At long last, Planet Earth has seen the last of the Machine Mutant invasion threat as the final blinking red light on the determinative drone fighting to their final signal compelling them to keep going went out. Chayote hovered above a smoldering wasteland where she once was sure there were villages and small towns. Now it was all cluttered with scrap of some sort of thrashed alien robots.
This was quite the sight to awaken to, but, at the very least, based on what Kami Upa and Dende told her, the others did a fine job at repelling the alien invasion. It wasn't like Chayote was all that shocked. By this point, they were getting superb at this. They've been repelling alien invasions ever since Bardock's crew first crash-landed on Earth. Machine Mutants were just another bunch to add to the list.
It was surprising to see how much damage they inflicted on the planet. Obviously, it was nothing even remotely close to the devastation after the Android Conflict, but this might have just made it all worse. When the planet was just jagged rocks and bottomless falls straight into the boiling mantle, Mr. Popo had to employ his terraforming magic to fix the planet's surface and restore its nature. Meanwhile, devastated cities on perfectly intact land required much more manual effort from people. Papaya Island was just recently fixed and opened for business after the Tournament of Doom that seemed like forever and a half ago.
There were so many bread crumbles for Chayote to pick up. She was fortunate that her immediate need to see if her son was okay just so happened to coincide with the nexus point of the activity of her friends. Everyone seemed to center in West City, at the Capsule Corps. Chayote could sense the Ki of Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha, Tenshinhan, and even Yajirobe. Things must've gotten bad if even Yajirobe got involved. Burning with the want to hold her son again, Chayote pressed her elbows to her sides and blasted off in a rapid burst toward West City, taking no time at all to hover above a relatively untouched by the warfare metropolis.
Maybe it was wrong taking the long way around the world, but Chayote wanted to see the extent of the destruction she slept through by herself. Based on what Kami Upa told her, it was entirely transfixed on the eastern side of the globe with the Machine Mutant army landing directly in Orange City and leveling it to the ground. Chayote nearly lost it when she first heard it, it was wise of Kami Upa to tell her that Navy was with Bulma on the opposite side of the planet at the time before telling her that the invaders reduced their hometown to pebble-spewing, tremorous craters.
"Well, well, if it isn't Chayote…" Lapis looked up at the approaching Saiyan with an emotionless look. He seemed to have a few scrapes decorating his face and tears over his outfit and jeans but otherwise looked okay. Based on the diminished Ki signatures of the rest deeper inside Bulma's business complex, the rest were far worse for wear.
"You should be proud of that kid you trained. She took initiative and gathered the Dragon Balls to restore your body to prime shape," Bardock, who also didn't seem too badly bruised, walked out from behind a small warehouse, waving hello to Chayote. With the Saiyan berserker wearing a sleeveless shirt underneath a short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt, all of his cybernetic enhancements were visible to the naked eye on top of the few bandaged spots across his body, where he suffered some damage.
"Videl," Chayote muttered. "Is she okay?"
"Chayote-san!" Videl's shriek sort of answered that question as the brat straight-up crashed into Chayote with a mad tackle. Trunks and Bulma followed them shortly after. "When you didn't show up for so long after we asked the Divine Dragon to heal you, we were so worried!"
"Relax, kid, you did good. I sort of had to bust out of that stone shell like a hatchling chicken, and it took some time. I had some serious stone bed sores to work through, you know," Chayote smirked, gently nuzzling Videl's back and calming her down.
"Giru-Giru," a round, white Machine Mutant hovered on a jet pack sprouting from its back behind Videl. Once Chayote opened her eyes, it was near impossible not to become transfixed on it.
"I'm just going to pretend that guy's supposed to be there and not blow it up on sight. The gang's gotten bigger, I missed out on quite a lot, huh?" Chayote groaned after Videl pulled away, pumping her fists and giggling at every little thing Chayote said while staring at her teacher with glittering eyes.
