After all of the Earth warriors were in agreement of their mission, Bulma headed for home. Goku and Piccolo accompanied her - Goku flew on Nimbus, while Piccolo carried her. The flight was quiet, as she thought about everything she had learned. She still couldn't wrap her head around why Gero was coming after her, specifically. Her first instinct was that it was because of her research - somehow, he had found out about her digging into his history and he had sent Tao after her to stop her from going further.

If that was the case, then why didn't Tao just kill her? He was a master at killing people undetected - it was what made him so infamous. As chilling as it was to think about, it would have been a lot cleaner. But he didn't want to kill her - he wanted to kidnap her. Gero must have had some greater plan for her, and she didn't know what it was.

She thought back on everything she had learned about Gero - his history, his past misadventures, all of it. Dr. Flappe told her that he had been practically forced out of the scientific community because of an exposé. His plan for the androids had been made public and it turned him into a parriah overnight. She could only imagine the bitterness that must have caused him - it was enough to make him turn to the Red Ribbon Army, after all. Did that have something to do with it?

"I'm surprised you don't seem to know who Dr. Gero was. I thought your old man would have told you about him."

She blinked, as Flappe's words echoed in her head. Now that she thought about it, her father did act strange, anytime Gero was brought up. He didn't take issue with her research into the Red Ribbon Army until the moment she said Gero's name. And all those months ago, when she got the documents on them, Gero's bio had been cut out of the book. Her father never did that - he was always a completionist, when it came to archiving.

He was hiding something from her. And she needed to find out what it was.

A few hours later, they finally arrived back at Capsule Corporation. When Piccolo touched down, she hopped out of his arms. Goku quickly jumped off Nimbus soon after.

"So what now," Piccolo asked her.

She looked over her shoulder, back at him. "Before I can do anything else," she said, "we need to talk to my dad. He knows more about this than we think."

Goku looked confused, but Piccolo nodded. "Lead the way," he said.

When Bulma walked into Capsule Corp, she was immediately glomped on by her mother. She had tears going down her face, as she embraced her tightly. "Oh, Bulma! I'm so glad you're okay! I was so worried about you! I saw what happened on the news and I thought my little girl was a goner!"

Bulma awkwardly patted her back. She should have expected that reaction - her mother used to cry when she just sprained her ankle. "Yeah, mom. I'm okay - honest."

When her mother looked up and saw Goku and Piccolo, she perked right back up, again. She practically pushed Bulma away to greet them. "Oh, you've brought friends! Why hello! I've already met the green one, but I haven't met you yet! How do you keep meeting such handsome young gentlemen?"

Piccolo leaned back, put off by her overly-friendly behavior. Goku just laughed, scratching the back of his head. "Thanks, Bulma's mom! It's nice to meet you, too!"

Bulma smacked her hand against her forehead and dragged it down. Her mother was so embarrassing, sometimes. "Anyways" she said, sliding in between her mother and the others, "do you know where dad is? Because we really need to talk to him."

"Well, last I saw him, he was in the lab! I'll go get you all something to eat, in the meantime!"

Goku's eyes lit up. "Really?! Man, that would be great! I'm starving!" Piccolo jabbed him in the stomach with his elbow. "What? I am."

"Maybe later, mom. What we need to talk to him about is really important."

Her mother shrugged. "Okay, if you insist! Just let me know when you're ready!" She spun around and walked away, humming to herself.

Bulma sighed, looking down at her feet. She felt mortified. "So that was my mom. She's like that with everyone: don't take it personally."

"She seems really nice," Goku said, with a big grin on her face. "Can she really make all of that food for us?"

"Goku," Piccolo growled.

He laughed, awkwardly. "Oh, right. Later."

She shook her head, smiling. Goku really did have a one-track mind. It was kind of a wonder that he got along with someone like Piccolo. "Anyways, let's head down there. This may take a while to get through."

The trio went downstairs, reaching the lab. As her mother had said, he was at his work desk, fiddling with some electronics. Tama was planted on his shoulder, like usual.

