Madness in Morioh: Dragon Balls are Unbreakable

[The Future Warrior]

Mori

mori​

mori

mori​

Morioh-cho Radio!
We love Morioh-cho​

The radio had gone quiet for several minutes, giving way to a soft crackling static, before the gentle, soul-warming jingle of the local station's morning program came rolling through. Graowr wasn't really much of a musically-inclined sort, and rarely paid it much mind beyond background noise for whatever else happened to be going on. However, the sheer calming wave that seemed to sweep across the little local diner, the other residents of the town visibly relaxing slightly and faint smiles flitting across their faces at the familiar sound...well, that was something even she could appreciate.

"Goooood morning, Morioh!" the announcer's smooth, warm voice spoke up, easily carrying over the quiet tunes playing in the background. "Greetings, all, residents and guests! This is Morioh-cho Radio, and your host, once again, is me. Your neighbor, Kai Harada."

The majin just noisily chewed a mouthful of bacon, watching the radio curiously.

"What a refreshing morning today," the radio host went on. "The weather today promises to be absolutely beautiful, with temperatures..."

Well, Kai Harada certainly wasn't wrong about the day, even if the little majin's attention span soon tuned out the more long-winded details about the weather. Even a brief glance out of the window would tell you that it was pretty nice, though. It was an absolutely beautiful day outside. Bright sunshine, no looming cloud cover threatening

"....and today, we'd also like to spotlight the Angelo Stone." Kai Harada's tone changed, to something a little more mysterious and serious, as he went on. "Have you heard about this strange phenomenon, Morioh? They say this rock is alive, and if you get close enough it will watch you! That's right, those eyes aren't just painted on! Do you think it's real? Your neighbor, Kai Harada, has seen too many strange things to write it off entirely one way or the other...." He trailed off into a soft laugh. "If you're in the area, why not stop by and take a look for yourself? It's customary to greet the stone by saying 'yo!' when you pass by."

Graowr nodded absently to herself. That sounded like something out of the ordinary, alright. She'd heard that this little town, Morioh, was a bit...odd. Some downright weird and bizarre things tended to happen here on the regular, apparently. She'd only gotten in the night before last, stopping by Erde Nona to rest on her way back to more familiar territory, and deciding the quaint little town would be as nice a spot to take a breather as anywhere else. There were all kinds of super weird energy signatures coming from all over the place around here, and while she'd heard plenty of rumors about the weirdness that went on since getting here...she hadn't really seen anything herself, just yet.

This 'Angelo Stone', though...a living rock? Yeah, that was weird. Maybe it could be worth checking out before she left. Besides, if it actually was alive? That would be pretty cool. Maybe she could find some way to talk with it!

"....but for now, listeners, I have the perfect song here to start off our day of music." The warmth in the radio announcer's voice was almost infectious, and many of the other patrons around her were soon sporting an easy smile of their own, which Graowr couldn't help but mimic, even if it was a bit more of a lopsided grin in her case. "Here's our first song of the morning..."

The announcer's voice trailed off into silence, as the soft, gentle jingle behind it slowly faded out as well.

The little majin nodded to herself absently, once more practically tuning the radio out altogether. She scarfed down the remainder of her somewhat late breakfast before hopping up to stand in her chair awkwardly. Her diminutive height was such that even as she did so, she was still barely taller than some people likewise standing up. A quick stretch and she fished around in her pockets for money to pay for her food. One quick, cheerful conversation later which she completely glazed over after it dragged on for too long, and she was out on the road again.

She paused, tilting her head back and bringing a hand up to shade her eyes as she looked up at the sky and out over the rooftops of the quaint, peaceful little town. "Maybe today's just gonna be a nice, quiet, peaceful day..." she said, mostly to herself. "Well, I did just get plenty to eat, and Master Roshi always said it was good to get in plenty of rest on top of all your work and training...." Her eye twitched slightly, as she forced herself to not dwell on the fact he also said to 'study' a lot, too. Reading in and of itself was a herculean task for her, and anything beyond basic math really escaped her grasp....and it wasn't like there was a school she could just drop in on here to catch up on her studies.

So that wasn't gonna happen.

Day off it was!

She reached up to adjust and re-tie her scarf, tossing the trailing bands of it over her shoulder. With a snap of her fingers, a crackle of pink lightning arced over her body, her still somewhat ragged combat clothes (that whole mess on Cevanti had been rough, and she hadn't had a chance to think about fixing herself up again yet) giving way with a bright poof of cotton candy pink smoke to...the same less than impressive, but comfortable outfit she'd been given after her original wake-up on Nos'talgia. The jacket was still kind of lame, but...it was comfortable enough, easy enough to move in, and probably better for blending in. As much as someone like her could blend in anywhere, at least.

"Alright...time go do stuff." She twisted at the waist one way, then the other, stretching out her back, and started off with an exaggerated, meandering stroll.

 

[Jay Evernight]

Jay awakened, slowly. The Long Night protocol had done its job, his body now had almost no signs of his fights with the Zerg broods or with the Queen of Hell, minus a few small scars, and a huge cursive X on his chest running up to the edges of his neck; remaining visible even when he put his now-repaired suit back on. It had been occupied with his radiation poisoning, almost weighed down; but now it was on top of it. Regenerating his wounds, clearing the remains of infestation that still infected him.

He was only half-awake at first. Could still feel the searing heat on his cheeks, the shape of Adallia's lips branded into his flesh, the way they had back then. Had it really been Years? How long had she been gone?
How long had it been since her touch last burned him?

He'd dreamed of her. Fevers often did that. The heat rises, his head gets fogged up; Adallia comes bubbling up to the surface.
But this dream was stranger than usual. One moment she was telling him he was gonna be ok, and kissing him goodnight. The next; there was someone talking in a voice that wasn't hers. Another woman.
He'd seen her only for a moment, before his fever broke and his body jolted back into action... Joraxa. She'd used the remnants of his Zerg infection to lock onto his mind. He could feel her power in his head. He was confident that despite her immense psionic strength he could beat her if they fought, but he knew that wouldn't happen. She was the green-eyed swarm's new boss, they'd Never meet one on one.
Abathur had finished his little project, and to his credit; in a sick, twisted sense she was beautiful. Majestic in the same way as a Tiger, an apex predator is bound to captivate even if only morbidly. Her humanoid shape combined with these predator features was in some ways alluring, even if some of them were disquieting and repulsive. Her voice was like an angel, sweet, comforting, warm, with a slight chirping quailty closer to a cricket than a bird.
He remembered what she'd said. She was inviting him to join her.
"Jay Evernight. Do not resist, if you become infested, I won't need to kill and consume you to sample your essence. You can become one of the Swarm. Part of something greater. I won't need to hurt you, or these lifeforms you're protecting. Your companion as well. What exactly are you losing if you join me?"

Jay couldn't tell if it was residual infestation or his own taste for powerful, dangerous women with sweet voices that was giving him goosebumps at the thought of Joraxa in spite of his hatred for her creator. Likely it was both. It was a damn shame he'd probably have to kill her.
Not today though. Now he needed to walk this off and get out of Cinnamon Village. Find somewhere else at least for a while.
It'd have to be another major settlement if he wanted to shake Joraxa, preferably somewhere with other psychically active minds for him to hide behind.

"Aster?"
Jay asked, telepathically linking to the Aura of his Shiny Lucario friend.
"Yes Sir?"
The recently-evolved Pokèmon responded in moments.
"We need to go. Abathur's still after me, and his daughter has her heart set on assimilating both of us. We'll come back but we need to break her lock on me."
Jay finished redressing himself, putting on his gloves and his glasses. He took a deep breath, clearing the last of that fever dream out of his head.
"There's another town near here. Has a lot of supernatural presences. I used to hide there when I was a Riolu... We can go there, it'll mask your presence. But aren't you still sick?"
Aster couldn't help but worry about him. He'd seen Jay take an impossible amount of damage and continue fighting. He'd only been asleep after collapsing for a few hours, and Aster could detect that his trainer was still in pain. He looked much better, but his aura didn't lie.
"I was sick when we met. I'm getting better. And if you mean infested, I'm past the worst of it. Another day or so and It'll be totally cleared out. Joraxa won't be able to use that hivemind connection to lock on again. We'll be impossible to psionically pinpoint once it breaks."
Jay answered almost as quickly as Aster had when he first woke up. He spent a little time making sure there wasn't anything already creeping around the town's perimeter, then went to find Aster. Telepathy was fine and all, and he was glad to finally have the mental energy to use it properly again, but he wanted to see him.
He had a surprise. Something he'd picked up from a local.
"I trust you; Mr Evernight. But please, take care of yourself."
Aster said; spotting his dear master landing a short distance ahead of him.
"Can't take care of you if I don't. That'd make me a pretty awful trainer, wouldn't it?"
Jay held out his hand, revealing the item he'd held behind his back. It was a Pokèball, but not the standard red & white type, it was black and gold with a red-orange ring on the top half. A Luxury Ball, designed for its occupant's maximum possible comfort.
"You're planning to make this official!?"
Aster hopped for joy like a much smaller dog would, Jay patted and stroked his head.
"Of course, Buddy. Now the guy I got this from says the 'capture lock' is faulty, so don't struggle at all, or you'll break out and I'll have to get another ball-"
Aster tensed up and stood perfectly still with his arms outstretched.
Jay tapped the ball to Aster's head, he was drawn into the sphere as it fell to the ground and began to wobble.
One...

Two...

Three.
Aster was caught. Jay's first Pokèmon. Not his first choice for a starter; but one he was happy to have. He immediately let him out of the Black and Gold Pokèball, since he needed him to lead him to this other town nearby.
A quick stop at the office of Mayor Jerradeus Prophet to say a short and hopefully temporary goodbye, and the two departed the blooming town of Cinnamon Village.
The name had stuck too long to change it now, it was a town called 'village' for the rest of its days.

- A While Later, Jay and Aster would arrive in Morioh. This was the town Aster was talking about earlier, the place where they could blend their presences in with the local supernatural auras and break Joraxa's lock on Jay's mind.

Jay recognised the name Morioh, You don't get branded an Otaku by your own family and not know JoJo; but he had rather baselessly assumed it wasn't going to be the same town from the Manga.
Stepping into the town and his DUSK system immediately picking up Morioh-Cho Radio, jingle and all, quickly changed his mind.


This place is even more of a fever dream than his actual fever dream. On the run from a Zerg Swarm, with a Shiny Pokèmon, into the town of Morioh where any second a Stand User would probably pop out and jumpscare him. Wacky.

Then again he'd never had a 'Normal' life, the Phantom Emperor Dragon made absolutely sure of that.
There had been only one time he'd ever felt like he wanted one, and even that quickly melted away when he had thought about it.
He'd only wished for a normal life, for a moment, the day Adallia died.
He was hurt, he was angry, hardly even thinking. But when his mind caught up, that split-second wish almost broke him.
A normal life would never have had her in it at all. He'd never have met some of his best friends, never had all these amazing adventures, and so many people would've died because Jay Evernight wasn't there to save them.
Who'd ever want to say 'no' to being a superhero? Maybe it hurts sometimes, but aren't happy endings supposed to be hard to get? Isn't there always darkness before dawn?
Jay certainly wouldn't trade this life for anything. Well, anything except saving people's lives. He did technically trade his life for theirs, even if he was sent here instead of dying.

"Jason, why are we fleeing? This Joraxa is not stronger than us, and we're getting more powerful by the hour-"
Aliphetros, right on cue.
Jay was quick to fire back a response to placate the dragon.
"We're not fleeing. We're breaking Joraxa's lock on me. We might be stronger than Joraxa but we're not stronger than the whole swarm. If we fight her, it has to be one on one, and that'll never happen if she has precise tracking on our exact location.
Besides. When Abathur was in my head, I went looking in the Hivemind... Darkseid's here, so I can't afford to be a One-town hero. I need to get myself out there, team up, like we did before."
Jay; thinking logically around the subject, concluded that if all these absurd things were here in one place, surely there were enough other heroes around to put up a fight against all these various forces of Evil.

"Allies; to bring him down once more... I approve. I long to taste arrogant godling flesh again."
Aliphetros Hyperion was nothing if not enthusiastic about his victories, past, present and future alike. He was, after all, a Titan of Hope and Triumph. They were his very being, the will of things to exist and the euphoria of creation. He was, in many ways, a sort of Anti-Ghidorah, which might prove problematic one of these days, but thankfully not today.

Jay was ready for whatever absurdity confronted him next, preferably soon. Hanging around this town with no real goals or desires was gonna get old fast.
Maybe he could go and find the Angelo Stone, give it a quick greeting and laugh at the killer within.
That'd kill a couple of minutes, and feel pretty good. A couple of minutes was probably all the time he'd need to while away, a place as Chaotic as Morioh, plus Jay Evernight's magnetism for trouble and chaos- something insane would kick off any moment now. Maybe even something as absurd as Goku barrelling through the streets on a hunt for the Dragon Balls.
Yeah. That'd be about right.

Oh- There's the rock.
"Yo! Angelo!"
Jay waved, smiling smugly, well aware of the origins of that particular Morioh landmark.
Aster waved with him, less smug, but familiar enough with the town's customs to not question Jay's wellbeing for greeting a seemingly inanimate lump of stone.
Inanimate, save for the tiny amount of an evil presence that Aster had always felt from it.
Surely that was just the stone being a little creepy, right? It wasn't... haunted?

