Gine felt like she was in bliss. For the past year, her family was whole. She had her mate, she had her two sons, and one of her sons even found himself a wife and had a son of his own.
"Are you sleepy? Little Gohan?" She held the infant in her arms, marveling at his softness. As opposed to Saiyans who were placed in medical pods to continue gestation for 3 years, human culture had no such technology, so their children were extremely vulnerable for a long time. Despite that, there were advantages, at least emotionally in her opinion. For one, babies were adorable.
"Mother-in-law. Dinner is ready!" Gine turned to the voice and smiled warmly at the woman before her. As a human, Chi-Chi was much different when compared to an average Saiyan woman, she could be soft, reserved, and kind in ways publicly no Saiyan would normally allow themselves to be portrayed as. Despite such traits, Chi-Chi was also powerful, stronger than most Saiyans Gine knew of, and had a fierce personality that yielded to no one.
"Thank you, Chi-Chi!" Gine continued to gently cradle her grandson, Gohan, smiling as the baby's eyes, which had been like saucer plates just minutes before after drinking a bottle of milk and being burped, became like crescent slits as he began to drift into sleep.
Chi-Chi smiled at the image. She lost her mother at a young age, and while her father loved and protected her, it was nice having an older woman in the home again, even one as unique as Gine. Gine gently placed Gohan in his bed and followed Chi-Chi into the dining room. It was just the two of them today, so Chi-Chi did not have to work too hard.
"You're such a good cook." Gine sighed, "And thought I was a good chef back on Vegeta."
Chi-Chi giggled, "I can teach you, you know."
Gine smiled, "As much as I'd like to learn, I don't want to take from your busy schedule." Chi-Chi held herself to a very strict schedule, for the first 6 months after Gohan was born, she rarely left her baby's side except to sometimes use the restroom, she slept when her baby slept, ate when feeding the child, and would dutifully change his diapers. Eventually, as the baby became stronger, she was willing, after some words from the Ox King, to allow others to help with the baby. Gine was the first to volunteer, she did not have any real experience child-rearing in such a hands-on way, but she was willing to learn and help. The thing that surprised her the most even now was just how much poop a baby could produce from only drinking milk. Chi-Chi, meanwhile, whenever Gine or her father would take over, would train.
"I'm not too busy, the next time my father helps out with Gohan, you can help me out in the kitchen." Chi-Chi smiled.
Gine nodded, "All alright. Also, if ever you are free…" She looked a bit apprehensive. "May I train with you?" Gine was the weakest of the Saiyans on Earth, due to both her soft nature before coming to the planet and her years of imprisonment, she couldn't sense energy, but she could see from the musculature and countenance of her fellow Saiyans just how powerful they were, the way at which they flew, appearing almost instantly in front of her just a year ago still boggled her mind. However, she also knew that how they gained strength in leaps and bounds was something that threatened the humans they lived with. It did not help that except for Toma, Bardock, and Selypa, the other Saiyans still maintained a level of hostility towards the humans, with even Raditz not even tolerating being in the same space as Kakarot unless Gine demanded it. She had hesitated to ask to train because she could see how much stress the humans, except for that one redhead, Jazz, seemed to be under when dealing with Saiyans.
Chi-Chi grinned, "I didn't know when you would ask, I would love to train with you."
Gine sighed in relief. "That is kind of you, I was worried you would say no."
"But why? You know what it's like to lose access to your loved ones, I would never take away the chance for you to protect who you love."
"Is that why you train?" Gine asked. "To protect who you love?"
Chi-Chi paused for a few seconds, before speaking. "I want my son to have a happy life. I've been to big cities before, and despite how strong I am, I feel small." She grinned, "Fighting Goku's lot, and I trust him, but when I imagine my baby one day having to go through that…" Her smile dropped, "I get scared."
Gine looked on and placed a hand on Chi-Chi's.
"I want to support my child, no matter what he chooses to do in life, but if the world, if space, is already so dangerous, I want to be strong enough to protect my baby."
Gine nodded, "I understand, thank you for telling me." She resolved to herself that she would protect her family, smiling warmly at the joy of her family increasing by 3 over this year.
…
"What do you mean? King Yemma said no?!" Jazz shouted in surprise as he saw Kami's reticent face.
