Lazuli almost expected to be stopped at some point while floating above all these tropical islands. Then again, if her brother wanted to be found, he'd not have taken this gig working as a ranger on some island hosting monsters and treating them like endangered animals. Regardless of her confusion about floating over dozens of nearby islands that all looked identical to the ones that came before, following her data readings, Lazuli finally found a place that seemed to have gone through a thorough scorching.
Looking around and noting both the horrendous calamity that befell this place, but also at the visible efforts to restore it to the grandeur of the heavenly islands Lazuli just flew over, the Artificial Human homed in on the sight of a crouched, black-haired ranger, tending to a massive wooden structure while another ranger, a broad-shouldered woman with a shotgun on her lap, sat on a swing chair. The woman's arm and leg were bandaged and placed in a cast and she was covered with bruises all over, suggesting a potential reason she couldn't help Lapis with his ambitious carpentry project.
"Hmm… So it's true," Lazuli said after landing behind her brother's back and running her hand through her hair to settle it back into place neatly. "Your job actually softened you up and set you straight."
"You, of course, knew that," Lapis sighed and closed his eyes, putting the massive wooden frame down and patting his gloves off the layers of sawdust and countless splinters on them. "I was at your wedding. How's Krillin doing these days?"
"One thing is to hear it - another one is to see it. Krillin's, of course, working hard to fix the mess you cooked up by letting that thing live," Lazuli crossed her arms, addressing her brother with an accusatory and grumpy tone.
"I thought you would turn around and go back the way you came after wandering around for a while. Somehow, you were always the one to grow bored with something that didn't please you quicker than even me," Lapis took his carpentry gloves off and folded them over his project. Pirita looked uneasy in her chair, wondering if she should aim her shotgun or not. She'd have given this invader a piece of her mind, had she not looked so uncannily similar to Lapis.
"I guess growing up has made both of us more patient," Lazuli crossed her arms, pouting at her brother. "Are you going to introduce me to your keeper or not?"
"Pirita-san, this woman is Lazuli. She's my sister. The one that got married before this whole Cell mess," Lapis turned to Pirita, making the woman breathe out easier and relax her tight grip around the shotgun.
"You seem to be confused by our relationship. Lapis-san is my employee. I will admit, I've been hoarding him a lot, because of how indispensable he's proven to be. His strength is unbelievable, he works harder than anyone I've ever met, yet what is the most incredible about him is the fact that he truly seems to love all monstrous things," Pirita stood up, despite her precarious broken leg situation, and bowed, despite her injuries. Lazuli's gaze softened upon seeing the hardy woman power through a severe amount of physical pain for the sake of courtesy. Not unlike her foolish younger twin brother, she too seemed to care about Lazuli more than just out of sheer courtesy. Having been accustomed to the life of an office lady at an insurance firm, Lazuli knew better than anyone about how easily inconveniences were being excused by the pettiest of reasons in the professional world. The only reason Pirita pushed through was because she truly felt glad to meet Lazuli.
"Yes, perhaps he loves them a bit too much, which is how we got ourselves into our current predicament," Lazuli pressed her hands on her hips, turning to Lapis.
"And here I hoped you'd get bored with this silly idea to scold my ears off, turn around, and go home to your husband," Lapis rolled his eyes.
"Is that why you didn't greet me and accompany me here?" Lazuli raised her eyebrow.
"No, I didn't greet you because I've already said my case to everyone caring to listen–I'm not getting involved in your fighting. I've got my own little corner and my own family to care for. I'm not looking for the Ultimate Dragon Balls, and I'm not fighting Cell, or whoever is the bad guy of the day this time," Lapis stood his ground.
"You took Cell in, you convinced Piccolo to give him a chance. You should have known he'd end up this way, after all, he's…" Lazuli gnashed her teeth, restraining herself from slapping her silly younger brother.