"Stay close to me, Aster. You never know what's gonna come at ya' in a town like this, or what you'll run into if you wander off."
Jay could've returned him to his Pokèball, but to tell the truth, he didn't feel particularly safe, and wasn't confident enough navigating Morioh to do so alone. But he still didn't want Aster getting hurt, so he tried to keep him within arm's reach, where he could protect him.

 

[Son Goku]

Goku continued to soar in the sky on his Flying Nimbus while Bulma and Oolong were driving down below him. Oolong has been passing the time watching the scenery around them change as they are moving while Bulma is focusing on driving. It is then that Oolong saw a sign that told them their next destination, a town called Morioh.

“Hey Bulma, it looks like the next Dragon Ball is in Morioh up ahead?” Oolong said.

“Morioh? Never heard of it. It’s not a dangerous place is it?” Bulma asked.

“Only rumors I heard about it are some rumors of strange things going on now and then. Other than that it’s a pretty peaceful town and a popular tourist attraction.” Oolong explained.

Bulma sighed with relief “Well then at least that means finding the Dragon Ball won’t be that hard then. Maybe we can take this time to relax while we’re at it. Find a nice hotel to stay at find a place to grab a bite to eat,”

“Did you grab something to eat?” Goku chimed in.

“How did you hear that from up there? Either you have good ears or you only hear what you wanna hear,” Bulma said.

Goku then jumped back into the car as the Flying Nimbus flew by the side of it. “What is a hotel anyway?”

“It’s a place people can go to to stay for the night or for more than that. They’re generally very pricey but it’s usually worth it for people that are traveling and have the money,” Bulma explained.

“Wow, a big house people allow you to stay in? Man, I wish Grandpa Gohan could have taught me this stuff before that big monster got him,” Goku said.

“Wait, you mean to tell me you’re an orphan? Bulma don’t tell me you’ve been using this kid for your own personal gains have you?” Oolong asked.

“Hey I have been taking good care of him plus I made a promise to him that I’d do something for him when I get my wish. Don’t forget you’re still getting paid too after this is all over,” Bulma reminded.

“Well, I’ll hold you to that toots,” Oolong replied.

As the trio are entering Morioh. Trailing far behind them is the not so dastardly bandit duo of Yamcha and Puar. Puar is using a pair of binoculars to spy on Bulma’s car.

“Yamcha just how are we going to get to them with your um, special problem?” Puar asked.

“Don’t call my weakness to girls that Puar you sound like I got a disease or something. Anyway, they will probably be finding a hotel or something to stay at. We slip in, grab the Dragon Balls from under their noses, and slip out just like that.” Yamcha explained.

“That’s a great plan, Yamcha, but what if they hold the Dragon Balls on them the whole time they’re in Morioh?” Puar pointed out.

Yamcha opened his mouth, before promptly shutting it. Damn just when he thought he had things figured out. Hopefully, he can come up with a better plan once they arrive if Puar is right about that. Perhaps he can use someone in the town to his advantage and trick them into getting the Dragon Balls for him. However, what are the odds of him finding someone like that?

Meanwhile, back with Goku and friends the three parked near Morioh Grand Hotel. Bulma checked in for the three of them. And managed to get room 226. As they enter the room Goku is shocked at just how nice everything looks. He has never seen a room like this in his life.

He jumps on the bed and it is the most comfortable experience he has ever felt. He could just take a nap right then and there if he wasn’t hungry. Bulma puts the bag holding the Dragon Balls in the closet.

“Alright Oolong, me and Goku are going to go out to eat and then find the Dragon Ball. I need you to stay here and guard them. Try anything funny with them and I’ll use this,” Bulma said.

And she held up a remote. It took a few seconds for Oolong to register just what devious trap she had in mind.

“Wait don’t tell me-”

“That’s right, I put a bomb on one of the Dragon Balls. If I see you moving away with them on the Dragon Ball Radar then I activate it and boom, you’re crispy bacon!”

“Man, it hurts you don’t trust me that much to go that far. I would’ve stayed and watched regardless you know if it meant I could enjoy some peace and quiet in a fancy hotel and be away from you,” Oolong said defeated.

“Calm down I didn’t plant the bomb just in case you ran off with it but if someone in general were to steal them. Besides the one, Goku keeps close at hand of course. Now if you excuse us we’ll be heading out now. Go order some room service when you get hungry,” Bulma said.

And with that Bulma and Goku left Oolong then plopped on one of the luxurious beds and went under the covers. Falling fast asleep. Hey, she didn’t say anything about napping on the job. Might as well take advantage of this opportunity. No skin off of his nose.

As the two left Bulma was leading Goku with a map she bought inside the hotel showcasing the town of Morioh. There seemed to be quite a few places to eat here. Including a cafe and some kind of fancy Italian place. Though they needed to find a place where Goku doesn’t eat them out of house and home even if Bulma can pay for it all.

She has seen how that boy eats and how much he can stomach. Even with her huge allowance the amount she has been spending to feed him has been making dents in it. Nevertheless, it will all be worth it once she gets her wish and her dream boyfriend.

 

[The Future Warrior]

A place like Morioh was kind of a shock to the system for Graowr. She’d been in towns and cities before, sure. Heck, most of the time she lived in one when she wasn’t actively doing something else! But she never really paid much attention, and just always took the familiarity for granted. Things like the huge skyscrapers and domes of shiny glass, the big sprawling tubes of the skyway walks and trains, the floating and hovering cars, the abundance and ubiquity of capsule technology….

That was all familiar and had honestly grown kind of boring. Even seeing those same cities in smoldering ruin when whatever latest threat to existence rolled into the picture had been starting to get a little repetitive, minus the thrill of dealing with said threat and fighting them off to restore things to how they were supposed to be.

So seeing a place like this? The town was small and much more simplistic. Its largest structures were far less impressive and grand than even the most mediocre of buildings back in her world. It was much more low-tech; the simple, wheeled vehicles were such a staggering oddity that the little majin lost nearly an hour to watching them go by in a bemused daze from a seat at a bench near a crosswalk and what might very generously be called studying a pamphlet about Morioh and its many local landmarks and oddities, with a helpful map for visitors to the town.

She was starting to find out that she was having some truly profound difficulties, and had no clue how to resolve them. What exactly did most people, like….do on a day off?

After a prolonged moment of accidentally holding the map upside down, she blinked. Slowly, she tilted her head to one side, then further around, until it was completely upside down and in her thusly inverted vision the map became right side up. She could still barely read it. It didn’t stop her gaze from quickly darting over the map and absorbing every bit of information she could process though. Reading was tough for her, but pictures and map directions? She was good at those.

Plus, even if she couldn’t read words super well, she could DEFINITELY memorize them and recognize if she spotted the same ones later.

Well, if she had no idea what to actually do with herself… Then why not let people who knew more about places and things AND things in places than she did figure that out for her? From what she could actually comprehend, from both the map and little tidbits of gossip and chatter she occasionally overheard, plus the radio that morning, there were plenty of odd and interesting and just impressive things to see in the town, despite how small and quiet it seemed at first glance.

What had that neighbor on the radio said? Something about…

Her head snapped back around upright like a taut rubberband suddenly set free, and the map went spinning up out of her hands along with it, slowly drifting back down to rest draped over her head.

“Oh yeah, right; the rock!” she said cheerfully. One of the many strands of her ‘hair’ curled up, plucking the pamphlet off of her head and neatly folding it up, before tucking it away beneath the collar of her jacket, where it promptly vanished altogether.

From there, it took only a little asking around among bemused locals to get pointed in the right direction. A leisurely bus ride, wherein she spent a rather large amount of it having a cheerfully animated conversation with another passenger about his business in town. Some kind of restaurant, and a pretty good one, from the sounds of it! She was definitely going to remember that, for later.

When she was free of the bus and on her feet again, she took a moment to look toward the sky and then glance around to re-orient herself and get her bearings back again. Riding in cars and stuff always left her feeling kind of dizzy, for some reason…

Within just a few seconds, though, all was right as rain again. She set off at an easy jog down the street, humming to herself as she went. According to a local she’d chatted with, it was just a minute or so down the road from the bus stop around here, and it would be pretty hard to miss, with the way it….

“Oh, wow. It really does stand out!” she said aloud, as she half-skidded and half-stumbled to a halt. There it was, just across the street.

The Angelo Stone.

“Jeeze, it’s kinda ugly!” She laughed, as she bent her knees and gave a quick ‘hop’ clean over the street, dropping down to land just a pace or two from the bizarrely shaped stone. Quite the surprise for several onlookers, including one enterprising tourist who took the opportunity to direct his phone recording from commentary about the bizarrely ugly rock to the surprise alien literally dropping out of the sky.

She strolled right up to the stone, staring directly at it. The way its craggy surface was so…weirdly shaped, it almost looked like a face. It kind of really looked like a face, actually. A face that was either really angry or like….having a bad time from too much cheese or something. It was hard to tell which.

She blinked owlishly at it, squatting down to peer directly at one of the perceived ‘eyes’. “I was supposed to say something when I come by here, right…?” she mumbled to herself. What had her neighbor Kai Harada said on the radio that morning? Oh, right! “Yo, Angelo!” And she lifted one hand up, with a quick two-fingered salute. A grin spread across her face a second later, just from how silly this all was.

Talking to a rock. That was just silly! It wasn’t like—

. . .a g i. . .​

She recoiled slightly in surprise, with a startled squeak. Completely ass over teakettle, flipping entirely over and around, to land sprawled on her behind on the sidewalk, staring at the Angelo Stone with wide eyes.

Did it just…talk?

She squinted at it, immediately on her feet again and bolting over to it. Spider-like, she leaped up, planting all four limbs on the craggy surface of the rock to clamber over and along it. She brought her head down, one of her eyes wide open and staring as intensely as she could, hovering just inches from the eye in the stone.

For several long, silent seconds she just stared at it without blinking. “I can sense….something….” she finally mumbled. “It’s….thinking?”

Her eyes narrowed, then slowly squeezed shut.

“Ooooh….it’s angry!” she said a few seconds later. “Trying to say something, though….what?” Her forehead wrinkled in concentration. “Something about a necklace….?”

She mouthed a few words in a whisper, nearly silent for several seconds.

“「A q u a N e c k l a c e」?” she finally murmured.

The craggy, warped surface of the rock lit up with a flickering aura of semitransparent blue, wavering like flame.

The air around the stone grew dense and heavy, fog and mist coalescing and gathering into near solidity, as a humanoid shape slowly took form. Glimmering blue and dripping wet, shot through with many designs of vibrant green eyes. Prominent lips curled into a vicious, wicked smirk showing a saw-toothed smile of curved, razor sharp teeth.

“You fell for it, you stupid bitch!”

“Wha—?!” the majin’s eyes snapped open, her head swiveling around like an owl’s just in time to look her attacker in the eye before it struck, and a massive plume of shattered rock, water and fog burst down the street.

 

[Jay Evernight]

“So much for just waiting Joraxa out- Aster, keep your guard up! It's a stand, so don't try to follow it with just your eyes. Your aura powers should still detect it.”
Jay immediately raised his arms, ready for another fight. Hearing a stand name be called out so near to its user usually means it was summoned, and obviously the next moment saw Aqua Necklace taking form in their immediate vicinity.

“Right, Sir.”
Aster responded, telepathically through his Aura as always, though for the sake of not appearing disobedient to anyone who happened to glance at him, he nodded.
Crimson aura energy flowed off of him as he lowered his stance and prepared for battle alongside his trainer.

“Hey! You! The one that said 『Aqua Necklace!』Don't let it get near your face, if it does, shut your eyes and cover your mouth- This thing hides in water and that includes the water in People!”
Jay shouted, knowing from his power-sensing that she wasn't dead; but hoping it hadn't hurt the blue majin too seriously. Regardless of if she was able to see stands or not, she'd be able to see the ‘impact’ it was having already, so he hoped she'd be somehow able to protect herself.

He hadn't yet got a good look at her, so she could've been anything from a slime-person to the smurf equivalent of a kaiju for all he knew, but regardless, the priority was not letting Katagiri take another life.


“It hides in people? But that's like, super evil!
It was in that rock- is that rock a person?”
The blue majin sounded more confused than injured, a relief for Jay. She was contorted around the impact point, something that told him about her gum-like properties, but that wasn't much to go on. Being rubber-like was no indication of what exactly she was, and spending more than a cursory glance to figure that out would make him lose track of Aqua Necklace.
“It IS super evil! That rock used to be a person, a serial killer- he's where it came from. I'll explain when this is over. Gotta fight first and answer questions later!”
-He'd lost track of Aqua Necklace.
Where is it now? Jay took his eyes off it for a second and already it's nowhere to be seen. He could still ‘feel’ that it hadn't gone too far, but being able to see it was a huge advantage that he hadn't intended to give up so soon.
Where did it go? It's so damn fast- No. No it isn't that fast. It's the liquid state it's in.
It's water. It flows. Moves in ways that other fighters can't. Makes it seem speedier than it is. It's still a ‘C’ speed stand, accelerations that scale to an average human.

Aster suddenly yelped in pain as the watery stand dashed past him, leaving a cut on his face. He'd tried to intercept and strike it, but the fluid had simply deformed around his hand and kept going.
“Sorry, can't punch water!”
It wouldn't have stopped at a scratch if Aster was the target… ‘It's going right for me!’

