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Chapter 19: A Little Curiosity

"Hm… I see… So this 'Yaroff' works under Mrs. Musuka," Dr. Briefs murmured. He looked up at the four. "I'll see to it that those animals are relocated somewhere safe."

"Thanks, Dr. Briefs!" Goten said gratefully.

"So… now what're you gonna do?" Yamcha asked the three Saiyans.

"We're goin' after him again, of course," Bardock stated as though it was obvious, "Then we find that woman and get her stupid posse outta my sight for good. Then I'll finally have my revenge," he said. He glanced at Goten. 'And Goten's home will be at peace, too.'

"Yeah! We'll avenge the poor animals and Icarus!" Goten balled his fists with determination. His grandfather rolled his eyes at the fact that Goten would cast aside his own pride to seek vengeance for a bunch of Earth creatures instead of himself.

"Well, if you really wanna continue searching for Yaroff," Dr. Briefs spoke up, scratching his head momentarily, "I'd advise against hitting every known base Zoodobu has. The authorities would soon try to track you down for either trespassing or for conducting an illegal independent investigation. Instead, you could try a more subtle way. You could split up and search for any sign of animal kidnappings, then track them to whichever base they arrive at. Yaroff seems to be spearheading these operations, so you'll most likely catch him and his workforce in the act."

"Uh… I'm not… still involved in this, right?" Yamcha wanted to know if he was being kept on the team or if he could finally go home and rest.

"Well, it would be a good way to get your strength up, wouldn't it?" Dr. Briefs nodded as Yamcha sighed. "If you don't want to, I'll halve your pay." Yamcha straightened up in alarm, but the old man laughed, saying, "I'm just kidding! Oho! That gets you every time, doesn't it?"

Yamcha contemplated the possible outcome if he wasn't accompanying the Saiyans for their next encounter. 'Again, it would only be the two kids and a Saiyan unfamiliar with Earth's customs. I don't want Bulma or Chichi to be mad if they screw up. Dammit… Why did Krillin have to get a job and make himself busy? Dr. Briefs is right, though; it would make for some decent training.'

"Alright, I'll stay for now," Yamcha decided.

"Cool! We're all in this together!" Goten celebrated.

"Awesome. Hey, how're we supposed to let each other know when we find something?" Trunks asked.

"That's a good question. Well, I think the best tool for the job would be this here scouter." Dr. Briefs gestured to the green one on his desk. "Bardock told us all about how they function, making me realise just how useful that alien tech is. So, how about I make a few more for you, tomorrow?" He smiled, rubbing his hands together. "You'll be able to think of it like an early Christmas present from your Grandpa, Trunks."

"You… you can't reverse engineer scouters just like that." Bardock furrowed his brows, sceptical.

"Sure I can! Besides, my daughter's left a couple notes on the thing, so it'll give me a head start. So don't you doubt me! I'll give you all one each," he explained.

'How does this guy think he'll pull it off? He really must have all the time in the world,' Bardock pondered.

"Will it look like that one?" Goten pointed at the green scouter on the desk.

"I suppose it's easier to make exact replicas," Dr. Briefs stated. "Unless you want me to personalise yours?" he offered with a chuckle.

"Well… no, I like green just fine."

"Can mine be red?" Trunks asked.

"Yamcha? What about you?" the doctor asked.

"Well, wouldn't it be smarter to make clear ones so we can see out of them better?" Yamcha suggested.

"Good point, but I wanna look like the guys from Zillion! Theirs were coloured instead of just plain clear," Trunks said, having watched that anime with Goten last year.

"Alright then, I'll make yours red and yours clear," Dr. Briefs decided as he adjusted his glasses. "I suppose I shouldn't keep you. Just come round maybe… tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay. Thanks, Grandpa! You're the best," Trunks said.

"Thanks Dr. Briefs!" Yamcha and Goten said.

The four then walked out of the lab and travelled down the corridor. "Hey, I was thinking…" Trunks spoke.

"What's up, Trunks?" Yamcha replied.

"Well, how about we all train together again?"

"Ugh, at this point I'd rather go home and rest for tomorrow…" Yamcha slouched.

"Okay, if you really want to..." Trunks slid up to him. "It's not like you could land a blow on me anyway," he teased.