"A monster?" Lapis raised his eyebrow. "What makes Cell a monster, sister? Is it the circumstances of its birth? From where I'm standing, it's not too different from you or me. Just like the two of us, Cell comes from Dr. Puri's lab. It has every right to be given the chance we were given–to be better, to make something of its life. Besides, in case you haven't noticed–caring for monsters is kind of what I do now."
"Hmph… I get it, I get it…" Lazuli ran her hand across her hair, sifting through them. "It's like one of your games. When you get obsessed with it, no one's going to change your mind."
"It's not just a game," Pirita spoke up, settling down in her chair. "Lapis cares about these creatures because he sees himself in them. Some part of him still blames himself for the crimes of his past. He wants the reassurance, to see these wild and uncontrollable, destructive beasts settle down and make an honest living, because if they can do that, so can he."
Lapis sighed, dipping his head down and letting his dark hair cover his embarrassed look. He looked as if he'd rather see his boss sit quietly, but it wasn't like he could stop her. Lazuli's gaze softened some more. Back in the day, her brother would've killed someone on the spot if they said something he didn't like. She'd have done the same, in fact, she was probably much easier to set off. In any case, whatever he's built here, working for that woman, must have been special for him. Her silly little brother would do anything to protect it.
"Cell's got the Ultimate Dragon Balls. All of them but one," Lazuli reported the news that Lapis was oblivious to. "It's also become more machine, more computer program than a monster. It fucked off, doing whatever it cares to do, but it promised to challenge the Earth's fighters willing to fight for it to a game of some sort for the Ultimate Dragon Balls."
"I thought I already told Piccolo this–I couldn't care less if the Earth is destroyed. If the world ends–it means that it is time for it to end. With how much greed went into designing and abusing those magical wish-granting orbs, it'd only be a fair comeuppance. If anyone deserves to pay for their misdeeds against their home, it's the Earthlings," Lapis stuffed his hands inside his pockets. "You can go home now."
"Lapis!" Pirita scolded her employee, earning a puppy-like bend of his head backward to glare at her, as if asking his boss to explain what he did wrong. "Where are your manners? This is your sister! Ma'am, please, this cabin has only been fully repaired recently, but we'd love to arrange for you to stay for a few days after flying here all this way from the continent. I'd love to treat you to some chestnut tea if you'd like."
"Forget it," Lapis shrugged, tucking his chin down as if just being a little embarrassed by his behavior. "My sister's spoiled to the core. She's all about the comfortable city life, fancy clothes, and expensive, processed food."
"If the planet really is ending, like she said, don't you think it would be for the best if she got to experience the serenity of this place like you have?" Pirita smiled, raising her eyebrows with an inquisitive tease aimed at her star employee.
"Perhaps a change of pace is for the best?" Lazuli crossed her arms and turned to the side, shutting herself off while pouting her lips in a reluctant admission. "I've coasted along with the strength and eternal youth granted to me by that old hag. But you've grown much stronger, strong enough to earn Cell's respect and even rival Piccolo, am I wrong?"
"The reason I'm such an invaluable employee for Pirita-san is because of my limitless stamina. It allows me to work throughout the day, but also to train as much as I want. By simply training hard, just like the others, I can achieve much greater results, simply by never getting tired. It's a key to Herculean strength and speed. In fact, if I were solely devoted to training, instead of working, I'd have become even stronger," Lapis explained.
"Then help me train!" Lazuli insisted, stepping up and breaking out from her shell. The intrusive step of his sister and the sudden shift surprised even the usually cool and reserved Lapis, who stepped back with moderate surprise in his face. "Krillin says that training with someone else is at least five times more effective than training by yourself. Let's train and together when you're not working. Let's become strong enough to prevent the end of the world. Don't tell me you don't want to beat some sense into Cell and put him back on this island of yours. Don't tell me you've given up on Cell, given up on yourself, just because Cell escaped and broke badly!"
"For the record, I'm not paying you for your time here," Pirita raised a finger with a cheerful smile while sipping on her chestnut tea.
"Fine, it will be my vacation then," Lazuli rolled her eyes.
