A tall and broad-shouldered hooded figure, accompanied by a group of other hooded figures, walked across the city of Planet Dorakiya. Both the leading wanderer and his companions were scanning the place and marveling at how seamlessly Dorakiyans had woven cities and nature together. For a species that looked so advanced, as if they were technologically augmented, Dorakiyans built homes, administrational, entertainment, and service facilities inside of jagged, sky-reaching rock spikes decorating the planet's surface.
The towns on Planet Dorakiya had no roads. All transportation occurred on rails elevated above the untouched floor that was just rough dirt, natural stone, and grass. The contrast of technological advancement and love for the nature of this species was apparent and striking enough to keep the hooded wanderers engaged for a long time.
One hooded figure stepped out of the tight formation, irritating a passing-by bluish-gray humanoid with outer armored plating over bright red skin and blank black eyes. The creature let out a threatening squeak as the blue beak embedded into the lower section of the Dorakiyan's face opened up and made space for it. The hooded man bowed and nodded in apology. While the Dorakiyan couldn't understand what the man was saying, it seemed pleased with the polite tone and let the frustrating matter of nearly bumping into the alien go.
"Master," the shrouded man addressed the hooded figure walking in front of the group. "The Dragon Ball radar shows that the Ultimate Dragon Ball should be nearby!"
"Here?" the figure in the front and center of the group stopped, glancing at his subordinate with an inquisitive tone of voice before reaching for the hood and slipping it off. The hood revealed a bald head with three eyes attached to a strapping neck. Focusing his third eye, Tenshinhan looked around, trying to determine the potential location of the Ultimate Dragon Ball. "Hmm... Can we still retrieve the Ultimate Dragon Ball without causing these people trouble, I wonder? The locals of this planet are undoubtedly civilized enough to be able to find the Dragon Ball themselves and appreciate its worth over some chunk of a mineral. But where could it be?"
A shadow obscured the Tenshinhan and his hooded gang of martial arts students on their pilgrimage trip, prompting the other martial artists to look up and see what was casting the shadow massive enough to wrap around the entire alien city. It was a humming and vibrating flying saucer ship with thousands of tiny lights attached to its outer edges. It would not appear that the Dorakiyans knew the source of this threat as the terrified aliens fled at the sight of this looming alien spacecraft.
A handful of Dorakiyans opened fire from handheld plasma pistols from atop the monorails after stepping out of their hovercars. The plasma bolts didn't even make it all the way to the alloy that coated the flying saucer as an energy field channeled from the illuminating jewels at the edge of the saucer-shaped ship absorbed the blasts and the Dorakiyan defensive measures only served to fuel the invading alien mother-ship.
A hole split in the very center of the ship, wide enough to drop an entire mountain down on the Dorakiyan city. Instead, the glowing jewels that produced the energy shield earlier now sent interconnected beams of light that fused into a pillar of static energy. A brown orb flopped from the central opening in the flying saucer ship with the descending ray of white light encompassing it and slowing down its fall to prevent damage to the town and the descending orb.
"What is that?" one of the hooded students of Tenshinhan gasped, sweating with fright.
"Calm down, feel it with your Ki," Tenshinhan turned to his student with sage advice.
"It's... It's alive!" the same student proved to his mentor that they could read Ki, as the brown orb had a notable and powerful Ki signature.
"It's powerful too, but we should be able to take it down!" another bold student rolled back the sleeve of his cloak and reared his fist.
"Don't rush into battle," Tenshinhan replied. "While very few races rival the technology of Capsule Corps, technology is much more widespread amongst most alien species. That means that this creature might possess technological enhancements that wouldn't be immediately transparent by sensing their Ki. Remember–technology emits no Ki signature."
"Right!" the students nodded in unison, adopting defensive stances and preparing to deal with this creature if it were to try some attack that causes widespread destruction.
The brown orb unraveled, revealing it to have been a defensive ball formation, similar to that of an armadillo. The emerging creature seemed to be a cross between an insect and a crustacean. Tenshinhan's suspicions proved to be correct, as the terrifying alien weapon had an armored underbelly, splitting off into six insectoid legs that could have belonged to a wholly different species. Above the technological lower half of the beast's body was a stout belly and chest and thick arms with snapping, crab-like pincers. The creature possessed a pair of ravenous pink eyes and a wide mouth stretching from one shoulder to the other. The monster's head appeared to mostly be grown inside its body, with only an incomplete protrusion suggesting of its presence.