“Idiot!”
Jay's hand fired a ray of chilling phantom power. It didn't stop Aqua Necklace or even seem to bother it at first, reforming after the hit, and continuing through to knock off Jay's glasses; striking his face particularly hard. It hurt; but it was nothing permanent.

‘It's only a ‘C’ ranked stand in destructive power. Its lethality comes from getting in the body and destroying the victim's insides. It's not harmless, but it's no more powerful than a particularly strong regular guy with a weapon. ‘B’ is where superhuman damage starts… Don't get caught up in the stats- you can nerd out later. Beat Katagiri first.’

Katagiri, talking through his stand, began to mock Jay, even as the ice crept across its body, freezing more and more of it. As far as he could tell, even now it seemed Jay was standless and could only affect Aqua Necklace through the water it was inhabiting. (Bound stands are weird like that.)
“That's a cool little trick you have, salaryman. Probably gets a ton of applause at a company party- Shame that once this melts It'll be like it never happened! Who's the idiot now?”

Heh. サラリーマン, ‘Salaryman’. Exactly what his mom had said he looked like when she'd first seen his costume. Jay couldn't help but laugh, hearing it again in such a serious situation. ‘Salaryman’
Such a funny word when it's translated. Even though Jay knew what she meant, It always elicited a chuckle, especially imagining some Z-list Superhero calling himself ‘Salary Man’.

“Riddle me this, genius- what's the only time you can punch water?”
Jay responded, turning to face where Aqua Necklace had landed. It was partially frozen, practically nullifying its confounding agility.

“Huh?”
Aqua Necklace looked up in shock at what was all of a sudden a very angry ‘salaryman’ winding up one hell of a haymaker.
“When it's ICE!”
Jay hit the stand in all of its frozen parts, and as each one shattered, pain transferred to Katagiri as it should. The part that was more surprising to the stonebound serial killer was that he saw flashes of a spectral creature around Jay's fist after each strike landed.
The visage of one of the heads of Aliphetros Hyperion, as if the Phantom Emperor Dragon were taking a bite out of Aqua Necklace with each swing. So he did have a stand? Or at least he had whatever that thing was.

With one more punch, he sent the small aqueous being flying back towards the stone.
“I might not be able to see too well without my glasses, but the thing with guys like you is they can't resist taunting. Makes beating you up so much more accessible.”
Jay omitted that his vision was still quite good by human standards, despite losing most of its acuity without his glasses.
He leaned over to pick them back up; wiping the lenses on his sleeve before slipping them back on.

“Shallow hits, Jason. Minimal Damage. But it does work as proof of concept.”
Aliphetros chimed in, in Jay's mind, as if he was trying to step on the moment.

“So you can be hurt if you're not able to just reform. Good to know.”
Jay pointed out; a smug smile starting to form on his face again. Watching bad guys squirm never gets old. Seeing the look on their faces when they find out they're not invincible is priceless.
“I wonder what happens if Mr Evernight freezes all of you before I smash it? I think we should find out!”
Aster growls through his aura, for everyone nearby to hear. He's not prepared to forgive having his face sliced so easily, it would seem. The two of them stood side by side, both emitting a threatening aura, Jay's was purple and gold, while Aster's was crimson as always.
ゴ
ゴ
ゴ
ゴ
ゴ
ゴ
ゴ (Menacing)

 

[Son Goku]

As the duo of Bulma and Goku were walking down the street Bulma was switching between the map. Reading about the various hotspots as well as looking through the choices of places to eat.

“Let’s see if there’s a cafe named Rengatei, a famous bakery called St. Gentleman, famous for its fried katsu sandwiches, and ooh, an Italian place called Trattoria Trussardi, very fancy-sounding. I bet the food there is very al dente,” Bulma said.

“Wow, so many options. I don’t know what an Italian is, but it sounds like a special place,” Goku said.

“Let's see there’s also a strange stone people greet, and ooh there’s even a beauty saloon called Cinderella that helps you find love. Hmm, I wonder if that’s true then maybe I wouldn’t need to Dragon Balls,” Bulma mused.

“What’s love, is that a food dish of some kind?” Goku asked.

“Uh I’ll explain when you’re older Goku a kid like you would never understand the intricacies of such a complex emotion,” Bulma said.

Back to the fight with Jay Evernight, Aster the Lucario, Grawr, and [Aqua Necklace] the water stand begins to breathe heavily after that last attack.

“Damn it, that guy seems to have a stand that can freeze people, I am up against the worst possible opponent. What do I do? I could escape into the sewers or if I am lucky find a bystander to use as a hostage,” Angelo thought.

As [Aqua Necklace] begins scanning the area for a sewer grate or a storm drain. Then he spots a blue-haired lady and a spiky black-haired kid who looks like he is still in his pajamas. Quickly he slithers away like a snake heading towards the duo while Jay, Aster, and Grawr trail behind the stand. “Alright, there are two of them so I can only pick one. That damned Josuke was willing to harm a woman even if he used his stand to heal her before she could die. These two are less likely to attack such a young child so I’ll enter him instead.”

And then [Aqua Necklace] enters Goku’s body through his mouth. Jay and Grawr stop with Jay realizing who the stand just entered. “Holy shit it actually IS Goku, a little younger, but still,”

[Aqua Necklace]’s head then pops out of Goku’s mouth “Ha ha ha! Now what you two? Take one step forward and I’ll tear this kid from the inside out. To show that I am not bluffing. I'll hurt this kid a little just for kicks,”

As he then proceeds to attack Goku’s insides he finds something strange. This kid’s insides were surprisingly tough. He can’t seem to do any damage to it. To Goku, it just felt like stomach grumbles.

“Weird, it felt like I swallowed some water and now my tummy is acting up. I guess it’s because I am hungry,” Goku said.

Jay of course knew better than anyone what was going on “Of course, a weak strength stand like [Aqua Necklace] couldn’t be able to hurt Goku from the inside. Even as a kid bullets could barely graze him. He’s as tough on the inside as he is on the outside. It’s like when Drax tried to kill that alien monster from Guardians of the Galaxy 2. That explains how his stomach can handle so much food as well.”

Bulma then puts the map and down is about to say something to Goku before she notices Jay Evernight. As she began to blush.

“Hey, my name is Bulma, what’s yours?” she asked.

“Uh sorry you’re too young for me,” Jay said.

“Oh no, I am eighteen years old people mistake me for being younger all the time. Anyway, perhaps maybe you and I could go out to eat lunch with us,” Bulma said.

“Uh, I’ll have to think about it. Anyway is your friend okay?” Jay asked.

Goku nodded “Yeah, I’m fine just hungry, my name’s Son Goku what’s yours, mister,”

“Jay Evernight and this is my Lucario Aster,”

Aster crossed his arms and gave a nod.

“Ooh that’s a nice name very exotic, come on now there’s this Italian place we can go to and I’ll even pay for it if you come with us,” Bulma said clinging on to Jay’s arm.

“Did someone say free lunch?” Grawr said.

Bulma looked to the Majin annoyed “I wasn’t talking to you, lady!”

“Aww, but I wanted to go,” Grawr pouted.

“Come on Bulma let the nice blue lady come too she seems nice,” Goku said.

“Fine,” Bulma said before muttering to herself “Can’t get a moment of peace with a hot guy I swear”

Aqua Necklace continues to struggle inside Goku. Not only has he seemed to have trouble doing damage to the kid. He can’t seem to get out either from the way he came. “Damn it all what will it take for me to get out of this kid. If I don’t get out soon [Aqua Necklace] could end up digested and it’d be the end of me. At least it’d put me out of my misery of being a rock forever I guess but still, I don’t wanna go out like this,”

Meanwhile, Yamcha and Puar are parked their hover vehicle the Jet Squirrel outside the Grand Morioh Hotel on the sidewalk. They saw that the three entered and that Bulma and Goku left. But that pig seemed to have been staying inside.

“Well Puar, what do you think?” Yamcha asked his flying feline partner in crime.

“I doubt they would leave the Dragon Balls in their room so they’re probably holding on to them,” Puar said.

“Still though they wouldn’t risk taking it out with them in the open for the possibility for someone to steal them. I would suggest we should split up but you can’t handle that kid. He’s a skilled martial artist for someone his age probably a prodigy taught by a good teacher,” Yamcha mused.

“We should probably park our Jet Squirrel somewhere else first,” Puar said.

As Yamcha stepped on the pedal and went forward he heard a thud is heard as he looks and sees he seems to have run over a short man with an arm cast and crutch. Wearing a purple shirt with different country flags on it. With a strange hairdo that looks like a thick helmet. His eyes also has pronounced epicanthic folds.

“You bastard! Who parks their vehicle in the middle of the sidewalk,” the man says.

Yamcha stepped off of his scooter an got to the man’s side “Oh gosh I am so sorry mister I didn’t see you there!”

“You should be, I already got into a bike accident recently and now I got hit by your weird scooter. The medical bills to heal me are going to be outrageous and I am already having insurance troubles,” the man said.

It was then the a big lock formed on Yamcha’s chest. As he buckle down from the sudden weight.

“He he he he. [The Lock] has been activated. He can’t move with the weight of the guilt he now feels,” the man thought.

Though despite the immsene weight Yamcha struggles but manages to get up to stand and looks at the man angrily.

“Hey, you just used some weird ability on me now, didn’t you? Just so you could get me to pay you am I right?” Yamcha asked.

“Uh, oh that. It’s out of my control it’s a passive ability. It only activates around people who have guilty hearts and yours is looking particularly guilty, Look take me to the hospital and I may be willing to forgive you to make it go away,” the man said.

“Heh, a half-truth but it should be enough to convince him to pay out if it means he can get rid of that weight,” the man thought.

Puar turns into a pair of floating scissors and then begins cutting into the man’s cast revealing his non broken arm as he tries to swat the flying cat away before realizing that he is using the arm that was in the cast. Before he looks sheepishly back at Yamcha and giggles.

“Now would you look at that my arm must have healed, but my leg I think is worse for wear from hitting you so could you maybe-”

That is when Yamcha’s lock broke and Yamcha loomed over the short man. The man falls to the ground as Yamcha gets out his sword and points it toward him.

“You there, what’s your name?” Yamcha asked.

“Uh…Tamami Kobayashi,” he said.

“Well then if you feel guilty about conning me I may be willing to forgive you if you do something for me. See I am after something called the Dragon Balls and there’s this cute blue haired lady and a black haired spiky kid after them too. Get the Dragon Balls from them and I’ll forgive you,” Yamcha explained.

Tamami then grabs on to Yamcha’s pants “Okay I’ll do it, please spare me and I’ll get these whatever balls for you!”

Yamcha then sheathes his sword as he then takes his leave with Puar. As Tamami runs in the opposite direction an ominous yellow figure pops out of a nearby lamppost. Electrical sparks surround it.

“Dragon Balls huh? How very interesting,” the figure said.

 

[The Future Warrior]

Perhaps to the surprise of no one, Graowr had no idea what an ‘Italian’ was. The concept of a restaurant centered around it was absolutely boggling for her poor, already typically struggling mind. Especially when presented with the sight of one one Trattoria Trussardi, the size of which looked like anything but a restaurant.

Of all the things the little majin was clueless about, food was definitely not one of them, nor were the places in which it was made. This place was not really ticking any boxes or ringing any bells to indicate that it was one of those places. Maybe it was just a really deceptive atmosphere on the outside? It seemed like a nice enough place anyway, of course, even if the location of it was a little odd.

“Isn’t that like a…what do you call ‘em…” The majin popped up into the air, shading her eyes with one hand as she looked intently down the street.

“A cemetery,” Jay supplied helpfully. “Kunimitōge Graveyard, to be specific.”

Graowr slowly rotated in place on two axes, ending up hovering upside down as she stared back at the rest of the bizarre little group, blinking dumbly at the really super cool spy-looking guy. “So it is one of those places they keep dead guys!” she said, perhaps a little too excitedly. “I’ve never seen one of those up close before.”

“They keep dead people there?” Goku piped up, turning from where he had been feigning a knowing look at the sign out front of the unassuming little restaurant to instead stare off toward the graveyard.

“I swear, you two are so weird,” Bulma groaned, slapping a hand to her forehead. “Can we focus on something else aside from the creepy cemetery this place is so close to? It’s kind of ruining the mood here!” she wailed, before leaning heavily against the poor spy-guy, flashing big, overly dramatic faux-teary eyes up at him. “Jaaaaay, you can make them stop talking about weird stuff so we can go inside, right?”

Jay shifted slightly in place, a brief look of awkwardness flitting over his face as he shared a profound glance with Aster. The clearly befuddled Lucario just offered a helpless shrug in response. “Yes, well…” the man finally spoke up, reaching up with one hand to carefully adjust his tie in a way that would absolutely give no inclination he was reaching for anything else. “I suppose we should head inside, if we’re going to…take Bulma up on her offer. It’s probably going to get more than a little weird very quickly if we just keep loitering around out here.”

“Yeah!” Goku whirled back around, all thoughts of the cemetery vanishing from his head as his face split into an excited grin. “Let’s get to the food, I’m starving!” the saiyan proclaimed as he marched right up the stairs and into the doors of Trattoria Trussardi with the exaggerated childish swagger of someone who had no idea what was actually going on anywhere but right in front of him.

