Something didn't feel right with Chayote. Things only began to stink once the God Temple came into view because one couldn't have been sure what they'd see all the way until the end of the road. Besides, until the final stretch, things have been going according to plan. Everyone who could have gotten in Chayote's way was accounted for, nobody who was in the field of battle and was at the risk of being brainwashed knew about the location where Videl and Satan would hide Navy in and those two stayed out of view and concealed their Ki for that exact reason.
That being said, approaching the Korin Tower, Chayote noticed a distinct lack of Yajirobe in sight. She had a vague hint that he got brainwashed with the rest of them since he was in the big Bulma's welcome home party. If Chayote truly was threatening Baby's big bad plan by coming here, one would've thought that his loyal little brainwashed soldiers would lay their bodies down on the line, and yet Yajirobe wasn't here on a big black cloud and a sword in hand.
It wasn't as if Chayote wanted to face him as an obstacle. She had no clear idea exactly how powerful that slob was with his talent for disposing of and eating up demon meat. Still, not seeing the Baby Army trying as hard as they possibly could have gave Chayote a very chill tingle that just wouldn't stop moving up and down her spine. It was the most terrifying and suspicious that victory has ever felt; it occurred to Chayote as she was soaring above the clouds up to God's Temple.
Chayote canceled her flight in mid-air, vaulting over her front and landing with a tap onto the hallowed temple ground. Mr. Popo had been tending to the palm trees and Kami Upa was already waiting for her by the entrance to the temple grounds. By his side was an extremely worried Dende.
"Chayote," Mr. Popo acknowledged Chayote's arrival. "Kami sensed you would be coming. He's ready for you."
With a gentle nod, Chayote walked Mr. Popo by and approached the entryway to the temple. She stopped where the staircase up the platform leading into the temple began and raised a right eyebrow since Kami Upa wasn't reacting to her approaching in any way. Never has she been so on edge about a mere Earthling refusing to move aside for her.
"Squirt, I need to use your Super Holy Water," Chayote said with a defusing tone.
"The Super Holy Water?" Kami Upa leaned his head to the right with a blank look on his face. "Why is that? What do you intend to use it for?"
"I know you need to descend to the Heavenly Sage Realm to use the filtration system and that the only reasons for going there are when Kami are made and when Kami resign. However, I don't intend to use the filtration system. I have other means of dispersing it across the Earth," Chayote explained.
"You didn't answer Kami-sama's question, Chayote-san," Dende spoke up from Kami's side. "Why do you need the Super Holy Water?"
"Because the Earth is in trouble. A terrifying parasite has taken over the minds of anyone able to stop it and the Super Holy Water is the only way of removing it," Chayote replied. For some reason, she just couldn't shake off the feeling like this response was a formality and both of these two knew exactly why she came here.
"I see," Kami Upa closed his eyes and stepped back. "You know, it's awfully rude of you to just come here and ask for my aid when I couldn't get you to help me protect the Earth for so long. For your information, Piccolo and I are working hard to prevent a certain dark omen from coming to pass and here you are coming and asking for help after ignoring my plight for a few years now."
"Sorry 'bout that, little guy, I was a bit petrified for a while…" Chayote tried playing it off lightly just to sweeten the dark foreboding that was soaking the atmosphere. Even if she knew Upa since he was just a little squirt, he's grown considerably and bulked up almost as much as his father had when Chayote trained with them after just having come to Earth. With him sulking, half drowned in the shade like that, he looked like he was plenty threatening to Earth himself.
"I see…" Kami Upa closed his eyes and turned around. With a submissive tuck of his chin, flapping his ragged cloak behind him, Kami Upa vanished into the shade of the temple with Dende stepping aside and politely gesturing for Chayote to follow them inside.
"Please, allow me to guide you to the Super Holy Water," Dende smiled.
This was so sudden that Chayote couldn't help but sigh with a short choke on her own oxygen. These two had Yajirobe and Korin right beneath them. Did Yajirobe truly never come up here and try to slip Baby's parasite inside them? These two seem like two of the most important people for Planet Earth's defense, if Chayote was in Baby's shoes, Kami Upa and Dende would be amongst the first she'd get on her side.
Still lacking trust in each of her successive steps, Chayote slowly made her way forward, letting Dende follow behind her as she tracked Kami Upa's Ki from inside the temple. Back when she trained here for some time, things inside the temple tended to get really trippy. She recalled sensing dozens of different Ki signatures, all with the same general feel. Almost like she could sense the same people across different points in time visiting the temple. Even back when there was no shot for those people to have ever come here to this temple at all. This... This felt… Normal.
