(A week or so later)
It was the end of another hectic period and the beginning of another weekend, which gave hardworking men and women the chance to wind down and catch their breaths for the next repeat. This was especially good for one Son Gohan, who seemed to be getting a lot more stuff crammed into his schedule with each passing day. Taking into account the gradually increasing load as well as his personal training routine, it made sense why the young man had decided to relax on this particular Saturday by hanging out with his family; namely Goten, Lime, and Paprika, on the front lawn of their property.
Even Icarus, the family's pet dragon, was lying next to them on the grass, napping away under the warm rays of the sun.
Taking the opportunity to spend some time with his younger sibling as well as his closest neighbors, the teen had gathered up every single board game from the house and stacked it on the grass beside them. Because Emissaries to Byzantium was boring as shit and Candyland practically gave people cavities with every move they made, the group had opted to go for a spirited game of Monopoly to open their weekend morning, before then planning to move on to a joust in Snakes and Ladders, Chinese Checkers, and then Age of Mythology after that. Since the young Saiyan was limited to only a handful of games and they didn't want to waste their day away on the television, he aimed to make this stretch as long and as enjoyable as possible.
So far, out there under the warm, Mt. Paozu sun, things were going swimmingly for them… well… most of them at least.
"Four. One… two… three…WHAT? Oh, come on! Another hotel?" Gohan mock shouted while pointing down at the square he'd ended up on, which just so happened to be a hotel owned by Paprika, who grinned victoriously. "That's totally not fair!"
Icarus squawked in response, noticing his best friend's plight loud and clear.
"Hey, if you're going to spend the night here at Paprika Lodgings, Son, you're going to have to pay up," the Makyan wearing the long scarf exclaimed, gesturing for the teen to hand the cash over.
Grumbling as he pursed through his funds, the casually dressed Saiyan then handed the notes over to the girl, who began counting them along with the stacks of bills she'd already accumulated. "Why is it that you decided to set up two hotels on Oxford Street instead of one? Is that even allowed in the rule book?"
"It's as they say with everything else in life; two hotels on one avenue are better than one. Why establish a business alongside a competitive organization when you can simply own the entire market and take advantage of the customers?" the woman continued with a cocky smile in play, licking her fingers so that it would make flicking through the money easier for her. "Flood the city streets with your chain of businesses and where are the peons going to go? You tell me."
Lime, who had come out here to visit her family for the weekend, shrugged her shoulders and beamed across at her demi-Saiyan crush happily. "She's got a point, you know."
After reaching the end of the bunch and calculating the sum total and the amount, the woman then looked up thoughtfully and rubbed her chin. "I'm pretty good at this human practice in capitalism. Maybe I should start my own chain of motels and restaurants, and see where that takes me." Waiting around a few seconds, the white haired demon then shook her head and continued, "Or maybe it's just a lot more trouble than it's worth."
"Oh, trust me. It is," Lime replied, nodding towards the powerful woman with a half-smile in play. "Heck, even owning a single diner or hotel is mind numbing enough. Better to leave that kind of stuff to the professionals."
Goten, listening carefully to the conversation taking place between the adults, slumped his shoulders and gave the Makyan a disappointed look. "Aww… so… does that mean I won't get to eat Paprika burgers, ever?" the child asked with a groan.
Feeling for his little brother's displeasure, the older sibling, adorned in a white shirt and jeans, reached over and ruffled the kid's hair playfully. "Sorry. Maybe next time, little buddy."
The Makyan also gave the young boy a grin, drawing the demi-Saiyans' attention back to her, "I'll try to make you a special meat patty on rye later. How does that sound, runt?"
Upon processing the woman's words, a grin quickly reformed over Goten's face and the boy nodded his head enthusiastically. "That'll be great! Will you make it with onions?"
Paprika smiled, "Lots of them."
"Awesome! I love onions!"
Laughing at the kid's enthusiasm, Lime then lent back in the grass and placed her hand over her gut. "Man, can you guys stop talking about food. You're making me hungry."
"Same here," Gohan agreed, with his stomach actually giving an audible growl in support of this fact. Blushing a little at the looks he got from the two girls there, the adult half-Saiyan tried to shake off the awkwardness with his usual charm. "Whenever Goten gets started, so do I. It's kind of a weird trend we share with our dad." Another squawk from Icarus drew the teen's attention over to the pink dragon, who he gestured towards in agreement, "I know, right?"