He spun around in his chair, when he heard footsteps. "Well there you are, Bulma," he said with a smile on his face. Even with that terrible situation, he was still so calm and casual. "You got into a little bit of trouble today, didn't you? I'm glad to see you're alright." He looked behind her. His eyes lit up. "Son Goku, is that you?! My, you've grown so much since I last saw you."

"Dr. Brief," Goku said, with a big grin on his face. "Wow, it's been forever!"

Bulma and Piccolo both looked on, in surprise. "Dad, you know him?"

"Of course I do! While you were away on Planet Vegeta, I helped him out a couple of times. Didn't I, Goku?"

He nodded. "Uh-huh! I met him at one of the tournaments, and he helped me figure out how to find the Dragon Balls!"

Bulma just blinked. "Huh. Anyways, dad, can I talk to you about something? It's really important."

"Well sure, Bulma. What is it you want to know?" He pulled out an unlit cigarette and put it into his mouth.

She glanced back at the others. Piccolo leaned up against a wall and Goku jumped up to sit on an empty desk. She grabbed a stool and pulled it up, sitting down in front of her father.

"Dad, did you recognize the guy that attacked me today?"

He crossed his arms, as he thought to himself. "No, I can't say that I did. Why do you ask?"

"He was a hitman. His name was Mercenary Tao."

Her father nearly inhaled his cigarette, his eyes widening. Tama jumped off of his shoulder, with his sudden flinch. "Mercenary Tao?! What on Earth did you get yourself into to get on his blacklist?!"

She sighed. "That's the thing. We think that Dr. Gero was the guy who sent him."

He froze. All humor faded from his face, and a very serious look came into his eyes. "Are you sure?"

Piccolo spoke up. "A few months ago, a group of us were warned that an android created by him was going to attack West City and try to kidnap her. We hadn't suspected it was going to happen so soon, but we believe that Tao was that android."

She nodded. "But we don't know why he came after me. I thought it was because of my research, but Tao didn't want to kill me. He wanted to 'collect me' and bring me to Gero. I know you worked with him for a little while: do you think you can tell us anything about him? At all?"

Her father didn't respond, his gaze drawn to the floor. He slowly took off his glasses, and held them in his hand. He shook his head slowly. "I didn't think he'd try it," he said, quietly. "Not after all of this time."

"Try what," Bulma asked. "Dad, you're scaring me. What's going on?"

He sighed. "I never wanted you to find out. But now that he's gone after you… I guess you need to know." He sat up, putting his glasses into his shirt pocket. He clasped his hands together, finally looking her in the eyes. "You remember that Gero taught at the university I went to, right?"

She didn't like the sound of that question. "Yes," she answered hesitantly.

"Well, he was a lot more than a professor. He was my mentor."

Her eyes widened. "What?!"

He nodded. "When I first went to Orange Star, Gero took me under his wing. He taught me everything I knew about science. We were close - he felt almost like a father to me. He was a brilliant man, but he had his… quirks. He always talked about how he felt human evolution was taking too long, and he wanted to speed it up. And he thought that machine could be used to do that.

"For the longest time, I thought he was just joking. It turned out that he wasn't. One day, I went snooping into some of his projects. What I found horrified me - detailed plans to combine man with machine. It wasn't just the ethics of the idea that scared me. It was his casual dismissal of the value of human life. He didn't care about the human cost, so long as he got his androids in working condition. As much as I love science, it can do a lot of harm without any morality behind it.

"So… I stole them. Using everything I took, I put together an exposé and published it anonymously. This was the only way I thought to stop him. As soon as it spread, his reputation was destroyed. He was fired from his professor's job and no one in the scientific community stepped up to defend him. And even though I had done it anonymously, he knew it was written by me."

One afternoon, a young Brief was busy packing up all of his things. It had been a long day of student teaching, and he was positively exhausted. He was ready to just take the bus back to his apartment and relax for the rest of the evening.

As he erased the chalkboard, he heard footsteps coming from the end of the lecture hall. He didn't bother looking back, thinking it was just a custodian. "Hey, I'm almost done packing up. I'll be out of here in a jiffy."

