A loud and truly irritating noise, comparable to a low-pitched shredder grinding through a stack of cardboard sheets, made Yamcha's eyes flutter and slowly open. The unexpected recovery revealed to him the blurry image of a short and thick of stature swordsman with a rough stubble leaning over him and waving his hand that could have wrapped around the entire head of most people.
"Ey!" Yajirobe croaked, outright yelling despite being close enough to sit on Yamcha's chest. "I don't have all day 'ere! Wake up!"
"Ugh… What's going on?" Yamcha grunted, stroking his face and struggling with the pain that resonated through his entire body. Pain that he couldn't quite explain. The last thing he remembered clearly was the big Bulma's coming home party, though he had vague and quite painful memories that came and went like a blur and felt almost as if they were spiky and stung to roll them through the cerebral processor. "Is that… Nam?!" Yamcha gasped before wincing and clutching his chest again after seeing the seated desert martial artist in front of him.
"You seem to have recovered. Good. That means that Chayote was successful in her mission," Nam closed his eyes with a look of cool content. He didn't look too good either, decorated with bruises and shiners. This only gave more credit to the searing flashes that Yamcha could pick up in his head that he was fighting Nam, for some reason, not too long ago.
"Come on, I'm gonna repay dat favor I owe ya from all dat time ago! After this piggyback ride up the Korin Tower for some Senzu, we're through, you hear me?" Yajirobe crossed his arms out over his chest.
"The Korin Tower? Senzu would be great right about now. What about Nam though? Can't we give him a ride?" Yamcha tried standing up but to no avail. It seemed like Yajirobe truly would have to piggyback him onto the Dark Kinto.
"Hmm… Let's see if ya'll fit, chump…" Yajirobe grumbled, picking Nam up with both hands and carrying him to the Dark Kinto, confusing Nam greatly. Despite his confusion, the gentle desert warrior allowed the chubby ronin to manhandle him since he was in no condition to resist him or to walk all the way back on his own. "Dere ya go!" Yajirobe exclaimed, flinging Nam over only for the martial artist to slip right through and slam on the ground with his hip. "Nope, can't be done!" Yajirobe shrugged and returned to Yamcha.
"Don't give up that easily!" Yamcha scolded his friend. "Nam must be actually pure-hearted, so he can't ride the Dark Kinto, but he might still be able to ride the ordinary Kinto!"
"Well, neither me nor you can ride da ordinary Kinto…" Yajirobe squinted, crossing his arms. "Fine," he gave up and slipped his hand into the inner pocket of his robe. "I guess we're taking the hover car. It'll take forever to drive in a car though…"
"That's okay, I've got nowhere to be and I know for a fact you don't have anywhere to be either," Yamcha crossed his arms and looked away, disgusted by the rude behavior of his friend toward someone who both knew a lot more than the two of them and someone who was an old-time acquaintance and a kind-hearted warrior soul. "What's going on, anyway? Nam, you said something earlier about me being okay and Chayote succeeding with something. What were you talking about?"
"It sounds like it will be a long road so I will explain on our way," Nam suggested while Yajirobe once again manhandled him like a baby and gently flopped him onto the back seat, tying the safety belt and tapping Nam's shoulders before leaving to pick Yamcha up and put him on the front passenger seat.
"Whaaa!" Goku's shrill yell accompanied the majestic cerulean sky beam that reassembled him back to the Earth's surface in some sandy wasteland. The Saiyan looked up and saw similar shimmering sky lasers vanishing into faraway locations. In one of them, he could sense a puny Ki signature, whereas some others had some familiar signatures to him.
Usually, Goku wasn't someone who was on top of what was going on, but now he felt especially lost. The last thing he could remember clearly was him being on the ship and looking for Vegeta. The Saiyan winced in pain and smacked his forehead to alleviate the undue pressure when his still hazy mind wandered into some abandoned memories that felt painful to confront. Almost like having one's brain carved like a pumpkin. In times like these, Goku relied on his friends to make sense of things and help him stay in the loop, so he took off toward the nearest Ki signature.
