Chapter 3: Planet Imegga, Part I

A few days after setting off on their intergalactic journey, the two partial Saiyans Trunks and Pan were still at odds with each other.

"Give back that control key this instant!" said Trunks as he gave chase to Pan in the cramped spaceship, "You know as well as I do that Goten is the one we need on this journey!"

"Fat freakin' chance!" said Pan as she deftly dodged Trunks' hands and then used a Zanzoken move to appear behind Piccolo's main control chair, "I give this back to you and you'll just reset the coordinates back to Earth to send me back, right? No way! As Kaiba said, we only have six months to gather these Dragon Balls, so the less time we waste on a detour, the better! Nyah nyah!"

"Why you little..." said Trunks as he took off his jacket and angrily retorted, "Do you know why I went through the trouble of training for two weeks with Goten, you little brat? Because Goku's Shunkan Idou technique is an asset we needed on this journey! Now give me back that key or I'll-"

Trunks momentarily gave in to his frustration and nearly transformed to a Super Saiyan, only for Piccolo to then interject saying, "Watch it! You'll destroy this spaceship if you power up and cut loose. More importantly, there's something in the trajectory of our course. I'd daresay by the size of it on this ship's radar... it's an asteroid."

"An asteroid?! How cool!" said Pan in glee as she skipped to where Piccolo was sitting, and then said with a morbid curiosity, "Can I try blasting it? Please...?"

Trunks quickly took the opportunity to snatch the main control key back and then said, "No way, Pan. As the only Super Saiyan on this ship, I'll be the one who destroys that asteroid. I won't even leave behind a single speck of debri-"

Just as Trunks said this, however, Pan swiftly raided the refrigerator and threw a pie in his face, after which she opened the door to the closet and dug through it to unearth a spacesuit. Unfortunately it was built to accommodate Trunks and Goten's size, leaving the quarter-Saiyan tyke depressed.

"I swear that's the last time I turn a blind eye to your shit-" said Trunks as he then finally powered up to Super Saiyan, then snatched the spacesuit from Pan's fingers and put it on quickly.

"Now, watch a master at work, girlie," said Trunks as he then stepped out of the spaceship and took a deep breath before gathering Ki into his palms and chanting, "Fi-nal... Fl-"

Unfortunately, Pan's mischief had yet to come to a halt and she haphazardly put on a spacesuit that was too large for her size before covering Trunks' line of sight with her head scarf. As Trunks misfired at the asteroid, it only took half of the large space rock out and the other half swarmed the spaceship at breakneck speed. Startled, Pan shot a Kamehameha from her hands, but the precarious position she was in combined with how quickly she launched it in a spacesuit that had limb portions considerably longer than her body size gave way to only a half-baked Kamehameha that sent large chunks of debris at the spaceship after shattering the asteroid. One of the chunks made its way onto the spaceship's rocket boosters, causing it to fly off course.

"Oh shit!" said Pan and Trunks together as they were nearly sent flying off the OctoPUS 9000 spaceship, forcing Trunks to form a barrier around the ship so that they could get back inside without the sudden turbulence cutting off their oxygen.

"This is just what happens when you let kids out of kindergarten too early! Dammit!" said a clearly infuriated Trunks, "Piccolo-san! Please don't tell me it's as bad as it seems!"

"One of the rocket boosters was destroyed, leaving us unable to change trajectory," said Piccolo calmly, "and it appears we've also lost 25% of the ship's speed capacity. We've no choice but to crash land on a planet with decent enough civilization and repair our ship."

"Ugh..." said Trunks as he took a deep breath and then gathered himself, saying to Pan, "we'll discuss what we'll do with you once we've landed to safety. You're Gohan-san's kid, so I'm giving you the benefit of a doubt and assuming you can at least blast our spaceship in the direction of a civilized planet."

"I've got it, Trunks!" said Pan as she also calmed down and gathered Ki into her palms, "we just feel out a planet with a decent population nearby, right?"

"Right. Goku-san at least trained you for the first four years of your life, so even you should be able to sense Ki," said Trunks condescendingly as he then added before pointing at the direction of Planet Imegga, "and that planet should be... there."

