We are getting closer to the thing (TM). If I've lined things up correctly it should be next chapter. I've had that cliffhanger planned since at least Namek, probably longer. Now hopefully I can pull it off

thewittywhy: Krillin is a very useful character for putting things into perspective. And of course not, Vegeta will Vegeta.

ArguableReader: I adore Mr. Satan, truly
And I'm not sure if I'm gonna include Wrath of The Dragon, though I really dont think it works for the Future Timeline. The Cooler movie did take place in both Timelines

OnTheTidesOfEvermore: Quite true

theblur1234: I went the opposite direction in since SIGohan is more collected generally and doesn't have the childhood rage the rage boosts aren't an option really. Plus while SIGohan doesn't have the issue of grappling with Gohan's completely good nature, but she also had a prior life of not fighting at all, so everything for her is learned after having lived a good couple decades without it, while CanonGoha, was raised on it

Qinlongfei: I mean, yeah that would work better, but I also don't really want Raditz to be too strong, y'know? To me a fair bit of his character development was getting to the point where he didn't care so much how others (coughVegeta) thought of him or saying he was weak. Also I find the idea of baby Gine getting stronger than him before hitting her teens very funny, but that's obviously less important lol. One line that I often go back to on this matter is one back in the chapter that Radtiz was revived in, where SIGohan said, "does a character have to be strong to justify existing?" And idk that just feels like a core part of his character to me, that he won't ever really be one of the strongest, even if he's not one of the weakest either
And honestly, if I could justify bringing back Dabura I would, but unfortunately, that doesn't seem quite practical. Though I also honestly don't know much about Xenoverse so I can't speak on the matter
I mean, Krillin's just a good person in general so him being concerned about someone he, isn't enemies with seems rather fitting to me, especially since it isn't even really him only being concerned about Vegeta, because while that's definitely part of it, it's also because that's Bulma's husband and he definitely cares about her
And, yeah. SIGohan definitely does pick some petty fights with Vegeta sometimes but like, it's so easy? How could you not? I know I'd certainly want to which means SIGohan definitely does lol
But yeah, that's also definitely a driving point of conflict and can and has pushed issues. Honestly, if I were to use Majin Vegeta that probably would have been one of the factors

Pigero

…

Well. This has not gone as expected.

At all.

It was the opposite of what he wanted actually.

A nice safe place to be able to see Goh's skills in action. Not only did Goh not even fight, her father was injured and then their entire group just, left, with no explanation.

And now he had to continuously remind himself not to get worried because whatever it was was probably fine and Goh was supposedly the strongest person anyway so there shouldn't be anything-

But if something could seriously hurt Goh's dad-

No. Not. Not worrying about that. Watching the tournament. That the only reason he came was for Goh. But it was still fun. He had absolutely no idea how Satan won again, but he'd wager on the blonde woman letting him win.

He knew for a fact that either of the kids who snuck in that the woman revealed mid-fight could have beaten Satan so the fact that she was winning against them more or less proved that.

Goh's other high school friends seemed to have mixed opinions on Satan's win, but settled on being happy for their friend's dad.

After the tournament ended, he'd sought to find Goh's mother, to see if she had any explanation. which, if there was one positive to Goh keeping, questionable, company, it's that her uncle was quite easy to spot.

As he approached however, he noticed, Goh was there looking a bit, out of it.

She was standing next to Piccolo who, despite years of technically knowing he's fine, was still a bit unnerving to be around on the very few occasions he's seen him.

Still, he'd tried not to let that show, both for Goh's sake, and to be polite.

But the closer he got the more "out of it" seemed to be an understatement for Goh.

"You look dead on your feet," Rom so tactfully said.

"Hm? Yeah…'m a lil tired…" she smiled, head tilting in her drowsy state.

"Gohan used a technique that takes a lot of energy. This is, technically, an improvement from the usual. Somewhat," Piccolo explained. He'd specify that Piccolo was frowning, but that seemed to be the default for him.

"Your hair's black," Chico pointed out.

"Hmm, yeah. Tried to go Super again…didn't work…"

Chico frowned, before reaching over to grab Goh's wrist.

She stared at the watch for a moment, before pushing a few buttons. One opening and closing of a hidden compartment in the watch and a few outfit changes later, Goh was back in normal streetwear.

"Oh yeah…I keep forgetting I have that…"

Goh swayed on her feet, and the fact that she was still looking at people, seemingly somewhat focused, was the only thing keeping Pigero somewhat assured that she wasn't about to collapse.

He only overheard pieces of what Piccolo was saying to Chichi. Something about how Goh's dad was either unconscious somewhere and they couldn't sense him, or they'd have to take a trip to Namek after this was over.

He wasn't sure if that statement helped or hindered Rom and Ena's current theories on whatever "Namek" was.

Even further from them, Krillin was speaking with the Capsule Corp now CEO.

He was too far to hear and Krillin was turned away from him so he could try to read his expressions. The CEO was frowning though.

Whatever it was, it was eventually decided that they'd head back to Capsule Corp and figure out what to do from there.

Which, honestly? After the tournament Pigero had had every intention of going home. But now, he wasn't sure he'd be able to relax at all if he left without knowing Goh was ok.