"I mean exactly as I said." Kami sighed, "I spoke to him, and he told me that he did not care about Frieza, but that he did not want any living beings in the other world, especially where he waited for souls to be judged."
Jazz ran his hand through his hair messily. He had been preparing for this moment. He knew that if he had wholesale allowed the Saiyans to train with the Dragon Team, the latter, comprised of mostly humans, would gain a sense of crisis and competitiveness, which would be indispensable to their growth. In turn, the Saiyans would be useful against Frieza, they had a bone to pick with the alien tyrant. At the moment, Earth's food, Bardock, and Goku kept them complacent, and while he imagined that for a year, they would be extremely bored, Bardock was leaps and bounds the Sayains' better due to his dedicated training with Goku, and so Jazz had faith that newly dubbed grandpa Saiyan would keep an eye on and control his people for the year they'd train under King Kai.
"Can I talk to him?" Jazz asked.
"I don't know whether that will work." Kami admitted, "but we can try."
Jazz reached his hand out to Kami, who took it as the Namekian teleported them.
The first thing Jazz noticed about the place was its atmosphere, the air felt thin, like he was on a mountain. A procession of white, flame-like blobs, which he assumed were souls, made their way down a line before a desk the size of a large manor. Sitting at the desk was a massive man with red skin, horns, a full black bushy beard, and a purple suit.
The massive ogre overlooked some documents as he looked at the soul before him. "Let's see, Barley, correct? From planet Cereal, you were off planet when it was purged, you specialized in trade and lived as an interplanetary merchant of home goods. You hid your identity as a Cerulian from Freeza's forces so they wouldn't try to purge you. Otherwise, you lived quietly, but you did steal cookies from your mother's cookie jar on your 8th birthday so I'll have to send you to Hell."
The soul flickered for a few seconds before being sent to the left, it was then placed behind a massive line of souls. Jazz looked to the right, and saw a much smaller, but still sizeable mass of souls, some of which began to form into bodies, that ranged from humanoid in shape to wildly alien and animalistic in form.
"Is… is King Yemma that stringent about criteria to get into heaven?" Jazz asked.
Kami shook his head, "all beings have a chance to develop malice and evil, most beings have at least a little evil in them, Hell is not just a place to punish sinners, but to purify them, once their evil is washed away their souls are released back into the cycle of life and death, this is the fate of most souls, but some especially virtuous mortals are allowed to regain or retain their bodies, and are instead sent to heaven."
"Are there a finite amount of souls?" Jazz asked.
"Not at all, but I think you're thinking of the concept of soul as a strict one to one of spirit. Your spirit is your essence, your being, it ties in with your soul and fuels the living body. If your spirit is too full of malice, you are sent to hell, the spirit is destroyed and purified, and the soul is cleansed, if a creature is born and inherits the purified soul you once had, they aren't you, they would not have your memories or your abilities, they would not be considered the same person or being, nor could they be judged for the actions of the being their soul was once part of."
"Is there a way for a being to inherit the spirit and soul?"
"Yes, that often occurs if too many souls pass through without being fully cleansed, or if King Yemma himself pulls some strings. But that is rare."
Jazz nodded, "Okay."
They waited another 3 hours as the long line continued to proceed, each soul's life was both unique and similar, they lived, loved, and died, but how they lived and what they loved was vastly different from soul to soul. Some deaths were sad, some were peaceful, others seemed joyous, some were brutal, and some left Jazz feeling disgust, either for the soul or for its assailants. As they got closer to King Yemma, Jazz noticed a frightening trend, more and more souls seemed to have their death designated as "essence drained by Babidi and his men." They eventually came before the massive Ogre King.
"Jasper Duncan." King Yemma looked down at Jazz, his large black eyes seemed to peer into him. His face, stern and frowning, twisted into a sneer. "You annoying jerk." Despite not taking his eyes off Jazz, he still somehow continued to process the souls in line behind them.
"A-annoying Jerk?!" Jazz replied.
"You!" King Yemma pointed an accusing finger. "You're not a part of this universe, you aren't even from another one in our macrocosm, you have no paperwork or files on you, save what you started doing almost ten years ago on that little dirt ball, Earth when you somehow showed up."
"Aren't most habitable planets little dirtballs?" Jazz retorted.
