Tenshinhan's feet lightly tapped against the pavement while he looked around the busy evening streets of the Central City with unease. He had never fully gotten used to busy cities and all the noise. Whenever he visited a busier city center, it was usually because of some heroic business that related to the necessity to save the Earth, so he had enough distractions from all the cacophony. Whenever Tenshinhan had the option, he preferred smaller villages or selective solitude.
Wondering why Bardock could've chosen such a location, Tenshinhan advanced on foot toward the Saiyan's Ki signature. He completely ignored the wayward stares and the civilians that scratched heads, wondering why some monk-like-looking guy descended from the skies right in front of them and just walked around like nothing had happened.
Wearing civilian clothes, Bardock was relatively hard to pinpoint. The battle scars decorating his face and his subtle cybernetic modifications didn't quite stand out that much from a larger crowd and while he had the same wild hair as his more distinguished son, that hair in of itself didn't differentiate the veteran Saiyan from fifty or a hundred of other civilians. Quite impossible to miss, however, was the Egyptian-blue hair of Launch's gentle personality.
The two were seated on opposite sides of an outside café, seemingly just talking to each other. Bardock acted uneasy, out of his element, Launch, meanwhile, looked quite happy. The shining face of the gentle version of the woman Tenshinhan considered a good friend eased the bald martial artist into approaching the duo of friends. Whereas Bardock's eyes widened and his speech stuttered upon seeing Tenshinhan approaching, Launch picked up on Bardock's cues and turned to clap with glee at the sight of her friend.
"Tenshinhan-san!" Launch exclaimed. "What a surprise, what brought you to Central City?"
"Launch-san, it's… Tough to explain…" Tenshinhan began scratching the back of his head, wondering where he should have begun explaining himself from. "Truth be told, I came here to check up on you."
"Check up on Launch?" Bardock wondered.
"Well… It's… A peculiar thing to explain but… Launch… The other Launch, I mean… She contacted me a week ago with a letter left in the mailbox of my dojo and requested that I met her in a rundown bar she liked. I took her up on her offer, I can't begin to delve into the reasons, but… When I arrived, she wasn't there," Tenshinhan looked like he would rather tear his skin off of him and toss it out there like a distraction just so he could bury himself underground and disappear. Explaining all this stuff felt awkward, and he kept stumbling through words despite having faced far more terrifying odds with a thousand times the bravery and reckless abandon.
"Oh… The Other Me must have transformed…" Launch gasped. "I'm terribly sorry, Tenshinhan-san, I have no memory of anything like that happening."
"Heh…" Bardock snickered. Initially, Tenshinhan looked up at him with spite, figuring that the Saiyan might have been mocking his stumbling speech or his mannerisms, but then he noticed the kind nature of the Saiyan's smile. It wasn't mockery that beamed out from Bardock's expression. The Saiyan could relate to Tenshinhan's struggle, Tenshinhan could read it from Bardock's face. "Discussing business that has something to do with Launch is a real hassle, huh?"
"Eh?" Launch gasped.
"Launch… This blue-haired and squeaky-voiced version, that is, called me up on the phone and asked me to meet her here too. It hadn't occurred to me at the time but… Now that I think of it, her transforming and standing me up because of being oblivious of what the other version of her had thought up feels like something that definitely could have happened," Bardock tried his best to restrain himself from laughing but a few cracks did bust through his façade.
"Oh, I see… So, it's a meeting, just like between me and the other Launch…" Tenshinhan nodded to himself in acceptance of this. He wasn't sure what the nature of Launch's relationship with Bardock was. Neither of the two Launches had even spoken to him about Bardock when the three were traveling around on the spaceship and training to resolve the Android conflict. "Meeting up with Launch just didn't feel like something you'd be interested in, Bardock, it felt extremely out of the blue to me when I found out you two met up, so I had to check if Launch was okay."