It wasn't too surprising that the Ki signatures began moving toward a single location–where Bulma's Ki signature was. It was smart since Bulma couldn't track Ki. They were fortunate that Bulma was close enough and wasn't surrounded by masses of people so that it wasn't troublesome singling out her Ki signature at all. By the time Goku arrived, pretty much everyone was already there.
"Goku!" Krillin waved at his friend. "Man, it's sure great to have you around. We've no clue what's going on and whenever I try to remember something, it hurts like hell!"
"You too, huh?" Goku pouted, crossing his arms and legs in discontent.
"I spoke to Chayote and Dr. Puri before Planet M-2 hijacked the Capsule Corps Star. They told me I caught some space parasite from someone called Baby. Since we share our symptoms, I bet that you all had it too," Bulma sank deep in thought, stroking her chin as she paced back and forth.
"The Capsule Corps Star? Wasn't that thing blown up by Broly?" Bardock turned to Bulma, only now becoming interested.
"Apparently, that parasite compelled me to use all the resources available to me to rebuild it. I see that I still haven't fully figured out how to make the Capsule Corps Star obey me or that the brainwashed me specifically designed it to have control over it easy to hand away. I must have used the transportation beam to bring Planet M-2 into Earth's orbit, for some reason, then, after Planet M-2 and Baby took over the Capsule Corps Star, they beamed us all over to Earth," Bulma patched the story together from miniature details here and there.
"I wonder why'd he do that…" Bardock growled, looking up into the sky where three whole artificial cybernetic moons were levitating around shrunken down to the smallest form they could take. "If this Baby is some dirtbag looking to cause harm, he could've beamed us into the middle of the nearest black hole. In our current woozy state, we might not be strong enough to tear our way out of that predicament, and Bulma would've been dead for sure."
"Chayote and Puri implied Baby was still possessing Vegeta's body," Bulma looked up to where Planet M-2 and the rebuilt and vacated Capsule Corps Star orbited around one another with full rotations while both of them also hovered around the Earth's atmosphere and orbited around it. "Maybe some part of Vegeta won't let him kill us?"
"That's unlikely. Vegeta isn't someone who has ever cared about anyone other than himself," Bardock spat to the side and looked up to the accursed cybernetic stars that have caused Earth way too many problems to let them stick around.
"You don't know Vegeta very well then," Bulma snapped back at Bardock, approaching him with her hands on her hips and beaming a scorned stare at the augmented Saiyan berserker. "Sure, he's full of Saiyan macho bullshit, but deep down, he cares a lot about his family and… Probably even you lot to an extent!"
Tenshinhan grunted in pain and wrapped both his hands around his head, staggering back as he had forced his way far too deep into the forbidden memories in a desperate attempt to understand what had happened. Gohan approached the three-eyed martial artist from behind and gently pressed his hand to Tenshinhan's back.
"Please, be careful, Tenshinhan-san. It might not be a good idea to force it. I'm sure that the memories will come back eventually," Gohan tried softly to console his elder before Tenshinhan straightened his back and turned to Goku with a strict and focused stare that lingered on the baffled Saiyan long enough to make him feel uncomfortable. Just as Goku was about to say something, Tenshinhan scowled and turned his head toward Planet M-2.
"Don't pry into your own memories, just read each other's," Tenshinhan advised the group before lightly elevating off the ground with a clear intent of dashing off toward the sky-bound cybernetic planetoid.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Bulma yelled out. "We need to understand what's going on better, regroup at Capsule Corps, and find out what Baby is up to before attacking him head-on!"
"I apologize, but I have already told you all long ago that I'm removed from your Dragon Team. I live a life of only teaching martial arts and practicing it for my betterment. Despite all that, Baby used his parasites to possess me and my students and cause harm by puppeteering our bodies. He made me hurt my students and force his parasites onto them. As a martial artist, I won't stand for it. Whatever his plans are, I'll use my fists to show him the error of his ways," Tenshinhan proclaimed and took off.