"Don't be snippy with me, brat." Yemma clenched his teeth. "I know why you're here, you want to bring all your little friends to King Kai, so you can train under him to get what you think is a fighting chance against Frieza, right?"
"Yes, and I want to know why you're saying no." Jazz replied calmly.
"Because there are rules. King Kai only offers training to virtuous warriors who have died. And it is only if I and the guardian of their planet believe they are worthy do they earn the right to go down Snake Way. This is not the world of the living, and it has its own rules, but ultimately, I don't trust you."
Jazz blinked, "you don't trust me?"
"You are aware that you are an outsider, that your presence perverts what would be the natural order of the universe, yet you insist on interfering with your world's future, and now the future of the universe."
"I wasn't the one who st-"
"I'm aware." Yemma interrupted him, "That other humans, FROM. YOUR. WORLD. Came here, and have perverted the universe with their malice and greed." He laughed, "Tell me why I should believe you're different, is it because you think you're doing this for the right reasons?"
"I'm doing this because if I didn't my friends would be dead." Jazz retorted.
"That isn't true, you began making waves in the world before you ever learned of the others from your world. You did this because you thought it would be fun, it was a game to you."
"I never thought of it as a game." Jazz replied, "I certainly had fun, a great deal of fun personally living through the adventures I had only once read or watched, but I never thought of it as a game. They are all real people, as real as I am, and I want to protect them."
Yemma stared at Jazz, who looked back at the King of Oni's with a calm but defiant look.
"Even if you speak the truth, it cannot be done, living souls aren't allowed in the afterlife, even if I processed the paperwork for your friends, as an outsider, you would not be allowed up here."
"So you are saying that you can be convinced to allow my friends to speak to and train under King Kai, but I am barred from such an endeavor." Jazz sighed, "Why didn't you just start with that?" He could notice both Kami and King Yemma stir in shock at his nonchalant attitude as if he was calm after being told he had won the lottery but couldn't cash the check. "What?" He looked between the two.
"You're willing to accept his refusal?" Kami asked incredulously.
"Yes, it's not the end of the world if I'm locked out of an avenue for me to gain strength, what's important is that the rest of them, my friends, get all the chances they can get to get stronger to meet Frieza's measure." Jazz shrugged, "so, what do you need from me to approve of my friends' journey along snake way?"
…
"Lapis! Up! Up!"
The black-haired teen stared down dubiously at the little girl in front of him. Despite not being related to the girl, he marveled at Videl's blue eyes and black hair, reminding him of his own appearance. At the moment, he and his sister had been saddled with babysitting duty after their dear old mother "volunteered" their services while the majority of adults were on a vacation retreat of some sort. Sighing, he picked her up with both hands and lifted her into the air. The 3-year-old giggled in excitement, extending her hands out in front of her as if she were a superhero with the power of flight.
"This is the last time, then you have to take your nap, Videl."
"Okay! Can we see Gohan?!"
The boy rolled his eyes, "Fine, alright." He gently lifted off the ground and began to drift down the hallway, his mastery of his abilities allowing him to fly at this gentle pace that provided more than enough entertainment for his charge. He came into another room to witness his sister reading a book to the 2-year-old. "Oh, a picture bo…" Lapis stopped talking as he noticed that Lazuli was reading out loud what appeared to be an Entomological Scientific Journal, or in normal people's speak, a big nerd book about bugs. To his shock, the barely 2-year-old Gohan was engrossed in the book, and after a minute of listening intently raised his head up to Lazuli.
"I think it's fascinating how many species of ants develop phragmosis along their evolutionary journey, it reminds me of convergent evolution with certain chitinous sea life that denotes them as crab-like."
"Uh… yeah, that is pretty interesting." Lazuli for her part appeared to be on the verge of a mental breakdown but was doing her best to hide that from the precocious child.
"Wow, I had no idea you had a passion for entomology!" Gohan, who still only barely had most of his baby teeth, grinned widely. The little genius had a vocabulary as wide as the sea and an inexhaustible enthusiasm for learning. In contrast, Videl was a bundle of energy and much more tactile when it came to her preferred learning.
"Gohan! Hi!"
"Hey, Videl!" Gohan, who was used to his senior toddler's presence, smiled at her greeting.