"Hey, kid! I might not be part Saiyan but I've got years of experience under my belt! I can sure show you a thing or two!" Yamcha declared proudly.

"You wanna go?!" Trunks got right in his face.

"I'll prove you wrong!" Yamcha accepted his challenge.

"If ya don't "prove me wrong", I'll… Hm… I know…!" Trunks' face turned devious. "I'll force you to learn the fusion dance!"

"What?! No way! In that case, I won't lose!"

Yamcha and Trunks raced to the Gravity Chamber while Bardock and Goten looked ahead at them in surprise. "I thought he said he wanted to go home," Goten commented.

"Trunks attacked whatever human pride Yamcha has, so of course he's gonna want to defend it from a child," Bardock theorised. "For an Earthling, he's sure got guts taking on Vegeta's son."

"Everyone tells me Yamcha isn't very tough, but that he has real fighting spirit. And Trunks' mom said he could be kinda silly sometimes too. Maybe if he trained more with all of us he'd be way stronger!"

"You think?" Bardock considered. "Hmph, I suppose he's proven to be a little tenacious."

As grandfather and grandson stepped into the chamber, they could see Trunks laughing away while Yamcha was ranting at him. Something about gravity?

"Let's set it to…"

"You better make it fair!" Yamcha yelled.

"Twenty!"

"Twenty?! For a fight?!" Yamcha blurted out before he found himself straining under the intense gravity.

"Hm-hm-hu-hu…" Trunks was stretching his arms and knees in preparation for the duel. "You ready to defend yourself against a prince of all Saiyans?"

"…You bet…" Yamcha didn't sound like he wanted to go through with this anymore.

Minutes later…

"C'mon, you couldn't block that?"

"Sh- Shuddup!" Yamcha weakly retorted.

"Oop! Where was that one meant to land?"

"I swear, if you tease me one more t- OW!"

"Huh? What was that?" Trunks smiled mischievously. The two jumped away and started firing blasts at each other.

"Now I'll show you! Hyah!" Yamcha conjured a Spirit Ball and it zipped around, chasing Trunks.

"Haha! Can't catch me!" Trunks did a few backflips to show off, but in doing so, he didn't expect the ball to duck under him and shoot upwards, hitting him mid-air.

"Yeow! You got lucky!" Trunks pouted as he fired a couple more blasts of his own. "You gotta teach me that one!"

"Just so you can use it against me? Heheh! Not happenin'!" Yamcha dodged the blasts and settled into a low stance as he got closer to the kid.

"Not just against you! Dad'll never expect it during our training!"

"Oh, it's a deal then!" Yamcha said with an amused smirk as he went in for a Wolf-Fang Fist.

When the two fighters finally ceased their little bout, Goten and Bardock approached them. "Way to go Trunks! That was so fun to watch!" Goten congratulated him.

"Not bad for a human. Though I think we both knew how this would end," Bardock spoke to Yamcha who was lying on the floor, exhausted.

"Yeah, yeah… It was a good fight, though," Yamcha breathed heavily.

"An Earthling like you thought that was a good fight? Against the son of Vegeta?" Bardock smirked.

"Yeah, it was, because I'm not as weak as you think I am. But still, I couldn't imagine fighting him in an all-out battle. Pretty sure I'd be toast," Yamcha chuckled.

"Unless you have a Super Saiyan-like transformation of your own, that sounds about right. And unfortunately for you, you Earthlings haven't got a single one."

Yamcha sighed, "Yeah, I know. Ever since I've known about Saiyans, I feel like I haven't been able to pull my weight. Their power just completely… eclipses whatever power I've ever managed to gain."

Bardock's face turned neutral. "At least you've tried getting stronger."

Trunks approached. "Sorry Yamcha - Saiyans are a warrior race after all, so no hard feelings!" He held out a hand.

Yamcha smiled, nodded, and took Trunks' hand to pull himself up. "Oof… You sure the gravity still isn't on? I feel like I'm gonna drop again…" Yamcha hunched over tiredly.

Bardock looked to his grandson. "Goten, remember - your mother gave us a week to try fix this problem, so she won't expect us back to cook us anything."

"Oh, right. Are we staying here, then?"

"Yeah! A week-long sleepover!" Trunks punched the air.

"Nice!"

