SSV/N: Wow. A whole year. Actually updated every week! Any of my readers who were around when I started know that this should be basically impossible. I mean, that Captain America/Frozen fanfic sat basically untouched for a year and a half before I deleted it. So to think I could actually make something this long-lasting and consistent blows my mind. A big part of that has been all of you. Every review, every notification that I've got a new follow or favorite, watching the viewcount climb, it gives me such a thrill and a motivation to keep going. You guys are the best. We're not done yet, though. Not by a long shot! So here's to an ever-continuing adventure!
Z/N: A year, huh? A lot sure has happened in that time, both in the story and out of it. We haven't really talked to you guys much about what goes on behind the scenes or about what we're up to. We usually just pop in to address any pressing concerns we or someone else may have had and leave it at that. Well, let's break that tradition for now, at least, yeah? In all honesty, the fact that we've uploaded a chapter every week, without fail, for an entire year astounds me. When Cloud and I started this over a year ago, I fully expected to never even reach the Piccolo Daimaou Saga and yet here we are starting the Namek Saga. Who knows? Maybe we'll be seeing you guys again next year when we start up the Boo Saga. Well, be sure to stick around after the chapter for a special bonus!
Chapter Fifty–four
The Face of Evil! Set Controls to Outer Space Now!
Deep in the heart of the Northern Galactic Quadrant, billions upon billions of lightyears from Earth, was the solar system that was home to the base of Trade Planet Organization operations and the Arcosian homeworld: Freeza Planet One, a world of almost complete mechanical efficiency, every inch of ground covered in cities and factories and electronics. Everything on that planet buzzed and hummed with constant activity. Soldiers, servants, and realtors, sometimes one indistinguishable from the other two, flying on and off the pink-skied planet. The most attention-drawing fixture of Freeza Planet One was the Arcosian palace, a massive crystalline structure whose highest peaks stretched thousands of feet into the sky. Deep within the heart of that structure was the being to whom every creature of the Planet Trade Organization bent their wills to. The creature whose very name was spoken in hushed and terrified reverence across every corner of the known universe.
The Mighty Freeza.
Freeza sat idly in his hovering chair in his most comfortable and natural state: his true form. In his isolation chamber on his home planet, he did not have to take care that he did not kill a lesser creature with an errant breath. The chamber helped muffle out the rest of the world and alleviated his senses that were so powerful and so acute that inferior beings were blind and deaf by comparison. In this cool, darkly lit room, he could simply be himself, what he truly was. Power personified.
As Freeza mulled over a glass of black Marcotian wine, he thought about the encrypted messages that the Saiyans had been using for nearly two years.
''Private channels',' he thought contemptuously. 'As though their monkey brains could ever outwit the mighty Freeza!' He had allowed them to operate in their false secrecy and play at being clever little chessmasters because it amused him. He almost hoped that they would find more Saiyans that had eluded his grasp. Let them find a hundred. A thousand! It was, after all, so rare a delicacy to be able to genocide a race twice. Sadly, the Saiyans had turned up nothing. Still, Freeza was more than content to let Vegeta pump himself up for his little revenge fantasy. He kept throwing himself to suicidally dangerous planets that would almost assuredly kill him. When he didn't die, it made him a more valuable soldier. But best of all, there was absolutely no way, no conceivable way in all the universe for Vegeta to match him, no matter how hard he tried. 'Unless…' his traitorous thoughts began to whisper in his head. Freeza dismissed those thoughts with a wave of his hand. It wasn't real. It wasn't. Just tales told by elders to scare hatchlings. Super Saiyans. The idea. That anything could match his almighty power. He'd wiped them out! Brought them under his heel! How super could they possibly–
Freeza took a long swallow of wine to steady himself. He was getting worked up. When he got worked up in this form, planets died. He let out a long breath and rubbed at his temples before pushing one of the buttons on his hoverchair to activate his intercom.
"Coomkwot," he said to his Chief of Internal Affairs, "Play the Saiyan audio files from eleven cycles past."
"Yiss, Lurd Frieza," The hair-covered Foyradian chirped. Freeza let out a shudder of revulsion at the bastard's under-evolved tongue making a butchery of Arcosian with that ludicrous accent. He never sullied his tongue with Galactic Basic unless it was absolutely necessary. If Coomkwot would not learn then he would have to die. A line of amber light danced and jittered in front of Freeza as a voice spoke, a physical representation of the recorded sounds.
