Goku woke up with a start. He had the Nimbus cloud travel in a straight line and decided to take a nap. "Oh boy…" He looked at the rising sun, "I musta overslept." He looked at his radar, "oh?! Wow! I'm lucky!" He landed by a river, filling himself in water, then he jumped back on his nimbus cloud. "Umm…" he observed the landscape, he was somewhere on the wastelands, close enough to civilization that the dinosaurs avoided it, hundreds of plateaus littered the land, and sparse forests formed beneath these plateaus, formed from rain generated when clouds were caught by the tall mountains.

…

"Gosh darn it!"

"It's just me, Cleetus, you can cuss all you want here." A second figure muttered.

"Yeah right, and get the death penalty? Man… why'd I even join the Red Ribbon Army…" The voice belonging to Cleetus whined.

"I hate this job man. I wish I was in White's army, they get to actually shoot people, we've been on this goose chase for Dragon Balls for days man!"

"Yeah well, it's not like the dragon ball will just fall from the sky."

Goku zipped towards the radar's location, zipping past a human and wolf-type human animal.

"What the?!" The wolf person screamed.

"Oh? Mornin'!" Goku waved then hopped off Nimbus. The two people looked at each other, confused.

"Who the hell are you?!" One of them shouted.

Goku ignored them, casually walking into a bush and picking up a Dragon Ball. "Darn, it's the 6-star Dragon Ball, well… I guess I gotta keep looking."

The two men pulled out their guns. "You better give me that thing before I blow your head wide open!" Cleetus growled.

"Huh! Not if you ask like that!" Goku blew raspberries.

The human aimed fire, but before the bullets left the chamber, Goku had already kicked him away. The wolf-type human-animal didn't waste time speaking, instead, he leapt to the side, spraying fire as rapidly and accurately as he could. His evasion was smart, but he wasn't fast enough as Goku disappeared from his sight then struck from above.

"Yeesh, what a buncha weirdos." Goku leaped unto the nimbus cloud, unfortunately not seeing the human member of the Red Ribbon Army reach to his radio.

A missile crashed into Goku's nimbus cloud as he rose to the air, dropping him on the ground.

"HEY! WHY! MY NIMBUS!" He turned to glare at a tall, large man with silver hair.

"Colonel Silver of the Red Ribbon Army." The man introduced himself, removing his shirt. "How did you find the dragon ball? We've been searching for days, yet it took you hours, do you have an advanced radar of some sort?"

Goku blew raspberries, "I'd never tell a kernel-jerk like you!" Goku turned to leave

Colonel Silver replied by charging towards him. Goku heard him come and leapt to his side before the Colonel could grab the bag with the dragon ball and dragon radar. Goku growled and struck with a spinning kick into the Colonel's gut. The man collapsed wordlessly.

Goku clenched his fists, smiling, he felt strong, stronger than during his fight with Jazz then against Jackie Chun, but his excitement was curbed by the loss of his Kintoun.

"How will I get the dragon balls…" He turned to the unconscious man, "well… he has that house over there." He ran inside it, finding a sparsely furnished miniature house. He began to rifle through Colonel Silver's items until he found what he was looking for. "Oh! There!" Pulling out a box, he opened it to find several capsules. He threw the first a distance away, revealing a metal man with a head made of glass.

"MORNING…" The robot raised its arm.

"Uhhh… who are you?"

"AH… TODAY WE START WITH HUMOR… OBVIOUSLY, I AM A DAIKON RADISH."

"I've never seen a radish like you before!" Goku pointed in wonder.

"THAT IS BECAUSE I WAS SIMPLY SPEAKING A JOKE, I AM A ROBOT."

"Oh? You are a weird-looking person."

"...WHAT CAN I HELP YOU WITH…"

"I need to go that way!" Goku pointed north.

"THEN… PERHAPS… BARE WITH ME… YOU SHOULD GO?"

"I need to fly there though!" Goku shouted.

"OH, THEN THROW CAPSULE THREE."

Goku threw capsule 3, then smiled as, in a burst of smoke, a state-of-the-art private jet plane appeared before his eyes. "Cool! But I can't drive that."

"I CAN DRIVE."

"Wow! You're super helpful!" They took off. "Wow… capsules are neat, an entire plane in this tiny thing, but it's slower than Kintoun.

"WHAT… IS THAT?" The robot asked.