Kami Upa ascended an important-looking case of stairs and turned around on the right side, approaching a decorated pipe. Like some common farmer, Kami Upa picked up a jug and placed it on a block that was dripping with leftover water from previous uses and reached for the valve. Chayote wondered if the valve would require some sort of mystical spell or some supernatural amount of force to turn but, apparently, Kami Upa just cranked it open and opened the floodgates on the sweet anti-brainwashing ambrosia.
After the jug began spilling over the top, Kami Upa turned the crank back into place and popped a little cork onto the top of the jug, picking it up and extending it to Chayote. Still expecting either some miracle or something to blow up in her face, Chayote took the jug of water off Kami Upa's hands. Holding it in her hands like that, it almost didn't feel like it was the mystical water that would save the Earth. Then again, pretty much every brand of holy water served on this tower looked, tasted, and worked like ordinary tap water, so how would she know?
"Gee, thanks…" Chayote didn't know what to say now that she held the key to the salvation of her friends and the Earth in the process in her hands.
"It's literally some tap water for us. The charm that makes the water Super Holy is stuck inside the tank. Still, the tap water prices have been going up, so I wouldn't mind you reimbursing me 536 Zeni for this jug. Looking at you, you can definitely afford it," Kami Upa smirked. There he was, the little rascal that Chayote remembered. Seeing him joking around and looking strong and confident despite lacking in the physical strength department still reminded Chayote of old times so much that she couldn't help but drop her guard.
"The only reason you aren't rich is because you don't work with what you got. You've got palm trees watered with holy water. Do you have any idea how much people would pay to drink cocktails out of holy coconuts? Or for being married by the Kami himself? Not to mention the killer real estate here. With magic, everything's bigger on the inside, isn't it? Don't think I forgot you could host the entire human race in here and still have space for more. You could be a real residential mogul one day," Chayote replied, sharing a little cackle with Kami Upa and, in turn, making Dende appreciate something making his doom and gloom boss happy for once. "Well, I better take off. The sooner I stick this in the machine and save the world, the sooner we can all sleep easier. Then I can see what I can do about that dark omen problem of yours…"
"That would be greatly appreciated, Chayote. With your help, I'm sure that we'd get on top of it and save our future," Kami Upa nodded and showed the way out of God's Temple. Unlike previously, this time Kami Upa stepped out into the light and gestured for Chayote to keep walking straight to the edge and past Mr. Popo, who was still tending to the palm trees.
"It's a curious thing, Super Holy Water. Looks and tastes just like ordinary tap water. How would you know if someone handed you just a jug of normal water?" Mr. Popo straightened his back and crossed his arms behind his back with that signature goofy, no-teeth smile of his.
"H-Huh?" Chayote looked down at the jug she was clasping in her hand before widening her gaze in shock and turning to Kami Upa and Dende who stood straight and still with devious expressions that they could only hold for so long before bursting into mean-spirited laughter. "And to think that you used to be my moral compass back in the day. I'm sorry this had to happen to you, kid," Chayote signed.
"Damn that Mr. Popo. Those ancient magical entities are something else. I figured that not even Baby-sama's brilliance could get to him," Kami Upa snickered before reaching for the collar of his cloak and tossing it aside to get carried by the gale as he exposed his bare-chested, chiseled fighting shape. "No matter, Mr. Popo isn't the only one capable of a little bit of magic."
"I don't have the time to fight you, kid. I'm going to need that water though," Chayote stated, boldly staring at Kami Upa removing his twin tomahawks that were crossed behind his back and igniting them with an aura of magical electricity by brandishing them together.
"That's too bad. I guess you need a little incentive. Very well, go ahead, pick up the water, and go on your merry way. However, the moment you turn your back on me, I will use the far-seeing properties of this temple to track your son and let everyone know about his whereabouts. You'll save your friends and keep this backwater rock in the stone age, instead of becoming part of Baby-sama's glorious dominion, like you wanted, but at what price?" Kami Upa cackled with malice oozing from his look and body language. There wasn't a doubt in Chayote's body that he would do exactly that.
"D-Damn it!" Chayote clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, preparing to break every bone in the brainwashed body of her lifelong friend before letting him realize his vengeful plan and put her son in danger. Even if she was wasting precious time and risked having all of Baby's Army rush here to the temple at any time.
The skies above turned black, becoming shrouded by mystical clouds even though God's Temple was far above the cloud level. Divine magic permitted Kami Upa to defy any and all natural laws, it seemed. Crackling, a jolt hit Kami Upa head-on, but instead of shocking him with mystical energy, it made the Earth's corrupted protector become a bolt of magical lightning himself before lashing out toward Chayote.