"Whatcha doing?"
"I'm reading up on entomology."
"Enter mall-apology?"
"I'm studying arthropods. Right now we're learning about ants!"
"Ooh, I love ants, they're wriggly and small!"
Lapis, who at this point had given up on being able to get Videl to nap, gently put the girl down as she continued to list out all the bugs she knew about, with Gohan trading little anecdotes here and there as well as listing out their scientific names.
4 years ago, Lapis would be too irritated and restless to have time to "waste" on babysitting, but over the years he'd come to appreciate respite whenever he could, now that he was almost 17, between school, training, and public appearances he had to make as PaoPao's adopted son, he was tired, but then again, it was not like he resented the fame he was afforded, the ability to fly several dozen times the speed of sound, deflect bullets, and sense the life force of virtually every person in the vicinity made dealing with paparazzi and the occasional violent fanatic a piece of cake, but eventually, even those events began to shift from exciting and infuriating to tedious and irritating. Quiet moments like this, watching two children without a care in the world talking about, of all things, why ladybugs decided to predate on aphids, was refreshing. However, no matter how refreshing such moments were, changing diapers and feeding fussy children wasn't in Lapis's job description, so he hoped the various mothers of their odd hodgepodge of family and friends would come back from their day trip soon.
He heard a knock on the door, though he had already felt the power before they had even landed. Turning to his sister, they shared a subtle glance before he made his way towards the door, unlocking it to reveal the muscular and scarred appearance of Raditz.
"Is… is my mother here? I was told she was with the woman and the half-breed." He was as gruff and rude as Lapis remembered, boasting an impressive powerlevel, close to twice Lapis's own, not even mentioning his terrifying-tailed form. Despite that foreknowledge of this space pirate's prowess, Lapis did not yield to him.
"If you mean to ask if your mother is with your brother's wife and his son, your nephew, no, your mother isn't here, she went on a trip with her daughter-in-law, your sister-in-law."
"No laws I follow. Where did they go?"
Lapis shrugged, "I didn't ask, they're just on vacation, I don't know when they'll be back, but I'll tell her you came to visit." Lapis moved to close the door.
"Call her now, tell that woman to bring my mother here." Radit held his hand to the door to block it.
Lapis chuckled, "You're going to have to learn how to be patient, and I warn you, we have children in here, if you cause a ruckus, I'm not responsible for what happens."
Raditz scoffed, "My scouter measured your abilities, you and your blonde kin barely edged past a powerlevel of 1500, I don't care how dedicated you've been to "training", a human child is no threat to me."
Lapis sighed. "Alright, let's go then."
Before Raditz could respond, Lapis pushed his hand into Raditz's face and flew with him into the air.
Lazuli rolled her eyes and the two kids she was with reacted to the sudden boom with more curiosity than alarm.
Raditz gripped the arm that grabbed at his face with alarm. Lapis's form was deceptively lithe and compact, hiding powerful muscles and a powerful ki reserve. "Let me go! Human!"
Lapis acquiesced to the Saiyan's request, but not before slamming him into the ocean's surface. A deluge of water rose up nearly a hundred meters before collapsing on itself, releasing a spray of mist that rained down.
"I don't like you, but then again, I don't necessarily have a high opinion of any of you Saiyans." The water exploded as Raditz charged forward, causing tidal-level cascades of water to arc out away from his point of exit. Lapis dodged him easily. "I mean, I'm not even using pump-up but I can avoid you because even if I'm not as strong as you, I've been training with people who are miles above you." He continued to weave out of Raditz's attacks, causing the Saiyan to lose his temper and begin charging a ki blast. At that moment Lapis's expression changed into deadly seriousness as he smashed his fist into Raditz's stomach, causing the Saiyan to vomit bile. Concentration broken, the ki ball Raditz had gathered began to dissipate, Lapis expended ki in a simple Kia to disrupt and disperse the rest of the attack without causing it to explode. Raditz roared in defiance and raised his fist to attack Lapis, only for the latter to catch his fist easily now body more defined and temples pulsing as he relied on the perfected version of Master Roshi's technique. After a few seconds, he pushed away Raditz and began to use precise and methodical attacks to not cause damage so much as annoy the Saiyan, who was unable to land a single blow.