"Jeez…" Bulma collapsed and sifted through her hair. "What if he actually hurts Vegeta's body? Vegeta's already been brought back by the Dragon Balls…" she wept.
"Can't say I blame him," Goku leaned his head back over his arms with dreamy eyes following Tenshinhan on his mad charge toward the cluster of cybernetic planetoids to challenge Baby and make him pay for his transgression. "This Baby guy caused us so much trouble already with his Dustin Gas and his parasites and the invasion of those Machine Mutants. I kind of just wanna beat him up and be done with it myself, honestly. The thought of taking on amped-up Vegeta is giving me some shivers too. I'm not too sure I could take him on right now."
"Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind taking a good swing at Vegeta. I won't lie that the idea of having a good excuse for punching him in the face doesn't sound pleasing," Bardock sighed, looking up at the orbiting cybernetic planetoids.
"You're all talking about attacking my husband here!" Bulma objected, running out in front of the two knuckleheads and shaking her hands to draw their attention from the alluring sight of M-2 and the Capsule Corps Star.
"What do you think, Gohan?" Goku turned to his son with a cheerful smirk. "Are we going to take a swing at Vegeta and knock some sense into him?"
"Sorry," Gohan shook his head after looking up at the sky and seeing a bright star shooting through the skyline toward a location far to the northeast of them. "I'd like to check up on Videl-san. From what I recall, Chayote-san tasked Videl-san to protect Navy with Satan… Mmm… Hercule-san. I can sense Chayote-san's energy in that shimmering object up in the sky, so she must be headed to the safe house right now. If we follow her Ki signature, we'll regroup with them in no time."
"Maybe we can help?" Krillin raised his hand before Lazuli grabbed him by the collar and dragged him behind her like a barking puppy.
"If we run head-first into that Baby-possessed Vegeta and fight him, what's in it for us? What's Bulma going to pay us?" Lazuli squinted while Krillin tried leaning out from his fiance's shadow from behind her back, looking thoroughly emasculated.
"Nothing!" Bulma growled, pulling her hair. "I told you already–I will not support any of you trying to kill a parasite that's hosted in my husband's body! It's clear that Chayote somehow removed the parasites from our bodies, so there has to be a way to remove it from Vegeta's! I'll second Gohan's plan of regrouping with Chayote. In fact, if you attack Vegeta, I'll blacklist you from paying you a dime ever again!"
"In that case, we're out," Lazuli crossed her arms and turned away. She then looked down at Krillin, who was just about to reason with her. "We've taken some mean bumps duking it out with that airhead brother of mine. Krillin used his cloning technique and took a bruising. If we are to fight anyone, we'll need to rest up first."
"Well…" Krillin sighed, feeling crushed that his fiancé had made a decision completely ignoring him, even if it was a decision that sounded like the most reasonable, given what he knows and feels right now. "I won't lie, I felt pretty beat. I could use some rest to build my stamina up and some time to lick my wounds before I take a swing at someone who's surpassed the power of a Super Saiyan."
"Hmph. You can count me out too. I've got a job to attend to and an island full of unique beasts to attend to. If this Baby steps out of line and threatens the green or the animals of this planet, whether he's in Vegeta's body or Goku's, I'm taking him down but I'll be doing so as a Monster Island Ranger, not one of your Dragon Team brawlers," Lapis declared. "Now that my sister is safe, I've got no more business with you."
Just like that, Krillin, Lazuli, and Lapis took off. Lapis headed toward the Monster Island he ended up abandoning for almost an entire workday, whereas Krillin and Lazuli took off to their home in East City.
"Well, I guess there aren't too many reasons to go off chasing after Vegeta right now," Goku sighed, crossing his arms with a sigh.