“He’s funny!” Graowr noted with a laugh as she flipped herself around rightside up and alighted on the ground again with a soft ptp. She slapped an arm around Aster’s shoulders with a grin. “Me an’ this guy are gonna go inside and sit with the funny little monkey guy!” she said cheerfully, and without waiting for an answer she merrily strolled off, her arm elongating and stretching comically as the confused pokemon remained stoically in place.

”Uh…sir?” Aster telepathically ‘spoke’, casting an absolutely befuddled glance Jay-ward.

Jay just shook his head with a resigned sigh. “It’s fine. The tables in here only seat three anyway, if I remember right…”

“Oh? Have you been here before?” Bulma perked up slightly, genuine curiosity momentarily overriding her fawning.

“Er, no,” Jay quickly said, looking away. “Well, not…exactly, anyway. It’s a bit complicated to explain.”

”Well…I’ll head inside, then,” Aster noted, casting one final glance between Jay and Bulma before letting up on his resistance and letting the majin’s stretchy arm drag him inside the little restaurant.

The interior of the place was a very different experience. While it didn’t look like much from the outside, on the inside…it was something else altogether. At first glance it might almost have been mistaken for a rustic and comfortable dining room like you’d expect to find in someone’s home, complete with a fireplace along one wall. A few comfortable chairs stood by the door, with a small table and coat rack beside them. Only two tables set up in higher class restaurant style, the large rack bearing bottles of assorted wines, the large open archway in the rear of the place with the telltale sounds and smells of a kitchen at work, and the counter bearing the register by the door gave any real indication that it was still a restaurant.

And of the two tables…one of them was already occupied. Goku sat in one of the chairs, idly swinging his legs while looking around the place in a blank, glazed over way; he was curious and interested, plainly, but…food was near at hand, and he didn’t really understand most of this stuff anyway. Graowr was likewise already seated, and currently occupying herself by precariously balancing a fork on the tip of her finger as it spun around and around, a dopey grin on her face. Aster had just taken a seat for himself, in a chair proffered by another man in a chef’s uniform, when the door opened again with the soft chiming of its attached bell, announcing the entrance of Jay and Bulma.

“Oh? More guests?” the chef spoke up, pushing the chair in slightly for the pokemon before turning to greet the two more….normal seeming arrivals. “Buon giorno, signore e signora,” he said warmly, offering a polite nod to the two of them. “Welcome to Trattoria Trussardi. We still have another table free, if you’ll be dining with us today as well.”

“Oh, we’re…with them, actually,” Jay quickly said, nodding toward the other three far more odd guests of the little restaurant. “We just got held up for a second outside.”

“Ah, I understand.” The chef smiled warmly, sweeping a hand over his midsection in a slight bow before quickly sweeping over to the free table and pulling out a seat. “Then, please, if the lady would like to take a seat?”

Bulma flashed a smile, brushing some hair back from her face. “Oh, wow, what a gentleman,” she murmured, before doing precisely that.

The attending chef of the restaurant pushed the chair back in slightly, with another friendly smile before stepping over to an adjacent chair and pulling it out as well. “And you, signore,” he said, with a bemused glance to Jay. “Please, have a seat.”

“Ah, thank you,” the slick super spy-looking man said quietly, taking his seat.

“Now, then!” the chef announced, stepping back and taking his place between the tables, his back to the far wall where the kitchen entry stood. “My name is Tonio Trussardi,” he said, his voice taking on a bright, cheerful tone. “I have made it my life’s work to open this restaurant, and to serve only the finest and healthiest cuisine from both my homeland, and incorporating lessons and additional ideas I have learned from all across this wonderful Crossraods of ours. I hope you will find the dishes you experience here to be as memorable and invigorating as they are delicious.”

“I don’t know about all that stuff, but something in here sure smells great!” Goku piped up, planting his hands on the table and nearly standing up in his seat. “When do we get to eat?!”

Tonio laughed, seeming genuinely amused and delighted. “Ah, an eager customer! Forgive me for going on like that.”

”I’m not very familiar with customs in restaurants or anything,” Aster started, hesitantly cutting into the conversation. ”But isn’t this normally the part where we’d be given the…menu, do you call it?”

“Oh, forgive me, dear customers,” Tonio said, an apologetic tone creeping into his voice. “But this place has no such thing as a menu.”

“Huh? No menu?” Bulma blinked in sheer confusion. “But, then how do we even know what we might want? Or even what you have?”

“Heeeey, yeah!” Graowr’s attention finally snapped back to focus, as she flipped the form in her hand up. It did an impressive quadruple spinning motion before she snatched it out of the air, jabbing it in Tonio’s direction like a pointing finger. “I’ve only been to a couple places like this, but they always had those big fancy pages of stuff that they had to eat! This place is definitely fancy enough to have those kinds of things, so what gives?”

Tonio’s expression darkened, the normal joviality seeming to bleed away into a deadly serious mask.

“Everyone, calm down!” Jay spoke up, rising slightly from his seat. “This place is just…unique, that’s all. I bet it’s just one of those places with a set menu, or something, determined by the day.” He quickly glanced from one person to the next, a fevered look of ‘please do not start a fight right now’ in his eyes, before looking to Tonio himself. “Er…sorry, but is it something like that, maybe?”

The severe, disgruntled look in Tonio’s expression lingered for but a second more before it melted away. “Ah, very close, Signore,” he said, with a hint of a smile. “You might say I serve food tailored to each specific customer. In a sense…I suppose it could be said that I am the one who decides what my dear customers are served on each visit.”

“Whaaaaat? We can’t even pick for ourselves?! That sounds lame!”
“Aw, no way, but then how will we even know if it’s any good or not?!”
“We don’t even get to choose what we eat? That’s so weird…”

Three voices spoke up nearly in unison, the confused babble seeming entirely lost on Tonio. He simply stared at them all with a bemused, neutral expression. “You there, young sir…” he murmured, and stepped close to the table with the three by far more strange occupants, kneeling down next to Goku. “If I’m not mistaken, you recently ingested something rather unhealthy for you, did you not?”

“Huh? Whaddya mean?” the young saiyan blinked in confusion.

“He’s asking if you ate or drank something bad for you,” Bulma cut in, leaning back in her chair slightly to peer around Tonio.

“Oh, yeah, I think I did, maybe!” Goku nodded. “Just a little bit ago, there was this really weird feeling like I swallowed a bunch of water and…then my tummy started hurting. I thought it was just because I was really hungry!”

“Hmm…” Tonio brought a hand up to his chin, rubbing it thoughtfully. “And you, my good sir!” He stood up again, turning to cast his eyes at Jay. “You appear to be stricken with a rather serious sickness. Radiation exposure, if I were to say?”

Jay blinked a few times. “I, uh…yes, that’s right,” he said at length. I know Tonio’s good at analyzing people and their conditions, but…it’s surreal to see it in person. Or to have it done to me, for that matter.

“And for our bizarre little blue friend!” He cast a critical eye on the majin, looking at her curiously. “Alas, I’m afraid I can’t quite tell for certain what might be ailing you…though, have you been getting enough rest lately?”

“Well…I guess I kinda have been just going nonstop for a whiiiiile now,” Graowr admitted, idly scratching at her chin with the handle of the fork still in her hand. “I just got here from Cevanti a couple days ago after this big war and stuff…”

“Oh, my! Fresh from a war, and traveling all that distance on top of it?” Tonio’s expression was momentarily shocked, before he nodded knowingly. “I think I have just the thing.” He swept his gaze around at all of them with a warm smile. “For all of you, in fact. Will you all be partaking in our full course, today?”

All eyes immediately swept toward Bulma, who sank back into her seat. She gave a nervous laugh, idly twirling a lock of hair in her fingers. Okay…I think I saw the prices on the sign outside and they didn’t seem too bad…I can probably afford this place for the five of us pretty easily. Besides, with all this ‘healthy food’ stuff….if it turns out to be no good, we can always just not pay or something…right?

She cleared her throat. “Oh, sure! I think we’d all love to see what you can cook up!”

“Ho capito,” Tonio said, his eyes sparkling with warmth. “I will return with something for you to drink and begin work on the first course right away, then.”

 

[Jay Evernight]

"So you guys are here in Morioh looking for a Dragon Ball? Aster and I are gonna be in town a while, so I could help out if you want. This town's dangerous; even for someone like Goku."
Jay offered his assistance. It beat waiting around, he knew most of the major threats around here, and he couldn't in good conscience let the two of them walk into this veritable minefield quite literally blind.

"Would you? That'd be amazing."
Bulma eagerly accepted, spending more time with him was an offer she couldn't refuse, and with him protecting them there was almost nothing left that could go wrong.

"Whaddya mean dangerous for someone like me?"
Goku asked, with a blank, mildly confused and decidedly curious stare.
"That's a weird thing to say, and come to think of it, you did say his name before we introduced ourselves-"
Bulma questioned, not so hopelessly lost in her infatuation that she couldn't notice a suspicious moment like that.

Jay had been hoping they hadn't heard that, and was relieved that by all accounts they still hadn't heard the much more concerning part of that sentence, about Goku being younger than he expected.
"-What I meant was; even for someone  like Us: Goku, Aster, Myself- Tough as we are, this town has dangers that can seriously hurt you. And for less durable people like Bulma here, well... Open streets in broad daylight are fine, it just isn't safe to go treasure hunting by yourselves."
A good save. That was a little too close. They'd probably made enemies by this point, and it wouldn't be the first time Jay had been mistaken for a hitman. If he couldn't keep his story straight, they might suspect that he's an enemy.

"As for recognising him-" Jay made sure to drop his voice for this next part, he didn't want anyone other than Bulma to hear. The last thing he needed was for them to panic. "There's not a lot of spiky-haired kids with tails who can survive what's going on in him right now... between us; that 'bad stuff' he swallowed, is a lot more dangerous than your average stagnant water. You're both safe, I'm gonna handle it."
Jay's only chance of keeping things calm here was to act like nothing was wrong or out of hand.
Tonio was, knowingly or not, helping in that regard. Goku was being served last.
Jay suspected he might know what was going on, when he placed an extra empty glass on the table after bringing everyone a drink. Said glass was cracked,
"I'm sure whatever it is, you can deal with it."
Bulma whispered back, based on absolutely nothing but her own immediate feelings about him. Jay tried not to let himself get distracted, but he was at least somewhat flattered by the attention.

"As soon as Goku starts eating, you need to be ready. Once he's done『Aqua Necklace』 is coming back out."

Jay commanded Aster telepathically so as not to alarm the others.
He decided that since things were likely to get hectic before long, he should probably at least try the meal Tonio put all that work into. It'd be a waste not to taste it, and if 『Pearl Jam 』Affected Jay to the same extent it worked on Okuyasu and Josuke in the Anime, it might even fix his radiation sickness. If he's gonna be tagging along and fighting stand users, he might as well try to get back up to 100%.

It looked incredible. It was a chicken caesar salad, with everything you might expect of the classic dish, and then some. Notable additions at a first glance were kale and cress to the greens, a dash of lime in addition to the lemon juice, and a larger-than-usual amount of dijon mustard.

But on closer inspection; Jay almost broke down into a fit of hysterical laughter, to the degree his eyes began watering immediately.
The croutons in the salad, were arranged such that the rest of the salad beneath was effectively crushed under a cross-shaped object.
'it's not that funny; don't laugh- it's not that funny, Don't Laugh. Control yourself. You'll look SO INSANE; if you laugh...'
Thankfully the taste of it had given him an explanation for the tears that made him seem far less insane.
His mind was immediately reeling from the sensation of being dragged back through his most nostalgic moments.
Though on the outside he was silently crying as he ate the rest of it in its entirety; his mental self was being pulled kicking and screaming into every happy memory he ever made, and inevitably that included some that had since been made heartwrenching reminders that those times are never coming back.
"Jason are you Ratatouille-ing right now? Because I taste this as well. Likely due to 『Pearl Jam』I rexperienced my most treasured memories, I thought you might be as well; and realised... The Implication."
Aliphetros, ever concerned for his other self's wellbeing, had figured out rather quickly why Jay might be 'leaking from the eyes'-


"Jay? Jay?"
Bulma snapped her fingers and waved her hand in front of his face, trying to get his attention. She was starting to worry, on account of certain visible side effects. Both to him, and to herself after she ate what Tonio had served to her. (Whatever that was, she'd eaten it when Jay was indisposed, so he hadn't seen.)
"Yeah- What is it?
He said, snapping out of it just in time.
"Is everything alright? You spaced out, and started twinkling-"
Bulma moved in a manner slightly more befitting of an inflatable person than a real one, bending at strange angles and generally being a tad too fluid. She'd even started to float a little bit, and had been holding on to Jay: interlocking their arms to anchor herself. Of course she could equally have done so to Graowr, or Aster, but that's to be expected.

"That's bizarre... I'm not just refracting light, I'm emitting sparkles-"
Jay noticed, glittering little stars seemed to fall from his body each time he so much as breathed.

"It could be worse. I think it's cute, Y-"
Before Bulma could finish her sentence, Jay exploded into a column of incandescent white light. Light so bright and powerful it seemed to burn most of his body from the neck down, down to his cybernetic skeleton.
The brilliant light seemed to stain red around the crimson streak in his hair, while the black strands of his hair stood bolt-upright like soldiers at attention.