"Heh. At least I can use the Gravity Chamber within the same building now." Bardock smirked, very eager to take advantage of this opportunity, especially with no Saiyan Prince around.

"Well, I'll see you guys tomorrow." Yamcha rotated his shoulders as he walked away.

"Hey! Don't forget what the loser has to do~!" Trunks sang.

"Ohhh, no. I'm out!" Yamcha sprinted off at lightning speed.

"Whoa, here I thought he looked completely exhausted a couple seconds ago," Goten remarked.

"Oh, he'll be doing that embarrassing dance whether he likes it or not!" Trunks snickered. "Yo, Bardock. You wanna tag along with us for this one?"

"Sure, I'll go do that," he replied with a smirk, knowing he was in for a treat.

Goten asked, "Trunks, can we go find Yamcha?"

"Yeah, let's go!"

The two boys raced down the hallway, startling some of the staff nearby, while Bardock followed.

"F- F- F- Fuuusssionnnnnn…"

Trunks pointed at him in disappointment. "Nope! That's so sloppy! Arms 90 degrees, not 75! Then you arch them 180 degrees like so-"

"Gahhh! This is torture!" Yamcha wailed, "Help me outta this, somebody!"

"This is what your punishment is for losing!" Trunks chuckled. "Accept your fate!"

While Trunks showed him the routine, Bardock guffawed the whole time at the man's misfortune.

Yamcha turned to him, disgruntled. "You think this is so funny? You oughta try it for yourself!" he recommended sarcastically.

The Saiyan saw the kids eye him with mischievous expressions. "Nope. I'm out." Bardock shot out of the complex.

"It's bad enough that we are now under investigation, but I hear our other groups are taking longer than normal to perform Operation Clawhide!"

"I profusely apologise for their delay, Madame Musuka. My primary group, however, are working tooth-and-nail to compensate for the sluggishness of the others before I get round to quickening those slackers up." Foreman Yaroff bowed his head.

"At this rate, we'll lose millions upon millions of zeni," she spoke in a clipped tone and turned to walk away before looking back. "Your operation mustn't become compromised, my dear foreman. If it does, I won't be certain of your position here any longer."

Out of her earshot, Yaroff muttered, "I assure you, Madame Musuka, it won't be me who will be treading on thin ice next time. Damn you, Yamcha, and your warrior pals!"

The next day…

"Hello again, Yamcha! Your warrior pals are in the Gravity Chamber already," Dr. Briefs greeted him, then added, "I'll see you all in just a moment." He left Yamcha alone to retrieve the scouter replicas he had been working on.

Yamcha peered inside the Gravity Chamber and saw Bardock, who looked strangely unsettled, or flustered… (He couldn't decide). He noticed the two kids in there with him, and they were all sparring with each other at an astounding 101 times gravity. 'Because any less and it wouldn't be a good workout, huh.' Yamcha sweatdropped.

He knocked on the door and Trunks shut off the gravity. He waved for Yamcha to enter, and Goten grabbed Yamcha's hand and began dragging him to the centre of the room.

"We've been waiting for you!" Goten furrowed his brows, smiling.

Trunks said, "Hey Yamcha, the three of us agreed that if we trained you up, you'd be a great sparring partner!"

"You withstood 300 times gravity, so that's mostly the reason behind everyone wanting to have you train more," Bardock added.

"What do you mean by "everyone"? And you guys do realise I have freedom of choice, right?" Yamcha put his hands on his hips. "You can't just rope me into becoming some full-time battle nut!"

"Isn't that why I asked you to come here in the first place, Yamcha…?" Dr. Briefs came into the chamber.

"Oh, right… I almost forgot about the whole research thing you wanted us to do, Dr. Briefs…" Yamcha looked around sheepishly. "Well, uh… guess I'm sticking around to train like crazy with you guys then!" He looked a little apprehensive, thinking of all the pain he knew he'd have to endure from now on.

Not that it would be worse than all the times his own life was on the line.

Which had been a great, many times.

"I brought your new scouters! What do you think?" Dr. Briefs handed everyone their own scouter which they each inspected, and looked impressed by.

"Not bad, old man. I'd mistake these for the real thing," Bardock commented.

"3D printing can work wonders, can't it?" Dr. Briefs replied, a pleased look on his face. "And I directly copied all the circuitry, which means that essentially, they are the real thing."

