What happened to me? was Goku's first thought upon waking up. She lifted herself out of bed and stretching her sore limbs. She rubbed her eyes, and squinted them as the bright sunlight shown in through her windowsill. Memories of what had happened the previous day began to flood into her mind like a raging river.
She could remember powering up, and realizing how much weaker this new body had made her. She stressed so hard to accomplish what she could easily do before the incident, and was knocked unconscious by her own lack of strength, due to mere exhaustion. A feeling of disappointment started to resurface once again, though she chose to ignore it for the time being.
"Good morning Goku! How are you feeling this morning?" greeted Bulma, as Goku walked into the kitchen to get some breakfast.
Goku forced a half-hearted smile, and spoke in a fake cheery voice, "I'm great Bulma, never felt better! Did you have a good sleep? I know I sure did! I slept like a log!"
"Yeah, I had a pretty good sleep, I'm glad to hear you did too, After what happened yesterday and all," pointed out Bulma.
"I guess I kind of pushed it a little too far, huh?" said Goku, struggling to hold her ungenuine smile.
"Yeah, you need to be more careful, Goku! Why in the world did you even try to raise your ki past your limits, Vegeta told me that you went way too far!" accused Bulma, crossing her arms, and tapping her foot impatiently.
What should I say? I can't tell her the truth! Well, I can, but that would be embarrassing… think Goku think! thought Goku.
"Uh—Um—I don't really know why I did it. I guess I just wanted to test my strength," lied Goku, rubbing the back of her head with her hand.
Bulma furrowed her brow, and uncrossed her arms with a gentle smile, "Well, next time, don't. I don't want to lose one of my best friends over such a silly matter."
Goku smiled once again, revealing another lie plastered right across her face. Bulma eventually left to go sit on a couch nearby. Goku's smile dropped immediately after Bulma had turned her attention away from her. Goku felt terrible. She never lied, this was so unlike her. But, what was she to do?
Bulma turned on the television. The screen started out as blurry colorful blots, next turned into images. It was on a high definition news channel. It displayed a middle-aged man, and a young woman behind a shiny oak desk.
"This just in, breaking news! Two men have been mercilessly attacking West City. They're practically on a killing spree!" said the woman.
"They've literally destroyed the whole police force with ease, and are now slaughtering our nation's army!" spoke the man, a look of horror evident on both the man, and woman's face.
"There are no further whereabouts of these two people, and we haven't received any footage yet. We've been working around the clock to bring you reports on the two suspects, and will frequently update by the hour," said the woman, moments before Bulma muted the television, and looked towards Goku worriedly.
Goku looked back at her, nodded, and said, "Bulma, I'm going to go check this out, if you see Vegeta, tell him what's going on. I might need his assistance if this gets out of hand."
"Don't worry, I will!" said Bulma, watching Goku leave the room in a hurry.
Goku flew as fast as she could, she then stopped abruptly. Wait where am I going, I can't sense any unfamiliar high power levels. Where are these two men? Wait a minute, Tien, Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha… Everyone… They're all in one spot in downtown West City. That must be where those people are! Though, I don't understand, why can't I sense their ki? thought Goku, quickly taking off towards the Z-Senshi.
When she arrived at her destination, she was shocked to see all of the Z-warriors huddled around a fallen Yamcha. Yamcha had a hole through his chest, his eyes were open, but they looked lifeless. She looked up from the haggard looking Yamcha, and saw an old man, with leatherlike wrinkled skin. He had piercing blue eyes, snow-white hair, and a flawless white mustache. He was wearing some odd yellow and black striped baggy clothing, with a black vest wrapped over his shirt. He was also wearing a tall black hat with the Red Ribbon army symbol on it.
Beside the old man, was a pale skinned plump person. It wasn't human looking. It's gender wasn't even distinguishable! Actually, to Goku, it didn't even look like an alien! It looked like some creepy porcelain doll that would come out of a horror movie. It was also wearing some odd shaped black and yellow striped clothing, it too had a vest, only it was white. It wore a yellow cap that had a sharp point at the top. There was black trim at the bottom of it, obtaining the same Red Ribbon Army logo.
Goku turned her attention away from the two mysterious people that stood before her, and rested her eyes upon Yamcha once again. She clenched her fists in fury. What sort of torture had these two people done to him?
"Krillin, listen to me! We might be able to save him! Bring him back to Capsule Corp. There are some sensu beans there. Give one to him right away, and try to get there as fast as you can!" instructed Goku calmly, though on the inside, her mind was in a frantic panic.