"For the Azzurra Signora, Chili con Pesci; an oceanic take on a terrestrial classic, and a blend of water with fire- guaranteed to flambè and wash away any lingering fatigue."
Tonio served Graowr as if nothing was happening in Jay's direction. Placing a bowl of exquisitely prepared fish, drenched in an aromatic red sauce, interlaced with chunks of tomato, strips of several types of hot peppers, and beans.
"Is this gonna set me on fire!? Did you put lava in this- you have to tell me if there's lava in this, I'm allergic!"
Graowr reacted, as if something WAS happening in Jay's direction.

"Err- a-no. You won't be set aflame by this dish. Easing weariness requires nothing so explosive as expelling unwanted radiation. And I assure you; I put no lava in your meal and every possible measure has been taken to prevent cross-contamination."
Much to the Chagrin of Bulma, this is enough to convince Graowr to eat what she'd been served.
To the surprise of nobody, a side effect soon followed.
Perhaps because Majin physiology is so resilient, or because of their ability to digest even supernatural bindings, or maybe because they're weird enough as it is, Graowr got the least noticable side effect, a jolt ran up her spine, and her whole gum-like form became electrified, as she perked up. Any residual tiredness, even that of which she was not aware, was now completely gone.

Jay took a sharp breath in, and the column of blazing radiance vanished.
He dusts himself off, and finds that he's still twinkling a bit.
He winks at Bulma just to test it, and a tiny little star shoots out.
He dabs a napkin on his lips a few times and nonchalantly says "That was exquisite. Really great. Probably the best thing I've eaten in months."
Soon after he said that, Bulma breathed out and expelled quite a bit more air than her lungs could usually hold. She gently drifted down and landed after that.
"Worth the money, for sure. If I'd known going in that all these strange effects were temporary and benign-"
Before she could finish, she was cut off by Goku.

"Is this normal for Italian food?"
Goku asked; cluelessly. For all he knew, since his friends appeared to be enjoying their meals aside from the odd but ultimately harmless side effects, this was just what happened when you ate Italian.

"No. Tonio is just a one-of-a-kind chef."
Jay explains. This experience is one you can only have at Trattoria Trussardi. A great spot to hit up if you're ever in town.

Goku was next, and last, to be served.
"Sorry for the wait, but Saiyan appetites take a lot to fill, and I have a standard of quality to uphold, even in bulk. Pizza Margherita Grande."
Tonio had trouble even bringing in the cartoonishly oversized Pizza; and Jay had to slip the extra glass off the table in order to fit it. Hiding the glass behind his back after doing so.

Son Goku of course, ate the entire thing in moments anyway, deeply enjoying the experience.
He was likely going to comment on the deliciousness of it, perhaps the cheese or the sauce might get particular mention as the best part. But instead, he was stopped from doing so by his body launching 『Aqua Necklace 』 out from his oesophagus in a manner reminiscent of a Super Soaker.

Jay immediately slapped the glass over the top of him as if he were a spider.
The Cracked Glass did not hold up to this task, 『Aqua Necklace』shattered it in moments.
Aster fired off a crimson Aura Sphere, which blasted through the Stand to no effect. It turned around and did so again, and again, and again.

Seemingly out of frustration, Jay fired off dozens of tiny blasts filled with cryogenic phantom power. Each one missed 『Aqua Necklace』due to the stand's ability to disperse in vapour faster than its speed would usually allow it to move.
The Stand hurled shards of broken glass at Jay, which slashed him open wherever they landed.

"Get back! Cover your faces- if it gets inside one of us again, he's not gonna make the same mistakes twice!"

To the eyes of Goku and Bulma at the very least, the Watery creature seemed to vanish and reappear on the spot at will. Chucking broken glass at beyond bullet-level speeds, Until finally, bleeding from small cuts on his neck and face- Jay chuckled.
"I win. You've been dodging my shots purely because of their perfectly straight line trajectory. They're light-like waves, they can't turn, so unless I'm willing to blast this entire place out of existence just to kill you, I can't hit- that's what you're thinking, right?"
For once everyone around and on the table was as clueless as Goku about a situation; though Ironically, Goku was probably the most likely to have figured out what was going on, at least in a basic form.
"What about it, Salaryman!?"
Anjuro snapped, through the fanged mouth of his stand.
"Well. My shots are more like light than you know. They can bounce off glass when I want them too- and you can only control the water with your power. Remind me again what you filled youself with when you shattered that cup I put over you?"
Jay smirked, another twinkle escaping his eyes.
"So you can reflect your little lasers. Another cute little trick for your company parties. I bet the boys around the water cooler all think you're hot shit-"
Anjuro continued the 'Salaryman' line of insults. It wasn't very effective, but Jay had to give him points for creativity.

"I'm not done. Every time Aster's Aura Sphere went through you, it's aligned those tiny mirrors so that whenever you dodged one of my shots, it bounced into that Aura Sphere. That Aura Sphere, which never misses because it's locked on to your aura and won't disperse until it imparts its energy- It's fully charged with ice now. If it hits you again, you'll freeze solid!"
Jay's voice shifted from joking to deadly serious. His pupils contracted and his glare tightened.
"Shit- You didn't- There's no way...
It doesn't matter! This next shard's going right in your throat!"
Anjuro's stand wielded a particularly large and sharp glass shard like a sword.

"Will you bet your life that it won't matter? Are you ready to die? If those are the stakes you wanna play with I can work with that."
Jay practically snarled. There was a veritable rage in him, one that flowed out as a telepathic message.
"You wanna know why? I'd have to fight you no matter what- you're a serial killer, I'm a superhero, it's the job. It's buisness. But you're special. Anjuro Katagiri. It's personal. Your attitude and your crimes would be enough to piss me off; but your stand makes me sick...
Everything strong about it, is all some stupid trick! You have no real power and you still think you can hurt and kill whoever you want-"
The Stand Stared Jay down and he stared back. It accelerated towards him.

"Monsters like you are the exact type I signed up to put down when I first wore this suit. The kind that took Adallia away from me- If you wanna kill me or any of my friends, You bet it all!"
Jay tensed up, tears still in his eyes.
This whole damn new world seemed dead-set on reminding him of her.
If that's how it's going to be, then some asshole serial killer with supernatural powers is going to feel his wrath all over again.

『Aqua Necklace』tossed a shard of sharp glass toward Bulma's neck instead, Jay reached out and intercepted it with his hand, the glass shard getting lodged in his palm.

Moments before the stand plunged its Glass sword into his throat, the Crimson Aura Sphere, now gleaming in a far colder purple, slammed into it, freezing the water being solid.
"Huh? No!"

Jay balled that hand into a fist, crushing the shard to powder. It hurt a ton but this was gonna hurt Anjuro a hell of a lot more, and that made it tolerable.
His aura ignited again, forming a shell around his entire body.

"Gonna put my back into it this time- Katagiri!"
He bent his knees, twisted to the side; and jolted forwards; punching up and into the frozen stand.
He did more than put his back into it, for someone like Anjuro Katagiri, he was going to punch as hard as he possibly could without bringing this building down.

Wind whipped around the impact point, a tremor like the aftershock of a bomb rocked the entire restaurant, and all in attendance would see a flash of an enormous distortion that took the tricephalous form of The Phantom Emperor Dragon; a biting head lunging along with his arm as Jay drove his fist through the frostbound stand.

As the shattered remains of 『Aqua Necklace』 disintegrated, he left his gloved right fist raised, still gleaming with the power he'd used to neutralise most of the shockwaves and backlash.

Jay stood up fully. Then he ran his other hand over his face and neck as the wounds faded.
The huge cursive X scar on his chest remained, but now it was practically the only sign of anything wrong with him.
At least physically.
He sighed hard, trying to let the anger pass now that the fight was over.

He glanced around the room, making sure nobody else was hurt. Seems he'd actually handled things without doing too much collateral damage, though he had hit much harder than he intended. Now he wasn't ill any more, he was quite a bit stronger than he'd become accustomed to.
He lowered his arm.

" 『Aqua Necklace』Won't be bothering us any more; but out of all the possible hostile stand users... Anjuro Katagiri is one of the weakest. But the good news is, he's probably the hardest to hit."

He straightened out his tie. He sounded calm; but a win like that always made him excited. Plus, Son Goku just watched him wreck somebody with a powered-up punch- how could he not be feeling some type of high after that.
"So this is the dragon-type power I felt within Mister Evernight's body- An entirely different level of strength, but one I'm sure I can still reach... If not his full power then at least that of this one strike."
Aster was so astonished that his trainer had an attack like that in him, that he blurted that out for all to 'hear'.

- Anjuro Katagiri and 『Aqua Necklace』 Status: possibly deceased, but definitely RETIRED!
[If that didn't kill him he was gonna wish it did.]

"You, all four of you, probably have a lot of questions. But with 『Aqua Necklace』 out of the picture, I've got time to answer 'em all!"
Jay smiled, his hand behind his head and an awkward blush on his face. He was even still sparkling a bit.

(My very first) Focus Use: A momentary flicker of the full spirit-titan power of the Phantom Emperor Dragon, newly made possible by a healthy Jay.

 

[Son Goku]

“Alright what’s going on buster, first the water Goku spat out and started talking spreading glass everywhere, you keep talking about stands this and that. It’s time you start talking!” Bulma said.

“Hmm, how should I put this? Well, Stands are like psychic powers kind of, that can take on many different forms but only people with a Stand can see them which is why Goku wasn’t aware that he had one in him. Tonio is also a Stand user but don’t worry he uses his Stand for good. When we ate his meals it healed us of our ailments,” Jay explained.

“That certainly sounds bizarre, so wait how can we see your stand then? The dragon that showed up behind you?” Bulma asked.

“Well, it’s complicated first off I don’t have a stand but me and Aster can sense them in different ways.I just know about them because I did my research on this town before coming here and part of that research led to the knowledge of stands since there are quite a few stand users around here,” Jay Evernight said lying through his teeth at the last part.

“Okay fair, and what about the stand you just beat? What was his deal?” Bulma continued.

“An infamous serial killer known as Angelo, don’t worry though with his stand gone he’s probably gone for good. When a stand dies so does its user,” Jay explained.

“Angelo? Like the stone, oh wait don’t tell me that-”

“That’s right, the Angelo Stone IS Angelo. Put in a perpetual Hell as a rock by another Stand user. And to be honest, I hope he IS dead and rotting in Hell right now,” Jay said.

Bulma shivered at the thought of that “Damn that’s cold. He must have been a real bastard.”

“Hey mister, the nice chef said I was a Sai-yan. What exactly is that?” Goku asked.

“Oh crap baskets, how did Tonio even know about that? Are there more Saiyans in the Crossroads and that’s how he knew? I have got to think of a good explanation fast,” thought Jay.

Aliphetros would Laugh at him. “Really, Jason? Crapbaskets? What's next, are you about to get your own Owned Counter?”

“Shut up I am trying to concentrate,” bit back Jay.

After thinking about it for a minute he decides to tell some half truths instead of the full truth.

“Well, Saiyans like you have monkey tails and come from a proud race of powerful warriors. One of the strongest beings there is. They’ve been known to even get stronger after having near-death experiences,” Jay explained.

Bulma then looked at Jay and back to Goku. “So wait, are you saying that Goku is like an alien?”

Jay nodded to this. Bulma then crossed her arms. “I mean it’s not too surprising the boy screamed weird when I first met him but still an alien, wow.”

“Whoa, these Saiyans sound cool. I wonder why my grandpa didn’t have a tail. Maybe it’s because he was so old and his tail fell off or something,” Goku said.

Jay paused for a few seconds. About to say something. And then shuts his mouth. He could lie and say yes that’s what happens to Saiyans when they get old enough. Yet he didn’t have the heart to, nor did he have the heart to tell the truth.

“Oh, so the kid’s a Saiyan? No wonder why I like him so much I met a lot of cool Saiyans. I’ve met a lot of Saiyans before although a few of them are kind of jerks. Hey, what’s your name anyway kid?” Grawr asked.

“I am Goku, Son Goku!,” the boy said proudly.

Now a rare moment occurred for Grawr. In which the gears in her head started to turn so to speak. And she made a realization that this was Goku, THE Goku she met before but as a child. And come to think of it he does also look a lot like Goten too. And considering her job as a Time Patroller she thought it best not to say too much and spoil Goku on future events.

Still, she needed to say something in order to act like she knew nothing and did not sound suspicious “Hi Grawr, I’m Goku!” nailed it.

“What, no, I’m Goku.” the boy said.

“Oh right, sorry I got mixed up there, blah,” Grawr said sticking out her tongue and making a cute face.

“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you Grawr,” Jay said going to shake her hand before remembering the painful glass shard embedded into it. “You think Tonio can whip something up to heal this?”

“Ooh, Grawr can handle this,” Grawr said.

She then plucked a piece of herself off before applying it to Jay’s hand wound. Before firing a magical beam from her antennae suddenly the glass was gone and the wound was healed.

“A witch! A real witch!” Goku screamed out.

“I’m not a witch, I’m a Majin. We are literally made of magic. At least that’s what I remember being told anyway. I know I am not made of candy despite looking like believe me I tasted myself and I taste awful,” Grawr said

“Who would’ve thought I’d find someone with fewer brain cells than Goku,” Bulma thought.

Jay then gets up from the table. “Well in any case that Dragon Ball won’t get itself, let’s go,”.

And with that, Bulma paid the bill as the group left the building. As they followed the Dragon Radar’s signal they ended up in front of a house. Nothing seemed special about it. Though Jay thought that it seemed familiar.