"It's Kakarot," the voice of that long-haired Saiyan said, the weakest of the lot, "I would know. I'm Raditz, your big brother." Freeza rolled his eyes and pushed the button again.
"Not that one, you twit!" he snapped. "The other two!" What did he care of this "Kakarot" or "Son Goku" or whatever the hell her name was, or "Earth"? Coomkwot muttered a hurried apology and the single amber line was replaced by two.
"I have far grander plans, Nappa," Vegeta said. "How do you fancy immortality?"
"Immortality?" The other one parroted. He was dead, apparently, so Freeza supposed he hadn't fancied immortality that greatly.
"Yes," Vegeta continued, "Picture it."
"That's enough, Coomkwot." Freeza instructed and the lines disappeared. Freeza folded his arms behind his head and smirked as the glass of wine hovered in the air by way of his evolutionary-superior telepathy. Oh, he had pictured Immortality quite well. To finally have victory over the one foe who he could never best with strength: the passage of time. To outlive his father, his older brother, to outlive his entire race except the children he spawned. To spread his might across the entire universe. To slay the universe. Repopulate the universe. To outlive the universe itself. To see what came after and remake it all in his own image. To be God in fact as well as might.
With the doddering oafs having killed Earth's Namekian, this "Piccolo", however, it meant that those Dragon Balls were lost to him. Still, he surmised, if one Namekian could make them, why not another? And with Vegeta out of commission, possibly dead, there was no better time to make his move. Freeza chuckled to himself and pushed one of the buttons on his console with his tail.
"Cheri," he ordered, "Prepare my ship for takeoff. I want it fully outfitted with a regiment, fueled, and stored with provisions in the next hour. And find Zarbon and Dodoria, pull them out of whatever brothel and bar they've buried themselves in, respectively." Then Freeza finished his wine in one gulp and, with a groan like someone forcing themselves into a too-snug pair of pants, reverted into his first form. Then he spun his chair around and made his way out the door. He would be invincible. Who could possibly stand in his way?
OoOoOoO
Son Goku let out a pained groan as she tried again in vain to sit up. Everything huuuurt. She tried wiggling her toes and hissed in pain. Well, she had felt something, so that was good. She looked up to see Suno and Krillin standing over her, with Gohan in Krillin's arms and Suno leaning on Krillin for support. Neither of them looked happy with her.
"Guys," Goku started to say, "I'm sorry. I just wanted him to–"
"Goku," Suno interrupted wearily, "Just… just don't." Goku looked sadly down at the ground before the sound of a jet engine roaring overhead caught their attention and the three looked up to see a Capsule Corp plane flying down towards them. "That was fast." Suno muttered.
Krillin shrugged and couldn't help but smirk. "That's Bulma for ya." The plane landed and the back hissed open as it fell down to make a ramp. Roshi, Puar, Bulma, and a few Capsule Corp Emergency Medical responders hustled down the ramp to meet them. The EMTs loaded Goku carefully onto a gurney and strapped her down while Bulma took Gohan from Krillin and wrapped him up in a blanket.
"Jeez," Bulma remarked as Roshi handed Suno his cane, "You guys look pretty rough." Bulma laughed weakly as they entered the jet and everyone sat down and buckled in. The plane started to take off and Bulma crumpled immediately, throwing her arms around Krillin and crying hysterically in a mixture of grief and relief. "Oh god," she sobbed out, "You guys are okay! You're… I'm just so glad!" She hugged Krillin tight and he returned her embrace and wept as well while Roshi nodded sullenly.
"We've lost far too much today," he muttered as he reached up to remove his sunglasses and rubbed at his eyes with his sleeve. "We should be glad for what we have left." Puar drifted over to Roshi to lay under his hand and the old master offered the cat a smile before scratching him behind the ears. Puar sniffled and purred which made Roshi give him a sad smile. Suno took all of that in and looked down at Goku. For a heartbeat, she was still angry at Goku for letting Vegeta get away, for being so foolish… then she saw her wife, her soulmate, who had come back from the dead to fight for her and looked in so much pain. She fell out of the seat onto her knees beside Goku and leaned her head down to cover Goku's face in kisses.