The monster's head had a thick metallic plating over where its brains should have been. It had long and thick lines of wires sticking out from its spine, connecting directly to the concealed brain and the defensive armor plating protecting it. A likely necessity to keep the creature skittering its attached insectoid legs and snapping those pincers as effectively as if they were its own.
"That thing in its belly... Impossible!" Tenshinhan gasped, blanking out as he was staring at a gigantic One-Star Dragon Ball that would have matched the size of Earth's boulders.
Riding the static energy field of the white light beam, a short and slender alien humanoid of pale blue skin, wearing a tight, black, full-body bodysuit with a red checkmark logo at the center, white straps, and a gadget belt with a sizeable blaster attached to its hip as well. The shorty descended atop the shoulders of the overjoyed monstrosity its ship had just produced and pointed the finger of his oversized white glove at a non-descript point in space, addressing the Dorakiyan population that still failed to flee the city.
"Behold, the mightiest biological weapon in the universe–the Choki! Our radars detected an unusual energy signature on this planet that would suit Choki even better than the Planet Tech-Tech Dragon Ball we've equipped it with! As your intellectual and military superiors, we claim your natural resource that emits this powerful energy signature as our own!" the Tech-Tech alien of blue, hairless, round head proclaimed with a bold expression that believed in the hype of its own species.
"Master..." a student addressed Tenshinhan, who still appeared spaced out. If there were other planets in this universe besides Planet Earth and Planet Namek with functional sets of Dragon Balls, that meant that one of them could have potentially had the power to resurrect Chiaotzu at long last. Coping with this possibility and how it conflicted with his current chosen way of life as a martial arts teacher, Tenshinhan found himself unable to respond in time.
"Damn it! Our weapons are useless!" a member of the Dorakiyan law enforcement exclaimed. "Send a distress signal to Planet Neo Tsufuru, perhaps they will send the Neo Sigma Force here to assist us?"
"Don't bother," Tenshinhan replied to the distressed Dorakiyan, scooping up every Dorakiyan in sight and moving them out of the way as the monstrous Choki spat out bubbling foam from its mouth that washed across the monorail, sweeping away hovercars and sticking them to it like flies to a web. After placing the group of persistent Dorakiyan law enforcement down with four arms, a pair of appendages withdrew back under Tenshinhan's cape before the three-eyed martial artist removed the cloak and flung it aside. Seeing their master resolved to fight, the students followed, throwing their cloaks aside and exclaiming a spirited fighting chant. "We'll take care of this monster for you."
The stunned Dorakiyan law enforcement officers could only observe in awe as the bald group of developing martial artists charged at the rampaging titan, smashing into it at multiple sensitive weak spots before beginning to swarm it like bees. The Choki roared and bellowed in pain, as the combinations of strikes connecting all over its body were leaving their marks in the shape of bruises and scrapes. Meanwhile, Tenshinhan put his arms together, connecting his hands into a triangular shape.
"Kikoho!" Tenshinhan exclaimed, emitting a radiant, triangular beam of blinding light from the triangular shape of his hands. Instead of using the beam to destroy the creature, the martial artist guided it across, letting it obliterate each of the Choki's artificial limbs one by one, until the monster collapsed amidst the stack of its pincer arms and insectoid legs as just a flabby torso and a voracious head, still chomping around in an attempt to get a bite out of something.
"Amazing!" the students exclaimed, pumping their fists. "Master defeated the monster in one go!"
"For a moment I thought we'd have a tough fight on our hands, the creature was indeed tougher than its Ki signature suggested it would be. However, no matter its cybernetic enhancements, there's nobody our master can't defeat!" another student threw a few punches in the air, just venting his excitement.
The Tech-Tech alien singing the Choki's praises fell face-first, planting firmly into the ground. After writhing in pain for a bit, it scrambled to stand back up only to be greeted by Tenshinhan's stern face as the burly martial artist stood before the mastermind of the Choki's attack with crossed arms and unmatched imposing presence.