The defensive Saiyan hopped back, avoiding a quick jab, and then leaned her head back further still to dodge the follow-up hook. Kami Upa bellowed a fearsome battle cry, lunging at Chayote from a knife-fighting distance with both of his tomahawks imbued with magical lightning and overflowing with mystical energy himself. A flurry of chops made Chayote have to rely on evasive dancing to avoid taking damage. She couldn't help but notice one of the brutish one-handed chopping weapons cutting off a strand of her hair as it came dangerously close to her face.
Chayote hadn't had to deal with wholly magical opponents before. From what she could recall, Mr. Popo was completely immune to physical damage because he was a magical djinn. It only made sense that Kami Upa's magical attacks would defy his opponent's toughness as well. No matter how much Chayote swells her energy up, these magical little axes would chop her up all the same if she gave them the chance.
Kami Upa smirked, hooking the two tomahawks by their other ends and swinging one of them with double the length which forced Chayote to nearly sprain her back, stumbling with a hasty evasive attempt. This must have been exactly what Kami Upa was counting on as he unhooked both of his hammers and slammed them down before him, causing the gloomy dark skies to flash with a thick and tunneling magical thunderbolt that left behind a shimmering magical construct–a door.
"You will never see that water. Enjoy your penance, Legendary Super Saiyan!" Kami Upa teased Chayote with a wave goodbye as she tripped over the magical door that slammed in her face. In an instant, Chayote was hundreds of thousands of miles away, high in the sky. Kami Upa sent her much farther than where she was when she started!
"Damn it!" Chayote cursed, exploding with a vibrant green Ki aura that sparkled with electricity as her body bulked up and began tearing up her work clothes. Having been so close to victory and then having the rug pulled from underneath felt so crushing that not even decades of self-restraint could help her keep herself together. Unable to express herself in words alone, Chayote bellowed out an unintelligible, desperate roar that echoed throughout the entire planet, causing vicious earthquakes and accelerating dust storms in the wastelands into turbulent whirlwinds while the seas began getting rowdy.
"Having a bad day, Legendary Super Saiyan?" a familiar voice behind her forced Chayote to shift her attention toward the brainwashed Son Goku. With a bestial roar, bulked up and having entered her Wrathful State without her willful say-so, Chayote charged at him and the two exchanged blows. Unlike before when Goku's attacks reeked of desperation, now the brainwashed Saiyan felt perfectly content just slipping around Chayote and laming her out, putting quick jabs in here and there just to keep her busy.
"You'll pay for turning my boy against me!" Chi-Chi's desperate plight made Chayote turn her attention to the raging mother who flew in from the side and forced Chayote to block her flying kick. Using her impressive skill with Kiai blasts, Chi-Chi let out a resounding red shockwave, amplified by her enraged yell. The issue was that Chayote was just as furious, if not more so. The hysterical Saiyan puffed her chest and released an amplified battle cry as an emerald Kiai shockwave that canceled out Chi-Chi's and then blew her aside.
"Your day's about to get infinitely worse!" Bardock announced, crashing into Chayote with a flying elbow, but Chayote answered it with a headbutt straight at the tip of the elbow. Even when he knew they held all the cards, Bardock's look widened when Chayote snarled through the mean hit with a bleeder on her forehead and then grabbed hold of Bardock's head, flipping him over her and punting him away like a ball of rags.
"I wonder if you're going to give in and tell us where your son is, or if one of us discovers him on their own?" a childish chuckle made Chayote's heart feel as if someone dragged a razor's edge across its surface. She swung a backhand fist and smacked Gohan's Kamehameha aside to then charge right at him and crash his golden energy barrier with a lariat and knock him crashing into the ground down below.
"New Spirit Cultivation Cannon!" Tenshinhan bawled out. Everything around Chayote became too bright to bear, the enraged Saiyan buckled up when an indomitable blast hit her in the back and sent her plunging down underwater. Another one made even the abyssal depths she sank to brighten up as it punched all the oxygen out from Chayote's lungs. A third resonance split the oceans apart and flattened Chayote to the bottom of the deep. At some point, Chayote's head became too loopy to know which blast it was that pelted her deeper and deeper down.
The freezing deep enclosed her again when Tenshinhan stopped firing. Goku, Chi-Chi, Bardock, Gohan, Tenshinhan, Androids 17 and 18, Krillin, Yajirobe, they all positioned around the rowdy shoreline where Tenshinhan's blast left Chayote entombed underneath masses of water. They snickered with malice, imagining their most hated enemy passing out and then drowning. Given how they could still sense some speck of life in her, neither was too worried about Chayote actually dying and making the universe that was rightfully Baby's vanish and undo all their hard work in a snap.
The ocean began bubbling up and a strident nova of emerald light beamed from down below, bursting into a raging pillar that beamed into the heavens and punched through the entire solar system with a beacon of awesome energy. Snarling and shaking with bottomless fury, Chayote slowly emerged from underwater with torn clothes and an expression that truly made the Baby's Army believe that she'd rip them apart limb by limb even if their bodies were those of the friends Chayote wished to save.