"You're alive," Suno whispered, tears running down her face as she squeezed Goku's hand as firmly as she dared with the damage Goku must be in. "You're alive. Oh, God, Goku, you're back." Goku smiled weakly and returned Suno's kisses as best she could while Suno laid her arms across her. With the exception of the unconscious Gohan and the somewhat-detached medical and piloting staff, everyone let their emotions release now that the battle, the nightmare was finally over. Suno finally let out a sigh and sat back up, wiping her eyes. "We need to go back and get Piccolo and Ten's corpses."
Bulma shook her head. "No need," she assured. "We figured out where you guys had been on the news and grabbed those on the way over." She gave her pocket a sullen pat and sighed before she continued, "So we're heading straight to West City. The same medical wing where you had Gohan. Guess it's the 'extraordinary' wing now."
"Oh jeez," Suno muttered. "How much did people see? Are we famous?" Which she admitted to herself was a strangely conceited thought but she was far more anxious of the idea of fame than anticipating in it. The last thing she was looking forward to was being blasted with adoring people or media attention. The letters they got shortly after Goku moved in with her had been more than enough.
"Eh," Bulma said with a shrug, "They saw… a lot. They didn't see the end, though. The helicopter that tried to follow Goku and Vegeta got knocked down in the blowback of their big laser-thingy." Suno and Krillin winced. Yet more innocent people dying in their battle. "So most people didn't see the end of the fight. We were only able to keep up with what happened because Baba had her crystal ball." She gave a shrug. "Then again, everyone's got a phone these days so who knows how long until the internet's flooded with giant monkey videos." Bulma groaned and rubbed at her temples. "I'm gonna have a headache explaining this mess to King Furry." Krillin blinked in surprise.
"I'm sorry," he interjected while motioning with his hands, "Hang on. Back up a few steps. You're talking to the King?" Bulma gave him a little bit of a smile and rubbed a finger across the bridge of her nose.
"Yup," she told him with a small measure of pride. "I'm Capsule Corps' official liaison to the Royal Government for all things supernatural and extraterrestrial." Krillin couldn't help but let out a low impressed whistle.
"Fancy," he muttered. They flew the rest of the trip in silence and were bustled into the private medical wing at West City General. Bulma had bought extra security to make sure it stayed private while the wounded warriors were being attended to.
They all had several cuts and bruises, not to mention hairline fractures basically everywhere. Gohan got off the lightest although he had a concussion from when Vegeta had smashed him in the head with rocks. A doctor had attempted to examine the stump where his tail had been but Bulma had given him a large stack of cash not only to not look at it but to never mention it to a single person for the rest of his life.
Krillin had several broken ribs as well as a near-break through almost his entire left arm and a slipped disc in his neck from where Vegeta had slammed him.
Suno's right leg was broken in several places and deep bruising on the bone from where Veget had driven his knees into her shoulders. She also had two broken ribs and a pinched nerve in her back.
Goku had…
"Several concussions, arms and legs broken in half a dozen places, broken ribs, shattered collarbone, broken toes, and her vertebrae are so damaged that I'm shocked she's not paralyzed." The doctor read off his chart before he looked down at Goku, wrapped head to toe in a full body cast with her face expose and sitting in a special medical bed that was halfway in design to a sarcophagus. "What happened to her?"
"Do you watch the news?" Bulma asked. The doctor shook his head and she shoved more money into his face. "How's about you keep doing that?" The doctor shrugged and shuffled off.
"Jeez," Krillin said playfully from his hospital bed, "You look like a mummy, Goku." Goku grinned before she started to twitch her nose.
"Aaaaagh," she moaned, "It's itchy!" Suno, who was sitting in the bed next to Goku, sighed and leaned over to scratch her nose. Goku sighed with relief and smiled. "Thanks, Suno." Suno couldn't help but giggle.
"So," Krillin said, "When are we bringing everyone back?" Everyone blinked and stared at him.
"Krillin," Suno began delicately, "Piccolo's dead, remember? The Dragon Balls are gone." She didn't want to snap at him. After all, he might have hit his head pretty hard and be suffering from short-term memory loss.
