A large hybrid military-courier vessel punched through into the messy and devastated region where one could once find Jupiter but which was now occupied solely by wreckage and a bunch of cold and stiff, soon-to-be-dead bodies. Neither of the limp and lifeless bodies were conscious enough to appreciate the little beam of warmth that the vessel's tractor beam provided. Despite the lack of gratitude, one by one, the Galactic Patrol vessel scooped the wiped-out warriors that all together stopped an abominable monster known as Broly from tearing the entire universe asunder.

"I still can't believe you didn't even try to help them!" Tights pressed her knuckles to her sides, yelling at a humanoid-shaped alien with a sky-blue head and a purple scalp. "My sister is in there! She's not a crazy monster like those other guys, she can't breathe in space!"

"We are helping them. We're helping them right now, in fact…" Jaco let out a pathetic chuckle, desperately trying to conceal the fact that he was as terrified of his human tagalong as he was of the vicious rampaging Saiyan that threatened to destroy an entire universe just now. "And actually… You'd never guess it by just looking at it, but space is a lot more survivable than it initially seems. You can pretty much survive in it as long as it takes you to die of asphyxiation!"

"Don't spit trivia facts at me!" Tights delivered a killer right punch to Jaco's jaw while Galactic Patrolmen rushed about, warming up the chilled and unconscious bodies of the Dragon Team with gadgets curiously resembling hair dryers before placing them on levitating stretchers and dashing off to the medical chamber. "If my sister loses as much as 2 IQ points because of oxygen deprivation, you better believe it I'm telling the Galactic King!"

"Shhh…!" Jaco pressed his finger to his mouth, shushing his obnoxiously loud colleague and an honorary member of the Galactic Patrol. "I didn't hear you complaining when we were observing the battle on standby. You only got loud when Broly was taken care of. Deep down, you've got to know this was the right idea."

"Oh, was that what we were doing in a wholly different galaxy?" Tights pressed her knuckles to her hips and raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"That's right. And you know as well as I do that battles as apocalyptic as this one need to be observed from a safe distance. Even then, our ship still felt the quakes and bangs. We'd have fled to the edge of the universe if someone hadn't forgotten to recharge our Expansion Escape Velocity Drive!" Jaco turned to an insect-sized alien with black eyes and antennae on his head. Sweating profusely, the tiny Galactic Patrolman fled from criticism, pretending to be busy accompanying the injured to the medical pods.

"We should take them to Earth. I trust the healing magic of the Earthling Kami and his attendant far more than I trust you cheapskates!" Tights stuck out her tongue in a mean-spirited gesture and turned away.

A shrill scream made Yamcha twitch and jerk up while still half asleep. The jerk inside the healing pod made him bump his head, which ruined his healing mood. A couple of powerful blows to the inside of the pod made the emergency shutdown procedure kick in. The vertical lid slid off, letting the healing solution that Yamcha was brewing in for a while now to drain off. Still cranky and aching in the joints, Yamcha peeked out to see what all the fuss was about.

"What do you mean you left it behind!?" Bulma flat-out roared, twitching with veins pulsing on her forehead. Even Yamcha had never seen her this mad, and he was known for making her irate from time to time when the two were still dating.

"What did you expect us to do? Just tractor all that scrap metal inside?" Jaco crossed his arms and turned away from Bulma with a pout.

"That "scrap metal" is worth far more than the entire useless Galactic Patrol flotilla!" Bulma bawled, leaning over Jaco while preparing to pounce on him and start clawing the yellow eyes out of the insufferable Galactic Patrolman.

"That's it, it's Extermination Ray for you…" Jaco pulled out a plastic-looking gun with a straight face but then caught sight of Vegeta walking out from the healing pod looking exactly as grumpy as the King of Saiyans prematurely woken up from a healing slumber should've looked. The sight made Jaco's face stretch almost to the floor, and he slid the plastic futuristic handgun back into the holster immediately. "The Galactic Patrol isn't useless! It's the most efficient peacekeeping organization in the Universe! Just now it has dealt with a colossally dangerous Super Saiyan terrorist threatening the entire universe!"