A wash of sympathy for the young man prompted the brown haired high-schooler sitting nearby to reach over and pat the handsome young man on his broad shoulder, "Don't worry. We'll try to steer the topic away from food as much as possible." She then pulled away, cleared her throat, and holding a hand out to him. "As I understand it, I believe you still owe me a hundred and fifty from your last two stays at my lodgings."
The woman's remark drew another grumble from the demi-warrior as he reached down and pulled two notes from his pile, before then forking it over to his tax collector. "I swear… you guys are going to clean me out."
Not wanting to show her greatest rival any mercy, Paprika smirked at him. "If you want to survive in this day and age where industry is at an all-time high, you'd better start setting up shops, Son. Lots of them."
"Right," the teen grudgingly replied before then looking around the circle with a slightly more downtrodden visage. "Whose roll is it?"
"Mine! Mine!" Goten chirped excitedly, picking up the dice before then tossing it across the board, marking the beginning of yet another round of good-natured economic abuse.
While the four of them were messing around outdoors and catching up with one another, inside the Son household over in the kitchen, a certain orange haired Z-fighter was currently in the process of doing some much needed remedial exercises. Zangya, also deciding to take it easy this morning, had taken to cleaning the pots, pans, and whatever other dishes had been left out of the machine cycle in the sink. Treating this as a form of chore that she could easily lose herself in and transform into a therapeutic scrub down of her mentality, the woman had kindly taken this task off of Chi-Chi's hands while the raven haired mother went about doing some of the other jobs around the house, namely the laundry.
Even though this wasn't her scheduled day to do the dishes, as it was Goten's, the Hera, feeling overly generous and in need of something normal for a change, volunteered on behalf of the others so that they could go about doing other stuff. It was an offer that had put a smile on the Son woman's face and earned her a rather nice compliment from the Ox King's daughter about how she would make a fantastic wife someday. Though it did fill Zangya's head with some rather interesting thoughts, the blue skinned fighter was sure to dispel them as quickly as possible, so that she could concentrate on completing her task as thoroughly as possible.
Though she soon found herself daydreaming at the same time as she was cleaning the dishes, she was at least conscious enough to be aware of exactly what she was doing. The Hera even spared a warm smile to the group of teenagers outside when she went to put one of the dry stacks in the nearby cupboard.
As perplexing as it was to see Paprika breaking bread with her arch nemesis and rival, someone who she vowed one day to eviscerate with a spoon, Zangya didn't make that big of a fuss over the scene for a few good reasons. One: it was peacetime. Two: the Makyan and her half-Saiyan counterpart had agreed to a temporary ceasefire. And three: Goten was with them. If there was anyone the pair didn't want to be seen fighting around, it was the young half-Saiyan that they'd both played a part in raising over the last seven years.
"You wouldn't think they were rivals when you see the two of them acting like that," Zangya chuckled, shaking her head when she saw Gohan's shoulders slump and Paprika stick her nose in the air victoriously. "They act more like a brother and sister than anything else."
And she knew how much Goten loved his brother and his multitude of older 'sisters.'
Since this was something not worth arguing over for semantic reasons, the Hera simply looked over the situation with a mild interest and went about carrying on with her job inside the household. After half an hour of working in the kitchen and tending to the sink, Zangya was soon moving on to her last pot and was looking forward to a nice, hot cup of tea afterwards. Collecting up the aluminum scrubber, she dunked the steel drum into the water and prepared to wipe it down like the others.
But just as she was in the midst of doing so, the woman then looked up when she sensed something off and set her sights on the window in front of her. As she gazed through the glass and towards the mountains on the horizon, she suddenly spotted a person in the reflection, standing directly behind her.
Though the sight of them initially surprised Zangya, when the Hera got a good look at the mysterious person, she saw that it was a girl a couple years younger than her with long, wavy blonde hair, wearing a revealing black, one-piece suit showing off a lot of cleavage, a cape, an eye patch, and a large witch's hat with a bell on the end. The appearance of the person had Zangya gasp in surprise, moments before her entire body unconsciously froze up and the woman found herself gaping at the reflection, a shock of electricity and terror running up her spine.