“Okay, so the Dragon Ball has to be inside that house. If the owner is home I can just convince him to take it off of his hands.” Bulma said.

And suddenly an electrical spark moves through the air and takes the Dragon Ball Radar with it. The group looks toward where the radar is going as it stops floating at the top of a telephone pole.

“Oh god dammit don’t tell me that’s-” Jay thought.

It’s faint with their senses but he and Aster can see the silhouette of a strange yellow reptilian humanoid with an electrical aura surrounding it staring down at them.

“I was going to swipe the Dragon Balls from you but I suppose I’ll take the next best thing and take this handy gizmo instead,” the stand said.

As it retreats back into the telephone pole it zooms away through the electrical current. As Goku then calls for the Flying Nimbus and manages to fly after it. Being able to follow the strange arcing lightning that is moving through the cables.

“Goku no! You can’t handle Red Hot Chili Peppers by yourself!” Jay called out.

“Damn it, there’s no way I can reach both of them in time they’re too far off by now,” Jay thought.

Bulma was going to ask what Jay was talking about until the gate and door to the house creaked open. She walked inside as Jay turned to see her go in. Upon seeing the logo/brand on the gate of the Nijumara family symbol he realized just who this house belonged to as Bulma stepped inside.

“Bulma no, it’s a trap!” he yelled out.

 

[The Future Warrior]

As Goku took flight with Flying Nimbus, Graowr was only a second behind him. A brilliant flare of azure light burst to life around her and she took to the sky, shooting up well over twice the height of the ominously looming building. She spun around, staring after the young saiyan as he gave chase to the mysterious crackle of electricity racing away along the power lines, and tensed up to break off in pursuit as well to lend a hand. Jay seemed to have some idea what was going on here, and he had just said that Goku wouldn’t be able to handle whatever that was on his own, so—

“Bulma no, it’s a trap!” Jay shouted from below, and the majin stopped dead in her figurative tracks. She looked down, seeing only the super cool, super slick, definitely super magic super spy guy and his just as cool magic dog-thing below. She looked back up to the quickly diminishing form of Goku racing away after…Red Hot Chili Pepper, had Jay called it?

“Agh, what do I do?!”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A beat later, Aster shot a quick glance at Jay. Leave this one to me, sir. You go help Bulma. Without missing a beat, the Lucario took off as quickly as he could, in pursuit of the young saiyan.

Jey clenched one fist, briefly glancing after his partner, before just shaking his head and turning back to the house. “Alright… Keicho’s stand is dangerous, but it shouldn’t be too much to handle as long as we’re careful,” he murmured, before quickly darting through the gate of the property and up onto the porch of the house. He stopped for a moment before the door, watching it creak slightly on its hinges, the yawning void seeming almost pitch black compared to the bright sunlight outside.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Overhead, the majin shook her head. “Come on, come on!” she scolded herself, slapping her hands against her cheeks. “Those two can handle whatever’s going on over there!” And she flipped around, zipping downward at a wild angle to crash clear through one of the boarded up windows of the house’s second floor. She skidded to a halt among the splintered wood, feeling as much as hearing the ground creak under the force of her landing. She fished out her scouter, fumbling it on over her left eye while slowly creeping forward.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

On the ground floor, Jay cursed silently before pushing the front door open the rest of the way and slipping inside. Immediately he was on edge, the unmistakable feeling of something watching him settling in. “Damn it…” For a fleeting moment he entertained the idea it was just Bulma or the bizarre little majin watching him from upstairs or something, but there was an unmistakable feeling of…menace practically drenching the air. They definitely had company, and it wasn’t good. In fact, he’d even be inclined to say it was about to go from bad to worse.

God, the english dub was so goofy…

He stepped slowly forward, adjusting his gloves and looking around constantly. He knew that Bad Company could be hiding anywhere and potentially everywhere, given their tiny size and numbers. He wasn’t worried about the regular soldiers that much — their firepower probably wouldn’t be enough to put him in serious danger, after all — but the distraction they could cause would still be problematic. Really, really problematic, especially with how meticulous Keicho Nijimura was…

The ceiling creaked overhead under a heavy thump, dust showering down from the rafters. “Upstairs…figures.” He grimaced and quickly made a break for the stairs, keeping his eyes peeled for any traps or surprises waiting for him.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Upstairs, Graowr crept carefully along, her eyes doing their best impression of a chameleon watching two DVD logos as she tried to keep watch everywhere at the same time. Her scouter bleeped softly now and then, pinging back four distinct energy signatures from within the house, aside from herself. One of them was obviously Jay, the other was definitely Bulma. The other one was higher up, in the furthest corner of the house, and was so distorted and vague it was hard to pinpoint what it was. And the last one…she had no idea. It was going absolutely wild, though, and giving her the heebies. It didn’t seem particularly strong, not much more than an average person, but…it was fluctuating like crazy, giving off the same weird feeling that the Angelo Stone had.

Now, Graowr might have been stupid, but she wasn’t an idiot. She had pattern recognition at least as good as a particularly smart dog.

“It’s gotta be another Stand user…” she whispered. “That’s gonna make this kind of annoying; these Stand things are like cheating! How are we supposed to fight them if we can’t…” She trailed off as she blinked, and suddenly her scouter’s display practically lit up with many, many more energy signatures. Dozens of them, each one giving off the same kind of crazy, wild energy signature as who she figured the Stand user was.

“Oh…” Her eyes went wide, and she tensed up, slowly turning to look toward the nearest large cluster of them. The glint of metal catching the light from the freshly opened window, and the shuffling of many tiny boots answered her gaze. “...crap.”

Something quite literally dropped out of the air, landing on her shoulder. Her eyes swiveled down to look at it just in time to get a brief glimpse of what looked like some kid’s toy soldier before there was a gleaming flash of metal, and several tiny points of pain blossomed across the side of her face. With a startled yelp, she recoiled away, stumbling wildly to one side to crash into a wall, sliding down it in a dazed heap.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Bulma glanced around warily, brushing a few loose strands of hair back from her face. “Wish that weird thing hadn’t stolen the radar,” she grumbled. “And that this house wasn’t so creepy. Seriously, does anyone actually even live here…?” She slowly pushed a door open, the way it creaked so loudly and ominously on its hinges sending a shiver down her spine. “This place looks like it should be condemned!”

The room within was furnished sparsely and covered in a thin layer of dust. There were plenty of signs that pointed toward it being regularly used for something, though. Footprints and tracks in the dust, and both the writing desk and an old school steamer trunk showed signs of being relatively clear of filth.

“Guess whoever’s staying here is using this room?” she mumbled, slowly shuffling into the room in question. She made her way over to the desk, glancing over its contents. A framed photo, a few scattered piles of notes for schoolwork, a backpack, a small journal, a few maps of Morioh and the surrounding area as well as a few places on other worlds…

“Someone’s been doing their research, I guess…is it some student staying here? Poor kid, must not have anywhere better to go…” She turned to the steamer trunk, kneeling down before it and trying to pry it open. “Come…on, you stupid…!”

A shadow fell across her, as the floorboards behind her creaked heavily. “Oh, Jay, you finally caught up!” she said cheerfully, glancing over her shoulder with a charming smile. “Think you could…help…” She trailed off, her brain catching up with what she saw as all the color slowly drained from her face.

Looming over her, one hand on his hip, stood…an imposing young man. Tall and broad-shouldered, locks of blonde hair sculpted and swept up into an almost comically perfect flat-top trailing down into a long ponytail down his back. His school uniform was a dark, navy color with prominent gold and brass buttons and buckles, the world ‘TRILLION’ emblazoned on his left sleeve in bright white and the matching kanji of 兆 embroidered on his right shoulder. His eyes were a brilliant blue, currently locked in a scowling expression of pure malice as he glared down at Bulma.

“Um…s-sorry, for…intruding…?” the young inventor said sheepishly, flashing an uneasy grin.

His expression twisting into an even more malicious cast, he just took a step forward, looming even more ominously over her and bearing down on her oppressively.

Bulma’s scream echoed through the Nijimura house.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Jay bounded up the stairs, turning his head to look frantically toward the direction of the scream that filled the house. Damn…guess we couldn’t be lucky enough for Keicho to not actually be home, huh? He grimaced and took a step toward the room at the end of the second floor hallway, but was stopped dead by a sudden, soft click from under his feet.

He realized what it was a split-second too late to completely avoid it, and dove backwards in a clumsy tumble as the miniature landmine exploded, sending a shower of smoke and splintered flooring up into the air. Jay hit the ground on his back, hard, rolling back up to his feet in a crouch. He narrowed his eyes, focusing intently, and began to make out the shapes in the dark. In the shadows of the stair railing, up on the rafter ledges, and peeking out from behind the corners of doorways and alcoves in the hallway.

Dozens of them; tiny, humanoid soldiers, flaring with auras of bright azure flame. Assault rifles trained on him, ready to open fire at the drop of a hat, and several landmines littering the path down toward his destination.

“Well…this is going to be a real pain…”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Graowr schlorped herself up out of a heap on the floor, bounding back to her feet. The tiny cuts in her face had already closed up, proving more of a shock and momentary agitation than any actual danger, but it had also served to do something else.

The rumbling of several tiny engines thrummed in the dark, and though she couldn’t quite see them directly she could definitely sense them coming through her scouter. At least half a dozen signatures, larger and more potent than most of the others, slowly rolled forward right to the edge of the light from the window.

Graowr tensed up, her aura blazing up around her as she grit her teeth, lightning crackling and sparking. The floor around her cracked and buckled, shards and splinters of wood and structural reinforcement floating up around her. She didn’t know what was about to come, so trying to defend against it was going to be really hard. Which meant all she had to do was…!

The majin bolted forward just as a volley of explosive bursts ripped out from the invisible enemy. Two of them collided with her directly, exploding with enough force to blast one of her arms clean off and blow a sizable hole through her chest, even as she charged heedlessly ahead and ripped apart everything in her way. The remainder of the invisible onslaught blasted into the wall beyond. A massive plume of fire and smoke tore apart the entire wall, blasting rubble out into the street outside.

 

[Jay Evernight]

Those landmines might be impressively strong for their size, but, with the degree Bad Company (or Worse Company, if you're so inclined) could actually damage Jay was very limited with just their infantry.
Their bullets had about as much stopping power as if you scaled a real bullet down to their size, which made them dangerous for most humans, but a full-scale Bullet was rarely a problem for Jay Evernight, so smaller, weaker ones had almost no chance.
Phantom Power saturating his body made him far too tough, though they did make holes in the looser parts of his suit, the areas not directly touching his skin didn't benefit from that shielding aura.

But it hurt. Getting shot might not cause permanent damage even when the bullet does break his skin, but impacts like those don't just 'stop' even if they hit something they can't break through. Jay bruises easily, even if his regeneration unbruises him at a blinding speed, the pain doesn't stop. It gets worse. Especially if multiple shots hit the same place.

Jay tried to reel himself back in, no matter how much it hurts he needs to stay focused.
Get angry, sure, but don't get distracted. Think. You're a damn Kaiju to them.
The army never wins in Godzilla. Unless they have the Oxygen Destroyer, though Keicho's stand potentially having access to Micro-Oxygen is an entirely different problem that would need to be solved if it came up.
Those land mines could do real damage, and if they go off; Keicho will certainly bring the rest of his force around, and if the heavier weapons can break through 『Crazy Diamond's』 guard and damage it, Jay would definitely have to concentrate to block them, and he can't do that in more than one direction at a time. He'd be screwed if they all lit him up at once.
Equally, Bulma's still screaming, but there are explosions coming from other parts of the building. Keicho could be seriously hurting her, Or Graowr, or somebody else entirely.
What would Godzilla do?

"As a fellow Titan; Perhaps I can illuminate the thought process:
Even if they can't possibly stop you, if they can cause you pain, they can slow you down. You can usually let that go, but when it's a matter of life and death, the seconds they take from you can mean lives lost. Don't allow it! Obliterate them, Bulldoze through and reach your target!"

Jay understood Aliphetros's advice immediately.
Beyond that, he'd started to form a strategy of his own.
Though it wasn't subtle and Keicho would know he was on his way, the plan had become strike so fast and so hard that he didn't get another turn.
Draw all his attention- if he's concentrating his entire stand on attacking Jay he can't hurt anybody else.

Breathe in, charge up a bit of pseudo 'Atomic Breath' of his own, (lightning and fire infused phantom power) and unleash it.
In his throat was the only place he could prepare an attack like that without it being shot and wasting energy. Funny, the way things just work out sometimes.
The landmines were a complication, but he had an idea for that as well.
To start though, blasting away the battalion Keicho had expected to bring him down.
Jay's mouth opened wide and a concentrated burst stream flew from his throat, sweeping across this group of『Bad Company』and vaporising them, from doorway to alcove, to every hiding spot. Once the bullets stopped coming, he flipped up from his crouched position, kicked off of one of the corners of the room and launched himself over the landmines and through the wall. He was rotating in the air almost like a drill as his leading hand discharged a significant amount of the force he propelled himself with.
That wall shattered, thankfully he'd already determined it wasn't load-bearing, he didn't want to knock the place down, yet.

"Arigato; Bison-Sama."