"Of course, I'm okay, why wouldn't I be? Bardock-san is not the ruthless invader he once was," Launch looked a little offended that Tenshinhan would assume anything bad had happened to her. Tenshinhan had never even seen this Launch looking offended or in any way defensive.
"Th-That's not what I mean!" Tenshinhan shook his hands out in front of him defensively. "I… I just meant that maybe you needed help and Bardock was the only one you could reach… Or maybe Bardock missed out on some social cues and didn't realize you needed help… Or something…"
Bardock's laughter busted all of his blocks down. Tenshinhan, who was flushed with red, and Launch, who was just about ready to smack him for being a complete oaf, both looked at the Saiyan who was having a bawl. "Yeah, meeting up here with some Earthling woman ain't something I'd have imagined for a pass time either," Bardock shrugged with a content smile on his face. "Truth be told when I heard Launch's gentle voice and her polite way of speaking it… It just kind of reminded me of Gine, in a way, so I just thought like maybe it was the right thing to do, you know?"
Tenshinhan and Launch both turned sullen for a second, forgetting their embarrassment and slights for a second while they took a few moments to relate to Bardock's pain. Tenshinhan wondered if he had met someone he previously had little to no relationship with, who reminded him of Chiaotzu, would he also not show an inappropriate amount of effort in maintaining a relationship with that person?
"I see, well, in any case, I see now that you are doing well. I was worried about both of you, though I see now that it's none of my business, really, and I am beginning to feel like a third wheel here…" Tenshinhan bowed respectfully while backing out.
"Oh, my…" Launch gasped, feeling her cheeks warming up. When she pulled her hand away from her mouth, though, her lips had been curled up into a warm smile. Bardock leaned back in his chair and saluted his friend and ally farewell while Tenshinhan took off, further frightening the surrounding civilians just going about their day.
"This… This always happens…" Launch muttered, tucking her chin down while tears began dripping down her cheeks and soaking her intertwined hands that rested on her lap. "Ever since I was a girl. Sometimes I'd wake up on a motorcycle with people shooting at me, sometimes it'd be in a helicopter that the Other Me had stolen… I don't even know how to drive a helicopter…"
"Heh…" Bardock hunched forward after leaning toward the front again and focusing on his friend. "Can't say I'm the best person to comfort you. I ain't built or raised for that sort 'a business. To me, all that stuff you've described sounds like a real hoot, though I can see why a kind and delicate person like you would find it terrifying. I may not be able to help but… If you wanna talk about it, I ain't gotta be anywhere."
People came, passed, and gone, paying no mind to the pair discussing their incredibly curious lives. Had either of the busy civilians overheard even a single sentence, the wild stories of split personalities sharing a single body or alien worlds, bloody wars, rebellions, and awkward romance stories of two unlikely people would've locked them in place and forced them to keep listening.
"Gine-san… She meant a lot to you, didn't she?" Launch mumbled to herself, looking down and away.
"She meant everything to me. That's why it still doesn't feel like I'm whole after cutting her out of my life," Bardock sighed, weaving his fingers together and stuffing his face behind the cover of his hands.
"You… Cut her out?" Launch gasped. "What do you mean?"
"She's… She's a kind and polite person, you know. She's shy, but she can be brave and stand up for what she feels is right. When I found out how the Other World business worked and that she'd probably just reincarnate into a new body and a new life, I decided to give her a chance to have a happy life, wherever she reincarnates and whoever she reincarnates into. I can be a real numbskull and I screwed things up for all of us all the time with my rash head. It's better that she has a happy life without me making things difficult, she deserves it," Bardock sighed. "Besides, she'll probably be reborn as a whole new person, I'm not even sure how trying to resume our relationship would even work, even if I wanted to mess up another one of her lives."