"Would Cell even listen to us?" Lapis looked away, his eyes were gloomy and floaty, focused on dour daydreams.
"We'll make Cell listen!" Lazuli insisted. "We'll beat it up and show it the way! I don't care if we kill it or if it agrees to play nice on your Monster Island, I'm not letting Cell hurt my family and my home, and I'm definitely not getting caught unprepared again!"
"Fine," Lapis sighed, deflating in submission after shifting his sights between his boss and his older sister. "Get yourself a chair and treat yourself to some tea. I'll be with you when I finish this were-koala house.
Content with how this little family reunion went, Lazuli nodded and went inside the ranger cabin to find herself a chair and join Pirita for some girly gabbing over nuts and raisin cookies and chestnut tea while Lapis worked on his monster house. While, despite Cell's insistence on calling her his older sister, Lazuli felt no familial attachment to the monster from a different timeline, she'd play ball and let Lapis watch Cell over on the Monster Island instead of destroying it, if need be.
One thing was for certain: Cell caught Lazuli slacking and complacent with her uneventful family life. It won't happen again. Lapis and Lazuli would knock some sense into them, the way only older siblings could, when the time came.
Lazuli charged ahead in her fighting stance. Her face carried a serious expression. The severity with which she approached the task of training caught Lapis a bit off guard. That was why he couldn't blitz and interrupt her from the get-go. Regardless, when the Artificial Human dashed up to her brother, Lapis met her with a push kick to her ankles, canceling the momentum of her lower body while inertia kept Lazuli's upper body moving.
With Lazuli soaring weightless and without control over her body, Lapis nonchalantly stuffed his elbow into her chest, stunning his sister in place and completely shutting her down for a few precious seconds. The tenacious elbow butt made the gale howl and rattle the trees, shooting a hole through the massive cloud formation lingering above the island. When the concussive force tunnel swept Lazuli flying, Lapis hopped after her with a serene expression.
The Monster Island ranger became an emerald thunderbolt, roaring into the sky in a split instant and whipping Lazuli's body into an uncontrollable spin with a lashing kick. A flurry of nonchalant jabs made it impossible for Lazuli to mount any sort of counteroffensive. When she did, Lapis slipped under her haymaker and positioned himself horizontally beneath his sister, pushing a rowdy vertical kick into her gut. With his arms by his sides, Lapis erupted with a crystal-clear aura and shot upward in a flying dash up, slamming his forehead against Lazuli's and rocking her back before positioning his hand in front of Lazuli's face.
Lazuli screamed out in pain as Lapis' Kiai burst pushed her down. Lazuli slammed into the ground with a rowdy boom and burrowed in a deep ridge, uprooting a whole grove worth of pine trees while Lapis lowered himself to ground level with his hands in his pockets. A vocal battle cry didn't disturb Lapis' peace for a second, as he leaned aside, avoiding Lazuli's flying smash, and kicked her into the air again, spinning round and round while delivering a combination of spinning head kicks.
After Lazuli shot into the air with a sharp howl that would've deafened any normal person listening to it, Lapis curled into a ball and vanished with high-speed movement. The Artificial Human positioned himself directly above where his sister appeared, aiming his arms down and unleashing a golden downpour of Ki blasts that blew Lazuli back down and crumbled the entire remote island they were sparring in underwater.
"Now look what happened. You need to fight back to take some of the destructive load off the environment. Just because I chose this island for how remote and desolate it is doesn't mean that the plants here deserved to drown in the bottom of the ocean," Lapis ran his hand across his hair, slightly perturbed. "Did you even train at all during those years?"
Lapis quickly pulled his hand from sifting through his hair and adopted a fighting stance, feeling a jolt of terror wash down his body. His eyes trembled for a second when the rumbling dust cloud parted around Lazuli, torn-up, bruised, and slightly bloodied, shimmering with a misty-pink aura and sneering at him with her signature defiance of rules and decency.