Krillin looked up at her, and nodded slightly. He moved up to Yamcha, passing nervous untrusting glances at the old man, and bloated creature. He apprehensively bent down, picked Yamcha up, and shot off into the sky towards Capsule Corp.
Goku leaned toward Piccolo and whispered, "There are way too many innocent people around here. We've got to lure these two out of the city."
"Yes, I agree with you 100 percent, it's too crowded here. Many people could get in our way. I will see to it that they do not," interrupted the old man, as he finished his statement, his eyes began to glow red.
"What Now!" gasped Goku and the others.
Goku was completely astonished. How could that man have heard her conversation with Piccolo? She was whispering! All of a sudden, a yellowish colored blast came out of both of his eyes, making Goku jump out of the way, along with Tien, and Piccolo, the other two people who were accompanying her. The old man continuously blasted everything around them, merely one blast causing even skyscrapers to fall.
"No!" screamed Goku, nearly jumping out of her skin due to her surprise, and retaliating by lunging out at the man, and punching him hard in the cheek.
The punch made his head tip backwards, causing his black hat to fall off of his head, revealing a see-through dome filled with water, and a floating brain inside of it. The glass-like dome was obviously taking the job of being the man's skull.
Goku, and the other's eyes widened in shock of what they saw before them.
"You monster!" muttered Goku in astonishment.
The man nonchalantly bent down, and picked up his hat, placing it back onto the crown of his head.
"I cleared the area of innocents in accordance with your wishes. Do you disagree with my methods?" he mocked, a small smirk gradually surfacing on his face.
Goku growled, then raised a balled-up fist to the man, "Leave these people out of this!" she yelled.
The pale creature snickered and replied, "There are no more people left to leave out."
Goku glared at the both of them, while the old man said, "Very well, you may lead us to a place of your choosing, Goku."
Once again, Goku and the others gasped in surprise. "How did you know his name was Goku?" asked Tien.
"I know all of you. The Namekian, Piccolo, and even you, the one named Tien," spoke the old man calmly.
"Let us get acquainted later, follow me," demanded Goku, an aura blasting up around her as she shot up into the sky.
Once they touched down on a small unpopulated island, Goku spoke, "Before we get this fight started I want to know how you knew our names!"
The old man explained that he was from the Red Ribbon Army, not that they hadn't already noticed. He explained that he had sent out a tracking device that had attached to Goku when she had been a little boy.
He also said that he had learned every move that she had. He said that she had been studied up until they had gathered enough knowledge of her to create the ultimate fighting machines to destroy her. He also explained that they wanted to destroy her, to get revenge for her decimation of the Red Ribbon Army.
"So, I gather you are one of these fighting machines?" asked Piccolo.
"Yes, I'm what you would call an android. What a pity that Dr. Gero didn't live long enough to witness, and savor Goku's defeat himself," said the aged-looking android.
"How did you know this is Goku, after… what happened?" pointed out Tien.
"Simple, although her sex was changed, her ki wasn't. So basically, I could tell it was Goku by my ki sensors," said the elderly man.
"I'm curious, were you still studying me when I was on Namek?" asked Goku.
"No, there was no need to. By then we had already gathered enough information concerning your skills. It was predicted that your power would continue to increase steadily during that amount of time. So we calculated that increase, and factored it into our design," said the old man.
'We?' thought Piccolo.
"You might think that you know everything there is to know about me, but really, you aren't even close," warned Goku, smirking.
"Your predictions, did they calculate that Goku would become a Super Saiyan?" asked Piccolo, crossing his arms.
"Super Saiyan?" questioned the old-looking android, quizzically raising an eyebrow.
Goku crouched down, and began powering up to Super Saiyan in response to the man's questioning look. She still had to strain quite a bit to reach it, but she did nevertheless.
Wow, her power, it's amazing! thought Tien, this being the first time he had witnessed a Super Saiyan.
"This is quite an unexpected development, indeed," commented the elderly looking android, staring at the golden aura that had encased Goku only mere seconds ago, along with the few other changes.
"This increase is not listed in my files, 20," said the bloated android, in its high-pitched squeaky voice.
"Nor in mine, but my sensors indicate that there is no cause for concern," replied android 20. "Yes, it is a most impressive ability, but it is nothing we cannot handle," continued 20, "19 will demonstrate this by himself."
Android 19 nodded in affirmation, then stepped forward challengingly.
"Alright, have it your way, but I wouldn't bet on it if I were you!" countered Goku, powering up a little bit more, and soaring towards android 19 to land an attack.