Everyone aboard the Capsule Corps Star rushed to the station where a relatively small, round spaceship built entirely out of Frieza Army spacecraft scrap landed. Where Gohan bolted with a hot and cheerful head, the rest paced after him with wary looks, and Bulma appeared especially worried. The woman clacked her heels with her arms wrapped around her and an expression that kept giving herself flack for humoring Gohan and not blasting the spaceship to Kingdom Come when she picked it up approaching.
The rest appeared to agree with Gohan, though only because they claimed Chayote too was onboard. However, her Ki signature was weak. Even if Bulma had trouble admitting it, she contemplated blowing the spaceship up with the best shot of the Capsule Corps Star, even if it would have resulted in Chayote's death. Just about half an hour ago, they all discussed bringing Chayote back with the Dragon Balls anyway, if the universe didn't end before that. It took them a while, but it was only now that everyone began to wonder how fast exactly would they have if Chayote died before the universe came to an end.
Gohan pumped his little fists by his sides, impatiently waiting for the spaceship to open up and let the family of three Artificial Humans step out. He didn't have to wait long, as just around forty seconds after the ship docked, the airlock began opening up. Smoke began seeping out immediately after the door, keeping the airlock secure lowered, revealing shadowy forms of Dr. Puri's family to be waiting for the airlock to lower.
"No. 16!" Gohan yelled out. The tall and beefy Artificial Human smiled at the young man with a gentle and warm look while slowly following his mother. The two friends pressed each other's hands while Dr. Puri walked out in front of Bulma and the two women exchanged sassy looks. A white, orbular drone flew out from behind the trio, holding Chayote suspended like laundry hanged over a rope by a large mechanical hook.
"I must say, we were confused to hear from you," Dr. Puri began the awkward reunion. "Though it began making more sense when I saw just how lost that monster was. He truly intended to destroy and assimilate the pieces of his own children if it meant getting stronger. There was no trace of the man I once loved in that man."
"I disagree," Bulma lit up a cigarette to calm her nerves which drove her further and further toward jumping at the Artificial Human and strangling her. "I think that man is exactly whom you married. Though it may have been you who has changed."
Super Artificial Human One-Nine turned to her mother as if inquiring if mother pleased the doll-like Android to cook Bulma's insides with an energy beam, but Dr. Puri appeared to have spaced out for a moment before sighing. "Maybe you're right. Maybe that blockhead truly was the same motivated, goal-driven monster. Maybe I was once the same way, back when we met. Though right now I live and breathe for my family. For giving me this chance, I remain indebted to you all. That's why even when I realized you called me to use me to do your dirty work, I complied," Puri replied.
"I've never met my father before," Artificial Human No. 16 spoke up. "All I have of him are memories that were implanted in me. What I was programmed to feel about a man who died long before I was built. It is a strange feeling, to be driven to love and respect a man because of one's programming but seeing him for a horrific fiend he truly is."
"Silly brother," Super One-Nine gave her brother a sheepish smile. "I, on the other hand, haven't been created to serve Dr. Gero's goals. My mother built me to protect the laboratory in the Northern Region and follow up on the Artificial Human experimentation in secret. Mother must not have had much hope for my survival since she didn't care enough to instill any programming in me related to Dr. Gero."
"So, what now?" Bulma interrupted the banter between the two Artificial Human siblings and pierced Android 21 with a sharp and focused look. "You've absorbed Dr. Gero's ultimate body inside you. That must have powered you up greatly. Do you intend on following up on your plan from where you left off?"
"Tempting, but there's no use in that anymore," Dr. Puri shrugged. "I've obliterated every single atom of my late husband myself. I have my family restored, loving and accepting me as their mother as I learn to accept them as my children as well. I am happy with the life I have. I know you may think I am a monster, Bulma-san, but I took no pleasure in the hurt I was inflicting during my takeover. I just did what I felt I had to."