"How does this thing work?" Trunks asked as he turned it around.

"You slot it onto the side of your head like so…" Dr. Briefs placed it on for him. "Then you press this button here." He guided Trunks' hand up to it. Trunks pressed the button and a little beep sound came out. On his red screen, a bunch of information started to accumulate.

"Keep pressing the button to cycle through different information. You can hold down the button to contact the other scouters," Dr. Briefs added.

"Neat," Trunks said. He looked at Goten. "Hey Goten! Raise your power as high as you can go!" he chuckled, "Let's see if it'll stay intact!"

Dr. Briefs adjusted his glasses. "Oh, boy. In that case, I'll be moving to the computer room, far away from your powering up." He walked off.

"Do it now, Goten!" Trunks told him.

"Alright…! Haaaaaaaa…!" Goten's power began to skyrocket once he went Super Saiyan.

"More!" Trunks called out to him.

"I'm… going… higher!" Goten called back as a ton of beeps resounded.

"Whoa… it's still reading you! Keep going!" Trunks encouraged.

"…Aaaaaaaa…!" Goten kept yelling to help increase his power.

"This is great! It hasn't exploded yet!" Trunks noted.

"I'm gonna… go… even further…" Goten breathed out, straining his muscles.

"Kid, don't go hurting yourself over this," Bardock interrupted. "What, you plannin' to transform into that 'Super Saiyan 2' you told me about?"

Goten didn't answer as he tried to reach even higher with all his might. His expression looked very fierce and his jaw was clenched.

"Uh… Goten? You've never tried going Super Saiyan 2 before," Trunks cautioned.

"If we can go… Super Saiyan 3 as Gotenks…" Goten began to sweat profusely, the droplets riding over the vein bumps that formed on his forehead. "…then I can go Super Saiyan 2… by myself…!"

Trunks looked unsure. "Goten, I dunno. I think you should stop now."

Somewhere far away…

"Huh…? What's that?" His enhanced ki sense was detecting a huge swell of power. And it felt familiar. He sat up from his bed. "It's… crazy strong, too. And it feels like it's coming from Earth!"

He walked to the window. "Is something going on?" he wondered as he closed his eyes to concentrate on it.

Just as he was about to grow concerned, the ki signature powered down in a relaxed way. "…Hm, guess it's just somebody I know raising their ki in training."

He promptly hit the pillow and drifted back to sleep. His stomach growled, pulling him back to reality. "Boy, am I hungry now."

"Aw… I couldn't do it…" Goten said sorrowfully.

"You gave it your best shot, kid. It's way more than what I could do," Yamcha consoled him.

"Your power was crazy high, anyway!" Trunks read the highest reading it had scanned. "Like, it was millions upon millions, dude!"

"He's right. I never would have believed that way back, because Frieza's power level was said to be 530,000." Bardock shook his head.

"Oh good, they're working just fine," Dr. Briefs commented as he approached.

"Seems like it," Bardock replied. "Say, is this scouter I'm wearing my son's or another replica? And is that woman's voice feedback completely removed?" He pointed to it on his ear.

"Oh yes, that's the original. You can tell because it's a little scuffed on the back. And yes, the scouter has no voice response anymore. I made you a replica, but, I thought it would be nice for this one to be kept in use."

"Hm. Fine then," he mumbled.

"I also took the liberty of giving them an extra feature," the doctor added, making Bardock throw him a suspicious glance. "It can now provide video feedback!"

Bardock exhaled in relief. That was, in all honesty, a good idea from the man. "Not bad. I'm sure that'll come in handy someday."

Dr. Briefs nodded at him, then addressed everyone, "Anyway, since you're all here and ready, I think it's about time you went scouting to test out those things!"

"Hey wait! Um, can we… have a team name?" Goten asked shyly.

"A team name? Okay, what should we call ourselves?" Trunks wondered.

"How 'bout the Scar-faced Squad!" Goten suggested.

"Nah, too wordy. Besides, only half of us have scars on our faces," Trunks said.

Yamcha turned to Bardock. "Hey, you lead a team once. Did you have a cool name?"

"…We went by Team Bardock," he stated in a deadpan tone.

"That's so lame!" Trunks and Goten groaned.

"What, you really expected some kind of fantastical, made-up one? Team names were always based on who the leader was!" Bardock explained.