"Wow! A Super Saiyan!?" Goku shrieked out with wide eyes. "I wasn't aware there were more Super Saiyans we didn't know about!"

"He's clearly talking about Broly, Goku…" Krillin squinted his eyes, raising his hand to block off his best friend's goofy face as if Goku's naivete had somehow embarrassed him still after all these years.

"Huh? But you guys did nothing about Broly. We were the ones who beat him… Somehow…" Goku scratched his head.

"I disposed of him, your welcome, Kakarot, just you never forgetting about it is gratitude enough," Vegeta walked out into the hallway where the recovered members of the Dragon Team were discussing business with Jaco and the other Patrolmen.

"That's incorrect!" Jaco raised his index finger to object. "Broly made the Galactic Patrol his enemy when his handler targeted one of our carrier vessels. We've appointed you as our undercover operatives to capture or eliminate the terrorist known as Broly and you did your duty admirably! Bravo!"

Bulma's left eye twitched while Jaco clapped in dry applause for a few seconds of an awkward pause. Rearing his teeth, Vegeta waved it off and walked away to find a place to cool his head. Halfway back to the healing chamber, wondering if he could find some military rations or medical supplies to restore more of his lost strength, the king turned around and gave Jaco and the rest of the Dragon Team a sullen stare.

"Hey, don't call that runt Broly. He's not the real deal, just some ridiculous science experiment gone wrong… It doesn't have a name nor does it deserve one. Now, take us to Earth. Whether it be the modified Capsule Corps Saiyan healing pods, the primitive herbal witchcraft of Namekian sorcery, just about any Earthling healing method beats this backwards barn…" Vegeta grumbled.

"I still think we should still call him Broly," Goku leaned in to Jaco's side with a playful wink to his right side. "Calling him whatever Vegeta called him sounds like a real mouthful."

"Before I was so rudely interrupted!" Bulma shoved Goku aside with a rude bump of her rear and stepped up all over Jaco's business again. "The wreckage of the Capsule Corps Star is worth more than the entire Galactic Patrol fleet! It's a living, ancient, techno-organic ecosystem. Its origin, its exact purpose, and the method of its madness are still a mystery. The universe can't afford such a loss! If the Dragon Team is your undercover operatives, that makes the Capsule Corps Star your asset, which means you have to go back and retrieve it, or else you'll have to fill out the paperwork for losing it. I don't imagine the Galactic King to be too happy about you losing an invaluable ancient cybernetic star…"

"I've decided!" Jaco hammered his fist into his open hand. The recovered or rudely awakened members of the Dragon Team all leaned in closer to Jaco to hear what sort of decision it was that he had reached. "The squadron known as the "Dragon Team" is a platoon of independent contractors. Any possessions, gear, and equipment used by independent contractors is their responsibility!"

"You lazy bone!" Tights pressed her knuckles to her waist with a mocking glare dripping with irony. "Why are you healing them in that case? Wouldn't independent contractors be in charge of their own health insurance?"

"An excellent point!" Jaco proclaimed, raising his index finger in a eureka pose.

An oversized mechanical boot attached to a simplistic system of rods and springs shoved the Dragon Team out through the starboard door. Baffled, the martial artists, accompanied by their as-of-yet unrecovered allies still stuck in discarded medical pods, all shrugged and looked at each other while pressing their noses short of air. Swimming through the open cosmos, Yamcha reached out to as many of his friends as he could, eventually realizing that he'd need to make it on separate trips. Truthfully, he was the only martial artist that needed to recover for the Dragon Team to have their way home via Instant Transmission.


"What happened to Chayote?" Kami Upa gasped, observing the unhealing female Saiyan petrified somewhere in between her Legendary Super Saiyan and her base form and utterly charred if it weren't for the cracks on the sides emanating with a faint mint glow. She lay inside her medical pod like a statue. Whatever medical broth the Galactic Patrol used seemed to have little to no effect, though weak vital signs on the control panel proved she was still alive.