"I know that," Krillin pointed out irritably. "I didn't mean our Dragon Balls." Everyone blinked and stared at him. "Vegeta and Nappa kept calling Piccolo a Namekian," he explained. "Now, shot in the dark here, given that we were just fighting aliens and we found out Goku was an alien just under a year ago but it just might be possible that Piccolo was an alien, too. Call me crazy." No one else seemed to follow, so Krillin pressed on. "If Piccolo was from this… Namekia, or wherever, so was Kami. Maybe they have their own Dragon Balls and we can use them to wish everyone back!"
"I dunno, Krillin," Roshi muttered reluctantly from his seat by the window. "That's the textbook definition of a stretch." Krillin threw up his hands.
"Well it's better than nothing!" he snapped in exasperation.
'He's not wrong, you know,' said a voice in all their heads before a further argument could break out. Everyone, except for Goku, obviously, stood or sat bolt upright at attention and Gohan sprang out of his sleep to sit up. 'It's called Namek,' the voice corrected, 'But they do have Dragon Balls. Now Namek is in the–'
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Bulma interjected, "Who the heck is this and what the fff–" Bulma paused and looked over at Gohan, "Heck are you doing in my head?"
"Hi, Kaiou!" Goku called out cheerily. "Guys, this is Kaiou's voice! He's the guy who trained me in Otherworld!"
"Hello," Suno said awkwardly, "Kaiou." She thought about bowing but she wondered if he could even see her. "I'm… uh… thank you for training my wife."
'You're quite welcome,' Kaiou said amicably. 'Now as I was saying,' he continued, 'Planet Namek is in the… hrm…' they could hear the sound of papers shuffling inside their brains, 'Ah, yes! By Earth directions, it's 9045YX from the direction of SU83."
Krillin blinked. "What in the heck does that–"
"Hang on," Bulma muttered as she tucked a hand under her chin, "Lemme think about it."
'If I may continue,' Kaiou said, 'There are only about a hundred Namekians currently living on the planet. They had a terrible drought a short time ago that crippled their population but they seem to have rebounded.'
"Wait," Suno said, "How long ago is a short time?"
'Oh, about four hundred years or so.' Everyone stared in shock, save for Bulma who was still doing her mental calculations, 'Eh, s'a short time to me.'
"Hold on, hold on," Roshi put in and they could almost feel Kaiou's irritation in the back of their minds. "Even if we know where Namek is, how the heck are you supposed to get there?"
"Spaceship," Krillin said flippantly. Goku's nose was starting to itch again.
"A spaceship?!" Bulma snapped. "Are you friggin' kidding me?! Even if we took the biggest rocket engine my dad ever built and slapped it onto the smallest possible ship for maximum thrust, y'wanna know how long it would take us? 4,339 years!"
"Did… did you do all that math in your–" Krillin started to ask. "Never mind. There's got to be a way!"
'Well–' Kaiou began before Suno interrupted.
"Wait," Suno said, "What about the ships the Saiyans came in? That Nappa guy had to have had one. Don't they have like a hyperdrive or something?"
"Raditz had a ship, too," Goku added. "But it's all busted. Gohan broke it." Gohan blushed bashfully like he'd been caught accidentally breaking a plate.
'I'm trying to–'
"My dad's team already grabbed Nappa's ship from the sheet of glass that used to be East City," Bulma told them. "They probably have some kind of lightspeed capabilities but it will take them some time to take it apart and reverse-engineer the technology.
'If you'd just let me–' There was a tap at the window. Bulma got up from her chair and was fully prepared to shoo away a bird. What she was not prepared for….
"HOLY SHITJUMPING WHAT THE FUCK!" Bulma screamed as her eyes bugged out and she fell backward against the floor.
"This one would like to come in," Popo said, voice muffled by the glass. He was standing on his flying carpet with his face pressed up against the window. Bulma took a few ragged breaths before she got to her feet and unlocked the window to slide it open.
"Hi, Popo!" Goku called. Popo smiled and nodded at her.
"Hello again, Mr. Popo," Suno added with a respectful bow of her head. Popo smiled and bowed at her as well.
"Hey, Popes," Krillin greeted. Popo did not smile and Krillin swallowed nervously.
"How'd you know to come here?" Goku asked.
'That's what I was trying to tell you,' Kaiou thought between gritted teeth before relaxing. 'I sent for Popo. He's here to take Ms. Bulma to answer all your problems.'