"This is Giru, he was a Machine Mutant scout that could trace Dragon Balls and then he ate the Dragon Radar and learned to do its job. It does that…" Videl pointed at the hovering Machine Mutant.
"Giru-Giru, spending time at the Capsule Corps has been amazing for Giru. Humans have so much strange technology to assimilate, Giru-Giru!" Giru struck a flashy pose, switching between several household gadgets, then sprouting jet wings and firing alarm flares for a light show.
"Hmm…" Chayote closed her eyes with a smirk. "There's another thing about humans that you should know, Giru. Some of them can be awfully greedy. There's no reason Bulma would feed you her gear for free if she didn't plan on exploiting you for it and making a profit off of it."
"I'm still figuring the kinks out," Bulma appeared from the mechanical door at the main entrance to the Capsule Corps complex. "Giru's ability to assimilate all technology he eats up is a lot like Dr. Puri's, though much cruder. He himself does not power up from it, he merely gains the functions of that gadget. Still, that makes him a valuable tool for researching Dr. Puri's ability for weaknesses if she ever became our enemy again. Also, I won't lie, the idea of turning Giru into a prototype all-purpose gadget and selling it is alluring, but, I think, it's much more profitable to sell dozens of different gadgets than one all-purpose one… Welcome back, Chayote, we all missed you."
Chayote was a tad surprised by Bulma's warm welcome. Especially so since all of their recent falling outs. Even though the two used to be at each other's throats at first, having a mutually beneficial, at knife's distance type of relationship, they eventually warmed up to each other. The two even had a mentor-apprentice relationship at one time. Their relationship became a tad strained when Chayote became involved with the future version of Bulma's pre-schooler son, then, whatever bundle of sensitive nerves it was in at the time, it all became utterly severed when Bulma was revealed to have kept Dr. Puri's research and furthered it by the time that the King's government got their hands on it and started making Androids of their own. If the two of them were now on talking terms, Chayote may have been dormant for far too long.
"What's all this ruckus here!?" Mark Hercule stormed out, surrounded by some no-names in suits. "My word, Chayote-san!" he gasped upon seeing his once-boss healthy and kicking again.
"Satan," Chayote nodded her head in acknowledgment of the man under whose roof she used to live.
"It's actually Hercule now, you're a bit out of the loop…" Bulma shook her head with a smirk.
"You wanna know being out of the loop, try taking care of this little troublemaker for over a year with the world about to end every few months!" Chi-Chi walked out while cradling a small bundle of joy in her arms that appeared to be already old enough to sprout some spiky black hair. That wasn't unusual for Saiyans. Saiyan anatomy demanded that they be on their feet, as mature as possible, and ready for combat training in just a few years of development, so brats usually sprouted formed hairstyles they'd have for the rest of their lives sooner than the first six months.
"Oh, hey… Chi-Chi's here too. I guess it makes sense. The Machine Mutants hit the eastern regions the worst, haven't they? I took the long way trip around the world here just to see how badly they messed Earth up," Chayote pointed behind her with her thumb.
"Oh, I didn't let a single alien robot get their fingers on me or Goten-chan, don't you worry. Goku-sa and Gohan-chan are about to be back home from their space trip. Their Ki aren't too far away, so I figured I'd come here," Chi-Chi replied without pulling her eyes too far away from her second son.
"And the rest?" Chayote turned to Bulma. "I can sense everyone inside. Did something happen?"
"Nothing much. They all got banged up as usual," Bulma waved it off. "I insisted on them using our new and improved medical pods adapted and upgraded from the Frieza Army designs as opposed to eating Senzu. From what I've heard from Piccolo, those are in short supply, with the bunch on Korin Tower being the last ones. We might need to ask the Divine Dragon to make Senzu grow again sometime in the future."