"So long as you don't steal anything else."

He froze and he dropped the eraser. He turned over his shoulder - Dr. Gero was walking up the aisle of the auditorium to the platform in the front. He was glaring daggers in his direction.

"Dr. Gero," Brief said, "what are you doing here, sir?"

"Don't play dumb with me. I know you were the one who wrote that article. You ruined my life and destroyed my career, and for what? For some sense of righteousness?"

He grabbed his bag, as Gero got closer to the podium. He looked like he was two seconds away from strangling him. "Doctor, I had no choice. What you were planning - it was unethical, and it had to be stopped."

"Ethics? You care about ethics over loyalty? I made you. I took you in when no one else would have. I'm the reason you've gotten this far in life. And you stabbed me in the back for it."

Brief stepped backwards off of the stage, as Gero continued to stalk towards him. He held out his hand, as if to stop him. "Doctor, please understand-"

"Understand what? That you betrayed me?!" He grabbed a desk and pushed it down to the floor.

In all of the years he had been with him, Brief had never seen Gero so seethingly mad. He ran to the doorway and yelled into the hallway for security. Luckily, two officers happened to be right down the hall, and came running in to help.

"What seems to be the problem," one of them asked.

He pointed at Gero. "Officer, it's this one. He was about to attack me."

When they looked at him, they immediately recognized him. Knowing he wasn't supposed to be on campus anymore, having been banned after the exposé, they quickly reprimanded him, grabbing him by the arms and walking him out of the auditorium.

The entire time, Gero's eyes stayed on him, narrowed into a spine-chilling glare. As he walked past him, he said four words to him.

"Keep your family close."

A haunted look was in his eyes. "When he joined the Red Ribbon Army, I spent years paranoid that he was going to strike. With all of that military backing, there was nothing stopping him from doing so. That he would try to go after your mother, or you and your sister. Maybe that's why I encouraged you to go to Planet Vegeta - the further you were away from him, the safer you were. After the army fell, I thought I could rest easy.

"All these years later, I never thought he might finally follow through on his promise."

Bulma sat there, dumbfounded by her father's admission. Now, everything made sense. The missing files, his hesitancy towards her research - it all finally clicked. She was relieved their connection wasn't as shady as she had feared, but she still couldn't wrap her head around her father havin a history with the man that was trying to kidnap her.

"So you think Gero attacked out of revenge," Piccolo asked.

He nodded. "I may not know exactly what he wanted, but there's no doubt in my mind that he did it to get back at me.

Her father took her hands. "I never wanted you to get involved in this. I was the one who exposed Gero. I can handle anything he'd try to throw at me, so long as you weren't a part of it." He sighed. "But now I see he's already done it."

"Dad, it isn't your fault. Gero was the one who made those decisions. No one was making him develop those androids but him. The world's a safer place because he was exposed. Had you just told me, I would have understood and been more careful."

"He would have struck, regardless of if you were digging into his business or not. It was naive of me to think otherwise. If anything, it's good that you did all of your research - you're better prepared for him, now."

"We are. All of us are going to work together and find a way to stop him. We have a chance - we can put a stop to all of this for good. The androids, the murders, everything. And you won't have to worry about him attacking anymore."

"Should I ask what the plan is?"

"Well, the first thing I need to do is figure out how to contact the Saiyans, again. They need to know that their culprit is also planning something on Earth, too. Maybe they'll reconsider breaking off the alliance. And then - we need to find out where Gero's hiding and bring him to justice."

"Right," Goku said. "And if he tries to send his androids out, again, then we'll get strong enough to fight 'em off, again!"

Dr. Brief sighed and nodded his head. "Well, I know that one thing is certain: if there's anyone out there who can put a stop to this, it's you, Bulma." He pinched her cheek.

She smiled. Her father was never hesitant, when it came to praising her. Yet, it still felt rewarding and invigorating everytime. "Thanks, dad."

And so, with hopes renewed and secrets revealed, the Earthlings were ready to take on this new challenge and beat Gero at his own game.