"How's that?" Bulma asked trepidatiously. Popo turned to her and smiled. That didn't make her feel any better.
"This one wonders if you would like to see an alien spacecraft." Bulma's eyes lit up like diamond and she was practically trembling with excitement.
"Are you kidding me?!" Bulma asked eagerly and ran for the window, grabbing Popo by the hand. "Let's go!" She jumped onto the carpet and Popo hopped on after her. "How fast does this thieeeeeeeeeeeee–!" Bulma squealed as they streaked out of sight.
'Korin also wants you to know,' Kaiou added, 'That he'll have more senzu for you in a month.'
"Y'know," Suno muttered, "When we first visited Korin, he had a giant jar full of senzu. What the heck ever happened to them all?" Suno was pretty sure Kaiou shrugged.
OoOoOoO
Bulma finally finished squealing as they came to a stop in the cloudy and wind-whipped desolate area of Yunzabit Heights: The End of the World. Bulma shivered as she hopped off the carpet and followed Popo deep into a canyon. She gasped aloud as Popo brought her face-to-face with an honest to God alien spaceship. It was large and covered in green moss that was so old it was practically calcified. It was held in the air by four large spikes and had other spikes and spines sticking out of the top. She reached a hand up to scratch at a large bubble on the front of the ship and some of the moss came off to reveal a purple, glass-like substance. Bulma gasped and scratched away at it some more until she could see it was a viewport!
"Oh my god," Bulma breathed excitedly as she brought her hands to her mouth and made little tiny claps. "This is amaaaaaziiiiing! It's a spaceship! How do we open it?!"
"This is where God lived as a child," Popo explained. "God told this one that this ship, his 'home', could not be opened by knobs or keys or numbers. Only by words. The word was… Piccolo." Bulma's eyes narrowed and before she could ask if Popo was being serious, a circle in the bottom of the ship opened up and floated down towards them. The ship, which had seemed dead before, seemed to hum as Bulma and Popo stepped onto the circle. "Piccolo," Popo said again, and the circle lifted up to rejoin the rest of the ship.
"Oh my God," Bulma whispered again, "This… this…" she was too ecstatic to speak. The inside of the ship was pristine and beautiful and more advanced than any technology Bulma had seen or built in her entire life! The walls were smooth and seamless. Bulma couldn't find a single welding point or a screw or anything, it was like the ship had been grown! There was a single seat in the middle of the room and a control panel. Popo was rambling on something about a note left by Kami's parents and that Kami couldn't remember anything and that maybe he'd hit his head like Goku but who cared? Spaceship! Bulma settled down into the chair and grinned as the material seemed to mold to her body. She looked down at the console and… didn't see any buttons. "Right," she muttered, "Language." She sighed and turned to Popo. "So how do I make this thing go?"
"With the word for 'fly'." Popo told her. Bulma rolled her eyes.
"And that would b–" she started to say as her hands rested on the console and her mind came to a halt. She suddenly knew… everything. The entire Namekian language, their culture, their architecture and science. She could see them, see the planet, see the drought, see the ship leaving the planet far behind and landing on Earth! Then she was back on Earth, back in the chair and back in her own mind, breathless and wonderstruck. For a moment, it was too much to take and her mind threatened to overload with information. Then she smirked and squeezed the console to control herself. "All right," she declared cockily in Namekian, "Fly me to Jupiter. Let's see what you can do." She let out a squeal of delight as she felt the ship lift off the ground under her feet. The hum grew louder and louder as the moss fell away and the ship glowed bright white, as clean as the day it had landed. There was a deafening "WHIP-CRACK" sound and Bulma looked out of one of the viewports to see the red gas giant right in front of them. "Oh my God," she muttered, "Oh my God oh my God oh my God," she flung herself out of the chair and grabbed Popo's hands in hers, dancing around the ship, "OH MY GOOOOD!" She was still speaking Namekian. Popo laughed and even had a tear in his eye. His God was coming back!
OoOoOoO
While Bulma was gone, Roshi went around the room and did a quick bit of chakra healing like he had done when Suno had fired her first Kamehameha.
"It won't fix you immediately," Roshi told them, "But you'll be back on your feet in about a week." Then he looked down at Goku and peered down his sunglasses. "Except for you. If it wasn't for Korin, you'd be here for four months." Goku grumbled and fidgeted in her body cast.