"I see," Bulma closed her eyes and sighed with a mouthful of smoke puffing out from her mouth. Immediately, the space station slurped the smoke up and purified it, reworking it into breathable air and shuffling it back out and smelling of mints and olives instead of oil and tar. "Well, in that case, I suppose Gohan's plan worked out perfectly. You validated his trust in you all the way, even if I had my doubts. I recognized that these might have been my own biases against you talking, so I didn't object as vehemently as I should have. Right now, I'm glad I didn't, though."
"Your space station can fully recover a person faster than a Frieza Army medical pod. Here, please take care of Chayote and make sure she comes back to her family. I can't seem to register Trunks' Ki signature anywhere…" Artificial Human No. 21 directed her drone to raise Chayote up to the ceiling where steel wires rolled out and wrapped the tuckered out Saiyan up and conveyor belts rolled her away to a remote room where the wires could restore her to full health in a matter of minutes.
"What? Me? I'm right here…" Trunks pointed at himself, looking confused. "I don't even know you, missy."
Bulma and Artificial Human No. 21 looked each other in the eye, then turned back to the young Trunks. Each of the women opened her mouth as if they were about to explain it to the young man, but then having noticed the other having opened their mouths, they shut up, thinking the other would do it better. In the end, neither of them ended up saying anything at all.
"Trunks has disappeared since you left. He disappeared by the time Chayote beat you. He probably went back to his original timeline. It was a tremendous shock to Chayote," Bulma scratched her neck awkwardly.
"Hmph… Yes, I'd believe so. Do you truly think he left back to his original time? Judging from what Future Gohan had told me, there wasn't much of a future for him to return to. It didn't seem like him to leave a family behind at all…" Android 21 muttered, looking lightly perturbed by this revelation, though more so because nobody in the Dragon Team questioned this dominant theory or investigated it at all. Puri herself, meanwhile, didn't care about the future traveler nearly enough to try to ascertain where he'd disappeared off to.
"I don't know about that, mother. Future Gohan was a ruthless and efficient human hunting machine. If Trunks is as much of a man obsessed with his mission, he'd have gone back in time to his own future," Super No. One-Nine declared with a cheerful face as if she was sharing the good news with everybody.
"Not sure it has anything to do with being obsessed with one's mission. This is just exactly what I'd felt Vegeta would have done," Bulma gave her arranged husband a mean look. The grouchy Saiyan who stood further with his back pressed to the wall sneezed lightly, rubbing his nose with his index finger while doing his best to both hear something from the conversation and look like he didn't care about it at all. Vegeta's crushing defeat at Dr. Puri's hands still didn't sit well with the King of Saiyans and he would've loved nothing more than a reason to run it back with her for a different result.
"Perhaps…" Dr. Puri relented. Bardock and Gohan scooped Chayote up from Android 21's drone, slipping the unconscious Saiyan over each of their shoulders. In her base state, the Legendary Super Saiyan was such a featherweight to carry around that she wouldn't have required two Saiyans, but this just made it much more comfortable and simpler. "In any case, don't hesitate to call for help if Earth is in danger again. I know Earth is off-limits because of my actions and I intend on keeping my promise for both me and my family to keep as far away as possible, but if push comes to shove and our help is needed, we're more than willing to help you save the planet. That's just my creed as a scientist."
"I'll have that in mind, though, hopefully, the Artificial Human problems will have died with Dr. Gero," Bulma grunted, rubbing her eyes.
"Artificial Human problems? So then someone stole the dirt you were compiling on me? Sloppy, Bulma-san…" Dr. Puri teased the scientific prodigy with a smirk. It didn't surprise Artificial Human No. 21 at all that her rival had kept notes of all her research for a dark day and it ended up biting her in the rear. "You wouldn't want a new wave of Artificial Humans to rub off on you. I can assist you in wiping them out by assimilating them if they're causing you trouble. I'd too rather let Artificial Human technology die with me and my family."