While she gawked at the reflection, the Hera saw the blonde girl look up from underneath the wide brim of her hat. Showing off her patch and the one, blood-red eye underneath, the witch then flashed Zangya a sinister smile, one that had a bead of sweat form on the woman's temple and caused an even more painful electric feeling to rush through her body.
Her expression showcasing a look of complete horror, it took the Z-fighter several moments of processing for normal mobility to return to her limbs. As soon as feeling gripped her limbs once again, Zangya then mustered all the strength she could to spin around and look towards the person that was standing directly over her shoulder.
However, the moment the thunderstruck Hera turned to face the intruder, she didn't see anything.
As it turns out, she was the only one standing in the kitchen.
Zangya panted as her eyes darted around in search of the phantom witch, cold sweat trickling down her face as she took a few steps out. In her search, the woman quickly thought back on the intruder's appearance.
Though having previously been overwhelmed with feelings of fright and terror she'd never experienced before in her life, on account of the amount of killing intent was being thrown her way, the woman was still able to bring up the image of the person responsible. Despite having changed her hair color and her uniform drastically, there was no doubt in Zangya's mind that the witch she saw in the reflection was…
"Okay, Videl. That was a really, really funny joke. Really appreciate it. But I think it's time for you to come out now, please," Zangya said loudly, trying to coax the witch out of hiding and into the open. "Videl?"
Had that actually been Videl? Well, after hanging out with the girl for over seven years, training with her, and becoming one of her closest friends and allies, she'd had more than enough time to become familiar with the teenager's face.
However, after stretching out her senses for the girl's signature, not only was the crime fighter nowhere inside the house, she wasn't in the same damn region. She was currently a hundred miles away in Satan City doing whatever it was she was doing, which tickled Zangya's funny bone in a very uncomfortable way.
How could she be here when she was clearly all the way over there? Unless she knew Instantaneous Movement, then any other theory the Hera had was shot to bits.
Finding the entire situation beyond troubling, Zangya decided to chalk up the ghostly encounter she'd just had as a hallucination brought on by sniffing too much detergent. Making a mental note to ask the Son mother to change whatever brand she was currently buying, the orange haired woman turned around to return to the sink…
Only to cry out in shock when she found Chi-Chi standing directly behind her carrying a basket of dry laundry.
The mother blinked in surprise when she literally saw her stay-in relative from another planet leap three meters away like a startled cat, with eyes wide as saucers and a look of horror on her face.
"Whoa. Zangya? Are you okay?"
Panting and clutching her chest tightly, the Hera gritted her teeth, slammed her foot into the ground, and jabbed a finger towards the woman, "You gave me… a heart attack!"
"What? What happened?" Chi-Chi asked, looking completely bewildered by the woman's current state. She then pointed over her shoulder. "I just finished taking down the laundry and came in to find you standing in the middle of the room staring at an empty wall. It was like you'd just seen a ghost or something."
Taking a few more deep breaths, the orange haired fighter processed the woman's words for a moment and then looked off to the side of the room. Considering the events that occurred in the last few seconds and then the preposterousness of the entire thing, Zangya took a deep breath and shook her head. "Maybe I did… maybe I didn't." She then groaned and placed a hand to her cranium. "Damn. I don't know what to think anymore. After all the shit I've seen…"
Smiling warmly at her houseguest, Chi-Chi then set the basket of laundry down on the table, walked up to the Hera, and extended her arms. "You've had a long week, sweetie. Relax." She then took the Hera by the shoulder and placed a hand over the alien's heart to monitor her condition. "Just take a deep breath and think happy thoughts. You're just worked up from all the running around you've been doing all week, that's all."
Taking the kind mother's words to heart, Zangya did as she was instructed and breathed deeply. After which a smile formed across her lips. "Yeah. I just need to loosen up a little."
"That's it," Chi-Chi chirped, returning the Hera's smile with one of her own. "Take it easy and don't think about anything else. Concentrate on getting some rest."
The Z-fighter smiled. "Thanks, Chi-Chi."
"Don't mention it."