"You Saiyans are loud, obnoxious, and don't prioritize personal hygiene, despite that, you're all exemplary and talented fighters, annoyingly so." Lapis shook his head. "But that's not what annoys me, what annoys me is how fucking petty it all sounds." He caught Raditz once more, "Great warrior race, but you're nothing but a bunch of fucking space pirates, razing planets and destroying all their wildlife and nature, so you can sell it to a jackass, who often sells the planet to someone who's home you already destroyed. For a warrior race, you like to target people you consider weak, and the first sign of real trouble causes you to lose your cool." He clicked his tongue in annoyance, "You're all already awful, irredeemable monsters, but because of my dad, my mom, and Goku, I'm willing to put it aside because this Frieza guy is supposedly even worse than you all, so I can tolerate the Saiyans being here. But you. I can't stand you." Lapis knew about the Saiyans' habit of growing stronger after surviving combat, so he made sure any and all damage he did to Raditz was surface level at best, he would not give the Saiyan the courtesy of a real battle, or of his all.
"The other Saiyans are training, they're putting in efforts, but you, you want to sit and laze around. You mope around because of how sore a loser you are, that's what they say about you, whenever dad visits and I end up tagging along, he asks about you, I don't know why he still cares, but he does, and that's what they all say, 'Raditz is a lazy, cowardly bum clinging to a false sense of pride'."
"Shut up!" Raditz unleashed a beam from his mouth, which Lapis caught easily, batting it straight into the air where it detonated with the force of a miniature nuke. Raditz charged forward, only for Lapis to catch him by the tail.
"You've not even trained your tail? That's embarrassing." A wicked thought crossed the black-haired young man's thoughts. "Do you even need this tail? With it gone, and given how we humans can train and get stronger too, is there even a difference between you and the humans you still disparage? Other than your shitty attitude of course."
Raditz began to panic at Lapis's words. Lapis felt a rush of power as he held on to the Saiyan's tail, but as he contemplated his next steps, he became hesitant. Raditz struck him as… pitiful, and as Lapis thought about what his dad, what Jazz said about Goku's older brother, he couldn't help but frown.
Lapis's own birth dad was an abusive piece of garbage, surrounded by shitty friends who would torment his twin sister and himself. If Lapis continued to live in that environment, he'd probably have ended up similar to Raditz, an asshat with a chip on his shoulder. This didn't mean he was willing to excuse Raditz for being an asshat, but it meant that Lapis probably shouldn't have been participating in what amounted to little more than bullying, even if, in his opinion, Raditz didn't deserve a break.
Lapis let go of Raditz's tail. "Leave."
Raditz, free, whipped around, ready to fight, but grew confused as he watched Lapis slowly float away. "What?! What are you doing?!"
"You heard me, I don't want to continue this farce, leave. I'll tell your mom you came and she'll visit you herself, 'cause I don't know where they went and I won't have you harassing my mom and her friends."
Raditz looked like he was going to retort but his eyes widened in shock. It was in that split second that Lapis noticed a beam of light reflecting off the corner of the Saiyan's black eyes. Relying on the instinct Piccolo instilled him him, Lapis launched himself to the right, then screamed as he felt a beam pierce his hand. Even as he cradled his bleeding arm, he thanked his lucky stars that their mystery attacker's intended target, his chest, was unharmed.
"Shit." Lapis looked down to see the familiar silver hair of General White of the defunct Red Ribbon Army. Memories of the day that bastard and commander black attacked him, his sister, a pregnant Miguel, and elderly Gabriel flooded Lapis's mind. It took a few seconds to center himself, which gave the cyborg enough time to rush towards Lapis and swing his fist in order to take out the young man.
Lapis went full power and launched himself forward, smashing the General's face in with his right foot. He didn't care that the man might die from his full strength, as either he was actually a full robot, constructed by Gero to pretend to be the real thing, or he was going to be a dead man, as Lapis wouldn't ever let him hurt his sister again if he could help it.
"HAHAHA! I missed you too, brat!" White steadied himself in the air, blocking Lapis's follow-up punch. He head-butted the youth in the nose, smiling at the sound of crunching cartilage. At the same time, he activated a com-link, "Take out the Saiyan."