"Gine-san will… Reincarnate?" Launch wondered. "The way you describe her, she sounds like a kind and pure-hearted woman. I thought only bad souls reincarnated, then again, I haven't been included in many of your group talks, so I may have missed something…"
"Apparently, whatever caused Chayote to get bumped down here to Earth still hasn't been fixed. Instead of just holding the line up in Heaven, they're reincarnating good souls too until Heaven starts working again," Bardock explained. "I was really fortunate to meet a Kami in my lifetime, I don't think I'd have ever been able to forgive myself for being such a dumbass and screwing everything up all the time by always swinging my fists at everything that moves without asking questions first if I didn't know that Gine would end up alright."
"I… I too am glad that your wife will be okay and have a chance to be happy," Launch reached out to Bardock's hand and wrapped his hand with both of hers while softening Bardock's heart up with a warm smile.
"Yeah…" Bardock smiled back. "Her happiness is back in her hands now. We just need to ensure that we're living our best lives and that the people dear to us are happy too now."
16's vision input activated, flashing still images with hefty static at first before the analytical data input began running calculations and background system operations. The first sign of Android 16's vitals was when the giant blinked softly, at which point Android 21 leaned back in her chair and pushed herself to roll back to the other end of the lab and sip on her coffee.
"Is he awake?" Super Android One-Nine inquired, looking at the overworked matriarch running a space-bound family unit to the best of her abilities.
"Yes, Super One-Nine, I am awake…" Gebo sat up and turned to his little sister with a kind smile. The pale-faced Lolita-style brat turned her doll-like face away with a childish pout.
"I still don't understand why you had to upgrade 16 right now," Super One-Nine stated, with a slight artificial hum to her voice. "It hardly feels like a priority right now."
"I disagree," Dr. Puri shook her head while entertaining herself with sluggish laps on her office chair while sipping on her lukewarm coffee. "I did not mean for Gebo to be activated in that state. He was a work-in-progress, so he was long overdue to be brought up to date with the latest model of Artificial Human that I can make. This is the best version of Gebo that I can make right now."
"I feel different… Stronger… My thoughts feel so clear," Android 16 stared at his hands, feeling a peerless sensation of lightness passing through his entire body. He had never felt this much synchrony with each fiber of his body. Never before had 16 felt like a highly functional autonomous system like this.
"I can still beat you," Super One-Nine grumbled out, swinging on her feet awkwardly. Gebo pushed himself off of the mechanical stand and approached his little sister, petting her bronze curls with a warm smile. One-Nine turned her cute face away and hid her chin and right cheek in the stuffy shoulder bags of her outfit.
"Now that I've settled this long overdue matter, it's time to set our sights on the prime matter at hand," Android 21 crossed her arms. 16 tilted his eyebrows in surprise and turned back to his mother figure. No. 21 was smiling with a sheepish grin, almost like she had the devil's work in mind.
"No way, mother… Don't tell me…" Android 16 stuttered through his speech, fully prepared to beat some sense into his mother if he needed to. "Attack the Earth again?"
"Don't be ridiculous, dear…" Android 21 placed her right chin on her knuckle for support while tilting her leg over the other. "Being exiled out to space was the best thing that ever happened to me. I wouldn't dream of putting this idyllic family life of ours, quirky and unorthodox as it might be, into jeopardy. That being said, it's about time that we got ourselves a bigger house, don't you think?"
"A bigger… House?" Gebo muttered while observing his mother turning around and working her magic on a control panel of keys, lowering a three-monitor system that flashed to display a massive energy signal that beamed like a neon sign with unbelievable intensity from countless star systems away.
"What is that? Those readings are almost identical to… The Capsule Corps Star," Super One-Nine said, pointing at the screen. "Are we moving into Bulma's house? I don't think she'll take kindly to it…"
"What is it with you two?" Dr. Puri snickered in her open hand. "We're not aggravating our relationship with the Earth after they've so graciously provided us with our current family life conditions and even reconnected us with that deadbeat father of yours. That being said, your observation was on-point, Super One-Nine, the readings of this artificial structure indeed ARE identical to the Capsule Corps Star."