"Dr. Gero was the final one, thanks…" Bulma cut the matter short, showing that she wouldn't budge with her decision to keep all of Dr. Puri's data for herself in case she'd need an edge in destroying Dr. Puri's new Artificial Android models if she ever made any and waged war on Earth once more. "We'll handle it and clean our own mess up, don't you worry about that."
"Of course…" Dr. Puri smiled with a noticeable amount of shade and teasing behind the smirk. "In any case, it was lovely to catch up."
"Likewise," Gohan nodded with youthful energy. "Take care!"
Just like that, the unexpected hand of assistance that ended up helping clean up the mess that both she and Bulma may have been responsible for first of all walked back to the ship and took off alongside her two mechanical offspring. Bulma exhaled a deep mouthful, lightening in both her mood and entire body language when Dr. Puri took off to far-off space and the Capsule Corps Star could turn back and shoot back home.
"Say, say…" Goku spoke up, still limping a bit from phantom pain in his knees. "Does anyone know where Chayote lives these days? It doesn't seem like she's knocked out because of her injuries. She's gotta just be exhausted from going bananas on us. Someone's gotta bring her home, right?"
"I'll do it," Videl raised her hand. Bulma pulled the sweet bitterness of the cigarette deep in and rolled it about in her chest before puffing it all out as her eyes scanned the young lady. Even if her Capsule Corps Star had healed Videl's gruesome injury fully, she was still wearing the same clothes she left home in that had a massive hole in the middle section and were dyed with dry blood all over. "Chayote-san and Navy live with us at the Satan Estate."
"Hmm… Mark Satan…" Bulma pulled the tar from her smoke in while formulating a plot in her head. "He's an awfully popular fellow, isn't he? Beyond popular and incredibly charismatic too… People can't have enough of him, it seems."
"Well, he is an accomplished martial artist who's won plenty of martial arts competitions and people associate him with Satan Security, the private military force that helped save the world from the Artificial Humans. Even if Chayote-san lead the force before, as father says, apparently, they both agreed that father should take charge of the force while Chayote-san raises Navy and they both agreed he should take full credit for advertising purposes… It's dirty and I don't like father taking credit for something someone else did but they both say it's what's best…" Videl crossed her arms with a grumpy look.
"No, it is what's best. I'm glad the business savvy I hammered into that blocky head of hers took root," Bulma smiled, extinguishing her cigarette and tossing it aside, only for a mechanical arm to unravel from the wall and catch it in mid-air. The mechanical limb then closed inside the wall, taking the burnt cigarette for recycling and waste disposal. "In fact, even if Chayote may not have been aware of it, she's laid quite the amazing soil for Capsule Corps to step into a field previously left on its own–politics."
"Politics?" Gohan scratched her head.
"Think about it. This whole mess started because the government stepped into my sandbox and started playing with my toys. I don't like it. We'll go public with this scandal. Vegeta's fight with No. 14 caused a bunch of property damage and we'll hold the King responsible publicly. His ratings will plummet and another candidate can take his place," Bulma pointed out.
"And who would that be?" Krillin squinted, looking at Bulma. "Would it, by any chance, be you?"
"Don't be foolish," Bulma waved the back of her hand in dismissal. "I'm a tech mogul. People won't trust me in a position of political power because they'll believe I'm in it for my own self-interests. Admittedly, it would be a large conflict of interests."
"Forget it," Vegeta turned around and faced the bundled bunch. "I'm not ruling over pathetic Earthlings from that eyesore of a castle, either. I'm already having trouble stomaching them without destroying them all and liberating the planet and the vacant cities to be used by Saiyans as they see fit."
"No, even if you're a royal figure with a decent claim, you won't do either, Vegeta," Bulma shook her head. "You're not very popular because of the discord your people raise with the Earthlings every day. Not to mention, as the King of Saiyans, you'd have a conflict of interest as well. Then there's the fact you're my husband, so we're back to my conflict of interest again…"
"Wait, you mean to use Videl's father as your political puppet?" Gohan scratched his head, putting two on top of two.