Raditz registered those words too late, screaming out as blasts of energy struck him, they were not enough to kill him, but they did destroy most of his Saiyan armor. He began to fall towards the water as several horrific-looking monsters came out from the forest.
They appeared like a hodgepodge combination of creature and machine, patchwork zombies equipped with cybernetic upgrades. The biological parts were a chimeric combination of human and some strange, green-skinned monster, with metallic embellishments here and there, jet packs to bolster winged flight, a robotic scope if an eye was missing, pneumatic jaws to increase biting force, robotic limbs to replace rotting parts. Lapis couldn't pay too much attention as he was busy keeping from being bisected by General White.
"I'm impressed, I thought I got an upgrade, but look at you, you're at least 30 times stronger than the brat I fought all those years ago, it's almost sickening."
"It's called hard work, something you've never heard of, tin can!" Lapis blinded the General and flew behind him, knocking him away with a spinning kick. He reached his hand to his phone, upon noticing the signal was dead, he pressed a series of buttons, wincing as his phone released a high-pitched whine before dying.
"What the fuck was that?!" White wrapped energy around himself and launched forward like a lethal pinball.
Lapis focused his ki into his good hand and punched away the energy pinball. Using the few seconds of reprieve he was afforded, he rushed down towards Raditz's falling form, reaching him before the strange cyborg zombies could.
One of the monsters opened its mouth and roared out, unleashing a blast of energy. Despite how ferocious and wild the energy was, Lapis couldn't feel it, because of that he had no idea how much power he needed to put into deflecting the attack, or even if he could deflect the attack, so he decided to be cautious and dodged out of the way, smelly saiyan in tow.
"Dammit, let me go." Raditz, who came to, pushed Lapis off him. "I can take care of myself!"
Lapis didn't fight against the Saiyan, electing instead to back away as another blast struck Raditz, who screamed in pain, and now in anger as he whipped around and charged towards the odd abominations.
General White, who recovered from being punched half a mile away watched the ensuing firefight with interest, there was something artful, almost dance-like, in a fight that took place in the air, the new dimension of travel made feints, dodges, and ranged attacks take whole new meanings, in the pure open air it was impossibly to simply corner your opponent, but it also posed new advantages when one had numerical superiority.
As satisfying as it was to watch his target expend their limited stamina on avoiding the attacks of Dr. Gero's newest line of creations, White's job was simple, capture these two, as well as the human's sister and those two children she was guarding. He did not know what the boy did, but he needed to finish things fast.
~"White… how are things on your end?"~ A radio commlink played in his ear.
"Oh, Commander Black, things are going well, what about you?"
~"The girl is proving surprisingly hardy, the gas we released was odorless but she determined something was wrong due to how the children fell unconscious, but she's faltering, Gero's Patchwork Cyborgs are proving effective in weakening her. In a few more minutes, the targets will be ready for packaging and shipping to the doctor to test his infinite energy generator theory on living subjects."~
"Geez, that guy's unrelenting, he already has 3 completely robotic fellas that follow that theory."
~"Those androids are for the purposes of testing out his perfection-assimilation theory, and you can count your lucky stars neither you nor I were designed to be part of that test. But I digress, it's not our place to question the Doctor, he's still a staunch supporter of our ideals and his research has gotten us funding in high places."~
"I suppose we can thank these freaks as well…" White chuckled, Goku and his allies, the ones responsible for the near destruction of the Red Ribbon Army, were also responsible for its ability to rise back in prominence. The increase in the population of men and women capable of utilizing ki in day-to-day living, combined with their superhuman abilities and the recent invasion by the Saiyans had led to many of the powers that be to determine that there needed to be a way to curb the growing number of superhumans capable of wiping out the planet on a whim, and so they turned to Dr. Gero and the Red Ribbon Army, funding, bodies, and live subjects for the Doctor to tinker with led to some advancements he claimed wouldn't have been possible in a few more years. Unfortunately for the Doctor, he had come across some issues. His infinite energy generator worked, on fully artificial beings he could create powerful specimens, but the increased processing power required to utilize such technology safely led to quirks and defects in their personalities. Android 13, and subsequently 14 and 15 were adequate as far as battle power was concerned, but were flawed and needed more work, it would be years before the Doctor could see them in battle. He had begun to work on Android 16, a near-perfect physical replica of his son, and perhaps sentimentality led to more caution, the machine was nearly perfect as he progressed it, but it would take an idiot not to understand the Doctor's hesitation to send a killing machine with his son's face out into the world to get destroyed. To tide over misgivings over his supposed failures, Gero had devised a means to mass produce an army of soldiers, using the remains of the Crane School and the Demon King Piccolo's army, he put together patchwork cyborgs, combining the innate prowess of ki sensitive beings with his technology generated emotionless, obedient monsters stronger than the sum of their parts.