And, he knew that supposedly she was just tired, and that even if something was wrong he'd have no way to do anything about it, but still. The principal of it.

So, despite having his own capsule car to drive back in, he just followed along with the rest of the group.

…

Nappa

Well. This is fun.

He never had much interest in any of the play fighting that were those tournaments but fostering a bit of competition between the kids is always a good thing.

Granted with some supervision by Bulma to make sure it's ah, "healthier" than what there was between Raditz and Vegeta as kids. Which, in hindsight, he could recognize as not, good, or helpful. At least in Raditz's case.

Nappa had, mixed feelings about the turns Raditz has taken in recent years.

It was damned disappointing that he seems to have stepped away from fighting to the degree that he has. Raditz has never liked training but he'd always still enjoyed the violence. Nowadays he didn't even seem interested in fighting.

Sure, he was a hell of a lot weaker than any other full Sayain, as well as Gohan. The other half Sayains would probably pass him in a few years at the rate they've been going.

(Half Sayains. Not halfbreeds. That wasn't, correct. Or nice, or whatever the reason was.)

And Raditz only seemed mildly annoyed when that was pointed out to him. He unlocked Super Sayain and then damn near wasted it.

It would have been so easy to brush Raditz off as a coward. He'd had to catch himself from doing so, because, Raditz also seemed a lot more confident than he ever was under Frieza.

He actually seemed to know what he was doing with all the techy, engineering doohickeys Nappa couldn't begin to wrap his head around. Not so much of the programming or computer shit, but the actual putting things together part.

He also didn't really back away from Vegeta anymore. People being stronger than him didn't seem to have the same effect that it used to. He was now perfectly willing to snap at Vegeta if he broke the Gravity Room for the third time that week. Which, fighter or not, Nappa would be hard-pressed to call anyone willing to stare down Vegeta a coward. An idiot maybe, but he couldn't really call Raditz that either.

And, a large part of that change was likely his mate, and also his nephew being the strongest person to exist probably didn't hurt. But the more drastic changes seemed to stem from Zan being around.

She was a spritely woman, though rarely chose to be around others if Raditz wasn't around. She seemed to tolerate Nappa and Kakarot. Perfectly willing to butt heads with Vegeta when appropriate, though not nearly to the extent of Gohan.

The only person she seemed hesitant around was in fact, Gohan. Which was rather unfortunate considering the whole, nephew thing. But he could hardly blame the suspicion after getting such a, first-hand, introduction to The Ultimate.

(Nappa didn't care how inaccurate the whole "The Ultimate Super Sayain of Legend" title was. It was funny how much it annoyed Vegeta and that was almost certainly the point)

What was he- right Zan, Raditz.

The Hera was almost certainly a great part of Raditz's more recent demeanor. Which, he could hardly blame him. Having that woman willing to go up to bat for you would give damn near anyone an ego boost.

Hell, the few times Raditz was willing to spar nowadays was with Zan, which, frankly, he was convinced was some kind of courting thing half the time. At least half. Probably more. Probably most.

Quite possibly all.

Gine didn't spawn out of nowhere.

Anyway-

Yeah, it was pretty disappointing that Raditz didn't really like fighting anymore. But, in hindsight that might have also been his fault? Kinda? Maybe? He wasn't completely sure on that one, but, at least what he could tell with when Bulma would correct him when he'd go too far with the kids, even when he thought he was being careful.

And if that was too far then back when Vegeta and Raditz were kids-

Maybe a few of the issues started there.

Bulma would explain why some things weren't good for the kids, and why with adults it was different and- yeah, that was probably just based on humans, which were a whole lot more fragile than Sayains, and the kids probably needed to be kept closer to that standard since they were half human-

But, some of the things made sense. And while Bulma had tried to give him some books a raising kids, they were all in earth's language, or one of them, why a single planet needed so many languages was beyond him. And- he's tried to learn it. He's made progress. But it's hard and he was too old to be learning new languages.

Not that he was old old. Course not. Sayains don't even start to get old until they're in their 70s. He still had plenty of time until then. Because obviously he wasn't getting old and Raditz is a liar-

Anyway. Books. Not reading them. Bulma explained the just of them anyway.

And, while they didn't have any of that "research" for Sayains. But- if any of it applied then-

Well, maybe he shouldn't have favored Vegeta so much at least. He'd been a prince who lost his home and crown, but Raditz lost everything too.

But- well, hindsight and whatnot.

He'd been more careful with the kids now.

And the only one that he would prioritize was his own. Because he was not in charge of raising the other ones.

(Bulma said that over-correcting would also be not good and to not do that.)

That's all he could do.

Like encourage some, friendly, competition at a tournament!

(Even though the little Prince cheated and his little warrior should have won- but he was the adult and he was supposed to act more "composed" about these things)

And then he stuck around for the rest of the tournament too. Bulma was sticking around, and sure, his guard duty job was more self-appointed than anything she requested, but he took it seriously regardless. She was Vegeta's chosen mate and the mother of his heir. It was his duty to protect her since she wasn't strong enough to protect herself.

Also, it gave him something to do.