Giving her a couple more comforting pats and some extra reassurance, the wife of Son Goku then allowed Zangya to return to the sink and finish up with the dishes. While the alien went about doing her thing and moved on to packing away the dry stuff, the raven haired martial artist behind her then began the process of sorting and folding the clothing she'd brought in. A melodic hum soon filled the air as the adult guardian flew through the material at a superwoman pace, demonstrating a level of skill and professionalism developed over years of practice. This was unsurprising to the Hera, as Zangya figured taking care of not one but three hungry Saiyans, two of which were completely abysmal to the art of cooking and cleaning, had to be one of the most trying experiences in history.
Offering her a silent applause, Zangya enjoyed the woman's melody while proceeding to wipe down and dry the pots and pans she'd been tasked with organizing. It was only after several minutes of filing through the assorted utensils that she soon found herself in conference with the Son mother once again. This time however, it was over a matter that all of them, including the members of their entire group, had been finding quite bothersome.
"So even Baba, the woman who can bring people back from the dead and see into the future, wasn't able to find out anything about the person who sent that man after my son?" Chi-Chi asked as she stopped folding a towel midway.
Plates clattering together as she piled them up, Zangya then looked towards the window and frowned deeply. "Gohan said so himself. After Yamcha told Bulma, Bulma told everybody else and then went about trying to fill in the blanks herself. Let's just say that neither one of them was very happy with the results."
"And… no one has been able to find out anything yet?"
Despite the woman's concerned sounding voice, all the Hera could do was shake her head sadly in response. "Bulma has run every test imaginable she could on the armor and the pilot that was driving it. Even Baba has been jumping from one side of the planet to the other looking for answers. But whenever they think they've found something good, it always leads them to another dead end." She then picked up the stack of plates and pushed it into the cupboard above her. "It's funny. Even though our group is made up of the most powerful and capable people in the quadrant, we're all getting migraines over a single human with absolutely no unique powers whatsoever."
Except that he could make weapons that made the androids look like windup toys and was smart enough to cause even the divination powers of the greatest fortune teller on the planet to malfunction.
Feeling nothing but bad vibes from that remark, Chi-Chi turned to look across at her friend and helper, "And Gohan isn't worried in the slightest, despite nearly being beaten half to death by that bastard in the mech?" You could tell how concerned she was from her tone alone.
She cared more about her children's safety and wellbeing than she did her own. This was a fact that'd been made glaring apparent over the course of her entire married life thus far. Even though she was content that both her children were growing up strong and were living rich, fulfilling lives, she still felt some semblance of regret and woe over letting the two of them train and fight.
Despite the fact that she'd long since let such doubts go, she nevertheless felt similar feelings of foreboding arising from the potential danger this new, unknown enemy posed towards her family. This was magnified several times over when she learned that it was her oldest son that was specifically being targeted.
What kind of sick, twisted bastard would mark her child for dead with absolutely no cause or reason whatsoever? It was baffling.
Zangya, hearing the woman's worries loud and clear, gazed over her shoulder with a look of seriousness plastered on her face. "I think he's more worried about it than anybody else in our group. He's just really good at hiding it." She then looked across the room and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Even though Gohan acts happy and seems like he's smiling, I think deep down in his gut… he's scared of who this enemy is and what plans he has in store for us."
Nodding in agreement, the mother quickly turned her attention back to her laundry. "My son made a promise to protect the earth and its people. It's been easy for him so far, since for the past seven years he knew exactly who his opponents were and could fight them evenly head to head. But this is the first time he and the others have run into an enemy who not only knows who they are and what they can do, but is also hiding and attacking from the shadows."
And that made them more dangerous than any other adversary they'd ever fought. After all, you couldn't defeat an enemy, let alone confront them, if you had no idea who the hell they were.
This remark drew a troubled sigh from the Hera, who then ran a hand through her orange locks and reached down to pick up one of the large pots in front of her. "At this rate, the next course of action will have to be to use the dragon balls to find out the identity of the puppet master behind the mech. And if that doesn't work… then we're just going to have to stick this out the old-fashioned way."
Hopefully, with some luck, they may not even have to use the dragon balls to figure out who their phantom adversary was. If they were patient enough and played this out right, perhaps their real opponent would make themselves known without the need for foresight and magic.
It was only an earthling after all. I mean… what enemy out there could possibly be worse than a single man on this planet?
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