"Don't know…" Krillin answered since no one else even tried to. "She took some mean hits and tangled with Broly at his worst. It doesn't look like the standard healing pods are working on restoring her body."

"Chayote-san…" Videl covered up her mouth while her eyes watered up and the young woman pressed her gloved hand to the lid of the pod in despair. Almost like trying to use her own budding skill in channeling Ki to somehow heal her mentor back to life.

"Hmmm… These injuries seem almost inhuman. It's like she began spending her actual life force and turned completely to stone. A little more of it, and her body would've crumbled away into dust. She's lucky to have stopped when she did, if she spent one more speck of her life force, she may have gambled it all away," Kami Upa observed after approaching the petrified Saiyan. "I don't think that my healing powers can heal her in this state, though I'm sure that the Dragon Balls could restore her to normal, no problem."

"Oh!" Bulma snapped her fingers in excitement. "If you're collecting the Dragon Balls, I have an excellent second wish to request. Chayote's body comes first, of course."

"So nice of you to at least pretend to care about Chayote more than your cyber-star…" Krillin squinted his eyes in a sizzling-hot jest.

"Yes, collecting the Dragon Balls could serve as excellent training for Videl. Learning up here is one thing, but going through an adventure like collecting the Dragon Balls is mandatory martial arts training material," Kami Upa nodded.

"You're acting strange," Piccolo turned to Vegeta.

"Strange, how?" Vegeta looked back without turning his eyes down or hesitating before retorting.

"That shiny, electric transformation you used against Broly. It's like going Super Saiyan while being a Super Saiyan. In that form, you may very well be a match, even for me. The Vegeta I used to know would exploit being one of the strongest warriors in the universe and try to claim immortality or infinite power from the Dragon Balls," Piccolo said.

"Hmph… Don't make a mistake, Namekian, I'm more than a match for you. That being said, I intend to exploit the power of my super-elite new Super Saiyan form. I'll use it to cement my claim as an undisputed Saiyan king. No more whispers or questions about why I'm in charge when Chayote is the Legendary Super Saiyan! I have a new, royal form of Super Saiyan that only my son from the future accessed before. You can't deny that it's a sign that the Vegeta bloodline is meant to rule the Saiyan people," Vegeta replied with passionate excitement. "I couldn't care less about immortality or infinite power. If I were immortal, I'd live to see my family die before me, and I'd be the last Saiyan to ever exist. Infinite power doesn't interest me in the slightest either, all I want is strength to protect my family and my people. Whether that makes me undisputed No. 1 Super-Elite in the universe, either way's fine with me."

"As I've said, you really changed…" Piccolo smiled with his eyes closed in a serene expression of tranquility. "Maybe it's that change that awakened this new power in you?"

"Is this really a good idea? Can we even use the Dragon Balls already? We used them to restore those converted by Puri & Co, right?" Gohan ruffled his spiky black hair with a sour note fixed on his face. "I know it's been a while since then, but has it really been an entire year?"

"Twelve months and twenty-six days," Mr. Popo stated with an unfeeling expression after raising a thick index finger as a sign of his interjection.

"Ah… I see… Still, maybe Yajirobe-san can do it?" Gohan scratched the back of his head and rubbed his boot at the tiles before proposing.

"Gohan-kun… What's wrong?" Videl leaned up in Gohan's face from the left side, making the startled youth blush and stagger back.

"W-Wrong!? Nothing's… Wrong! It's just… Yajirobe is pretty good at collecting Dragon Balls at this point and I'm sure he would appreciate the workout," Gohan shook his hands out in front of him in self-defense.

"I don't think you've met Yajirobe…" Yamcha rolled his eyes.

"You don't want the girl collecting Dragon Balls. Your feet are getting cold about her going off on a trip, aren't they?" Bardock noted, seated atop of a piece of railing surrounding a palm garden atop God's Temple.

