Everyone working hard in the God Temple perked up and turned their attention to the palace entrance. Even Mr. Popo, who was tending to the palm trees, stood and straightened up, directing his emotionless glare to the entrance, where a bald man was slowly approaching the light from the shady interior, with Dende gently guiding him outside.
"Krillin!" Lazuli called out, dashing to her still wobbly and dazed husband and taking over tending to him from Dende. Looking the young Namekian in the eyes, Lazuli nodded in gratitude with a serious expression and helped guide Krillin outside.
"Lazuli, honestly... You're going to spoil me. I should be walking by myself," Krillin snickered and kept his expression in a state of a sublime grin.
"Nonsense, then what was all that stuff we swore to each other about?" Lazuli insisted.
"Yo, Krillin!" Goku greeted his recovered friend with a friendly index and middle finger salute. "Heard it got pretty rowdy out there."
"Yeah, this monster, Cell... He's a crazy guy, let me tell you what. Nothing like anyone we've faced before, or rather... It feels like he's a culmination of everything we've been through," Krillin sighed and gently shook himself off of Lazuli's grip to strut all on his own. Slower than usual and still uncertain of his strength, but he was walking on his own two feet, almost completely recovered, which, given the state he was in, felt like a miracle.
"You gave him hell though," Goku smiled. "We all felt it from way out here. It was crazy! Still, we've been working hard out here too."
"We'd have been working way harder if a certain someone didn't destroy the Room of Spirit and Time," Piccolo sneered to Chayote and Navy.
"T-The Room of Spirit and Time... Destroyed!?" Krillin blanked out, staggering back and making everyone worried he'd tip over and fall down, though the bald martial artist maintained his balance. "Jeez, I guess Goku wasn't kidding when he said you guys were working hard. You might just give Cell a beating..."
"You think so?" Goku wondered.
"Well... Who knows," Krillin relented, looking down with an oppressed look on his face. "It's not really Cell's strength that's the scary part. It's the fact that he keeps evolving much faster than you can even imagine being possible. Both in terms of its battle power and the abilities Cell has. By the time you think you have the handle on Cell's strength, it's moved on and left you behind, jumping to a whole new world of power."
"I see, so that's the kind of guy Cell is," Goku closed his eyes and took a deep breath before shooting them open and erupting into an energetic burst of warm-up exercises, as if he just couldn't stay in one place and contain all of his excitement. After expelling this jolt of energy, Goku punched his open hand with a brilliant smirk on his face and fist bumped his friend, congratulating him on his successful return and recovery.
"So... Cell can use Instant Transmission," Krillin spoke up, dropping all semblance of cheer from his voice. "Does that mean that it got to Yamcha?"
Before anyone could reply, sobbing distracted Krillin and the bald martial artist noticed a woman who wasn't a part of their usual pack having collapsed and begun sobbing on her knees. With an empathetic look on her face, Chi-Chi helped Pearl get up. Had Krillin met this woman out in the street during an ordinary stroll, he'd probably not have recognized her from the get-go. Yamcha simply had too many girlfriends over the years, however... Seeing her react this way at the mere mention of him... Yamcha must have burrowed much further into this one's heart than he did the rest.
"We don't yet know about what happened to Yamcha," Muten Roshi stepped out with Videl and Sharpner from both sides, slightly battle-worn and making it apparent that they've been going pretty hard for quite some time. Despite the sores all over, Krillin bowed out of respect to his old master. "Just like with Tenshinhan, Yamcha's Ki vanished. There doesn't seem to be a way to locate him anywhere, but... We haven't given up hope yet."
"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.
"The Big Gete Star?" Piccolo hissed in spite.
"That's right," Bulma gestured toward the Ultimate Namekian warrior, as if she was a TV show host and Piccolo got the big money answer. "While Dr. Puri might not be our most immediate worry right now–she's broken the terms of our deal. The family is here, on Earth."
"Are you sure about that, though? It doesn't sound very Puri-like to run away from Cell. Of all people, she's someone who'd be running toward Cell, not away from it," Chayote objected after raising her hand and reminding everyone she was paying attention to the conversation.
"Well, as I've said, the tracking technology is far from perfect yet," Bulma relented. "Dr. Puri keeps updating her designs and keeping up with her when she's got the pinnacle of what millennia of scientific development and artificial intelligence advancement can bring you is sometimes an impossible task. However, I can say for certain that the readings have picked up, and I am very sure that it's not a single Artificial Human that's entered Earth a few hours ago."