As he often did, Jay disguised that reference to sound more... mysterious; by speaking his mother's language of origin rather than his own. Though it was no less of a nerdy joke, someone with less time to parse his actual meaning and just hearing the words would be more 'intimidated?' Or at least less likely to catch the joke and laugh than if he had just said it in English. The vibe was just different than if he had said 'Thanks, Master Bison'.
It didn't detract from the fact that doing the Psycho Crusher to enter a room through a wall never got old. Dynamic entrances were probably the most fun part of being a Superhero.
Jay dusted himself off as he landed, turning towards where he knew Keicho to be.
"Get away from her!"
He shouted, having sensed Bulma was in here too, and a moment later confirming that situation with his eyes.

However, as he was standing himself up, Keicho had used the noise from the firing elsewhere, and the dust from Jay's entry to conceal firing the bow and arrow he had in his little stash of treasures.

Jay instinctively tried to block it with his hand, but he knew that wouldn't work even as he did it. This wasn't 'an arrow', it was the arrow. The tip ripped through his palm and into his neck. There was a splash of blood and a gurgling sound, followed by gasping.
Jay fell forward, onto his knees, his head sliding forwards and covering what must've been a terrifyingly deep puncture in his throat.

"The arrow doesn't care how tough he is. As far as I can tell, it can pierce through anything, and kills whoever it hits no matter how small the wound is. Whoever he is to you, I'd get your goodbyes in now, while he can still hear them!"
Keicho loomed over both Bulma and Jay, with what was almost a mocking laugh at how easy that had been.

---

Graowr, starting to reform all her missing pieces, was now trying to find her way to Bulma and Jay. Easier said than done if you don't know where you're going and keep being bothered by invisible things that shoot/stab you.

She'd almost get somewhere, then end up confused and go the wrong way.
These tiny invisible enemies are so, so annoying! It's impossible to figure out where to go from in here. This place is like a maze, and like the maze on the kiddie menu that so often utterly stumped her, this house was driving her crazy.

Maybe she could find a way to them from the outside? One that didn't mean having to go through so many doors-
So Graowr managed to exit the house, and started looking at it from around the outside.

---

Goku, atop his flying nimbus, was closing in on 『Red Hot Chilli Pepper』 and Aster wasn't far behind him.
The Electrical Stand emerged from the wire, a downed line forcing him to descend and reach the other end before escaping again.
Though the exact logistics of his power weren't something that either Goku nor Aster fully understood, the simple deduction that however he was riding through the cables he couldn't cross an air gap at the same speed was one they both could figure out.

"I believe he's travelling through conduction. Some electric types can do that- it makes sense an Electric-Type Stand can do the same! That's how he's so fast through these cables-"
Aster explained Chilli Pepper's movement to Goku to the best of his ability; as he launched himself through the air to catch up with both the Stand and the Saiyan.
It had taken them quite a long time to catch Chili Pepper at a point where they could actually attack it; and as such; Aster was visibly tired. Running for extended periods at full sprint like this was not his strong suit.
His golden fur was glistening with sweat, and his chest rapidly rose and fell as he panted. It didn't show in his voice, mostly because it was telepathic, but now that they were finally going to actually engage this thing, the spike in adrenaline would raise his stamina significantly.

"So ya' mean if we break 'em, he won't be able to run away so fast anymore?"
Again, the specifics didn't matter, and this was firmly battle-related, so Goku caught on fast.

"Precisely. Jay told me to protect you, but since following you this far- I detected a will to fight, one like my own. I realised I can't stop you from taking this creature on... so for my friend- I'll help you Win!"
With a precise pair of small aura blasts, Aster caused the downed line to swing towards the far side from the Stand and then snap off, giving him no easily accessible path away.

"Gee, Mister Aster- if Jay knows what I can do, and still thinks I need your help in a fight, you must be pretty strong!"
Goku inquired curiously. Perhaps when this was over, he should see how powerful his new friends are, firsthand. It was an idea that made him a little excited. After all, facing strong people was all kinds of fun.

"Not as strong as him. Not yet. But I'm gonna keep getting stronger! Not just because I love fighting, though I do- but because I know what happens to those I care about if I'm not strong enough, and I don't ever want to feel like I did that day!"

Aster took on a more solid battle stance, crimson aura rising off of him as he did so.
He wasn't aware if Goku could 'see' the enemy stand, but he could at least detect it well enough to follow it.

"If it ain't a classic boy and his dog- You've cut off my exit so I'm guessing you're after an encore. Guess I can't totally deny a pair of fans. I've got a few Power Chords stored up that'll shock both your systems!"

Neither Goku nor Aster would understand what he was getting at, not even having the context that Akira Otoishi, the stand's user, was a musician. So they both stared at him somewhat blankly.

"My lyrical stylings are lost on a pair of utter fools- of course! I mean I'm going to beat both of you up! To death if you're particularly fragile or unlucky!"
The radiant reptile shook its fist. Frustrated that it wasn't being understood when it tried to aggrandise its schemes.

"Why didn't ya just say that the first time?"
Goku asked, stretching beside the already readied Aster, preparing for the long-awaited fight.

Chilli Pepper checks the dragon radar, almost as if checking the time before committing to his threats.
"Hm... so you did have one on you-"
He notices that the pair must have a dragon ball on them somewhere for the Radar to be pinging so nearby. If he wasn't convinced to fully fight the two of them rather than just stunning them to abscond before, he definitely intended to defeat and rob them now.

---

Blood was trickling from Jay's neck, his arm that had tried to block the arrow dropped to his side.
"R-Run... get away... While you still c-can!"
Jay didn't move. His voice was strained as if he couldn't breathe. He probably couldn't. His throat had a sharp lump of metal in it, it'd be shocking if he didn't sound at least a bit less sure than usual.

But the fact he was begging her to run, to leave him, was equal parts frightening and strangely endearing.
He cared enough, having met her only earlier today, to risk his own life like this?
Had he already given up on surviving?

"Don't try to talk- I can't lie, it's bad, but I'm sure you'll be ok. Put pressure on it and concentrate on staying awake."
Bulma urged him not to simply let himself die. Excellent bedside manner; all things considered. Jay slowly raised a hand to the trauma site; seemingly to take her advice.

"As for you-"
Bulma angrily whipped out her gun, as she had when she first encountered Goku.

That hadn't gone very well, but she was certain that this guy wasn't nearly so bulletproof. Keicho most definitely wasn't.
Grievously, potentially mortally wounding Jay was something she intended to pay back in full.

If Bulma's shot ever reached Keicho, he would be dead. Unfortunately, the remains of Bad Company fired upon the bullet and the gun itself, destroying them before that could happen.

"A good effort, but you really should have taken your little boyfriend's advice. Now you both are going to die here!"

However, as he gave the order for 『Bad Company』 to fire on Her, when she should've felt her body being torn to shreds by seven small tanks, two miniature helicopters, and the remaining two dozen or so toy soldiers that fired upon her, she instead felt a rush of air past her, and saw a familiar tuxedoed man standing between her and the oncoming attacks, and a pair of fiery explosions engulfing the airborne invisible foes.
"I wasn't talking to her. if anyone's going to die here, It's gonna be You!"
Jay turned his head away from Bulma for a moment, shouting over the crossfire at Keicho.
The tank shells did significantly more damage than the bullets, but quite a lot less than the now-defunct helicopters' missiles.
Jay was starting to look a little beat-up. Some of these bruises were sticking around for quite a lot longer.

"B-But how?"
Bulma had half-expected Jay to bleed out and at the very least fall unconscious long before he got back up. He had an arrow in his throat, there's no way he could breathe-
She was glad he wasn't dying, but this turn of events was so strange to her that she couldn't be sure it wasn't a dream of her own dying mind, when Keicho ordered his invisible army to execute her.

"I just did what you told me to do. Applied a little pressure and it slid right out. Thought I was in trouble there for a sec, but I recognised that Arrow. It needs to stay away from people like him, so hold on to it."
He smiled at her, and still having some sparkles left over, winked. He gently slipped the Arrow into her hand.

"Now, stay back, stay behind me. You don't need to worry. This is the part I do best, even if some of it's a little new."
Taking the next volley of tank shots and continuing to rush forward, Jay stopped just short of where they expected him to be, that being a collision course with Keicho. Seven tank shells went whizzing past him to hit nothing.

"『High Hopes!』"
Rising out of him was a shining blue and red humanoid figure, seemingly in some sort of Armour, that shot forward about a meter, and began punching Keicho repeatedly.
Its bulk and power wouldn't suggest it was particularly fast; but its speed was shocking. Similar perhaps to how Jay's body didn't seem disposed to power, but he had quite a bit of destructive strength of his own.

"Kyaa! Kya-kya-kya-kya-kya-Kya-ya! Kyaaa!"
"Milllll--ionnn!"
The Stand echoed his scream, then added its own. 'Million'. Its voice was echoing and distorted, but it sounded like a boy, on the young side. There was a certain youthful enthusiasm, an irrepressible energy to its furious shout, contrasting the towering stature and powerful build of the being.
The final attack of this relatively short rush was a kick that threw Keicho out of range.

He hadn't yet been knocked out, though his head was bloodied and several bones had broken inside of him. he'd been more resilient than Jay expected.
Keicho was beyond his stand's range and he wasn't yet sure of its ability, so he decided to hit him with a final blast.

Unfortunately, it fizzled in his hand, his arms visibly trembling. Jay coughed, a small amount of a inky black substance flowed out of his mouth. It was closer to the lightless black of deep space than any ink, but it flowed like a liquid, until it reached the edge of his face and turned to thin, wispy smoke.
While Jay's physical condition had been largely fixed by Tonio, his own regeneration and a heal from Graowr, the stress on his powers hadn't been undone. Firing off so many shots against Anjuro and then obliterating that group of Keicho's Soldiers meant that he hadn't had enough time to recover, especially with the damage he's taking. The amount of backlash he'd already taken was dangerous, and wasn't being repaired.
Any phantom power he was able to generate was going straight to his barrier; Even that was getting worn down; his suit was ripping in multiple places, revealing heavy bruising beneath.

Keicho's tanks weren't letting up their barrage, meaning Jay just had to stand there and take it. If he moved, Keicho would shoot Bulma.
"Damn- guess it's time for Plan B..."

Jay, in one smooth motion, leaned over, picked up the grip from the remains of Bulma's gun; and hurled it into Keicho's face.
Concentrating fire on Jay meant that his tanks couldn't reload and retarget fast enough.
It hit him right between the eyes, denting his forehead and making him stumble backwards into the window, his back smashing through the glass.
"Graowr! That's the bad guy right there! The one trying to kill us- right there in the window!"
Jay could, hazily, sense that Graowr was somewhere on the other side of that wall, perhaps even in line of sight to Keicho.

 

[Son Goku]

『Red Hot Chili Peppers』then zipped to a tree and hid the Dragon Ball Radar in a hollow of the tree’s trunk before zipping back onto the street. “Don’t want such a valuable piece of equipment to be destroyed in our struggle,”

Aster telepathically messages Goku “I can sense him but I know you can’t see him so I’ll tell you where he is,”

“No need, I can smell him,” Goku replied.

Aiming at the distinct smell of electricity burning in the air Goku gets out his Power Pole and swipes at it. Only for it to phase through the electrical sparks. 『Red Hot Chili Peppers』laughed at this “Regular attacks are useless against a stand!’

That is when Aster fired a red Aura Sphere at the enemy stand. RHCP took the hit but it did little damage. Still, RHCP was shocked, no pun intended, to have been hit by something. He rubbed his cheek in response as he rushed towards Aster who then created two red glowing bones made out of aura. Blocking each of RHCP’s punches with the bones and attempting to bash him with them but RHCP is fast and dodges each swipe.

Goku wants to use a Kamehameha, but he can’t with Aster in the way. He doesn’t wanna hurt him. RHCP then manages to land a punch electrocuting Aster and knocking him away. Goku takes the opportunity to appear beside RHCP and begins charging the attack in his hands.

“Kame…hame…ha!” he yells out.

However, RHCP easily jumps out of the way. Though Aster knocks him into the Kamehameha as RHCP is dragged into it before it explodes in the street.

“So Aster, you said you can sense aura? Did that get him?” Goku asked.

“Unfortunately not,” Aster replied.

From the smoke RHCP emerges, having suffered some damage but looking mighty pissed.

“Seems I have underestimated you two, allow me to amp things up. Crank up the volume, 'cause this is a funeral for the living!” the stand said.

That is when the electricity from the downed power lines seemed to be going toward him. All of the electricity in Morioh seems to be going toward RHCP. He rushes in and punches Goku in the gut shocking him and knocking him out before he does the same to Aster.

“You two should give up now and maybe I’ll let you two live. Then again I can’t risk you two finding me.” RHCP said.

He then reeled back his punch but his shoulder hit something. He looked behind him to see a short man who was holding a bleeding nose. It was Tamami Kobayashi.

“What the Hell man, you broke my freaking nose!” he said.

“Hmph, whatever, not like I care,” RHCP said.

Before a lock appears on his chest and the weight of him drops him to the floor.

“What?!” the stand exclaimed.

“Ha ha, you act like you don’t care but even a small amount of guilt is enough to activate my stand,” Tamami said.

Goku then gets up from the ground. “Thanks, mister, do you mind moving out of the way?”

Tamami does just that as Goku jumps into the air and charges another Kamehameha. Before firing it towards RHCP and the ground. RHCP tries to move but The Lock weighing him down he is unable to do so in time before he is blasted through the concrete and into the sewer. The stand disperses in the water as it starts to lose form.

“Not like this, not like this!” it screams out before disappearing.