…

Launch cupped her hands together, before her eyes, a ball of ki formed. As she stared at it, mystified, her thoughts turned to her time on the island, and on the thoughts and feelings of… the other her.

When Launch got her hands on the largest shard of the Sleeping Princess, she had been given the option to make a desire. Blonde Launch desired her independence from the weaker-willed, soft, blue side. Blue-haired Launch on the other hand wanted to not forget who she was and didn't want to have to wake up to a crime she didn't commit. The Sleeping Princess fulfilled this by fusing the two personalities together, even when one or the other sneezed, the same amalgam of the two of them would be awake. When the crystal was exorcised, the fusion of personalities ended, but the memories remained. This changed both of them, and so Blue Launch decided to try something. She looked down on the long script of paper she had been writing a conversation on with herself.

Hello, this is blue-haired Launch, your other half, please don't tear up this piece of paper, I know you've ignored my messages before, but please, I want to talk to you, I know you remember what happened, what we did, what was done to us…

Launch had then tickled her nose, inducing a sneeze. Surprisingly, when Blue-Haired Launch awoke, she found a reply to her letter.

Does that even matter?! It's over, even if I remember all the stuff little miss pansy did all the time, that doesn't change who I am and who you are. Or what, are you guilty because I did all those crimes?!"

Blue-Hair replied quickly.

No! I'd never think that, rather, I'm sorry, you were protecting me all this time, weren't you… I'm sorry I never knew. Or well, I knew but chose to ignore it. I'm sorry.

Blonde Launch's reply was short.

I see.

Blue Launch didn't receive a response, no matter how many times she tried sending another message, until the day Roshi took the disciples to the tournament. She didn't know when she sneezed, she found herself sneezing multiple times a day normally, but when she came to, she was in front of the kitchen table, with a simple phrase written in front of her.

Are they gone?

That could only be referring to Roshi and the rest. Blue-Haired Launch had found herself extremely excited when she wrote back to her other half. Tickling her nose she felt her sneeze building up. A huge blast of air sailed across the kitchen, scattering papers everywhere.

"It… it didn't work?!" Blue-Haired Launch looked around in alarm, she was still herself, but she had sneezed!

"It worked."

"H-huh?!" Launch looked around in surprise, a woman with a husky, city-type accent responded to her words. "Who just spoke now?"

"God… do I sound like that?" Blond Launch's voice reverberated around the Blue-Hair's skull. "Lord… you sound so whiny, and PRIM AND PROPER…" She said the last part mockingly enough to make the Blue Launch frown.

"Now that's not nice."

"nOw ThAt'S nOt NiCe! That's what you sound like." Blond Launch let out a chuckle, "okay! Let's just focus on the important things."

"...What?" Blue Launch asked.

"That friggin gemstone, it did something to us, and we became the same person for a bit. Well, I discovered that every once in a while, I could feel ya mind, both when ya wuz in control...and when you weren't."

"When ya wuz?" Blue Launch repeated, she giggled at the phrase.

"Oh shut up!" The blond growled, "I'll talk how I want! Anyways, those brats were doing something, ki? We were able to do it together, when that gem thingamabob did stuff, let's ask that geezer to train."

"I thought you hated him."

"He's a pervert, but… he's not evil, he knows I'm wanted, but 'cause of you, he won't kick me out, and he doesn't knock my block off even though he could. That Krillin kid, he's a sucker for a pretty face, but he's also kinda dependable, and the bald look is kinda cute."

"You like bald guys?!"

"Shut up! I think it's amazing how their scalp shines in the sun! It's distinguishing, ya know?! Anyways, that kid Goku, I like the cut of his jib, don't take crap from nobody. I can style with that fellow."

Blue Launch grinned.

"Shut the fuck up!"

"I didn't say anything~!" She said in a sing-songy voice.

...

The Blond Launch grunted at the memory as she stared at the orb of ki in her hand.

"Amazing! One after another, a disciple capable of already bending ki!" Roshi nodded approvingly at the young blond woman. "You're truly talented!"

"Shut up ya geezer!" The blond growled, but a blush was seen on her face.

"You like getting complimented." Blue Launch teased.

The Blond merely growled, ignoring her counterpart and concentrating on the ball of ki they kept alight.

Chi-Chi was next to them, doing a similar sort of training, though she had multiple balls of ki out and around her.

"Feh… show off." Launch growled.

