Val flew in a rush towards the Southern Capital, picking out and sensing the others scattered down below, but no sense of the two androids that must have attacked Yajirobe. She flew past Goku, who gestured to her to spread out and search the area. She went towards the hospital area where she, Daiki, Junko, and the others had worked. She landed on the rooftop of the hospital, surveying the ground below. She paced and tried to sense something anything from them. She felt her ears draw back tightly from the strain.
"Hey, isn't that one of the Capsule Corps doctors?" a voice behind her broke her concentration.
She turned around, sliding into a fighting stance. She relaxed when she saw two nurses from the hospital whose names she could not remember. The two of them held unlit cigarettes in their hands. "Yeah, the foreign doctor," the other said. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you wearing?" the first one asked.
Val blinked over at them, annoyed when they started to approach her. Now was not the best time to chat. She hummed. "It's um... It's... um. Capsule Corps business. Secret business," she landed on the answer. "This is part of it," she gestured to her battle armor.
"Oh, is that like a new outfit for medical research?" one of the nurses asked skeptically.
"It doesn't look very practical though," the other mused. "More like something you would fight in a tournament in."
She clicked her teeth, wishing they would just leave the rooftop. She looked back over her shoulder, trying to study the ground below.
"Do you want a smoke?" one of them offered her another cigarette from the packet in her pocket.
Val cringed away, trying not to look too disgusted. She remembered now that the two often smelled like smoke, with the smell making her want to avoid them back when she was working with them during the viral outbreak. "I'm alright," she said.
"Oh, okay," the one who offered put the packet back in her pocket. She drew out a lighter and lit her cigarette. Then she passed it to the other nurse. Val clenched her jaw, not saying anything about the smell. "You know, if you ever get bored at Capsule Corps, we could use a doctor like you in the research sector. You were brilliant when it came to figuring out the virus."
"Yeah, you specialized in virology, right?" the other one asked as she lit her own cigarette with the lighter.
Val looked back behind her again. She shook her head and turned back to them. "No, I haven't formally studied it yet, but I-" She gasped, feeling an overwhelming panic followed by a sense of someone- no, Yamcha, in trouble. She turned fully towards the edge of the rooftop. She gripped the edge, sensing quickly to find where he was. When she figured it out, she rushed out, "I have to go!" She looked over at them, a warning to get out of the city just in case on the tip of her tongue. She bit it back and left.
She jumped from the rooftop, hearing the two nurses vocalize their shock at seeing her fly as she flew away quickly towards Yamcha. She kept her panic at bay, hoping he would still be alive by the time she reached him.
She landed not long after the others on the street, seeing an oddly dressed old man with long white hair holding up Yamcha by the mouth. Next to him stood what what looked like an overgrown, round puppet dressed in similarly odd fashion. Val felt her stomach twist as she saw Yamcha was bleeding from a hole in his torso as the the old man tossed him towards the group of them. She could sense him, weakening, but still alive. Val watched the two odd men, trying to get a sense off them. Without blinking nor success, all she was able to manage was she felt like she had see the old man somewhere before, but could not place him.
Goku ordered, "Krillin, Yamcha's still alive. Take him to where we left the Senzu and feed him some!"
"Okay!" Krillin said, snatching up Yamcha and flying off. Val watched them go, anxious that the androids standing before them might attack them midflight like they did with Yajirobe. She felt her hands heat up to just below a warm glow.
"So you are the cyborgs," Piccolo's voice cut through her concentration. "That's what your turtle faces look like."
Val watched them yet, listening in. "That's strange," the old man said. "How did you know we are cyborgs? It also appears you knew we would be here. How? Tell us, please."
"Why don't you force us to tell you?" Piccolo countered.
"I will," the old man said with calmness and confidence.
Goku interjected, "there'd be too many victims if we fought here. Let's go where there's no one else. Okay?" Val watched him, noticing he was sweating a bit. He rubbed quickly at one of his thighs.
The old man replied, "I don't mind if no one else is around. But we don't have to move."
Val gasped as he shot laser beams from his eyes all over the area. She felt her hands flash up in heat and cringed as he hit the hospital whose rooftop she had just come from. She raised her hands over her face to guard herself, looking over the destroyed area. The city she once fought so hard to protect heart virus outbreak. She dug her nails into her palms, keeping herself from acting out emotionally.
She did not, but Goku did. "Stop it!" he shouted, punching the old man in the face. It knocked the old man back a few feet, knocking the tall hat off his head. It revealed a glass encased dome on the top of his head from which his brain was visible. "Why did-" Goku started demanding.
"I wanted to make a place which had no one else. It looks like you don't like it," the old man said, placing his hat back upon his head.
"Follow me! I'll destroy both of you!" Goku vowed.
"Do you think you can defeat us?" the puppet asked, speaking for the first time.
"Alright, we'll go. Choose a place to die, Goku," the old man said.
Val spoke without thinking, "how do you know his name?"
The old man scanned over all of them, naming them one by one, "we know all of you... Piccolo... Tien... Val... correct?"
Val dug her fingernails into her palm, thinking him knowing who any of them were so easily like that was impossible. "How could you...?" she started to ask.
"We'll find out later," Goku decided. "Let's go."
At that, he took off into the sky, with the two androids follow after him. Val alongside Piccolo and Tien followed right behind the three of them.