dojo 18: Dojo & Dragonballs

There was a brief glimpse, just for a moment, of Dragon setting one of her suits down on the pavement with the usual roar of jets.

"Eh?" asked Taylor as the world seemed to shimmer around her and several things became immediately obvious.

* Age 798, Training World Zed-4 *

One, she was not in the Docks in Brockton Bay.

Two, she was looking at a startled set of warrior-types.

Three, she was a kid. Again. This part especially she was well and truly tired of.

Fourth, they were in a very heavy area. Gravity was at least four times what she was used to.

Fifth, she had a feeling they were in some afterlife but not the one she was used to.

Sixth, she'd accidently included a very startled Dragon right there next to a very shocked-looking Zephron.

As she'd gotten better with her Danger Sense and chakra manipulation, she'd been slowly coming more aware of some "inner light" that people had. Partly it seemed to correspond with how strong they were. Dragon had zip, nada, nothing showing. Which was weird but remote-controlled suit, right?

Those who were training under her father or herself and able to access their chakra had more of it. Animals had that light, and it tended to be more focused. Ordered. Simple.

The warrior-types in front of her? They had LOTS of that light.

"What exactly are these again?" asked the green guy in the back.

"A fox, a guy, and a robot?" asked the spiky-haired guy. "I know King Kai was saying something about people to train. That's you guys?"

"Yeah," said Zenko.

"Would someone explain ANY of this?" asked Dragon.

The Danger Sense part wasn't giving anything off - however much these guys were powerful they weren't currently a threat.

"I think Bulma might be able to do something with the robot," said one of the spiky-haired guys. "She's been studying all of Doctor Gero's stuff."

"What?" asked Dragon. "No. Stop. Where am I? What is going on?"

"You're here to train in the Kame Style while we're working out," said one of the guys.

Dragon looked around. "Zenko? Can you give me answers that make sense?"

"No, I don't think I can," said Zenko.

"I don't think the robot can be trained, it has no chi," said the green guy.

"Bulma can fix that," said the more talkative of the guys. "She and that Doctor Hedo guy."

"Can either of those explain what's going on more than Zenko can?" asked Dragon.

"That's a feminine voice, so Robot Lady? I... think so?" said talkative guy. "Piccolo, can you start training these two while I take her to Capsule Corp."

"Uhm," said Zephron, currently trying to stand up. "I could use some explanations too."

* Age 799, "Earth" *

The radar picked them up approaching, determined their landing spot, and did a thorough scan well before they'd crossed the property line. Bulma Briefs nonetheless checked visually first.

"Oh, it's you guys, have fun training?" asked Bulma as she hit a toggle that opened up roof access.

"About the usual," said Krillin as he led the small group in. He paused as various sensors played over the group. "This new?"

"A few things added, you know how it is," admitted Bulma from the intercom. "If you're here to check up on Theresa, she's got a bit longer before she's ready. Doctor Hedo had some ideas to improve the process and make sure she'd be able to keep her connectivity issues."

"That's not it, we're just after the Dragon Balls," said Krillin. "You've got all of them, right?"

"Well, yes, I was planning on using them Saturday," responded Bulma.

"Well, the upgrade's still working? Three wishes instead of one?" asked Krillin.

"Yes," said Bulma slowly, not liking where this was obviously going.

"Need one, maybe two, of those wishes," said Krillin, holding up a memory disc. "Interview with the two students about the menaces in their world. Just don't let Goku know, he'll be trying to find a way to that universe and that can lead to all sorts of other problems that neither world particularly needs."

"Well, don't make one of those about Theresa," grumped Bulma. "Shenron isn't nearly as good with electronics without something to copy or repair."

"No, we need him to pull out latent abilities like he did with Piccolo to make Piccolo Orange," said Krillin. "Like I said, listen to the interview. You'll see why."

"Yeah, let me borrow this a bit," said Bulma, taking the disc.

An hour later she handed it back and agreed it was a worthwhile use of two wishes.

* Technical Briefs (Briefs family Science Complex), 3 days later *

"I can't believe that worked," commented Krillin. "Though now there's a rule against it."

"Sometimes it's not about winning or losing. Sometimes it's how many pages you add to the rulebook," said Taylor, looking extremely satisfied.

"I think it only worked because Shenron didn't like the operating rules of this 'Cosmic Roulette' thing," said Zephron, holding up a hand and forming a sphere of chi.

Piccolo smirked, not having any particular scruple about cheating when life or death was on the line.

"As long as it worked," noted Krillin. "Anyways, I got work. Where you guys heading?"

Taylor and Zephron nodded to each other and gently lifted off the ground to hover just a few feet up.

"Kami Palace," said Zephron. "Training with Mister Popo."