"It's possible that No. 21 sent her children to Earth and rushed to confront Cell herself," Piccolo suggested, internalizing everything that both Chayote and Bulma had to say and coming to an independent solution. "Puri's maternal instincts tend to triumph over her self-preservation instinct and even her deep-seated need for revenge."
"That does seem likely," Bulma bit her fingernail before pointing to Piccolo with that finger again. "But those Artificial Humans aren't supposed to be on Earth again."
"Come on, Bulma..." Goku leaned back on his arms, looking more troubled because Bulma was getting so worked up about this rather than the presence of Artificial Humans on Earth and the breach of their mutual understanding. "Is this really that big of a deal? You heard Chayote, Puri probably just sent her kids away to save them. I'm sure she'll pick them back up again when she can..."
"It IS a big deal, Son-kun!!" Bulma snarled back at him, making Goku freak out and stagger back while Bulma pressed on her menacing approach and finger-prodding up in the Saiyan's face. "As one of Earth's strongest protectors, you should take more responsibility for it sometimes! I'm not saying that we should destroy those Artificial Humans, but, at the very least, we should take them in and put them under our constant surveillance! We don't know what schemes Dr. Puri might have concocted with them and, given that she scattered them between some of her old secret labs, they might be there to pick something up for her!"
"But why should we care about that?" Goku scratched his head, still unable to understand why Bulma was blowing this out so much. "Scattering and leaving the God Temple will only put us into more danger. Cell can track our Ki and use Instant Transmission any time it wants to, so he'll be able to scoop and hunt any of us down at any time we're away."
"Because...!" Bulma growled. "Cell might be the biggest threat on our minds right now, but Dr. Puri might use that for her own ends! She and her family might just become a threat far worse than even Cell is in the future, or make a new ridiculous abomination that makes Cell look like a mere toaster in comparison!"
"We'll just deal with that when it comes to it," Goku waved it off with a smile.
"Argh, how can you be so irresponsible!?" Bulma grabbed and squeezed her head in frustration.
"I agree with Son, Dr. Puri's biggest concern right now is clearly Cell," Piccolo crossed his arms and closed his eyes, relaying that he won't budge from this position. "Even if she sent those two off here with some ulterior motive, it's more likely to have something to do with disposing of Cell rather than taking over Earth again."
"Besides, we have to face the facts, Puri has no more use for Earth anymore," Chayote said while pressing Navy to her side tighter with her hand wrapped around the boy's shoulders. "She's got all of Dr. Lychee's stuff, save for the Destron Gas, that's all been destroyed. She's essentially got the entire universe as her home now. It wouldn't make sense for her to be so petty as to mess with Earth again."
Just when it seemed like Bulma will be jumping and raking out Chayote's eyes, fully willing to die on the hill she's chosen to defend, Chayote closed her eyes and continued speaking. "However... I too am a mother, and... As much as it pains me to admit it, Puri has one on me that I wasn't able to repay. Also, I'm quite excited to get my hands on that Cell fellow and get this whole mess over with. I'll pick Puri's kids up just to get them here, to safety."
"Chayote...!!" Bulma, Muten Roshi and Piccolo both exclaimed at once. While all three were shocked, Bulma's surprise came in a more restrained and quieter tone than the other two's.
"Hmmm... It would be convenient if Cell stopped jumping around the universe and causing trouble and would just challenge me already," Goku crossed his arms behind his back, pondering on this. "Alright, I'll go too."
"Are you two out of your minds!?" Piccolo barked out. "Have you forgotten that those two Artificial Humans have you as their prime targets in their programming!? They'll try to take you two out on-sight!"
"That could be kind of fun, I didn't get a chance to tangle with that Android 16 guy..." Goku began jumping around and warming up, raring to go.
"I wouldn't get my hopes up," Chayote shrugged. "I'm sure that Dr. Puri put those guys through countless system upgrades since then. She must have rewritten their entire tomes of programming a dozen times by now."
"Hmph... You should have at least waited until Gohan came back from his training with King Kai," Piccolo crossed his arms. "We could use as many good fighters as we can get."
"Everyone..." Krillin stepped in between the feuding sides with a sullen look on his face. "I think you guys are forgetting something. "We've got maybe two weeks of time left until the Ultimate Dragon Balls blow up the Earth. I think at this time it's safe to assume we won't be collecting them in time. In addition to hunting cells and techniques, and draining energy, Cell's also been gathering the Ultimate Dragon Balls. He stole ours and he might have Yamcha's and Tenshinhan's too."
