Super Dragon Ball: Paradise Hysteria

The Android-Shaped Elephant In The Room

"I see," Krillin rubbed the back of his head with a troubled expression. Then, to steer the conversation away from an uncomfortable subject and to make things easier for Pearl, Krillin turned to the newcomer he hadn't met before. "Hey, you're new, aren't you? You must be quite bright if Muten Roshi-sama took you in. I'm Krillin."

"That's right, my name's Sharpner, nice to meet you, senpai!" Sharpner bowed, noting how respectful Krillin was with the old martial arts master and putting it together that, just like Goku, Krillin was brought up by the old man.

"Sharpner is our friend from school. We invited him to train with us, since Gohan-kun, Goku-san and Chi-Chi-san were going to begin training Goten-kun up anyway. We've made it a whole training camp with Navy and Sharpner joining up. Even me and Gohan-kun brushed up on our basics alongside the kids," Videl explained the situation a bit more.

"I see, I'm glad to see that the martial arts scene is flourishing like never before. Train hard and grow strong. One day, it might be up to you guys to defend the Earth. I think I'm getting a bit too old for this," Krillin squeezed a light chuckle out.

"Too old? Nonsense!" Muten Roshi crossed his arms behind his back, scoffing at the humorous remark. "You must have been slacking on your basic training. Oh well, with a cute wife like yours, I can't say I blame you..."

"Watch it, old man..." Lazuli beamed a death-inducing stare at Muten Roshi. While the old coot hadn't crossed the line just yet, knowing him, he usually started out from the other side of the line from the get-go so some warning wouldn't have done any harm.

Before Krillin could get clued in any further, an airship shot up far past the God Temple, still dragging along jets of cloud it busted through. After running past the God Temple, the airship leveled with the temple's flat terrain and began a neat and methodical descent. Despite seeing the Capsule Corps logo on the ship, those in the God Temple still surrounded the area where the airship would land to greet whoever stepped out from it.

"Excellent, Kami Upa-sama has undone the mystical barrier protecting the temple, I see..." to no one's surprise, when the airship door slid off, it was indeed Bulma who jumped out of it and skipped the greeting part before jumping straight to business.

"I have not undone it completely, Bulma-san. I've merely loosened it to permit creations of man, including Artificial Humans, through. The time when Artificial Humans were our enemies is in the past now. Too many of them have been helping us lately for me to keep them out of my domain," Kami Upa corrected the brilliant scientist with a firm and masculine tone. Upa had grown tall and broad enough for the contrast between him and Bulma to be almost comical, however, the poncho that the Earth's deity wore made him feel a bit less intimidating by concealing his muscles underneath.

"You may want to reconsider that, Upa-san," Bulma put her hands over her hips, sassing the Earth's sworn guardian himself. "After we banished Dr. Puri and her family from Earth, I've spent countless hours and Zeni to assemble the most innovative radar technology that would warn me ahead of time if either No. 21, or one of her children, would set foot on Earth. I became particularly obsessed with this project after that scam artist towed the Four-Stars and put them all under her control..."

"The old hag isn't our biggest enemy right now. Cell is. The crone even saved both my and Krillin's lives," Lazuli spoke up.

"That might be the case, but... The thing I came here to discuss is–my satellite network picked up energy readings matching those of the Artificial Humans of Dr. Puri's production. I haven't nailed that tracking technology down to being perfect, but I can tell when the amount of readings has picked up from normal. On top of that, some of the surveillance drones I've placed to watch some of Dr. Gero's and Dr. Puri's old labs from the Red Ribbon Army and the Rainbow Brigade days picked up intense visual readings of energy beams from the sky that overloaded and shorted the drones out," Bulma explained the reason she ceased her work on investigating and finding ways to stop Cell and came here.