"You really are a bright kid," Bulma snapped her fingers with a warm smile. "I wonder whom you've got your smarts from?"
"W-Wait… M-My father? The new King of the Earth?" Videl gasped.
"That's exactly right. We'll talk about it later, for now, just make sure to change your bloody clothes. May I suggest a Capsule Corps shirt?" Bulma approached the bloody child with a deep blue shirt that had a black and white Capsule Corps logo on it and extended the folded shirt to Videl for a change. Having few options since she didn't want to come back home in the middle of the night in a bloody gi, Videl hesitantly accepted. "If your father asks, you can tell him that auntie Bulma gave it to you because I'm very impressed with your grades and will offer you an internship and a letter of recommendation from Capsule Corps any time. I know your father is rich, but netting a university spot not by paying your way in, but fairly, must have a certain ring to it for an honest kid like you, right?"
"How is Videl lobbying her way in with your dirty recommendation letter and internship any better than her father buying her the spot?" Krillin squinted, scratching his temples in second-hand embarrassment.
"You shut up now!" Bulma hissed out without dropping her pleasant smile. "Do you want the King to use my laboratories to build our next enemy that almost ends up taking over the world? I'm doing us all a favor here… Jeez."
"Isn't Mark Satan a bumbling idiot?" Bardock raised a point that seemed the most important to him, even if this whole King of the Earth plot barely bothered him at all. "How will he be in charge of the Earth?"
"Excuse me?" Videl pressed her tightened hands to her hips while scolding the older Saiyan with her look.
"Please don't take any offense from this," Yamcha tried defusing the situation with a pacifying hand gesture. "I've met your father, and he's even saved my life a few times out there. I've never met a braver man than Mark Satan, pitching his neck and head up for us despite looking like an insect to the enemy with his battle power level. That being said, he can be a bit of a…"
"What Yamcha is trying to say is that your father is a martial artist and a security officer, a warrior and not a ruler," Gohan put it in by far the least offensive terms.
"Hmph… None of you know my father!" Videl lashed out. "You just watch! He'll do an amazing job ruling the Earth as the King!"
"I'm sure he will, Videl," Bulma smiled. She didn't count on the warnings of her friends to actually propel her plan to gain a harmless political puppet in charge of the world forward. "Even if he needs help or advice, I've been in charge of the Capsule Corps since I became legally old enough to control a company, and I've actually been in charge for far longer. Vegeta here is a King of Saiyans, so he has plenty of experience in ruling a people. He can always be counted on for assistance."
"Don't offer my help for me, Bulma!" Vegeta clenched his fist with wrathful seethe.
"See? He's warming up to us. He's been calling me "woman" for years, even some time after we've been married," Bulma dismissed her husband's ire with a backhanded wave before approaching a promptly opening control panel in the wall to beam Videl and Chayote back home before one of her goofy friends ruins her plans to remove the King from the seat of power and replace him with Mark Satan.
Chayote's eyes snapped wide open. The Saiyan sat up in a single jump, throwing her head about to each side as her heart raced frantically in her chest. The pumping core sought for an opening to burst free through but couldn't find any. That was fortunate for the Saiyan, who just clenched her chest and calmed her breathing after realizing that she was back home on Earth. She wasn't sure how she ended up in her bedroom and dressed in a bedgown, looking clean and neat.
Her last memories invited painful throbs in Chayote's head. The Saiyan winced before slipping her feet out from the warm covers and into the fuzzy slippers down on the floor. She could hear her little Navy whining in a room a couple of hallways down the floor. Hasty steps rushed to attend to the young Saiyan that might soon become spoiled if his every need is tended to like this. Chayote flopped back into her bed and stretched her hands out, sifting through the bedsheets and enjoying the chilly, silky softness she thought she'd never get to feel.
The Saiyan woman then sat up and found a coat to slip into a dressing gown to slip into and tapped off to see her son. The servants tending to her kid seemed taken aback by the sudden appearance of Chayote in the doorway. Instead of tending to the toddler, they stiffened up, so Chayote calmly approached them and relieved them of the little bundle of joy she thought she might never get to see again. The Saiyan raised him over her head, forcing his capricious and whiny face to forever etch into her mind before pressing him to her chest and caressing the spoiled crybaby.