"That bastard!" Piccolo reared his fangs. "It must want us to come to it in the end, so that we have no other choice but to confront Cell if we want to save the Earth!"
"It might be wise to come up with a plan in case we can't get the Ultimate Dragon Balls in time," Krillin said what few weren't thinking to themselves. Throughout the years, we've used the Ultimate Dragon Balls a few times, always collecting them again in the end. It almost stopped feeling like a risk at some point. We even went along with our business, got married, trained and lived our lives to the fullest, even when some of us set out to gather them, it was more of a background for their training. Kami Upa may have been right, we're not always being responsible with the Dragon Balls."
"Surely you don't mean that we should stop bringing everyone back from the dead," Bulma crossed her arms, giving Krillin a judgmental look.
"I... I'm not sure..." Krillin admitted, scratching the back of his head. "But even when we do that, it ends up backfiring on our faces, doesn't it? I mean... We've brought back so many civilians throughout the years that those wishes stop being effective, because some civilians have already been brought back after one catastrophe and died again."
"That's okay, we can just make a new set of Dragon Balls that hasn't been used for reviving those people. That way we can bring back Chiaotzu, Yamcha and Tenshinhan, anyone that's already died once," Bulma argued.
"Absolutely not!" Kami Upa slammed his cane down with a decisive rebuttal. "It harms me just as much as it does either of you to refuse this, but I will not allow this abuse of the Dragon Balls."
"Wasn't it Fortuneteller Baba that taught you magic?" Chayote turned to Upa. "You used to be way more fun than this, squirt."
"I owe a great deal to Fortuneteller Baba, which is why I honor the agreements that the old Kami made with her after taking up the mantle. After becoming a part of a much grander, divine world of mysticism, my eyes have been opened to what lies at stake in abusing magical loopholes like this. As long as I am Kami, we will not be forging a new set of Dragon Balls," Kami Upa closed his eyes and nodded, sealing the matter.
"But you're not the one that's making the Dragon Balls, are you?" Bulma crossed her arms and turned to Dende, who just staggered, flustered by the sudden flush of attention.
"I... I must admit that... I agree with Kami-sama!" Dende reported like a teacher put him in front of the entire class. "The Dragon Balls have a clear time limit–one year. However, that's not because it's safe to use them within the year. It's because that's how long it takes for them to power up again. Back on Planet Namek, each village held on to the Dragon Ball and only handed it to a great hero who could receive the elder's approval. Throughout history, Porunga was rarely, if ever, summoned. Even on Earth, before the invention of the Dragon Radar, Dragon Balls used to be used once every five hundred to a thousand years. Now we use them yearly and I can sense that they're pent-up with negative energy."
"That just sounds like more of a reason to ditch them and make new ones," Chayote winked her right eye, feeling like the Ultimate Namekian Dragon clansman did a poor job of explaining his reasons for not wanting to make new Dragon Balls.
"Only when you don't understand how the wishing energy works. It isn't neutralized by merely destroying the Dragon Balls and making new ones. It moves on to the new set. Sometimes, it actually becomes even stronger, because it is corrupted by the excitement of wishing more often and for grander things," Dende explained.
"That's okay," Goku interrupted the heated argument with a carefree wave of his hand. "All we need to do is knock Cell flat and take his Dragon Balls away and we'll be fine."
"Well, when you put it like that..." Chayote put her hands on her hips, cringing to herself.
"Goku just doesn't change, does he?" Krillin burst laughing. A few more of the friends in the tight circle joined him. "It actually makes me feel safer, somehow. His carefree, positive attitude is infectious, somehow. Who knows, maybe everything will be okay in the end?"
"Sure it will!" Goku smacked his friend on the back, nearly knocking him over before saluting everyone farewell. "Now all we have to do is to find and bring those Androids here, right? Be back soon!"
After Goku burst with a white, clear aura and took off in an arcing dive off the God Temple, soaring off to a random location toward the vast green of the Sacred Land of Korin, Chayote turned to Bulma with a sigh. "He'll be back sooner than he thought," she joked just a few seconds before Goku did a U-turn and flew back up the tower, stopping mid-hover while laughing and rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.
"I forgot to ask for directions to the lab. I can't sense No. 16's Ki, after all..." he admitted out loud.