"Mother," Gohan said suddenly and Suno looked across the room to Gohan where he sat in his hospital bed next to Krillin's. "I… I want to go to Namek." Suno chewed her lip and sighed, shaking her head.
"I'm sorry, Gohan," she told him, "But I can't let you do that. You need to stay here." Gohan's look of hurt nearly broke her heart.
"But mother," Gohan started to say before Suno cut him off.
"Absolutely not, Gohan," she told him a little more firmly in her teacher voice. "You almost died today. I can't risk that happening again. You're going to stay home and stay with Bulma's family until we get back. You need to start going to school and–"
"No!" Gohan blurted out. Suno stared in shock. She'd never heard her son raise his voice before. "I'm going to Namek! I can fight! I'm not afraid! And…" Gohan sniffled and rubbed at his eye, "And Mr. Piccolo's my friend. He saved me. I want to help bring him back." Suno didn't know what to say to that. Against her better judgment, she turned to Goku.
"Help me out here," Suno mumbled. Goku did her best to shrug.
"If Gohan thinks he can handle it," she said, "I believe in him." Gohan beamed and Suno groaned. Of course Goku would take Gohan's side. She'd been doing dangerous nonsense since she was ten, what did it matter to her that Gohan was half that age? She looked up to see Gohan giving her puppy dog eyes like Goku could do and groaned even louder.
"Alight," Suno sighed in defeat, "Alright. You can come to Namek." Gohan gave a cheer and Suno held up a finger. "But," she told him, "We're going to start your education on the way there." That didn't do anything to impede Gohan's good mood and Suno couldn't help but smile. He was their son, alright.
OoOoOoO
Nine days passed and, as Roshi had promised, Krillin, Suno, and Gohan were back on their feet. Goku was still pretty heavily wrapped up but now she could scratch her nose. Apparently in a week, she'd developed psychokinesis. Honestly, Suno wasn't terribly surprised. What had been a surprise was when Suno heard a knock at her door on the ninth day. Suno had been in the middle of filling out paperwork to take an extended leave from her job and was filling it with lies, since she doubted she could get the time off if she said "going to space", when the knock brought her a welcome distraction. It, thankfully, wasn't a reporter or anything. Somehow those hadn't shown up yet.
"Oh," Suno said as she looked up in surprise, "Hi, Chi-Chi. Is everything…" she wanted to ask if everything was alright but she as she studied the other woman's pained eyes she knew that was a stupid question. Chi-Chi was going through the same hell she herself had gone through when Goku had died. How could anything be alright? Still, Chi-Chi seemed to be trying to stay pleasant.
"Suno," Chi-Chi said politely, "I just wanted to… to wish you luck for tomorrow." Suno nodded appreciatively. "I-I'm sorry I wasn't there for the fight, I just…" Suno held up a hand and shook her head.
"It's okay," Suno assured her, "You don't have to explain anything to me. If you want, though, you could come with us!"
Chi-Chi shook her head and crossed her arms over her stomach. "I… I can't, Suno. I'm sorry."
"Chi-Chi," Suno said softly, "I know that things were scary when the Saiyans came but we don't even know if there'll be any danger on Namek. But if there is, we need all the help we can get."
"I can't," Chi-Chi said firmly.
"Why?" Suno asked. Chi-Chi fell silent and chewed her lip for a moment. "Chi-Chi?"
"Outer space is no place for a pregnant woman!" She blurted out. Suno was shocked by that before she looked down to see the slight swell in Chi–Chi's stomach that she had been trying to cover with her arms.
"How far along are you?" Suno asked.
"Two months," Chi-Chi said as she blinked tears from her eyes. "Yamcha and I are usually careful about that sort of thing. We didn't want to try for a child until we both thought we were ready. But I guess with everything that was going on, we sort of… slipped up." She smiled nervously and shrugged. "I was going to tell Yamcha after the fight. I didn't want to give him something extra to worry about but now…" she choked down a sob as the tears flowed freely. "N-now he's dead! A-a-and some part of me feels like if I had been there, I… I could've…" she swallowed and her voice was barely a whisper. "I-it feels like it's my fault!" Suno hopped up into the air to look Chi-Chi eye level and throw her arms around her and pull her close as the other woman sobbed.