"Ugh, you know what? Why don't we just go by the Z Fighters, or the Dragon Team?" Yamcha suggested.

"I'm guessing those're team names you've used before," Bardock deduced.

"Yeah, they're team names we defenders of Earth used to go by. I have no idea if anyone's brought those names up recently," Yamcha explained, "But anyway, our team used to consist of Goku, Krillin, Tien, Chiaotzu, me, Piccolo, Gohan, and so on. So… whaddya think?"

"I don't care," Bardock responded with a disinterested glance.

"Well I do! Those names sound pretty cool!" Goten replied.

"Yeah - I like Z Fighters better though." Trunks started to jog out of the room. "Now let's move out, Z Fighters!"

"Checking… One… Two…" Trunks spoke into his scouter as he was flying through the air. "This thing on?"

"Yeah, you're comin' through kid," Bardock responded. "Feels strange workin' with kids with this thing on," he muttered.

'As a matter of fact, let's see what kind of old data's left in this thing…' He pressed buttons on his scouter to browse its contents.

"I can still remember the day when you were first sent to this planet as a toddler. We had high hopes for you then, Kakarot, why have you not carried out your mission? Kakarot!"

'…That's…?! Can't be distracted now. I'm turnin' that off for later.' Bardock frowned. 'Did Raditz really think I sent him away on a purging mission? God damn it, Raditz, you fool. If I had the chance, I'd set him straight and then some…'

"Hey, Yamcha here! I'm heading to Diablo Desert. Good luck guys!" Yamcha's voice had a static filter on it.

"Okay!" Goten's voice came through. "Everyone can hear me too, right?"

"Yes, Goten, we can hear you just fine," Bardock responded.

"Okay, so… I guess I'll go further north and see if I can find any trouble," Goten said in an unsure way.

"Hey, I was gonna go that way! Monster Island's that way too, remember? How about we both go there together?" Trunks suggested.

"You'll be covering less ground, but I suppose that's fine," Bardock judged. Truth be told he was actually in favour of the suggestion so Goten wouldn't be completely alone if in danger. The kid was powerful, but still naïve. Didn't help that it was another kid tagging along with him, but, it was Vegeta's child of all children at least.

"Okay, Trunks! Do you know where I am right now?" Goten asked a little too loudly.

"Yeah I think so. I can sorta feel you too, over… that way. Be right there!" Trunks said cheerily.

As the kids cut the connection, Yamcha asked through the comms, "Hey, Bardock, man, you looked kinda… I dunno… weirded out, when I saw you fighting the kids. What's up?"

"What? How could I have possibly looked weirded out? You're seein' things," Bardock responded a little too irately.

Yamcha was silent for a moment until he thought of something hilarious that would perfectly explain it. He chuckled, "Ahh, I get it…! It's okay, man. I won't tell anyone you got roped into doing that."

"I don't know what the hell you're t-"

"Hurts your pride, doesn't it? That's what you get for laughing at me the other day!" Yamcha reproached.

The Saiyan was deathly silent, and although Yamcha couldn't see it, his face was stone cold.

"Uh… Bardock?"

Bardock darkly uttered, "You tell a single soul, and I will find you no matter where you choose to hide yourself."

Yamcha gulped. "N- Noted…"

A while later, Bardock had chosen to set foot on a large wooded expanse he had flown over on his mini adventure a few days ago; he had seen a type of animal that had looked rather large and mighty. Maybe that had been a dinosaur? After witnessing the 'Dinodroid', he was rather sure it had been.

He crouched and scanned the area, picking up a plethora of low power levels. He grunted in disappointment. These guys couldn't even lay a claw on him… except that one crab on the islands. It caught him off guard - nothing more to it. He doubted Zoodobu would be after crabs. No, they wanted the larger, more dangerous animals, if the lions, bears, dinosaur and dragon were any indication.

'Ugh… How did my life lead up to this, again? Well… at least it's better than committing genocide for some tyrant.' His mind flashed of the Cerealian woman and child he had spared on Planet Cereal, who had looked so similar to his own wife and youngest child. 'My damn feelings back then got in the way of finishing them off… But it turns out that acting on your feelings is what grants you more power.'