"N-No way!" Gohan waved his hands even more frantically. "Although, now that you say that, maybe I could tag along and continue teaching Videl martial arts at the same time as we're looking for the Dragon Balls?"

"There'll be no need for that!" Kami Upa shook his head, stepping in between Goku, Bardock, and Gohan. "Videl is my student too, and I don't think that having a Super Saiyan take care of all the danger for her is good for her training. She needs challenge and practical training to sharpen her martial artist's mind. If she plans on having Gohan take care of her problems for her in life, she has nothing to learn here in this temple."

"The Earthling doesn't need you babysitting her," Vegeta turned around and approached the gang. It was strange of him to take an interest in this developing quest suddenly. "She'll have Trunks by her side for that."

"Wh-Wha!? Me…!?" Trunks jumped up as if scalded by hot water. "No way! I thought you were going to teach me to go Super Saiyan!"

"After hearing the rest of the goon squad discussing this Dragon Ball matter, I've decided that it'd make for a good warrior's pilgrimage for you to get dumped in the wild without a safety net and get forced to survive on your wits and survival skill alone. At your age I was already butchering Saibamen and conquering planets," Vegeta clenched a fist with a spiteful look on his face that very few dared to argue against. Certainly not young Trunks who has felt how mean and obsessed with his training his father can get.

"Aww, man… Can Gohan come as he asked then? I can still learn something useful from him…" Trunks raised his hand like he was in school, crushed in a shutdown of his idea he knew to be inevitable.

"I mean… If Trunks wants to, I could teach him a few things… Who knows? Maybe it's exactly the growth he needs to turn Super Saiyan?" Gohan turned to his father and grandpa behind him. His eyes briefly flashed on Piccolo.

Piccolo leaned to Goku's side and whispered something to his old rival's ear, covering up his lips with the back of his hand. Goku snickered and punched his open palm in excitement.

"Sorry, Gohan, but I've noticed I'm falling behind. I just can't keep up with crazy guys like Broly anymore. I think that I let taking care of Goten make me a bit soft. Both of us could use some good-old father-son training time!" Goku shined a full-teeth smile and gave his son an enthusiastic thumb up.

"I'm surprised you're good with Vegeta basically kicking your son out of the house," Krillin turned to Bulma. "I mean, Trunks can probably beat up just about anyone that can try to hurt him on Earth but still…"

"Shush…" Bulma waved her hand. "Vegeta is right, a bit of training won't hurt Trunks and he's been hardened plenty already. Collecting the Dragon Balls is just the training and opportunity for growth he needs."

"She's just exploiting her son to collect the Dragon Balls so that she can get her giant cybernetic star back," Lazuli pointed an accusatory finger with a bitter look on her face.

"Wha…! That's so mean!" Krillin exclaimed while leaning back in awe of the depths to which Bulma would sink to in order to get what she wanted.

"Alright you two, if we're all set, you can stay the night and leave first thing in the morning," Kami Upa turned to Videl and Trunks.

"I'm good to leave right now. School starts in three weeks, so I don't have the luxury of taking my time traveling around the world," Videl declared.

"Yeah, old man, you're not my teacher so you can't tell me what to do," Trunks flipped the Kami off with his right hand while pulling his lower eyelid down and sticking out his tongue with the left.

"You're right, I am not your teacher. That's because you haven't been training at all during your brief stay here, unlike Videl. At this pace, she'll overtake you. It won't feel very good to be outpaced by a girl who started training less than six months ago, will it?" Kami Upa smirked, knowing exactly how young boys thought, as the memories of his own youth weren't too far behind for him.

"Whatever…" Trunks crossed his arms, visibly jabbed by the suggestion. "She's like a billion years old anyway, so it would only make sense for her to be stronger for a little while. Once I become Super Saiyan, though, I'll be the strongest!"