"Shhhh," she whispered softly, "Shhh. It's okay, Chi-Chi. It's okay. It's not your fault. We did the best we could. But now we're going to bring him back. I promise." Chi-Chi sniffled and hugged Suno back.
"I'm just scared," Chi-Chi muttered, "What if something happens? What if we're out there for a year and I have my baby in space? What if I breathe in something on an alien planet that hurts the baby? What if I die or if I…"
"It's okay," Suno repeated tenderly, "You don't have to come. Everything's going to work out." Chi-Chi hugged a little tighter before she let out a shaky breath and wiped her eyes.
"You better bring my husband back," she told Suno with a little smile, "Because if I have to raise this baby alone, I will come find you and kick your ass." Suno smiled and gave Chi-Chi another hug.
OoOoOoO
"What do you mean you're going to space?!" Giran asked in a panic as he spoke to Krillin on his cell phone. "Krillin, we're holding emergency parliamentary elections! I need your endorsement! I could become King!" Giran had a pretty good chance of becoming King in the wake of King Furry's death but he had to make it a sure thing which included locking down the human demographic which needed Krillin's endorsement. Space?! Why the hell was going to space?!
"I have to do this, Giran," Krillin told him, "But I'll be back in time for the primaries, I promise. I'll get all my friends to endorse you. We did just save the world, after all. We'll be back before ya know it."
OoOoOoO
The next day, all the preparations had been made for launch and everyone was ready to go. Before going to Capsule Corp, Suno and Gohan stopped by the hospital to check on Goku.
"How are you feeling?" Suno asked as she looked down at Goku. Gohan was standing on tip-toe to peer into the bed.
"I can wiggle my toes and my fingers without it hurting," Goku told her, "But they won't let me out of the cast yet to see if there's anything else I can do." Goku sighed in boredom and frustration. "I wish I was going with you guys." Suno gave her a pat on the cheek.
"I know, honey," she said, "But we don't even know if anyone's going to be on that planet besides the Namekians. Kaiou made them sound pretty peaceful. We might not have to fight anyone." Goku gave a huff of disappointment and Suno giggled before planting a kiss on her lips. "We'll be back before you know it." Gohan leaned over the edge of the bed to wrap his arms around Goku's neck.
"I love you, mama," Gohan whispered and Goku smiled.
"I love you, too," she said before giving him a kiss on the cheek. "You guys have fun!"
OoOoOoO
Bulma stood in a Capsule Corp spacesuit in front of a primed and polished Namekian spacecraft on her front lawn and still couldn't believe she was about to fly an alien ship to an alien world. It was so cool! As she was admiring the ship, she saw her father approaching out of the corner of her eye and turned to him.
"Daddy," she started to say, "These past few days have given me a lot to think about. Losing so many people has put things in perspective, I guess. I just… I wanted to say I'm sorry. For the things I did, trying to shove you out of power and everything." To her surprise, Dr. Brief gave a shrug.
"It's fine," he assured her. "You're ambitious like your old man. That's why I gave you that liaison job with the government. Give you a bit of a job with some weight." He chuckled and scratched his cat's head where it rested on his shoulder. "I suppose I should be glad you didn't do anything to me like I did your grandpa."
Bulma blinked in confusion. "But I thought Grandpa had to be taken off the board because he went insane." Dr. Briefs grinned and stroked his mustache. "You didn't."
"Two centigrams of lead in his morning coffee and afternoon tea, every day for three years." The pair of them laughed because they were horrible people. Then Dr. Briefs hugged his daughter. "You be safe now, okay?" Bulma hugged him back and squeezed him tight.
"I will, daddy," she promised. She looked up to see three shadows up in the sky in front of her and beamed as Dr. Briefs left. "Alright, are you guys ready to…" her face fell as she saw what they were wearing. "Are you kidding me?!"
Krillin was dressed in a white pinstripe suit with a matching wide-brimmed hat and shoes with a red tie and a white belt. Suno and Gohan were in their gi, although Gohan seemed to have made his outfit himself. Bulma supposed it was supposed to look like Piccolo's. They also had three pieces of luggage apiece.
"What?" Suno said defensively. "We wanted to be ready for anything."
"And I wanted to look good," Krillin added. Bulma groaned and gestured to her spacesuit.