"Cut the act," Gohan teased Chayote. "Some of us here have already died and gotten resurrected by the current set of Dragon Balls. You may be overjoyed with this little hissy fit of yours, but there's no chance you'll actually kill all of us."
"Why the sudden change of narrative!?" Chayote snarled through gritted teeth as she swiped her hand and snuffed out the beaming emerald pillar of ground-shaking energy, emerging from the bridge of Ki she ascended from. "I'm a cold and ruthless Legendary Super Saiyan, aren't I? The fabled and feared icon of Saiyan folklore! If just ordinary, bottom-of-the-barrel Saiyans crushed your pitiful species to dirt, just think about what I'm going to do to your stupid empire for pissing me off!"
"S-She's serious, isn't she?" Krillin gasped, staggering back in mid-air.
"Don't let her get the ball rolling!" Tenshinhan clenched his fist, addressing the rest of the crew. "Attack her all at once with everything you've got! She can't plow her way through all of us hitting her at once!"
A cascade of shiny auras of King Kai's Fists and Super Saiyans surrounded Chayote like a destructive ring as all of her friends prepared to overwhelm her with their most powerful attacks.
"New Spirit Cultivation Cannon x 100!" Tenshinhan chanted out with an overclocked body rippled with pulsing veins.
"Best Friends Kamehameha x 100!" Krillin drew his arms back, preparing a bombastic attack of his own with Goku joining him with an additional Super Kamehameha, creating a rowdy sphere of blinding energy that surrounded both friends and created a singular azure nova of energy with a vibrant red and gold outline.
"Super Masenko!" Gohan weaved his hands together on his forehead, creating a shimmering golden energy sphere in his outward-pointing hands.
"Infinity Bullet!" Lapis and Lazuli chanted out together, putting their hands up over their heads and creating two miniature stars of golden radiance over their heads.
"Rebellion Spear!" Bardock channeled a blue energy sphere in one hand before launching it forward in a large energy wave while the rest of the crew unleashed their strident energy blasts too, homing in on Chayote from a distance they couldn't possibly all have missed from.
Just as Chayote was about to encase herself in a bubble of her Ki and charge toward oblivion, something solid and silky-smooth covered her eyes and then wrapped around her body. The shock of it and also the softness that she felt, accompanied by Upa's familiar smell, helped Chayote calm down and slim her body to her usual petite self while the mystical fabric wrapped around her into a roll that protected her from the brunt of the combined blast.
"The magical carpet!?" Chayote exclaimed while burrowing herself out from under the wraps. The flying carpet unraveled from around Chayote just as quickly as it wrapped to protect her from the calamitous combination assault and hurled down to catch Mr. Popo, who was floating down, having inflated his magical body with air to slow his descent. Seeing this, Chayote had just enough common sense to grab the golden-thread fringe of the carpet and let the magical carpet take her for a ride.
"Mr. Popo is glad he got to you in time," Mr. Popo smiled at Chayote. "Mr. Popo got the Super Holy Water for you. Seeing Kami possessed and acting evil was so terrifying, but if you say that the Super Holy Water can help, then Mr. Popo help you."
"Mr. Popo…" Chayote blinked a couple of times, not knowing what to say as she stared with moist eyes at the white jug with a golden star and a sky-blue outline around it in Mr. Popo's hands. "Bring us to Dr. Puri. She's up in space over East City."
"Damn it, don't think we'll just let you get away!" Goku was about to fire a full-power energy wave at the pair riding a magical carpet before Bardock grabbed his wrist and pulled it away.
"Spare the energy. That carpet's magical, so you won't put a scratch on it, no matter how much you power up. Bulma contacted me, it's time. Soon, Baby-sama will be here to oversee business personally. Nothing is more important than that!" Bardock said, leaving the assembled crew of brainwashed martial artists to laugh and see Chayote and Mr. Popo desperately taking off in a mad rush toward the Luud Star up in the cosmos above Planet Earth.
Even a journey as far as to the moon would have only taken the magical carpet a blink, so holding her breath and keeping herself together in space for a few moments won't be too much of a problem for Chayote. What matters is that they've got the Super Holy Water now. Just as it seemed like everything couldn't get any worse, things began looking up again.
Meanwhile, Chayote and Mr. Popo were blitzing far too fast on their magical carpet ride to notice the Capsule Corps Star pieces taking off from their stations around the world and assembling in outer space to connect to a singular whole again. Even if they could see the Capsule Corps Star parts getting into position, all they could afford to worry about right now was to filter and spread that Super Holy Water out into the atmosphere and liberate all their friends from brainwashing.