"Leave this planet with what little shame you have left. Otherwise, you'll leave me no choice but to destroy your ship and leave you and your crew in the hands of the local law enforcement," Tenshinhan hissed out, clenching a fist out in front of him as a warning. Scrambling and whining, the Tech-Tech alien scrambled, rolled, and bolted away toward the range of the white tractor beam, which pulled the fearful alien up into its ship while Tenshinhan's solemn look followed the flying saucer and it swerved around and blasted off as far away as possible, as quickly as it could.
"We did it!" the students cheered with jubilant fist pumps while Tenshinhan turned around to face the Dorakiyan authorities he had just saved. The students gathered around their master in support of the majestic impression of an overwhelming force of good that they represented together.
"You've saved us!" the Dorakiyan admitted with visible frustration at the fact that his survival depended on the interference of some strange-looking, three-eyed alien and his goon squad. "The Tech-Tech aliens and their cybernetic and biological weaponry are considerable threats, yet you've vanquished their most powerful warrior in no time at all. On what planet do they breed warriors like this?"
"We are from Planet Earth. I suspect that the reason the enemy warrior was so mighty has a lot to do with the energy source embedded into its abdomen," Tenshinhan turned around and pointed at the glistening orange marble that was larger than he was. "It is known as a Dragon Ball and it is a Namekian creation."
"Namekian? But didn't Planet Namek and all its inhabitants go extinct after a series of cosmic anomalies years ago?" the Dorakiyan seemed perplexed.
"They have, though it wasn't really a series of accidents. It was a targeted series of genocides from strangely unrelated outworlder threats," Tenshinhan replied. "However, there are Dragon Balls on Planet Earth as well, though we don't use them as a power source. It is likely that a Namekian exile may have made their way on another planet and created Dragon Balls there as well, which is how these alien invaders got their hands on them."
"You are strangely well-informed about all of this. I suspect you might also know what that Tech-Tech alien was looking for too," another Dorakiyan authority figure squinted its large, black eyes, casting a gaze of suspicion toward Tenshinhan.
"I do," Tenshinhan replied with a solemn admission of guilt in closing all three of his eyes at once. "Your planet is hosting a Dragon Ball. A very different kind of Dragon Ball, far more powerful than our Earth set and, apparently, more powerful than wherever these Tech-Tech aliens got their Dragon Ball from as well."
"Our planet? A Dragon Ball?" a Dorakiyan who was yet to join the conversation gasped. "How is this possible?"
"What a quirky case," one of Tenshinhan's students noted, turning at the collapsed remains of the Choki and the section of the Dorakiyan city that contained the Ultimate Dragon Ball somewhere in it. "A planet that's not supposed to have Dragon Balls on it currently hosts two Dragon Balls from two entirely distinct sets."
"An Earthling Dragon Ball called the Ultimate Dragon Ball landed somewhere on your planet a few months ago. The Ultimate Dragon Balls, when used, scatter across the entire universe, expelling a terrible mass of negative energy that destroys the host planet unless the Ultimate Dragon Balls are gathered together to soak it all up within one year," Tenshinhan explained to the best of his ability. "Our radars have tracked it onto this planet. It appears that so have the Tech-Tech aliens."
"So, you wish to claim it for yourselves. Was that all this titanic battle was about? Just a squabble for that magical space rock?" the Dorakiyans didn't react to Tenshinhan's explanation in kind. "We figured you wouldn't just save us out of the kindness of your heart, we were right–you merely wanted to kick those Tech-Tech aliens away from claiming a prize you saw as yours!"
"Hey, that's unfair of you to say!" one of Tenshinhan's students objected with a waving fist of blatant outrage at being blamed for something like that.
"You are not entirely wrong," Tenshinhan admitted with a sullen look. "However, we would have defeated the Choki regardless if it was trying to claim the Ultimate Dragon Ball or not. That is our way as martial artists–to test our mettle against powerful opponents and constantly grow stronger, improve our techniques, and develop our bodies and souls."
"Please," Tenshinhan's student rushed out in front of his master and collapsed to his knees, pressing his forehead to the gravely soil with a breaking voice. "Let us have the Ultimate Dragon Ball, Dorakiyans! Please understand that Planet Earth is doomed if we don't return with it in time!"
"What is the meaning of this miserable gesture in your culture?" the Dorakiyan turned to Tenshinhan, widening one of its deep black eyes.