"He's just having gas, ma'am…" the maid standing by the butler that tended to Chayote's kid informed the woman. "His digestive system is still tiny and Navy is going through a growth spurt hunger period, so he can't let it all through his tiny digestive tract. All you need is to gently massage his belly and back a little and ease it through. It'll pass naturally, even if you don't though…"
"We were worried about young Navy. We may have helped Miguel-san raise Videl, but we've never helped tend to a Saiyan baby before. Remarkably, his biology seems incredibly similar to humans. He seems to suffer all the same normal human baby problems, albeit hyperbolized. He requires much more milk than ordinary human babies, thus he has more gas…" the butler calmly pointed out.
"We're awfully grateful you're here to feed him when Navy needs it. Saiyan mother's milk seems entirely different from normal and we're not sure where we'd get this much mother's milk from even if we tried to substitute it…" the maid nodded with a smile.
"Sure… If Navy needs anything, you guys just let me know and I'll drag whatever he needs from any corner of the universe I can find it in down here, alright?" Chayote gave the two servants a serious look.
"Let's just hope we won't get that desperate and it won't come to this. Exhausting periods of space travel can't be healthy to the bones of a developing toddler," the butler nodded as if it was a known fact.
"A piece of advice though, ma'am…" the maid raised a limp and cowardly index finger. "Satan-san is very protective of Videl-san. You should be careful with excessive training and overstimulation. This time you lucked out that Satan-san was away working for the week but if he saw Videl-san coming back in the middle of the night carrying the unconscious body of her tutor alongside a young man… Well… There'd be some noise in this house for sure…"
"Thanks, I'll have that in mind. It won't be a problem anyway, I've left it up to Gohan to teach Videl martial arts from now on," Chayote shrugged it off.
"Gohan… That is an odd name. Is it a boy's name?" the butler wondered.
"Yeah, he's about Videl's age…" Chayote nodded while still gently nuzzling her child. The little pest got rowdy and began play-wrestling against Chayote's free hand, trying to bite and nibble on her snapping fingers to stop the superhuman snapping noise that Chayote stimulated him with instead of using a clacking toy.
"Oh, my… Satan-san is awfully protective with that. He's been laxer about it since the attack of the Androids, but…" the maid gasped.
"It's fine. I'll talk to him if he gets uptight about it. Videl needs to interact with other kids her age. Also, it's good for her to practice different martial arts styles and study from different mentors," Chayote dismissed the maid's worries.
"That's great, Satan-san holds you in such high regard…" the maid nodded in agreement. "I'm sure he'll understand."
"Hey, do you think it's okay if I take Navy to the bed with me and sleep with him so that he's right by me when he needs me?" Chayote wondered.
"Normally, I'd be against it. You could easily roll on top of the boy in the night and squeeze him too much. However… I've seen this devilish toddler juggle house appliances and wardrobes with an effortless smile so… I don't think any of us could hurt him if we wanted to…" the butler fixed his tie.
"Great!" Chayote nodded with a cheerful smile and pushed Navy's play-wrestling arms down to his belly where she could scratch it. Navy didn't like this much either, chomping on Chayote's ring finger and tearing into it like a little croc. He was learning to use different muscle groups already. When just his bite force couldn't hurt his mother, he tried joining his neck and shoulders for a combined chomping assault. What an energetic, grumpy, and violent baby…
A baby Chayote loved the most in the entire world.
Author's Note: Hey, just wanted to leave a small note that work has been especially work-like and grueling these last few weeks and I might have to do some overtime next few weeks so I may not always have the time to squeeze in chapters in the middle of the week, but I'll try to still post on weekends. It's just a temporary shift in my workload and it should only be for the next week and a half or so (I hope). Anyways, much love and take care 3