Chi-Chi ignored the older girl's provocation and focused on her training, her lips tightened when she remembered the fight between Jazz and Goku, or even Krillin and Goku. She couldn't beat any of them currently. Even if she could launch a shower of ki blasts, Goku and Krillin could easily avoid it, and Jazz's endurance was otherworldly. 'I wish PaoPao was here.' She thought morosely.

Roshi seemed to read her expression, "my last pupil has her own battles to face, as her teacher, I will be there for her as long as she doesn't stray from the path. Believe in PaoPao, Chi-Chi."

"Yes sir!" Chi-Chi nodded, glaring at the ki surrounding her.

An island away, Krillin and Yamcha were both doing Roshi styled chore-training. Krillin had the routine engraved into his bones and played his part as Roshi's first disciple, imparting his knowledge and skills on Roshi's newest disciples.

"We've got to get to the basics, none of us made the finalist stage, we've got a lot to catch up to!" Krillin bore the highest amount of weights he could possibly hold, wearing a 100kg turtle weight and 30 kg weights on his wrists and shins.

"Yes!" Yamcha roared in agreement, he wore a 40kg weight on his back and 10kg weights on his wrist and feet, he approached the training with fervor, enough that he would likely upgrade the weights soon. Unfortunately, other of Roshi's new disciples weren't able to take to training with the same fervor.

"Uwaaaaaagh!" Hercule felt like he was going to collapse from the pain, "M-Miguel… I'm getting stronger… for her!" With Jazz leaving, he lacked a teacher, training partner, and fellow guard, after the tournament, he lacked the confidence to guard her by himself. So he humbled himself before Roshi, whose only reply was to groan that he seemed to be picking up pupils like radishes from a good harvest. After 10 hours of work, rest, then work, the group arrived back at Roshi's home and collapsed by the kitchen table. There, Launch served them a heaping bowl of rice, fish, and freshly washed vegetables.

For Hercule, the simple dish felt like a delicious feast.

"Hercule." Yamcha asked, "are you sure you're okay?"

Hercule nodded. "I… I can take it. And, I'm not worried about Miguel, she's tough." Hercule grinned, "She told me that if I wanted to get tougher, I should, and she'd support me, like I supported her."

"Are you worried that she might like Jazz over you?" Krillin asked slyly.

"What?!" Hercule reddened, "no!"

…

"Like Jazz?" Miguel spit out her drink, face reddening, "we're just friends, I never thought of him that way."

"Yeah," Bulma chuckled, "she's got the hots for Hercule."

The girls' faces all twisted into smiles as they stared at the red-faced young singer.

Bulma and Miguel became fast friends. Their personalities were almost polar opposites, Miguel was shy while Bulma was assertive, Miguel always aimed for the diplomatic approach while Bulma lacked even the barest hint of tact, Miguel would sometimes feel ashamed of her country ways, while Bulma was shameless in regards to her mannerisms. At the moment, Bulma was showing off her new friend to the city girls, most of whom were enamored with the up-and-coming singer. Seraphina had been livid that Miguel hadn't returned to her pavilion in orange city, as she was scheduled for an important interview, but a quick phone call from Bulma and an announcement that she was being sponsored by Capsule Corp silenced all derisive rumors.

At the moment, they had just attended a coffee brunch with several of the "upper class" children that attended Bulma's high school, Bulma would rather be anywhere else, but for business reasons, she chose to attend the schmooze-fest. In her own words to Miguel, "My dad is smart and all, but he's super lazy about the rest of this stuff now that he's successful."

"What do you mean?" Miguel had certainly found the majority of the girls there to be relatively vapid at best and passive-aggressively vindictive at worse, but she didn't see how hanging out with them was business-related.

"Well, remember the redhead, Tammy?"

Miguel vaguely remembered a pretty redhead with a quiet voice but a loud laugh. She had thought the girl was nice and they could be friends, then heard her talk bad about a busboy who cleared their table because he blushed after one of the other girls loudly talked about him to the other girls. She nodded.

"Well, her dad's the owner of one the world's largest pharmaceuticals, they are our main supplier of medical supplies for several hundred different hoppoi capsule models, and her dad's super conservative and dotes on her like a lot."

"I don't think it's bad for a dad to love and dote on his daughter. I like it when my dad does things for me." Miguel replied.

"Well…" Bulma smiled sheepishly, "I didn't mean that there was anything wrong with that, just, her dad is kinda an emotional guy, if I pissed Tammy off, her dad might up and sever our business partnership."