And he felt vindicated for that when something happened at that tournament that seemed to injure Kakarot.

Now, he knew he was a hell of a lot stronger now than he ever was before, but he held no illusions about who on this planet was stronger than him. That did not go well the last time he did. He might be able to match the Namek, perhaps beating him out on a good day. Someone who was able to down Kakarot was almost certainly a threat.

That being said, the rest of the competition went odd without a hitch, excluding the fact that half of its competitors left.

Of course, he couldn't help but feel irked that the other two kids managed to sneak into the adult competition. Not because they broke the rules, of course, he couldn't care less about that, but because his little warrior was left out.

They fled the scene after being discovered. Which was understandable considering the fact that Bulma and Kakarot's wife were already planning punishments.

Soon after the tournament, Zan returned with the two little cheaters tucked under her arms.

After her return, she explained that some magic user was trying to wake up some all-powerful monster or something.

Ah. Makes sense. He thought they were getting overdue for something to happen again.

While it was still concerning they were able to temporarily down Kakarot, that was apparently more of an energy stealing thing than any kind of actual injuries. He was sure whatever was going on would be taken care of soon enough.

A fair bit later, the Namek, Krillin, and a very tired looking Gohan returned.

So, it didn't go great he took it.

In summary, Kakarot might be dead, Vegeta was probably dead, and they had to wait for Gohan to recover because obviously, no one else was going to cut it.

Fun.

Well, looked like the Dragon Balls were gonna be needed after this.

Oh, wait, the ones here couldn't bring back people more than once, which both Kakarot and Vegeta qualify for.

Huh.

Well, they'll figure out a way to use the Namek ones then. They owe them anyway for getting rid of Frieza.

Now they were heading back to CC for now so they could wait out the kid's recovery.

Or, they were going to.

Soon after arriving here one of the Namek kids popped in. The one that wasn't Ocari or the guardian/healer kid.

By popped he means literally just, appeared.

Nappa always forgets that one also learned the instant transmission thing.

"Ah, hello. My name's Cargo," the boy introduced himself, "so, uh, a lot's kinda happened really quickly so Dende asked me to bring you guys to the lookout so he could get a more direct explanation and uh- oh there are a lot of you here actually, hm, ok, I'll probably have to make a few trips. Or, well not all of you have to come, but that Buu thing seems to be killing people pretty, a lot so, it's probably safer at the lookout."

"Wait, go? Go where?" One of the teenage girls asked.

"Oh, to the Lookout. It's kinda far so it'll be a lot faster if I just transmission you all there. Though, in multiple trips of course, in groups of around 7-8 people."

"Wait but- ok, ignoring the fact that teleportation is a thing now, we can't just leave. We have family! And friends!"

"Oh, well, I can't really make any detours…there are already more people here than I expected, and it'll probably be cutting it a bit close on my energy, y'know?"

Nappa tuned out the conversation from there, instead, his eyes drifted over to where Bulma was apparently trying to convince her parents to come.

They didn't wasn't to because it would mildly inconvenience their precious pets.

Nappa suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and instead sighed.

"Yep. Not playing this game," he said before walking over and plucked up the two of them. For good measure, he scooped up the Doctor's cat off the ground and dropped it into his arms. "Here's your cat."

"Now, hold on a second- I simply cannot miss a feeding they'll get very cranky if-"

"They'll be fine," he cut the doctor off. Was he lying through his teeth? Maybe, maybe not. He didn't really care either way.

Regardless, they made the second trip up to the lookout, even with the slightly forced relocation.

…

Seventeen

Oh, what was he doing here?

It was bad enough that he was roped into going to that scientist's place. Not that he really had a choice in the matter. Marron said that she wanted to "fly with Uncle Lala," and what was he supposed to do, say no? Don't be ridiculous.

He should have just left when the third Namekian kid showed up but Marron was still attached to him.

So, he, ended up going along a little bit. He's been on the "Lookout" before. It hasn't changed from what he remembered.

Almost immediately after arriving Piccolo all but ordered Gohan to go take a nap, which he did so with the same lethargic cheer he's had since returning.

It was hard to believe that Gohan was the one who killed that monster sometimes.

Seventeen was half tempted to just, leave. It's not that he was scared, he was bored. The only people he cared enough to talk to were his siblings, and Sixteen was speaking to the older scientist, probably about animals or something, and Eighteen and Krill were preoccupied with their kid who he just managed to escape from.

Which, like, if the whole reason they were brought here was because it'd be safer, he didn't see why he couldn't just grab his siblings and head back to Monster Island. Eighteen and Sixteen and he couldn't be sensed, and Krillin was pretty good at suppressing his energy. Marron didn't even have enough to be noticed. It'd probably be safer there than with all these noticeable power signatures clustered together.

But he also didn't want to look like a coward.

See, if he left, it'd look like he was running away. Which obviously he wasn't but they wouldn't know that.

So he sat by the edge as he idly watched everyone else group up. Piccolo was speaking with two of the younger Namekians while the third one was talking with some of the high schoolers. A bunch of the main group started playing cards and the younger kids ran off somewhere who knows where.

Oh well.

The view off the edge was nice at least.