* Kami Palace *

"Good!" declared Pan as her opponent blocked and retaliated with a sweeping side kick which she leapt over and kicked at his head which he narrowly avoided in order to palm strike hard enough that a dust devil briefly formed and dissipated.

Sweat flew off of Zephron as he dodged and jabbed and blocked and punched and kicked.

Pan smiled and kicked it up a notch.

Then they both started throwing in ninja techniques because why the hell not?

Logs appeared and fell or were turned into splinters and dust. Zephron turned invisible. Pan didn't even blink as she tracked his chi. Zephron dropped the technique as he dropped into a familiar stance. "Ka-me."

Pan took the same stance and matched him. "Kame-"

"Hame," they both said.

"HA!" said both of them as they released a chi blast. Zephron dodged as his was overwhelmed by her attack, then threw a brick at her - which she easily dodged.

Pan realized a moment before he did it that her opponent was planning to use Substitution and countered by blowing up the brick with a quick chi blast. "Tricky."

"Ninja," responded Zephron with a quick smile before vanishing in a puff of chakra.

"A clone?" asked Pan before whirling and lashing out with a kick that caught the now-visible-again Zephron.

* A field in the French countryside *

The ship had a design similar to a large beetle, the ramp sticking out of it's behind in a manner that reminded Taylor of a dangling turd.

The creature that came down the ramp at the head of a small group of similarly clad soldiers was at least eight feet tall and heavily muscled. In fact, it strongly resembled the idea of a Japanese oni.

Sticking a long flagpole in a row of cabbages, that figure immediately took a stance and a deep breath.

"Can we get on with this, or are you going to make a speech?"

The oni blinked and regarded the kitsune and the big green guy with the antennae who'd just spoken. "What? Men, get them!"

"AAAAAAAAAA!" yelled the various soldiers, raising their weapons and running towards cover.

"Wait, I didn't introduce myself!" declared the oni. "I am Ahlmer Fuhd and I claim this world for... why is the female laughing?"

"No clue, actually," said the green guy.

"Did... did you actually say... your name was Elmer Fudd?" asked the kitsune.

"You are mispronouncing it in your primitive language, but yes," said the oni.

"You aren't hunting rabbits are you?" asked the kitsune.

"What's a rabbit?" asked Ahlmer, tapping the earbud containing the translator mechanism. Can't conquer a planet without being able to at least tell the bloody natives that they were now part of the glorious Warnerian Empire. It was just that some terms, such as referring to native lifeforms or customs didn't get translated.

"Can we just skip all this to where we kick your sorry asses off the planet?" asked the green guy. "Seriously, we've got enough Saiyan here you'd think more alien races would just avoid the headache of dealing with them altogether."

"Hah, a likely story!" said Ahlmer. "Your companion is obviously from Planet Kitsun and you yourself are from the Sram Nebula."

"I'm from Namek you idiot," said the green guy. "Piccolo from Planet Namek. The girl is from a different universe. Now can we get on with the fight?"

One of the soldiers shot Piccolo in the head. Piccolo looked even more annoyed.

"Shadow Clone jutsu! Kame Style Special Manuever! Everybody gets a Boot To Da Head!"

Piccolo watched as all the troops were abruptly on the ground, most groaning something about getting a boot to the head. "Most are still conscious."

"Trying not to kill them," said the kitsune. "Now to see if I have instilled wisdom and they stay down or if further lessons are required."

Ahlmer rubbed the back of his head, scowling. "It'll take more than one kick from some slut from Planet Kitsun to knock ME out."

"I'm just here to supervise," grumped Piccolo.

"Try this! Big Big!" said Ahlmer, tripling in size.

"Try this! Foxfire Bullet," said the foxgirl. "HA!"

Ahlmer skidded backwards on the grass, weathering the attack. "Ha! Your attacks are less than the bite of a zagnoor!"

"You are already on fire," pointed out the foxgirl.

"Eh?" asked Ahlmer, checking. Sure enough he had blue fire clinging to him. "AAAAA!"

"Stop drawing this out," complained Piccolo. "Just go ahead and knock him out so we can get their ship to Bulma, she can figure out if they've got any tech she wants to keep while she disables their weapons, and we can ship them all off planet."

"Fine fine," said the foxgirl, knocking out Ahlmer with a quick punch.

* Piccolo *

"By the way, you had one tail during the fight," pointed out Piccolo, "two tails afterwards. Now you're back down to one."

"Oh, it's just a distraction thing," said Zenko. "I started out with two-tails but shortly after that I got enough control to bring it to one. Now my identity as Zenko is established I haven't gone out without ears and tail but I don't need to manifest either, but it's part of my costume so I keep them. It's just that if I'm not paying attention I end up with one tail as that's easier than trying to manifest and keep track of two tails."