Chayote looked around, scanning her friends, whom she hadn't seen for quite some time. The last things she could remember were the all-encompassing and overwhelming emerald energy that threatened to rip the entire universe apart. She could recall choosing to gamble her own life force to bolster her limited Ki supply to try her best to match Broly's wild power. The thoughts of wanting to see these people and her planet safe stayed with Chayote when she was dormant and encased in stone. Chayote's eyes lingered for a few seconds longer on young Trunks, who noticed it and began pouting.
"Videl made a big deal about you. She said that you were cool and strong. I kind of hoped you'd see reason and blow that Giru up the moment you saw it, but you're just lame and getting tricked by its charms like everyone else…" the boy pouted, crossing his arms.
Chayote closed her eyes, embracing the cold shower of the realization that she might never see the man she fell for ever again while her friend's son's appearance would continue to taunt her about that fact during every big meeting and get-together they'd ever have. It would probably get much harder to bear when the boy got older. Then again, the future version of him had so many mechanical modifications and such a sense of coldness and apathy to him that the two may have only shared a passing resemblance. Looking at Trunks was just a cruel reminder of what Chayote lost, rather than a chance of finding solace in something familiar.
"Since we're doing nothing and waiting around anyway, I'd like to see my son now," Chayote said bluntly, turning away from Trunks entirely. A tad miffed, the boy stumbled behind his mother's rear with a look that betrayed how intimidated he felt by Chayote's cold reaction to his suggestion. It was almost as if she took it personally and got mad at the boy. While Chayote hated inspiring such a reaction, maybe it was better that the boy didn't know the real reason she acted cold toward him. It would just complicate everything again.
"Umm… Sure thing, Chayote-san. I'll take you to Navy right now if you follow me…" Mark Hercule cleared his throat. Given the warm and friendly relationship that the two had living under one roof, Mark and Videl were nowhere near as intimidated by Chayote as anyone who's seen her mad would have.
Navy was in the Capsule Corps atrium with a pair of servants. The maids gasped and jumped back as if someone scolded them with boiling hot water when they saw Chayote. They must have thought that she was dead or something after not having seen her around for so long. One of them scooped Navy out and just handed him to Chayote. As usual, they had to buckle the boy into his carriage to keep him contained. It was weird that Navy didn't use that unruly strength of his to tear himself out more often, though maybe Bulma had something designed to contain Saiyan toddlers with itchy hands to get in trouble, having successfully raised Trunks up to the age where he no longer needed a carriage to get around.
"He's becoming difficult to roll around a carriage with. Just a few weeks ago we caught him flying around and… Well… We couldn't really catch him or pull him out of the air. This atrium is a bit too spacious for that. Thank God we had Videl-san to help us. She's really taken up to the older sister role for little Navy…" Hercule's servant taking care of Navy said, beaming a warm smile at the scene of the thrashing little troublemaker trying to wrestle out of his mother's hold before realizing he kind of liked it and rubbing deeper into her embrace. It only took him a few blinks to get bored with that warmth, and he began yanking on Chayote's hair again.
"He also does that…" the worried servant scratched her head. "That's why some servants have gotten into the habit of wearing motorcycle helmets to handle little Navy, but he needs to see a warm face. It's so good that you're back here, Chayote-san."
"Did he blow up or break anything important?" Chayote wondered with a soft voice while gently cradling her boy in her hands. She could feel her eyes moistening as this moment was all that she could ever think about since the beginning of the entire Broly mess and all of her best petrification dreams were about holding her son again.
"No. He doesn't seem to be out to blow up or break things. I think he just likes the attention of people chasing after him and pulling their hair out over getting him down from places…" A servant shook his head.
