'll probably take me a lot less time to get there and back with only two people on the nimbus."
"Right, right." Gohan said before stepping back into the plane.
Sighing as he sat back in his seat, Gohan had no idea what to do for the next hour. After settling in, he rested his head on the chair's armrest and looked out onto the sunset. Its gold, red, and purple magnificence reflected off of his brown eyes and he slowly watched it seep behind the dunes of sand in the far distance. Once the sun had disappeared entirely, Goku had returned with Upa and introduced him to everyone.
Krillin took a particular liking to the young lad and he whispered to Gohan. "She's kind of cute isn't she Jack?"
Gohan whispered back, attempting not to smile. "That's a boy Krillin"
Krillin's cheeks turned red. "You. Heard. Nothing."
Gohan giggled a little as he nodded and motioned him zipping his mouth shut.
As the town emptied out and the shops began to close, the tailor stepped towards the craft and presented the new gi to Goku. It was a perfect replica of the one he was wearing, down to the last detail: The orange was the same deep dark color, and the blue wristbands and sash belt were just as vibrant of a blue. As promised, for finishing the gi within an hour, Yamcha handed off the sixty total Zeni the gi costed him. He wasn't upset about the expense but he was eager to get going.
"All right, Goku, change and load up. We've got a lot of ground to cover and I'd like to get there by early tomorrow morning."
"Hm-hm," Goku said as he undressed in the street.
"Goku! What are you doing don't change out here! Go in the plane's bathroom for crying out loud!"
Slipping his new pants on, he asked, "Why Yamcha? I'm already halfway done."
"Ugh, never mind Goku... just get your shirt on and come inside."
Once everyone was buckled in their seats, Yamcha turned on the plane. The loud start of the engines was followed by the comforting and continuous humming sound. Gohan sat by the window this time and he watched the town's kerosene lights grow smaller and smaller as they reached cruising altitude. Despite having just woken up from a long nap, he felt tired. He realized it just as his eyelids began to grow heavy. He thought back to his father's story. He heard his deeper and more soothing voice start the first line,
In the land of giants, a small boy walked.