With surprisingly flawless coordination, Trunks and Pan both got out of the spaceship with their spacesuits on and repositioned the spaceship from the outside toward Imegga's direction. Then the two yelled separately, "Final... Flash!" and "Kamehameha!"

Trunks' massive, yellow-colored Final Flash attack combined with Pan's Kamehameha attack instantly sent the trio toward Imegga's stratosphere, at which point Trunks then said, "Now, Pan! Stop sending off more energy! We can't afford to crash-land and destroy the ship!"

Pan did this and the three then managed to land more or less safely onto the unknown planet. Trunks returned to normal and grabbed Pan by the back of her spacesuit's collar before getting back inside the ship, at which point Trunks took off his helmet and then started operating the ship's central computer to find if the planet's atmosphere was suitable for Earthlings. While he was doing this, however, Piccolo and Pan had already stormed outside.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?!" said the angered Trunks, "This is a completely foreign environment and an alien civilization, and you guys don't even check to see if we might need oxygen tanks?!"

"In my experience, most planets that are inhabitable for one mortal race is inhabitable for another," said Piccolo, "and the same goes for planets in the afterlife. Such precautions aren't wholly necessary. After all, I was originally from the Planet Namek."

"You're such a worrywart, Trunks," said Pan as she stuck out her tongue, "you sound just like my old granny."

"Sure, get on my case for being the only one who's careful..." said Trunks grumpily as he then shrank OctoPUS 9000 to its capsule form before begrudgingly joining his teammates in walking through the streets of Imegga.

"This is quite the bustling street," mused Piccolo, "I haven't seen a crowd this large in person since I fought Son at the Budokai so long ago."

"M-Maybe with this many guys gathered, we can come across a hot babe!" said Pan with her hands clapped together, "Just hours ago I thought I'd head for the Other World without even having finished a date!"

"All very [i]pertinent[/i] comments," said Trunks sarcastically, "but we didn't come here to muse about crowds or hot guys in an alien civilization. We're here to get spare parts and that's what we're going to do. Get a move on, the two of you!"

"Sheesh, what's gotten into him?" said Pan as she then turned to admire a jewelry stand, saying, "Ooooh!"

Trunks pulled Pan by the collar and said, "I don't know if you realize, but my family was nearing bankruptcy before we set off on this journey. We don't have much money, and we're not wasting it on stuff like-"

Just as quickly as Trunks said this, the trio was swarmed by a lot of Imeggan merchants, who interjected one after the other saying, "Here, here! We couldn't help but notice you three have traces of engine oil on you, might you be looking into repairs for your vehicle by any chance?"

"We have it on sale! 10,000 Gamets!" said one merchant.

"Ours is 9,000!" said another.

"100,000! But we take even the most sophisticated of vehicles!" said a third.

Before long, what little amount of Zenis the trio was able to exchange was wasted on a bunch of woefully useless machine parts. Barely managing to shake the vulture-like merchants off, the trio headed into a fancy-looking hotel, now flat broke.

"This just can't be happening…" said Trunks as he looked over his empty wallet in disappointment, after which he finally lost his temper and said, "This is great! Just great! Here I thought Goten and I might actually get something done and save my family and my company, then this pipsqueak just tags along and makes a muss out of my plans, my spaceship, my-"

"Excuse me, [i]that[/i] spaceship isn't even yours, last time I checked!" said Pan, clearly aggravated, "you had to have it handed to you by that dandy sonuva-B-looking Kaiba! In fact if I'm being honest, he's clearly the richer and better looking out of the two of you, and at least he can actually get what he-"

"What did you say?!" yelled Trunks with fire in his eyes, only for Piccolo to interrupt the two saying, "Quiet, the both of you! If it's our money that you want, I took the liberty of using psychokinetic powers to retrieve it from those merchants' pockets. I had the feeling nothing they sold us would do us any good, so I was ready."

Trunks and Pan both looked at their money, threw the useless parts on the wayside and said, "Wow, Piccolo-san! You're really something! You totally saved us!"

"At any rate, you two both look as though you could use some time off to cool off, so let's head in that hotel," said Piccolo, "we've now enough money that we needn't worry about running out anytime soon."