"Oh wow…" Miguel nodded, "that'd be bad."

"Yeah! We haven't finished developing our pharmaceutical wing yet, so it'd mess up production for at least a decade. Life is a matter of balancing what you want, what you need, and how the world turns, so sometimes you have to grin and pretend you're having fun." She turned to Miguel, "in that regard, thanks for today! The girls would have literally torn me apart asking about Yamcha." She groaned, "I hate that he's so handsome, all the girls won't leave us alone, and sometimes, his eyes linger a bit too much, I know he used to be scared of girls and all, but it's crazy! I'm here, right?!"

"Yes, you are super pretty Bulma." Miguel smiled.

"Thank you! Honestly though Miguel, you're beautiful too! I can see why Hercule likes you."

It was Miguel's turn to blush deep red.

Bulma grinned. "Maybe you should give him a phone call."

"I don't want to bother him. He said he wants to train for my sake."

"Aww… well, according to my watch, they should be having dinner soon, so just call them."

Bulma dragged the semi-reluctant girl back to her house, with Miguel finally giving way to a fit of giggles over her day.

…

PaoPao turned to her second in command. "Shinobu, status report."

"Yes ma'am." Shinobu was a kunoichi dressed in a midnight grey one-piece gi that covered her body akin to a bathing suit, her arms and legs were covered in a thick black latex-looking stocking and glove respectively, and she wore flat shoes that were designed to look like platform shoes. The supposed gaps in her attire were actually chain-mail, and her entire body was laced with a fast-acting paralytic poison that would drop any man stupid enough to break her rule, 'see, don't touch'. "The Red Ribbon Army's Brown Squadron broke into our lands last week after successfully retrieving the object they were looking for."

"They did?" PaoPao narrowed her eyes, "what happened to our intercepting party?"

"They were successful in breaking their ranks, but their squadron leader and his elite troops were able to escape, then…" Shinobu looked down.

"And then…?" PaoPao asked though she felt she knew the answer.

"We were attacked by a contingent of mercenaries, led by Mercenary Tao and a few warriors and assassins of the Crane School."

"Shit!" PaoPao's eyes flashed with anger, but she smoothed her features as she looked around. The men and women surrounding her were retainers loyal to her family, who chose to alleviate and suppress any possible opposition to her clan and organization's goal shift by aligning themselves with her. If she appeared weak or emotional, they would be affected by her unease.

Turning to another kunoichi, she spoke, "Talia."

"Yes, Mistress!" The woman, as opposed to the more sensual appearing Shinobu was dressed in body armor and loose cloth that hid her natural body shape, she wore a mempo mask, giving her an appearance more in line with samurai than a ninja. If not for the muted blue motif of her clothing and mask, and the way she moved almost noiselessly, one would think her a Samurai warrior.

PaoPao smiled at her, "gather your squadron, we'll be giving the Crane School a visit."

"Madam!" Talia nodded, "As you say!"

PaoPao turned to the rest. "As for the rest of you, bring two to three members of your squad, make sure they are of varying skill level, the only things I want you to pick them out for is fidelity, tenacity, and stubbornness.

"What will you have them do?" A man with hawk-like eyes and deep black eyes, aptly named Taka, asked.

"Glad you asked," PaoPao smiled, "they will be heading to these coordinates."

"And these are?" Shinobu asked, eyeing the coordinates.

"The location of Muten Roshi, the Turtle Sage." She smiled. "They will be bringing the first payment of the year, and it will be time for him to begin his end of the deal. They will stay for at least half a year, or a full year if we are lucky, training under his guidance."

The warriors murmured with excitement. Just then, a low-ranking member burst into the meeting place.

"Why have you disturbed the elders!" Taka sharply reprimanded.

"I… I apologize! We've been sent a communication attempt by King Furry!"

"Put him on immediately." PaoPao turned to a projection behind her, a hazy, static-filled video played before them, on it, a blue-colored dog-type human-animal with thick round spectacles stared back. PaoPao gave a polite bow to the King of the Earth. "Sir!" The others in the room moved to smart salutes.

"At ease," King Furry rubbed his glasses. "I am happy with your results near Orange City, the Brown squadron of the Red Ribbon Army had terrorized that space for a few days, and already people were dying, you prevented a greater tragedy with your action. I am however saddened by the interference of the mercenaries and Mercenary Tao and the loss of some of your loyal troops.."