He kept scanning, and for some reason, there were two larger power levels up in the sky far off in the distance. He was torn between searching for animals being taken, or checking out the two readings. 'Could be something important,' he concluded. 'It's far more interesting to check out than anything else I've picked up yet, so why not?'

Bardock flew across the greenery, which by all accounts looked relatively untouched - Perfect for fauna to thrive in. Though, upon closer inspection of his approaching destination, there was a long grey tower that stretched high into the sky, even passing through the clouds. Nearby was a small village, too. Bardock ignored the village, though he did note a couple higher-than-average human power level readings.

Bardock decided to take the most logical course of action, proceeding to fly all the way to the top of the grey tower where the interesting readings were located. He tried to be less conspicuous about it so he wouldn't have to interact with anyone. He had a little job to do today, and as we know, the Saiyan wasn't keen on socialising. Maybe, the more he resided on Earth, the more he'd open up? It was probably wishful thinking.

Bardock realised Zoodobu would never manage to get up here to kidnap any animals as the tower was far too high. Regardless, it was his curiosity that led him higher and higher.

As he ascended the tower, dark clouds formed a ways above him, causing him to pause in the air in confusion. One cloud positioned itself directly above him, sending out a bolt of lightning, which Bardock dodged on reflex. He then realised he could've just tanked it. It seemed that the 'clouds' also realised this and dissipated in an instant.

"What the hell was that?" Bardock exclaimed in an irritated tone as he now held onto the tower, "Trying to stop me from gettin' to the top, huh?" he said thoughtfully to no one in particular.

He of course heard no answer, so he resumed his ascent by climbing the rest of the way. His scouter beeped and showed power levels of 2,100 and 1,900.

He arrived just underneath what appeared to be a platform of some kind, and was trying to gauge who or what the readings belonged to. Their outlines pictured on the scouter differed greatly as one looked like a rotund human and one was… a small animal. 'So there is an animal all the way up here,' he thought curiously.

"Round two! You ready?" a croaky voice spoke.

"S'pose I am!" the other voice replied.

"Aaaand go!"

Bardock was confused. Was the animal talking with the human? What were they even doing? And why were they up here?

His scouter showed the man lean backwards and shuffle forwards, while the cat watched. 'Th- That's limbo! They have limbo on Earth?!' Bardock thought. They were playing a game up here!

"Hey you down there! You want in? Or are you here for some… other reason?" the croaky voice called out.

To him.

Bardock swore and revealed himself to the two. His familiar appearance seemed to have surprised them quite a lot more than what they had sensed from him.

"Wah! Y- You sure look different, Goku, bro!" the pudgy man exclaimed as he pointed at him.

"That's not Goku," the cat realised. He had a very suspicious expression as he noticed his scouter. "You don't have his overwhelmingly positive ki. I sense a lot of misdeeds from you… but a lot of hardship. Who are you?"

"My name's Bardock. If it helps, I'm his father." Bardock glanced at the two, unfazed by their power levels. But what he was wary of was the cat's ki sensing skills. Maybe he was the one who cast that lightning?

"His father…" The cat stroked his chin. "You sure look the part, there. He's never mentioned you though. Besides that, even if you're the father of Goku, it doesn't give you the right to get up here by simply flying!" He tapped his wooden cane in agitation.

"I don't have the right? Is that why I was attacked by a single lightning bolt?" Bardock argued.

"Attacked by a… uh… lightning bolt…? I, uh… don't know what you mean!" The cat's forehead started sweating a little - something a normal cat couldn't do, but Bardock didn't know that.

Bardock crossed his arms. "You can sense my power level. How else would you know I flew up here starting from the bottom of the tower? You know I'm way outta your league, cat. I only came here to check this ridiculous tower out-"

"It's not a ridiculous tower! It's my tower!" the cat yelled exasperatedly.

"Your tower? How the hell did a cat like you get a tower like this?" Bardock's face looked confused.

"That's not for you to know, stranger!" the cat responded, tapping his cane two more times, "Ahem… Now your curiosity has been satisfied, you can leave."

"…I'm just as curious as I was before, cat! Maybe even more so now!" Bardock looked around the small space. "So you just… live up here? How do you even eat and drink? Better yet, how does a pipsqueak like you even climb up this thing?"

"Alright, that's enough of your questioning! I've learned enough about you Saiyans over the years, about how much you disturb other people's peace! Well Yajirobe and I would like you to leave if you won't show me more respect!"