The three checked into a hotel room that appeared quite luxurious, where Trunks took the liberty of relaxing on a king-sized Imeggan bed while Pan took a shower. Piccolo meditated for about a half hour before turning on the television while treating himself to a glass of water. On the television, a pink-haired, flamboyant looking man with an effeminate haircut introduced himself as Don Kee.

"The great, the one and only! The planet Imegga's savior, Lord Don Kee!" said a pair of buxom Imeggan cheerleaders as they threw their pom-poms into the air, at which point Don Kee lifted them both by the waist and juggled them like a pair of balls, making sure to repeatedly touch their bottoms.

"From my experiences as Earth's Kami, those types of people usually have the shadiest of intentions," mumbled Piccolo as he sipped more water, "it could very well be that he may be the one who could get our spaceship repaired, though."

Trunks was lost in thought thinking about what they were going to do now that they had no access to Goten's help or his Shunkan Idou technique, before his mind was completely fixated on his insatiable grudge towards Kaiba for landing his family in this predicament. Trunks grinded his teeth before growling loudly, saying "Kaiba… You just wait, I'll give you what's coming to you soon," said Trunks as he clenched his hands into fists so hard that his gloves were beginning to rip, "you'll pay…"

"T-Trunks! Piccolo-san!" cried Pan as she stepped out of the shower, dressed in nothing but a gown, "the water went off and I can't shut it off! And there's this timer with a Gamet sign next to it! They're charging us for every drop of water coming out of this faucet!"

"What?" said Trunks as he then realized that his shirt was strapped to a chain before he knew it, "Oh shit!"

"From the looks of things they've no doubt overcharged for this glass of water as well," said Piccolo as he then gulped the rest of the water down, "Trunks! Pan! We're getting out of here!"

"Took the words out of my mouth," said Trunks as he smashed open Pan's suitcase and said, "Get dressed, Pan! I'm busting us out!"

Trunks punched a hole through the hotel room's wall, alerting security. The security officers barged in while Pan was getting dressed, causing her to knock two of them out instantly in embarrassment. As Pan was about to finish getting dressed, one of them took out a tranquilizer gun and shot at her, at which point Trunks caught the bullet with the chain he ripped off the wall and then choked out the last guard, knocking him out cold. More security officers came, however, and bombarded the trio with more tranquilizer bullets. The three easily avoided direct contact with the bullets, but one of them got onto Trunks' capsule case and disrupted the OctoPUS 9000 spaceship's capsule function, causing it to enlarge back into its original size.

"Shit! Well, I'm not about to let these shits keep getting their way!" said Trunks as he increased his speed to blinding levels and knocked all the security officers out with a love tap. He then lifted the spaceship on one hand and yelled to his teammates, "Let's get a move on! Follow me!"

The three flew into safety and landed onto a desert area, where Piccolo and Trunks tried everything to shrink their spaceship back into capsule form, to no avail.

"Well, this just stinks! Waaah!" cried Pan rambunctiously, "I knew it! I just knew I shouldn't have tagged along, waaah! Why, Grandpa? Why'd you need to get yourself tied up in this mess and get killed? If only you hadn't gone ahead and died, I would've never-"

"Keep it down, Pan. Those security guards are probably still looking for us after the incident back there," said Trunks as he covered Pan's mouth, "if we can't shrink the ship, we'll just have to hide it between a few rocks. This planet clearly has fairly advanced technology, if we can just go into a larger city and pay off a scientist or mechanic I'm sure we could get off this dump by tomorrow."

"T-Trunks!" said Pan as she sniffled, "you have that Dragon Radar, don't you? Maybe it could help track down a city or two, right? 'cause that's what radars do, track down stuff?"

"The Super Radar we need for our grand mission is inside the ship. I couldn't risk it getting lost," said Trunks as he took out a smaller, regular radar out of his pocket, "but I did bring this spare just in case we'd need it. Unfortunately, about the only thing a Dragon Radar can track would be Dragon Balls, and I highly doubt we'll find one on this-"

"You don't know for sure! Gimme, gimme!" said Pan as he tried to wrestle Trunks' Dragon Radar out of his hands, making him drop it.