"It is a lot like what the first impression suggests–it is a posture of indignation, obedience, and submission. It is not a dignified position one would find themselves in if they have any pride whatsoever. It is a desperate plight, an admission of utter defeat, acceptance of boundless humiliation for the sake of appeasing the person being approached with it," Tenshinhan explained while observing his student from behind with a strict look. The other students who lacked the courage to appeal to the Dorakiyans or join the discussion trembled and grunted. None of them expected anything like this from one of their own.
"You speak of pride as if it matters a great deal to you, Earthling. Does this groveling of one of your spawns disappoint you?" a Dorakiyan squinted in Tenshinhan's direction, gauging the reaction of the Earthling martial artist.
"Spawn?" Tenshinhan opened his eyes, surprised at the suggestion and wondering where the Dorakiyans may have gotten the impression.
"Yes, they all dress and look very similar to you, however, they lack the third eye on your forehead. Are they not your underdeveloped descendants?" the Dorakiyan jumped back in surprise.
"They are my pupils," Tenshinhan admitted while looking down at his groveling student with a kind smile. "I suspect that the reason my treasured disciple fell to his knees and bowed before you is so that I, his respected master, don't have to resort myself to begging. He is preserving my pride as a martial artist by offering his own, while he still has much to learn, I cannot help but admire the bravery of this budding martial artist."
"You are an interesting specimen, Earthling. We will agree to let you retrieve this Ultimate Dragon Ball and save your planet. It seems like it's for the best for Planet Dorakiya and Planet Earth. There is no use in letting that artifact remain on our planet where more ambitious marauders could attack us for it. However, we request you take the other Dragon Ball away as well," the Dorakiyan officer in charge crossed their arms with a confident nod after expressing their admiration for Tenshinhan and his group of students.
"Hmm... We will struggle to fit it on our spacecraft," Tenshinhan sighed, turning to the massive, starry orange marble. "Not to mention, it will have no purpose back with us on Earth as well. However, if that is your condition..."
"It is, take those alien artifacts away from our home planet at once, Earthling," the Dorakiyans agreed in sync with each other, repeating this phrase or something like it one after the other.
"I see, Laung, let's see if your psychokinesis skills are up to snuff," Tenshinhan nodded before turning to one of his disciples and encouraging them to do their best to retrieve the Ultimate Dragon Ball from the crust of Planet Dorakiya.
"Y-Yes, master!" a tall and lean, bald martial artist with a long mustache and a beard tied into a braid rushed out into the opening and adopted a balanced martial arts stance, clenching his fists and drawing his arms by his sides while closing his eyes and concentrating intently. While the Dorakiyans may not have been able to see it, Tenshinhan quietly admired his student's skill as a potent burst of psychic energy enveloped him in a tidal wave. Laung threw his arms up, causing a booming pillar of psychic energy and blown-out rocky debris to fly upward. Tenshinhan's third eye took no time at all to trace the shine of the black-starred marble amongst the rubble, even in all the psychic energy luster.
A sharp and loud snap stunned Tenshinhan in place. A horned, humanoid shape appeared out of thin air amid the psychic outburst. Because the psychic energy enveloped it whole, no one could make out much in terms of details of its appearance except for its general shape. The creature wagged its tail equipped with a sharp stinger at the end, grabbing hold of the Ultimate Dragon Ball in mid-air, completely unbothered by the flux of psychic energy that would have been sufficient to squish a moon like a water balloon in one's hand.
"Oh, you've even retrieved it for me. How nice of you..." a strong, low-pitched, masculine voice addressed the martial artists in a cheeky tone as Cell swiped its hand and emerged from the psychic flux completely unharmed, landing before the terrified martial artists. Brushing them aside with his hand, unimpressed by the creature's appearance, nor surprised by it, Tenshinhan moved out in front and stood in between his students and Cell.
"You must be this Cell Bulma warned us about," Tenshinhan said while giving Cell a death-inducing stare. "This Ultimate Dragon Ball is necessary to save Planet Earth. Hand it over and get lost."
"Oh..." a notable yellow tendril growing out of the core protected by Cell's horns, acquired by the Bio-Android after obtaining Bannan DNA, whipped in excitement. "Three eyes and can't see you're hopelessly outmatched. Must be another nature's mistake. Oh well, that's what apex predators are for. Let me pluck them out for you."
The clash for the Ultimate Dragon Ball was inevitable with the fate of Earth put on the line.