'Yajirobe… that's a familiar name. Didn't the kids tell me about him before?' Bardock wondered.

"You got a name, cat?" Bardock looked over at the pole used for their game of limbo.

"Don't ignore my request! And it's Korin! As in Korin Tower, the thing you didn't climb like you were supposed to!" Korin told him.

"Why am I "supposed" to climb this thing?" Bardock asked.

"Listen well, Bardock - This tower has always been climbed by newcomers from bottom to top to reach me properly. Not doing so means it is cheating, and I will not want to help you in any way if you need any help. It's part of the training for potential warriors who want to grow stronger," Korin explained.

"But I don't need anything from you, cat. So what if I flew some of the way up here? I'm not gonna waste my time climbing something when I have other things to handle," Bardock said dismissively.

"Those other things being?"

"Tch. If you must know, me and a couple of other guys you've probably met are trying to track down this company capturing animals so we can get to specific people at the top of the chain. I picked up your power levels thinking it might be an interesting little place to check out."

"You came up here just to nosy around?!" Korin exclaimed indignantly.

"Basically. Didn't think I'd get sensed though." Bardock looked at Yajirobe. "You. I've heard of you. You cut off Vegeta's tail, didn't you?"

"U- Uhh…! You heard 'bout that? Who told you? S'it someone I know?" Yajirobe looked a little nervous since Bardock was dressed in similar armour, and had a Saiyan tail like Vegeta did. "You know I only did it to help save the Earth, don'tcha? Heheheh…!" he added very nervously.

"D'you know who Trunks and Goten are? The offspring of Vegeta and my son?" Bardock explained.

"Oh yes, I'm familiar with those two. Not seen them recently, mind you," Korin answered.

"So you're really a friend of the Dragon Team, Goku's dad?" Yajirobe asked.

"It's Bardock!" the Saiyan corrected. "In any case, cutting off the Prince's tail is no mean feat. I'm certain his power level must've been at least a hundred thousand in his Great Ape form at the time." He turned around after inspecting more of the surrounding area. "Hm. Guess I'll be leaving now."

As Bardock turned to jump off the tower, Korin called out to him, "Hold on just a minute!"

"What?"

"Where have you been all of Goku's life? Why weren't you here? And why do you look so young? Goku himself is no spring chicken anymore," Korin stated matter-of-factly.

"What's a spring chicken?"

"Never mind that! Just answer the question, please." Korin scratched his face.

"Saiyans age different physically to humans. I was… out in the galaxy, fighting Frieza's family," Bardock said slowly.

"Well, that's very honourable. I'm curious. How old are you, then?" Korin asked.

"Well how old are you, cat?" Bardock glared.

"You're asking me?!" Korin shook his head. "That's fair. I did ask you first. For your information, I'm 830 years old."

"830?! You sure are an old timer, aren't you?" Bardock commented jokingly.

"Hey! It's your turn now!" Korin retorted with a huff.

Bardock worked it out in his head for a moment, having not remembered to keep track of his birthday while on Planet Plant and New Namek. "I'm 33."

"You can't be," Korin stated, puzzled. "Goku is 46."

Bardock flinched. 'Damn it! Stupid time travel,' he swore in his mind. He spoke, "I guess I calculated that wrong… from the Saiyan year system." (Which was the same system as this planet's, but Bardock wasn't gonna tell him that.)

"Indeed you did," Korin replied, unimpressed.

There was a very awkward moment of silence.

"…Hmph. Well, see ya," Bardock said gruffly as he leapt off the edge.

"There he goes," Yajirobe commented.

Korin shook his head. "Y'know, that guy really is Goku's father. Both aren't very good at math."

'My son is 46?!' Bardock was still taking in this information as he skydived off the tower. 'Why didn't anyone tell me?! With me really being 33, I gotta think up a different number. Maybe 18 years older than my son… 64? That sounds way too old - nearly double my age.'

He then twisted 90 degrees and floated in the air, before coming to a halt mid-air as he thought about it.

'Maybe I can get away with 61 without people doin' the math?'

He blasted off further into the wilderness, recommencing his search.

[Author's note: Despite all the media out there about him, there is no stated canon age for Bardock. I went with what I thought would be about right.]