"You aren't pulling this again! I swear, as soon as we get the ship repaired I'm sending you right back to Earth," said Trunks as he reached out for the Radar, at which point a white, short-limbed, miniature robot suddenly emerged from the sand and ate the Radar.

"Energy absorption complete. Gill Gill!" said the robot.

"WHAT?!" exclaimed Trunks and Pan simultaneously.

"T-tell me this isn't happening…" said Trunks in disbelief.

"Waaaah! Waaaah! Tell me this is a joke!"

Piccolo sighed and removed Pan's headscarf and then tied the robot into its knot, before tossing it in Pan's direction. He then said, "Trunks likely doesn't have any spare radars other than this. There's a possibility that we could separate the radar from this creature if we're able to find a suitable mechanic, so hold onto it and don't let it get away."

"You got it, Mr. Reliable!" said Pan as she rubbed her face onto Piccolo's cape amorously. Piccolo, in his typical nonchalant fashion, doesn't even react and levitated himself using Bukujutsu, spotting a house not far away that they could hide out in.

"Let's head there and spend the night, said Piccolo, "our spaceship is in the safest possible place it could be at the moment. Trunks, don't take the Super Radar out of the spaceship or we could very well risk that 'Gill' robot consuming it as well."

"You got it, Piccolo-san! I've had a long day, let's just chill over there for now," said Trunks as he and Pan followed Piccolo into the house and then explained their situation to the family inside, who seemed to sympathize. They let the three inside.

"P-Piccolo-san, you sure we can trust these people? Ever since we came to this planet, this place has been trick after trick," whispered Trunks, "you think maybe we should knock them out as a precaution?"

"No need," whispered Piccolo back, "I read their minds as they conversed with you. They haven't such ill intentions."

The three relaxed after a long day, but when Trunks and Pan's Saiyan stomachs growled loudly after having had nothing for the entire day, the family relayed the disappointing news, "We're sorry, but everything on this planet belongs to Lord Don Kee. This house is on loan to us, as is every other residence on Immegga, we haven't even enough to feed our own kids…"

"That's awful! Piccolo-san was right, that guy is a total jerk!" pouted Pan, "say, Trunks, how about we kick that guy's butt?"

"Pan, we're in a hurry," replied Trunks, "I'd hate to let this prick's tyranny continue, but we only have six months – minus a day – to gather the Ultimate Dragon Balls. We have reviving Goku to worry about, not to mention bringing them back to Earth to begin with. Fixing our spaceship, making sure the psycho wage thieves don't destroy our Super Radar like a certain someone, we have too many things to worry about as it is-"

Just as Trunks was saying this while glaring at Gill in a barely-tamed fury, Don Kee himself was watching this conversation unfold over a set of security cameras he'd installed in the house.

"Ho! Hohohohoohoooo!" mused the flamboyant, affluent dictator, "I'd heard a suspicious spaceship crash-landed on this beautiful planet abode of mine, but to think it'd bring such wonderful news!"

"Lord Don Kee! We await your orders!" said the dictator's main two henchmen, Gale and Sheela.

"Go near this address," said Don Kee as he handed the two the coordinates of the house the trio were resting in, "and nearby should be an odd-looking spaceship they flew in on. If their conversation is to be trusted, I'm fairly certain that we can procure this 'Super Radar' they speak of."

"Sir, but isn't the legend of the Dragon Balls just a myth? And I heard that Freeza's army already wiped out the Namekians about two and a half decades ago and destroyed their planet, sir," said Gale.

"You fools! Are you two blind?" said the flamboyant dictator, "that green-skinned one is obviously a Namekian survivor! If he's strong enough to survive a fight with Freeza, then it probably stands to reason that this 'Ultimate' Dragon Ball is his creation! I'll finally be able to expand my empire beyond this poor excuse for a planet with my wish! Redjic, we're in need of your assistance! Kill the other two beside the Namekian, and bring him back to me as soon as your service is complete-"

"Shut your mouth," said the hooded figure named Redjic, "I fight only whomever I please."

Redjic then smirked and flared up a large, red aura, saying, "A Namekian who survived the battleground of Namek… if he's improved since, he may be the worthy opponent I've desperately desired. Fufufufufu…"

To be continued…