If Jazz was capable of sensing the power of androids and other artificial humans, he would judge the patchwork cyborgs to have power levels shifting between 10,000 to 30,000. Vastly stronger on average than the Demon King Piccolo's forces when they attacked the world, dangerous, but manageable with the correct preparations. He may sing a different tune if he was aware that Gero's army was 1,000 strong, and that the strongest of these patchwork zombies was more powerful than Gorillan (the fusion between Goku and Krillan that faced off against that fake Saiyan years ago) and could compete with what he'd been capable of 4 years ago. But, luckily for the Red Ribbon Army, Jazz's power wasn't sensed on Earth, nor had the powers of any of his strongest allies, save for the surrendered Saiyans, which is why they enacted their plan now.
…
Lapis dodged a group of beam attacks, then pushed towards Raditz, moving him away from two near-fatal blows.
"I don't need your help!" Raditz roared.
"Shut up for a second!" Lapis retorted. "Call your dad and all your Saiyan buddies, don't you have your scouter things?"
"I don't have my scouter with me!" Raditz roared in anger. "And why would I fraternize with those traitors and idiots!" The Saiyan man raised his hand towards Lapis, charging a ki blast, the attack sailed smoothly past Lapis, smashing into one of the patchwork cybernetic zombies that had prepared a sneak attack against the young human.
"Great, that's just awesome." After that bit of sarcasm, Lapis sighed in irritation, though if this fight went on, he realized he'd be sighing in exhaustion soon enough. He looked at Raditz, who, after catching his bearings was doing his best to hold his own against the cybernetic monstrosities, like it or not, that man was a Saiyan, bred for combat, and he was proving that even their least auspicious was worthy of their titles.
"Thanks," Lapis said dodging a flurry of swipes from a few patchwork zombies before firing off a high-powered blast to engulf another enemy zombie that had latched onto Raditz's back. "For getting the zombie that was about to hit me."
"Don't thank me, focus on the fight, weakling." Raditz grabbed a zombie and screamed, a blast erupting from his mouth that cleaved through the zombie, revealing a crumbling metallic skeleton.
"Weakling?" Lapis chuckled, grabbing a cyborg zombie and tossing it into two more that had charged him from behind. "Wasn't I thrashing you about before all this started?!" He slipped under a punch and kicked away another cyborg, wincing at how hard the monster's body was.
Despite their fired-up spirits and their impressive showing, the Saiyan and humans were mortal, biological beings, and thus, unlike these patchwork cyborg/zombie things invented by Dr. Gero, they developed fatigue. That was what General White was banking on, and that was the plan his superior, Commander Black, had devised and was also implemented in order to capture the human female Lazuli and the babies she was protecting, for both personal and experimental reasons the doctor was interested in the development of a human born from a superhuman (ie: Hercule). The half-breed infant was also of interest, it was already intriguing that a human-like species evolved on a planet hundreds of thousands of light years away from Earth, but that this species was compatible with humans to the point a child could be born with no complications from gestation to birth meant that humans and Saiyans were genetically close enough that a few tweaks here and there could create a new race of biological ubermensch. Gero had no expertise on such a subject, but he told Commander Black that he was aware of two scientists who might be interested in such a thing.