"Figured it was something like that," said Piccolo, personally not caring this whole 'secret identity' stuff. Except that it was somehow less hassle for the student.

Zenko was silent for a moment. "Planet Kitsun'?"

"Not familiar with it," admitted Piccolo. "Bulma can probably pull information out of their computers."

"So, no interstellar community where everyone knows everyone else?" asked Zenko, sounding disappointed.

"No, nothing like that, most races are either like these idiots and raid other worlds or they stick mostly to themselves," said Piccolo. "No big 'Federation of Planets' or 'Galactic Trade Alliance' or anything of that sort as in your dramas."

"Pity," said Zenko.

* Android Research Lab, Technical Briefs Complex *
* One second on Earth Bet, one year on DB-Earth *

"All systems check green, aye." Dr. Hedo was taking this seriously, not even glancing at the treasured bag of limited edition Oreos he was keeping back as a self-reward for when this project was finished.

Bulma checked an instrument, in charge of this operation but knowing that she just needed to be the voice of reason and reign in Dr. Hedo when he started getting narrow-focused. "Ego threshold 98% and rising, good. 99%. 100%."

"Draining fluid from the suspension chamber. Transfer at 100%, holding steady," said Dr. Hedo, checking instrumentation. "Heart rate 62bpm. Vitals are within range. Bluetooth and wifi connecting. Firewalls and anti-virus active."

"Scouter showing rapid increase in power level," said Bulma, sounding satisfied. "Two hundred fifty. Three hundred. Continuing to rise as systems come online."

"Brain mapping and neural impulses all reading green," said Doctor Hedo, who glanced towards the cookies and then forced himself to concentrate.

"Everything checks," said Bulma, her eyes flicking from one screen to another rapidly. "Resting power level steady at two thousand three-hundred and fifty five. Final awakening in three. Two. One."

"Her power level will increase with practice and use, limiters are active," muttered Dr. Hedo mainly to himself. "She's initiated her own start-up checks. Biotechnological Android Gamma-Class Infinite Energy Model Twenty-Six operating active at idle levels."

Bulma stepped away from the displays and she walked to the tube as a pair of eyes flickered before opening fully. "Good morning, Theresa Richter. Ready to begin your new life?"

The girl in the tube checked herself over, starting with her right hand and going on from there. Finally she met Bulma's gaze with her own. "Yes, Doctor Briefs. Doctor Hedo. I believe I actually am ready to see what this hardware can actually do."

* Zenko *

"Super Kitsune aaaaaaAH!" (FWAM!)

"Nice," said Trunks.

"Power up!" (FWAM!)

"Okay, I'm going to have to get that," commented Krillin. "If humans can have something like the stage 1 Super Saiyan form, that's something I definitely need."

"You don't need it," said Trunks. "You're already the strongest human."

"How many times have YOU been killed?" retorted Krillin. "Being the strongest human only gets you so far around here."

"Wait. 'Killed'? That's some kind of slang for something else, right?" asked Zephron, dropping the enhanced state.

"Well, I... You're fading away?" asked Krillin.

* Earth-Bet *

"Where'd they go?!" asked Lacey, a trace of panic showing.

"Zenko has a teleport to training power and Zephron didn't say 'not it' fast enough," said Danny, which was actually true as all someone had to do to not go was refuse it. Mind you, he didn't know that himself when he'd had it happen to him.

In the meantime, Danny Hebert was counting the seconds as he suspected the years-to-seconds thing would still be applicable.

"Confirming," said the radio on Kurt's hip. "Guy on that uncontrolled parabolic arc? That was Lung. He apparently trashed the counter for the Killer Noodles shop and Kurama was not happy about that."

"Oh dear," said Kurt. "That's going to escalate."

Danny Hebert had just reached "nine-mississipi" when a suit of power armor, a fox-girl, and a familiar large black fellow reappeared. Though the clothes Zephron was wearing, a red tank top and red sweat pants with some Japanese symbol, was decidedly different from what he had been wearing before.

There were the sounds of not-distant-enough explosions.

"Oni Lee?" asked Zenko.

"Probably," answered Danny.

The power armor opened and a woman stepped out. "Shall we?"

All three lifted into the air, hovering for just a couple of seconds, then blurred into action.

"Danny?" asked Kurt.

"Yes?" asked Danny.

"Next time Zenko goes off for training?" asked Kurt.

"I'll bring the subject up," promised Danny Hebert.

"Yeah, did you notice how Zephron was a little bit bigger?" asked Lacey.

"Yes, at least two inches. He's going to need a new wardrobe," replied Danny, sounding bemused. This was happening to someone else at this point and he was definitely enjoying that aspect.

There was a sudden shockwave through the area.