"Thank you." PaoPao nodded. "But I assume you haven't contacted me just for pleasantries."

"You are right, we received a secret alert from an informant in Jingle Village. The Red Ribbon Army set up a base known as Muscle Tower, and they are forcing the villagers to search for a Dragon Ball, this confirms our fears, they have some sort of detecting software for the dragon balls."

"Yes." PaoPao nodded, "I planted spies in several villages, one of my spies informed me recently of just the same thing. Shall I order them to do anything?"

"Have them liaison with my contact, then have them standby, we've been given troubling news regarding the state of the village and its mayor."

PaoPao nodded, "of course."

"On a lighter, note, congratulations on your debut into the wider world, I was informed of your admirable showing in the Budokai Tenkaichi."

PaoPao's smile widened, "thanks."

"I would certainly love for any of those brave people to join our efforts in quelling the evil Red Ribbon Army. At least a few of them are Roshi's disciples, could you perhaps ask of him and his students?"

PaoPao was hesitant, "I… I will try."

Once the communication cut, Shinobu stood, "should I make the request?"

"No, this is our fight, if it proves too much, we will call them, but only once we have all the information. The Red Ribbon Army's headquarter has an onsite nuclear warhead, if they feel threatened enough to detonate the entire site, we could lose whoever we sent inside, as well as the surrounding area for decades." She shook her head, "it's why we've only been able to target the auxiliaries." She turned to Talia, "what of the yellow squadron?"

"Yes, we've been able to peacefully interact with the people of Korin Forest, and they have been most helpful in the attack against the Yellow Squadron, we should be capturing Commander Yellow soon."

"Good, the pieces are gathering, each colored squadron has a separate access point into the facility, once we gather enough, we can sneak inside and capture their leader without any mishaps."

"Mistress!" Another servant ran in, "this morning, our spies on Colonel silver witnessed him being defeated by a boy with black hair, orange gi, and brown monkey tail! And they witnessed him flying northward on a commandeered plane!"

"I just received a memo of an unlisted plane entering the airspace of Jingle village. But it crashed a few miles from the village proper. The Red Ribbon Army is preparing a contingent of troops to investigate and have increased patrols."

PaoPao furrowed her eyebrows, "That's Son Goku! Get in touch with our spy! They must contact the liaison and both must find and recover Goku before the army does!" She cursed, "dammit! Get me the contact number we gave to Roshi, he needs to know his disciple has kicked the hornet's nest!"

…

...

Jasper(Jazz) Duncan

Age: 15 (and 11 months), physical appearance: 15-16

Hair color: Red

Skin color: white

Race: Quarter Caucasian(White American of English-Irish descent), Quarter Asian (Korean), Quarter Black(African-American), Quarter Hispanic (Cuban)

Height: 5ft 9inches | 175 centimeters (69 inches, nice)

Weight: 159 lbs | 72 kilograms (the namekians granted him a pair of 10, 15, and 20 kilogram wrist and ankle weights. (3 sets of weighted clothing in total, 4 parts each, 22 pounds, 33 pounds, and 44 pounds respectively, currently using 15 kg (33 lbs) weights.

Skills: Decent Sports Talent for Age, Semi-Above Average Intellect for age, intermediate martial arts skills, average ki control, good pain tolerance, trap building, intermediate weapons mastery, basic boxing, basic MMA, street fighting skills

Powers: Magic Materialization (Fire) (Proficient Understanding), Magic Materialization (Water) (Basic Understanding)

General magic: Basic Understanding

Max Power/ Pump Up (1.5x (mastered), 2x (capable),

Shapeshifting, Mastered Skill level (indefinite)

Noble Werewolf. Juvenile Awakening, 1.5x, currently possible only under a full moon

Powerlevel: 82, will raise to 123 temporarily when using Pump Up/Max Power 1.5, or 164 when using Pump Up/Max Power 2x, if using Juvenile awakening, power will be 184 or 246 respectively

…

…

Weird I've put Jazz's stat block here even though he's not in this chapter lmao. But things are beginning to heat up a bit, due to the interference of PaoPao's Tsukimi, the World Government feels confident enough to press an offensive against various squadrons, for this reason, they've resorted to hiring mercenaries, the Crane School, and Tao Pai Pai early. Unfortunately for those guys, Goku is currently stronger than when he fought Tien the first time, not even counting the Oozaru.