"But the Capsule Corps Star's readings have vanished deep into the solar system. There is no way that it could emit those readings so far away from an entirely different cluster of systems, completely repaired," the new and improved Android 16 noted.
"You too are correct, dear," Android 21 turned to the booming artificial star. "This cybernetic star emits identical data readings and, for all intents and purposes, may very well be just another one of the Capsule Corps Star's kind. Given how Bulma commandeered her cybernetic star from wherever and didn't even have full control over it, we can do the same, except better, as usual. With my abilities granting us full control over this cybernetic world, we can untangle the mystery of these ancient cyber stars once and for all while building us a new house to live our best lives for the rest of eternity in our everlasting artificial bodies."
"I see… "Move into a new house", indeed…" Super One-Nine chuckled with a malicious grin, fully prepared to exterminate whoever occupied the cybernetic star at the moment.
"Not to impede your dream, mother, but don't you find these readings the least bit suspicious?" Artificial Human No. 16 pointed out, approaching the approximate blueprint that the spaceship analytics drew up for them. It became self-evident that Dr. Puri had been observing the unidentified object for a while as she had added some custom entries based on her familiarity with the Capsule Corps Star from the time she commandeered it temporarily. "It's like this object wants to be found. It is emitting a powerful signal and beaming out intense energy readings, but it doesn't appear that this energy is accomplishing anything. In other words, they want whoever's seeing their signal to know they're being wasteful and that they've got ample energy to spare."
"Yes, it clearly is a trap," Android 21 agreed, tightening the wrap of her left leg over the right while she licked her lips. "However, there is no chance in hell that they are prepared for us. Moreover, the kind of creatures that set traps for unsuspecting spacefarers aren't the kind that the Universe will miss. More likely than not, we'll be doing that old hag Bulma a favor by snuffing this lot out for her. Who knows? Maybe, if I feel generous, I'll then drop her the nugget of what exactly she's got on her hands with that Capsule Corps Star of hers, once we figure it out for ourselves."
"Yeah, big brother…" Super One-Nine turned to the lumbering back of No. 16 with a sheepish look. "Don't you love nature? You know what kind of people set traps? Poachers. Let's smash these cyber-space-poachers to bits, take over, and live happily ever after together like a big, happy family."
"Hmm…" Android 16 stared at the screen as if trying to peer a hole through it with an intense stare.
A tunneling flash of right punted aside a rocky mountain and forced it to crumble as it vaporized the entire section of the rocky pillar that it flashed through. Groaning, Videl swooped down into the wreckage and flung massive boulders aside while burrowing through the rubble while Trunks apologetically scratched the back of his head. A bright reflecting glint caught the boy's eye, making him dive like a fisherman seagull and swipe a treasured marble off of the ground.
"Alright! We've got the sixth one!" he yelled out. "Just one more left to go, I can't believe it!"
"Nice work," Videl wiped her sweaty and sandy forehead with the back of her gauntlet before resting her weight on one leg and shaking her head at the kid and his "blast first" mentality. At least he redeemed his blunder in the end and found the Dragon Ball they were looking for.
A dark shadow ripped through the skies, temporarily obstructing the sunlight, and making both traveling brawlers look up. Whatever it was, it didn't look natural at all. In fact, it looked incredibly distinct and artificial. Just a few blinks later, something had rocked into the Earth's surface so hard that the trembling reached all the way to the rocky wasteland where the two were looking for the Dragon Balls.
"What was that?" Trunks cried out, struggling to maintain his balance on his feet while finding himself at the mercy of the quaking.
"I'm not sure, but… I didn't feel like anything good. Maybe we should…" Videl was about to finish voicing her suggestion when the skies became littered with clusters of red, blazing orbs. Round pods that seemed hardened at the front for just this kind of rough landing and likely carried something nasty and foreign inside, fostering ill intentions. This wasn't a crash landing at all.
This was an invasion!