General White was interested in Gero's experiments and hoped he'd gain greater power, he was already stronger than Commander Black, whose base design was more similar to that of Sgt. Metallic, but he knew there was a limit to how strong he could be through the Doctor's outdated design method that created Android 8. The Doctor told him both he and Black could expect to receive infinite engine generators once his research yielded stronger body models for them to inhabit. His energy sensors determined that Lapis and Raditz were beginning to flag in strength. Lapis was now fluctuating between 1.5 times Raditz's full strength to as low as 40% the power of the Saiyan's best efforts, who himself was operating at 80% of full capacity. After a few more minutes, their strength would likely drop to 50-60% of its normal full power, and that would be when he'd rejoin the fray, alongside the two dozen elite patchwork cyborgs Gero had entrusted him with. He turned to look at the leader of his group, smirking. Her body was almost completely Namekian, however, perhaps due to a perverse curiosity or his normal cruel streak, the good Dr. saw it within his power to patch together decidedly female assets to the Demon King Piccolo's former strongest son, Fiddlesticks. Gero claimed it was to see if he could replicate the demon race's capability of asexual reproduction by spitting out eggs via replacing decidedly vestigial reproductive organs with working organs, but Namekians were tacitly different from humans as internally as they were externally so in General White's opinion, it was just the raving of a pervert. White didn't care, ultimately, whatever the Doctor's end goal, his means were through the power of the Red Ribbon Army, and given that they hadn't been abandoned yet, meant that they, in turn, would not abandon the Doctor.
General White smiled as his scanner began to blink. "Good, their energy has dropped to the optimal levels. Let's finish them off."
…
Afterword:
Jasper(Jazz) Duncan
Age: 25 and 3 months
Hair color: Red
Skin color: white
Race: "Human"
Height: 6 feet 1 inches 185.42 centimeters
Weight: 195 lbs 88.4505 kilograms, currently weighs 1800 lbs 816.46616 kilograms
Skills: Advanced Staff Technique, Advanced Kinjutsu (sword technique), Advanced Hand-to-Hand technique, Advanced Ki techniques, Mastered Magic Materialization
Capable of creating: Conventional Weapons, Food, and various tools (limited by his knowledge of the materials, craftsmanship, and scientific knowledge)
Weapons that can be created: Long Ruyi Jingu Bang, Long Bansho Fan, Ryu Kusanagi, Wyvern's Wind-And-Fire Wheels, Dragon's Flame-Tipped Spear, Fafnir's Gungnir, Leviathan's Trident, Jorgumandur's Svalinn, Hydra's Ancilla
Powers: Elemental Magic Materialization, Capable of summoning and freely manipulating fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, ice, smoke, and steam, capable of manipulating and stirring the growth of plant and animal life. Mastered Telekinesis.
Mastery of General Magic Concepts and abilities. mastered understanding of intermediate-level magical techniques, and an advanced understanding of advanced magical techniques.
Shapeshifting: Mastered Skill level (indefinite)
Transformation Power Techniques
Noble Werewolf: True Awakening: 6.5x power
Ultimate Full Power: A renamed form of Pump-Up/ Max Power, no longer lowers speed, instead it now grants strength and speed proportional to power gain, 6.6x
Talisman Magic: Body Enhancement: 5x Power, drains magical energy over time, lasts 12 hours at full, before draining ki,
1.5x level: can be used for 300 hours (1 week and five-and-a-half days) straight
2x level: can be used for 120 hours (5 days) straight
3x: can be used for 80 hours (3 days, 3 hours)
4x: Can be used for 36 hours (1.5 days)
Emissive Techniques: Destructo Disk, Special Beam Cannon, Kamehameha, Don Don Pa, Solar Flare, Tri-Beam, Thunder Shock Surprise, Barrage Ki attack, Magic Fire Kamehameha, Thunderfire Kamehameha. Ki-Flame Sword, Marshmallow Meteor, Sovereign Rain,
Body Techniques: Four Witches Technique, 12 Eyes Technique, Fusion Dance, Wolf Fang Fist, Mafuba
Powerlevel: 7974 (suppressed) (Real powerlevel: 23125)
Power of Noble Werewolf: 43,192
Power of Ultimate Full Power: 43857
Power of Talisman: 33225
Noble Full Power: 285070
Noble Full Power Talisman: 1,425,352
Fusion Dance (10x)
Double Fusion Dance (100x)
Triple Fusion Dance (1000x) can only be sustained for 130 seconds, with heavy backlash, but won't kill him, leaves him bedridden for days.
…
After Afterword
Thanks for all your patience! The next chapter is coming quick! At the moment, the others are on/finishing up their journey through snake way, sans Jazz, so we'll be keeping up with what they're doing start of the next chapter.