"That's okay. I don't intend on letting my eyes off of him down for a second so he'll have plenty of that," Chayote said with a full sense of self-awareness of the fact she most likely will eat those words soon enough when more news of more otherworldly threats or alien invasion will reach them. Still, they fended those aliens off without her. Maybe Chayote didn't need to fight every no-good troublemaker out there and maybe she could once again start working and making money other than what she makes from Satan Security shares. It wouldn't be for the money, just to feel a firm grip of control over her life, some normalcy…
Ever since flopping on her face from the God Temple, Chayote's gone full-local and, honestly, she didn't mind. It wasn't just her. A lot of the crew Vegeta settled on Earth also found their families and jobs and settled in. Vegeta still made them keep up with their training, incorporating some of his own modern Earthling training methods like gravity rooms and essential martial art training but while their bodies grew stronger than they ever would have under Frieza's command, they were nowhere near the mad dogs of war they once were.
Maybe that was just the natural progression of things? Maybe the baton of all this craziness just needed to be passed already?
"Oh, God… What did they do to my baby!?" Bulma grabbed her head, nearly pulling her hair out while her eyes bulged out from her skull and the businesswoman's nervous habit of grinding teeth kicked into overdrive. It was safe to say that the vessel Goku and Gohan returned to Earth on had seen better days. It was the correct thing to say that the ship would go straight into the scrapyard after this and would never fly again, since repairing it would've cost much more than putting a new one together from scrap.
"Yo!" Son Goku exclaimed with a saluting gesture while the father and son appeared in the doorway behind a lowered drawbridge and brought themselves down to the ground level to greet their friends. "Whoa, you guys are here too? What happened?" Goku exclaimed, pointing at Lapis and Lazuli. Lazuli still had a scorched half of her face covered up with the half of her hair that remained brushed onto the other side.
"Someone had to step up to watch over the Earth while you were off having a vacation," Lapis replied with a blank stare back at Goku.
"We had a bit of an alien invasion situation going on. Artificial… I mean Lapis and Lazuli stepped in to help us out and, based on what the others told me, they did the lion's share of the work," Bulma shrugged, tapping Goku's shoulder for a warm greeting.
"Yeah, Puri-san told us that the Machine Mutants invaded the Earth. Is everyone okay? We kind of expected to be in the middle of a battle! We healed up and got ready to go and all…" Gohan looked around, seeing nothing but rested and content faces around. If anything, the two of them were more worked up about the alien invasion than everyone else. Even Lazuli, who still wore some mean battle scars spanning the entire charred half of her face, looked pretty relieved about the situation.
"Wait, Dr. Puri!?" Bulma freaked out. "What happened out there!?"
"Maybe it'll be better if we explain it to you guys over some food. It really wasn't a smart idea for three Saiyans to take off into space on one vessel. We came ready for battle but our food supplies went dry in a snap!" Goku patted his belly with a depressed sigh.
"Wait… Where's Vegeta!?" Bulma ran behind Goku and dashed up the runway to look inside. Goku and Gohan turned around with uncomfortable looks on their faces but neither stepped up to tell Bulma what she was about to find out. Horrified, the president of the Capsule Corps dashed out and gave Goku and Gohan a chilling stare. "Where's Vegeta!?" she yelled out.
"I think I might be able to explain that, Bulma…" Dr. Puri's voice filled the nerve endings of Bulma's spine with hot needles, stiffening the woman up from her neck to her pelvis. The scientist turned around to meet her nemesis eye-to-eye but, fortunately, the women only connected through a screen that transmitted Dr. Puri from another location far off in space. "Don't worry, I didn't violate our agreement. After some recent developments, I'm more than glad to keep my family in space. We've found our own happy place, so to speak. That being said, there is something out there that's threatening both of our families, so I propose we work together to settle this matter and bring your husband home to his family. You may think I'm some horrible, treacherous leech, and I betrayed you all, so you may be right, but… You know me to be empathetic about people's families. Family matters are what started it all and sent us on a collision course."
"Where is my husband!?" Bulma pointed her finger at the screen, prompting Dr. Puri to lean her blue-skinned face farther back into the shade, from where only the reflection of the bright screen from her glasses and the beaming yellow eyes left the auburn-haired scientist visible to those peeking at the massive monitor from outside.