"Am I the only one taking this seriously?!" she demanded before shaking her head. "Never mind." She muttered, "Piccolo." Before Gohan could ask what Mr. Piccolo had to do with anything, the bottom of the ship detached from the rest of the ship and lowered down to their feet. They all scrunched up together on the platform and Bulma said "Piccolo" again to raise it. Bulma made her way towards the lone chair in the room as everyone else set down their luggage.
"Where are the other chairs?" Suno asked. Bulma said something in Namekian and three chairs morphed out of the floor for them to sit on. They sat down and Gohan shifted nervously in his seat.
"Are there seat belts?" he asked. Bulma said something else in Namekian and two bands flew across their chests in an X to hold them firmly in their seats.
"Any other questions?" Bulma asked as she turned her her seat and rested her forearm across the back, looking for all the world like a cosmic busdriver. The others shook their heads and Bulma grinned before turning back around. "Alright, ship," she said in Namekian, "Take us to Namek!" The ship roared to life and rocketed off of the Earth. They could see the stars through the viewports suddenly stretch out into a pure blue-white haze as they made the jump to lightspeed. They were in space!
Tales of the Monkey Queen Official Battle Power Guide
Pilaf Saga:
Goku – 10
Oozaru Goku – 100
Yamcha – 8
Grandpa Gohan– 70
Ox King– 60
21st Tenkaichi Budoukai:
Goku – 90
Oozaru Goku – 900
Krillin – 80
Jackie Chun – 90
Nam – 70
Yamcha – 70
Ranfan – 50
Bacterian – 50
Giran – 70
Red Ribbon Army Saga:
Goku (Post Korin) – 120
Launch – 60
Tao Pai Pai – 110
General Blue – 60
Suno – 70
Ninja Murasaki – 50
Android #8 – 90
Android #9 – 100
Korin – 190
Fortune Teller Baba Saga:
Krillin – 90
Master Roshi – 100
Yamcha – 80
Launch – 70
Fangs the Vampire – 60
See-through the Invisible Man – 70
Bandages the Mummy – 90
Spike the Devil Man – 100
Gohan – 120
22nd Tenkaichi Budoukai:
Goku – 180
Tenshinhan – 180
Yamcha – 160
Krillin – 150
Launch – 120
Jackie Chun – 139
Master Shen – 120
Chaozu – 100
Suno – 140
Piccolo Daimaou Saga:
Goku (Post Super Water of God) – 260
Suno (Post Super Water of God) – 220
Piccolo Daimaou (Old) – 200
Piccolo Daimaou (Young) – 260
Mr. Popo – 260
Kami-sama – 300
Tambourine – 170
Cymbal – 130
Drum – 190
23rd Tenkaichi Budoukai:
Goku (w/ Weighted Clothing) – 300
Goku (w/o Weighted Clothing) – 372
Cyborg Tao – 210
Chi-Chi – 130
Suno – 280
Krillin – 190
Tenshinhan – 220
Yamcha – 160
Launch – 130
Hero – 270
Piccolo (w/ Weighted Clothing) – 286
Piccolo (w/o Weighted Clothing) – 372
Saiyan Saga:
Goku (w/ Weighted Clothing) – 334
Goku (w/o Weighted Clothing) – 416
Piccolo (w/ Weighted Clothing) – 322
Piccolo (w/o Weighted Clothing) – 408
Raditz – 1,500
King Kai - 2,500
Piccolo (Post Training) – 2,500
Tenshinhan (Pre Training) – 250
Tenshinhan (Post Training) – 1,830
Yamcha (Pre Training) – 187
Yamcha (Post Training) – 1,580
Krillin (Pre Training) – 206
Krillin (Post Training) – 1,770
Gohan – 1,645
Gohan (Rage) – 2,300
Gohan (Oozaru) 16,450
Chaozu – 610
Launch (Pre Training) – 150
Launch (Post Training) – 1,340
Suno (Pre Training) – 310
Suno (Post Training) – 1,950
Saibaman – 1,200
Nappa – 3,000
Vegeta – 9,000
Vegeta (Oozaru) – 90,000
Goku (Post Training) – 4,000
Goku (Kaiouken x2) – 8,000
Goku (Kaiouken x3) – 12,000
Goku (Kaiouken x4) – 16,000