"Overdrive!" Lazuli yelled out, charging at Lapis and bringing the battle to him. The surprised Lapis raised his arms and erected a wall of green barriers around him, built from Ki produced by his Infinite Ki Reactor, only for Lazuli to smash through them like panels of float glass. The Android's punch dug into Lapis' jaw, rocking him back before Lazuli tripped him up with a kick to his shins, then kicked in the side of Lapis' arm, then straight to his gut, knocking the stupefied Lapis flying away from sight, bouncing off the ocean surface like a skipping pebble.
Clutching her chest, Lazuli hunched over, narrowly avoiding collapsing underwater while panting and sneering at her sparring partner with blurry vision. Looking ticked off, Lapis quickly soared back into position. After noticing his sister was short on breath, the Monster Island ranger sighed and stood down.
"That's an interesting trick. I've not seen it before," Lapis admitted, pulling his hair behind his ear with a smirk and wiping the bruising on his cheek from Lazuli's punch. "Though it's kind of antithetical to our fighting style. We beat our opponents through outlasting them, not through sheer explosive power that then melts down our Infinite Ki Reactor for a while."
"We… Need to keep training…" Lazuli huffed out through severe strain on her body.
"Nah," Lapis waved it off. "I'd say we call it an evening. Your Overdrive is interesting, but it kind of ruins the fun of never running out of stamina. If you're going to use it, there's really no use in us training together. You should stop relying on it while we're training here."
"Then how do you suggest I keep up with you?" Lazuli beamed a hurt stare back at her brother. When they were growing up, there were moments when Lazuli noticed the difference between them. While they were growing up, there were times when Lapis could run faster, and for longer, he could carry things Lazuli deemed absurdly heavy. It was just natural, though Lazuli made herself think it didn't affect her. She may have been inherently weaker because she was a girl, but that was because she was meant for better things. Cute clothes, sweet treats, and having men wanting her favor do all the work.
Now… Now it strangely got to her. Now that Lazuli wanted nothing more than to be strong enough to be able to protect her family. To take some pressure off Krillin's shoulders and pull her own weight for once, being so much weaker nearly made Lazuli's eyes tear up.
"Simple, you just work hard and stop complaining," Lapis shrugged. "I'm stepping out of my comfort zone, leaving important work unfinished so that I can protect the same greedy and abhorrent people who smother out the beauty of nature and hurt innocent animals for sport. The least you could do is step out of yours."
Lazuli turned her head down and away, swallowing a bitter gulp before flying off with her brother back to Monster Island to find Lazuli some of Pirita's clothes to wear and call it an evening tonight.
"Launch…" Bardock stared at his trembling hand, standing on some planetoid in deep space with a thin atmosphere and staring at a humongous incoming asteroid. Clenching his teeth, the Saiyan berserker burst with a golden aura and turned Super Saiyan, blasting off-world and firing stray Ki blasts at the giant asteroid ring surrounding the planet, blowing them up with each blast.
Despite wanting to help, all that Bardock's presence did was put Launch in danger. Moreover, just like it was with Gine, Bardock was too weak to pull through a kick his enemy's ass again, despite that being the only thing he considered himself good for. Even though he protected Launch in the end, with the help of that scarred Earthling, being unable to help Launch pissed Bardock off to no end. At least he had plenty of derelict celestial bodies to redirect his stress toward.
"When this is done, when Cell's a pile of ashes, I promise, Launch!" Bardock thought to himself, going wild and blowing up one asteroid after another until the entire asteroid belt became nothing but sparkling golden novae. "No matter what it takes, whether it be by using the Earth Dragon Balls, or the black-star ones… I'll split you two up and let you live your own life for once!"
Tightening the old and tattered bandana around his head, Bardock looked back at the trail of cinders left in the wake of his destructive outburst, snuffing out his Super Saiyan light and landing on the same abandoned planet he previously brooded on.
"If you know what's best for you, you'll stay as far away from a blunt hammer of a bum like me, but either way… That's your choice to make when you're your own person," Bardock stared at his fist, clenching and shaking in tension.