"Of course, there aren't!" Chi-Chi objected, stepping up to Goku's face and standing up on her toes to glare right into her husband's eyes to signal she meant business. "Don't you realize that we've left our poor baby Goten home alone while we got ourselves possessed and ran off doing that Baby's bidding? I don't mind pounding him good for it, but we can do this after we check up on our baby first!"
"That's a great point," Goku pointed out with a goofy chuckle. "I completely forgot about Goten, to be honest, and it hurts too much to delve into my memories to check if we made sure he was safe. Wait a second…"
Chi-Chi's look softened when Goku became more serious and gently pressed his middle and index fingers to her forehead as if feeling for heat. After a couple of seconds, he pulled his fingers away and rubbed the tip of his itchy nose with a silly smirk.
"It's okay, we left him with your dad without telling him a damn thing about our Baby parasite business," he chuckled, obviously feeling a tad guilty about this entire situation but, in true Goku fashion, not beating himself up too bad about it.
"Well, in that case, we'll pick him up and explain everything to him!" Chi-Chi turned away, looking rather insistent on it.
"Sorry, Dad. This kind of takes precedence…" Goku snickered with a look at Bardock. The older Saiyan turned away with a grumpy look and waved it off.
"Don't beat yourself too bad about it. I've got a really troublesome situation waiting for me at home too. I think my corrupted self hooked up with Launch and infected her while we were doing Baby's bidding. As much as I want to stomp Vegeta's face in for this, I kind of feel like I need to set things straight with her first," Bardock replied, causing a great deal of shock to the surrounding spectators that heard his proclamation.
"W-Wait… You hooked up!? With Launch!?" Goku gasped.
"Wait… Which one?" Bulma pondered. "Does each Launch have her own preference and is your hook-up okay with the other one, in that case? It's such a problematic relationship…"
"It is, though it's scummy of all of you to pretend to care right now. After all those years, you've ignored her condition when you have seven magical orbs that can fulfill any wish, that is," Bardock grumbled. "In any case, I've got to check up on her."
Without explaining himself any further, Bardock blasted off, heading toward the Son Family Home near Mt. Paozu, where he resided in an old wooden cabin near Grandpa Gohan's old home. That was where Bardock thought he last left Launch, though he only caught glimpses of his painful Baby corruption memories, so he assumed there'll be plenty of covering of tracks.
"Well then," Bulma shook her head in frustration. "I'm tagging along with Gohan-kun to meet Chayote. I need to find out how she got Baby out of all of us and if that same method can work on getting Baby out of Vegeta."
"Do you need me to lift you?" Gohan wondered before Bulma chortled at the idea and pulled out her capsule case from the pocket of her jacket.
"Yeah, right, and get bugs all over me coming at me at supersonic speed? I think I'd rather take a jet, thank you," Bulma replied, popping a hover jet with a Capsule Corps logo into being.
"Alright, mom, dad… I'm going. Say hi to grandpa and my little brother for me!" Gohan waved Goku and Chi-Chi goodbye before taking off with Bulma, lighting up the engine and shooting off right after him soon enough.
"Our little boy's grown so independent. He'd rather check up on that girl than go home with his family and check up on his little brother," Chi-Chi lamented.
"But you ran off from your father to train with me to fight against Piccolo Jr. when you were younger too," Goku pointed out, looking confused by the double standards and Chi-Chi's forgetfulness.
"What does "when you were younger" mean, exactly!?" Chi-Chi clenched her fists and prepared to check up on how well Goku's motor skills post-Baby possession worked with a good sparring session.
"Yikes!" Goku jumped up and flew off, only for Chi-Chi to chase immediately after.
While nothing was normal with the Dragon Team, things returned to as close to the usual abnormality as they usually were. In all ways but the trio of massive cybernetic planetoids hovering in the atmosphere but only Tenshinhan who felt scorned and insulted by what Baby made him do under possession took it as an immediate priority.