Vegeta approached Trunks, making the young boy terrified as he instantly broke his cocky and shut-in stance and stared in awe at his father's strict eyes. Almost as if waiting for a sucker punch to the gut like during training. Instead, Vegeta leaned down and pressed his hand on Trunks' shoulder, lowering himself to the boy's level and softening the look in his eyes for a moment until he was done teaching his son.

"If you think like that, you'll never become a Super Saiyan. Becoming a Super Saiyan isn't something you achieve by just being strong or by being old enough. Most Saiyans chased the transformation for centuries before we learned to awaken it. It's not about wanting it or growing into it. It's about the mental maturity of overcoming your flaws. Only when you break your worst habits and become a better person, will you ascend to that stage. Remember that, Trunks," Vegeta said before standing up and straightening his back. He turned back to Bulma, ignoring everyone else in the temple. "I'm off to Capsule Corps. Maybe one of your father's spaceship projects has a gravity chamber for me to train in?"

And just like that, in a snap, the man that rescued the universe took off to the east, spearheading himself toward West City. Bulma sighed and crossed her arms, dipping her chin down as if disappointed in her husband.

"And he's off for more training. Honestly, I don't get what he's so worked up about… He just became a Super Saiyan amongst Super Saiyans and beat up a guy that almost destroyed the entire universe," Bulma muttered to herself.

"No, I think Vegeta knows exactly what he's doing…" Goku placed his hands on his waist, staring off into the horizon from the highest vantage point on Planet Earth. "It's like he said–you become a Super Saiyan by growing as a martial artist and a person. And, as Trunks from the future and Vegeta showed, you can surpass your limits by ascending many more times. Who knows how many exactly? Maybe there truly isn't a limit to how many times you can grow. Maybe your lifespan is the only limit? It makes my skin go crazy in jitters just thinking about it. I'm itching to get to training too!"

Goku turned serious and took a bountiful leap off the temple, engaging a burst of crystal-clear aura and taking off east in a straightforward direction toward his home. Without uttering a word, just gesturing farewells to everyone, Bardock followed his son. Gohan walked up to Videl and took her hands with his.

"Sorry, Videl-san. I've got to go train with my father. I'll earn my salary as your tutor once school starts, okay? You just take care now and maybe even try to enjoy yourself," Gohan said. Videl smiled and nodded.

"And don't worry about your dad either, Videl," Bulma winked in encouragement. "I'll be expecting him to pay back the Capsule Corps investment into his campaign to become King of the World with interest. He'll be too busy campaigning to notice you've been missing from home while you're looking for Dragon Balls. Here's my complimentary briefcase of capsules. One of them has got to have a Dragon Radar in it."

"Well, I guess I'm off looking for another girl that'll agree to become my wife. I've utterly ruined things with Ruby…" Yamcha kicked a few pebbles with his boots and approached Bulma, touching her shoulder to Instant Transmission her home to Capsule Corps before teleporting himself back home.

"That's just sad. Your friend's just sad. No way are we losing to him. Let's get married first!" Lazuli clenched her fists and turned to Krillin with eyes that were burning with a passionate spirit to get ahead.

"W-Wait… Is that a proposition?" Krillin gasped.

"It's not like you're going to buy me a ring with your salary until you get back into the insurance gig you've squandered anyway!" Lazuli pouted and turned away, taking off though much slower than her peak velocity, almost as if she wanted Krillin to chase after her. Like a hopeless, love-struck fool, he did exactly that.

"You ready?" Videl turned to Trunks with a look that yelled ready.

"The sooner we get this thing done…" the sassy Saiyan toddler shrugged with indifference.

The two unlikely partners took off soaring, looking for a place to set up a camp before checking the capsules that Bulma handed them for the Dragon Radar and then homing in on the nearest Dragon Ball location. Kami Upa tapped his tomahawks together, using magic to elevate Chayote's healing pod to follow him into the palace of God's Temple where he could preserve the petrified body until the day the Divine Dragon revitalizes it.