Tamami was wide-eyed before looking towards Goku and the strange yellow dog creature. Noticing the kid’s tail. “Wait, that monkey kid is the one that guy with the sword told me to steal from.” he thought.

Goku then approaches Tamami. Tamami is nervous and sweating bullets before Goku puts up a hand. “Hi, I’m Goku, what’s your name?”

“Ta-Tamami Kobayashi. It was just a coincidence that I was of help. Anyway, I’ll be off now, see ya,” he said.

He then puts his hands in his pockets and walks away. Going to find a place to lay low. Before any more freaks show up. He does not want to deal with any of this he’s in way over his head.

Goku then goes to the tree where RHCP hid the Dragon Ball Radar and takes it out before checking on Aster who seems to be reacting in excruciating pain.

“Are you alright Aster?” Goku asked.

“I am fine, but it’s Jay who is in danger. We need to hurry back,” the Lucario said.

Nodding, Goku then calls the Flying Nimbus, which he jumps on and beckons Aster to join him. Thankfully, Aster turns out to be pure of heart and can ride with Goku as the two fly off back to the house at great speed. Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Yamcha and Puar make their way inside.

Lockpicking room after room to find the Dragon Balls. At the same time, Puar managed to turn off the security cameras. That is when they finally reach the room Oolong is in who is sleeping like a log. However, upon hearing that the door is being messed with he wakes up and realizes he’s in danger.

Looking around frantically he then gets an idea. As Yamcha opens the door he finds a half-naked “Bulma” in a towel as she screams and starts throwing things at the bandits. Flustered and scared out of his wits, Yamcha runs away with Puar. They then are out of the hotel breathing frantically.

“I thought that woman left with the kid how is she back in the room already?!” Yamcha said.

“Yeah, it’s weird that-wait a minute. Wasn’t there a pig guy among those three?” Puar asked.

“Uh, I think so, why?” Yamcha asked back.

“I remembered where I know that pig from, he’s a total pervert from Transformation Kindergarten. He’s a shapeshifter like me, he just tricked us!” Puar explained.

“What, why I oughta, I am going to turn that pig into bacon for this!” Yamcha said.

The two then marched back inside to confront Oolong once more.

 

[The Future Warrior]

Glass flashed and sparkled in the air directly beside her as Graowr hung in place, aura flashing and sparking wildly. Her outfit still sported a positively swiss cheese worthy set of holes and fresh perforations, still charred and black in places from Bad Company’s heavier artillery, but the holes blown in her malleable blue body had already sealed and mended. She was in just about perfect shape again by now, at least physically speaking.

Mentally, though…was a whole other matter. She was steaming mad — quite literally.

She whipped around into sight of the window, with her teeth bared in a silent, grimacing snarl. “You…are…a jerk!” she spat at the back of Keicho Nijimura, even as he struggled to regain his bearings after the brutal beatdown from Jay’s freshly awakened power.

In truth, Keicho barely even registered the juvenile threat directed his way, as he tried to dislodge himself from the shattered window frame. The world around him spun crazily, swirling with colors between a bloody red haze and pulsing monochrome.

“To deliberately make yourself vulnerable so you could draw the full firepower of 「Bad Company」so that I couldn’t redirect it to defense…” he growled, putting one hand on the window frame and slowly heaving himself out of it. “Clever, I’ll give you that. Don’t expect it to work again, though. I’m very meticulous; I learn from my mistakes.”

“I guess we’ll just have to keep you making fresh mistakes, then…” Jay shot back, his eyes flicking up and over the enemy stand user’s shoulder.

“Hah. If that’s how you want to go about it, then I guess I’ll just have to keep you from getting the chance!” Keicho grinned, dragging himself upright fully again. “It’s time to blow you away for good, before you can get up to any more trouble…a shame, I was hoping your Stand might have been useful. Now, 「BAD COMPANY」, open fi—” His words stopped dead when Graowr’s rubbery blue arm shot past his head, close enough he felt the breeze of its passage.

He reflexively flinched aside, scrambling to one side with wide eyes. The majin’s arm stretched and elongated crazily, reaching far into the room…and vanished into a shimmering blaze of light in mid-air, vanishing altogether. A split-second later, there was a horrendous crunch as that same fist erupted out of an identical blaze of light, nearly tripled in size as it collided with his chin.

“Stop ignoring me!” the majin shouted, as he arm snapped back like a taut rubber band. It shot back through the portal, and as it retracted across the room toward the window her hand twisted around to slam her open palm around Keicho’s face. A single, swift wrenching motion brought him back down onto the smashed window again, the wood frame creaking and buckling as wooden splinters and shattered glass dug and tore through his already battered uniform and into his back.

Blood spattered from Keicho’s mouth with a strangled, wet gasp. Bad Company began to flicker and destabilize, the firepower directed toward Jay diminishing and faltering.

“You can’t just go around…attacking people!” Graowr seethed, lifting one leg at an impossibly sharp, bone-breaking angle. She brought her raised leg down directly into his face, the feel of her boot crunching into his skull with enough force to completely buckle and shatter the already damaged window beneath him.

As Keicho went slowly tipping and sliding out of the window, he coughed and sputtered with an indignant grimace on his face. “Hagch….B-「Bad…Company」!” he snarled, the bright azure flame of stand power roaring back to life out of pure spite. One of his arms shot up, grasping onto something, and quite literally lifting himself out of freefall as he seemingly hung there in midair, scowling at the majin through a blood-drenched gaze.

“You don’t know when to give up!” Graowr was less than pleased, steam literally whistling out into a hazy cloud around her. “I’m gonna—”

Jay propped himself up on what was left of the windowsill, eyes going wide. Inky black haze puffed heavily out with every breath, staining the air before him momentarily opaque before it diminished into a smoky haze. He feverishly wiped his forehead with the back of one arm, clumsily pushing his glasses back into place. The onslaught against him had been called off, giving him the chance to make it this far, but now… “His helicopters…!” he realized, just a second too late, biting down on his words as a heavy wheeze of black smoke gushed out through his teeth.

“Bad Company, open fire!” the enemy stand user roared.

“Graowr, watch out!” Jay called out, trailing off into a ragged cough. “He’s got little…little helicopters holding him up, and they’ve got guns and missiles!”

The majin’s eyes went wide, her head whipping around toward Jay with a confused, quizzical expression just as the first shots started flying. Jay got to watch, almost in slow motion, the oncoming storm of gunfire from Bad Company’s helicopter machine guns, and the shrieking howl of a hail of missiles being let loose.

Graowr only barely had time to reflexively cross her arms in a defensive posture before she was hit, miniature bullets digging into and ripping straight through her squishy blue body. Almost comically, like something straight out of a cartoon, they stretched and contorted her gooey body, blowing bits and pieces off and splattering bits of her all over the nearby wall and onto the ground below. The missiles hit a second later, the ensuing fireball swallowing her completely. Shards of missile shrapnel and flaming scraps of her jacket went raining down in all directions.

Watching someone get blown apart like that was never a pleasant sight. It was, in fact, usually what most people would call ‘downright horrifying’. Jay could still vaguely sense the majin’s presence through the haze of smoke, though, in spite of what she’d just been put through. It took some of the edge off the situation, but still… It didn’t really solve anything. Especially not if Keicho pressed the attack.

“All brute force and no tact,” Keicho scoffed. “If you’d been just a little faster, you might have won, but in the end you were no match for my Bad Company!” He directed his gaze back to the window, and at Jay, as his face twisted into a frown. “As for you….”

In the room behind him, Jay heard Bulma give a muffled noise of distress and whirled around to find several of Bad Company’s patchwork foot soldiers in the room again. A handful of the ‘Green Berets’ had gotten the drop on Bulma, quite literally, with their tiny knives out and held at her throat. More of them had one of her arms pinned down, trying to wrest the arrow free from her grasp.

“....I’m not so foolish as to jump back into an engagement in my current condition without stacking the odds in my favor,” Keicho went on, a smug edge creeping into his voice. “Now then, you will be returning what is mine, if you want your lady friend to remain unharmed.” He brought one hand up, two fingers pointing at himself. “I don’t like taking hostages or threatening women if I can avoid it…but as I said, I’m a very meticulous person. I can’t leave it up to chance that you might have some other surprise in store.”

Jay turned back to Keicho with a cold glare. “....you have no idea,” was all he said.

“What do you…?” Keicho started, before a sudden chill crept down his spine.

ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ. . . . . .
「M E N A C I N G」​

From out of the haze and smoke of the missile impact, bright light shone. A single point of bright pink energy, crackling and sparking like lightning.

An instant later, it was joined by two more small pools of the same vibrant, glowing pink.

“What in the…?!” Keicho visibly recoiled, and Jay got the amusing satisfaction of watching him nearly lose his grip on his helicopters, plummeting several feet before catching himself.

With a hissing, whistling noise the haze of missile smoke was blasted away in a wave of steam. Graowr lifted up one arm in front of her face, trailing crackling streams of pink lightning. “You’re a really, really bad guy,” she snarled, her voice filled with an uncharacteristic venom. All of her usual mirth and cheerful energy had gone, replaced with something much colder, and the faintest note of barely restrained insanity.

“I was just gonna beat you up until you couldn’t fight anymore,” she started, as she lifted the index finger of her raised hand. “....until you tried to go and take people hostage and stuff again.” Her face twisted, her lips curling up into a vicious, decidedly hungry smirk, a thin stream of drool slowly dripping from one corner of her mouth. “That means I can’t be nice anymore, and I gotta deal with you permanently.”

Something, somewhere in the back of Keicho’s brain lit up with alarm. Deep-rooted, animal level fear took hold of him. “B-Bad Company! Retreat, fall back!” he shouted.

“Too late!” the majin snarled, and she whipped her arm out to point at him. “Turn to candy!”

A crackling pink bolt of lightning shot out of her pointing finger, striking Keicho squarely in the chest. He let out a single, panic-filled shout before he was silenced. His face twisted and contorted into a confused, agonized grimace as his body stiffened and warped. A moment later he vanished altogether into a bright, pink poof of cartoonish smoke. What was left of Bad Company vanished completely in the blink of an eye, as if a candle had been completely and quite suddenly snuffed out.

…..out of the cotton-candy haze came tumbling a small little figurine. Glimmering in the sun, in a vibrant army man green, it clattered against the wall of the house and started to tumble down.

Graowr landed on the shattered window sill and shot an arm down to catch it. When it came back up, the light caught it and for a moment Jay got a clear look at it….an almost perfect likeness of Keicho, rendered in a somewhat childish and poorly animated way, partially transparent like some macabre human-shaped gummy bear.


— Keicho Nijimura and 「Bad Company」


The majin licked her lips, bringing the gummy-delinquent up and biting it clean in half with a single, messy chomp.


— Status: R E T I R E D

 

[Jay Evernight]

"Another enemy stand down, and no permanent damage... Not to Jinx it, but, we're getting good at this-"
Jay tried to stand back up. He lifted himself off the windowsil. He was a mess. His suit was riddled with scorch marks and holes, and you wouldn't be able to find even a centimetre of his torso or neck unbruised. It was healing, but slowly.
Not to mention even more of that shadowy fluid that evaporated into thick black smoke was gushing out of his mouth. His entire body trembled as he attempted to walk.
He knew immediately; that was a bad idea. His legs buckled beneath him, causing him to collapse.
'Shouldn't have moved... I'm so weak-'
Rather than let him fall, Bulma catches him. He's surprisingly light for a man his size who is presumably full of metal. Then again perhaps that's because he's not completely limp, his deadweight would probably be much higher.
"Are you ok? What is this?
Bulma reached one of her hands up towards the liquid flowing down his face.

"Wait! Don't touch-"
His hand took hold of hers; stopping her from getting too close. His face did turn a little red, it's been too long since he last held someone's hand like this.
"I'll be fine. just... don't touch it... It's... poison. The- The smoke's fine but the Liquid's toxic."
Jay's coughing intensified. The same breathless struggle as when he was breathing in Creep- not a memory he was keen to relive so soon.
Half-truths were going to be his friend here.
It is poison, in many ways. But it was more than that. It was poison, it was acid, it was liqud darkness. It was the essence of The Hollow King. Not to be confused with The Hollow Prince, the manifestation of Jay's soul and its powers that Aliphetros projects when calling on them. The Hollow King is a disturbing entity of senseless destruction and endless, boundless hate. Almost an Anti-Jay, how it became sealed within Jay Evernight was a long story for another time.

"Poison? Jay are you sick?"
Between this and the multiple allusions to radiation poisoning, Bulma was starting to suspect something was very wrong with him, physically. She put the back of her hand against his forehead, feeling for a fever. She found one, of course, but with the sheer damage he's taken being a bit under the weather is to be expected. Even with regeneration the stress is enormous.
If he was ill, he shouldn't have been pushing himself like this. That's far too risky.

"No, well, yeah, a little, but this happens sometimes, when I overwork my powers. I'm sort of... a Dragon. You saw him appear behind me when I was taking out Aqua Necklace... well, he's me. I'm me, obviously, but he is too. So when I 'breathe fire' too much, all ya' get is 'smoke'. It's harmless to me, I'm just-" Jay wheezed, still struggling for breath. "-Choking. But for almost anything else, it'd be an awful poison."
He explained. Again, only half true. Sometimes it was a deadly poison or a frighteningly efficient caustic agent, but it had much more terrifying possibilities than even that.

"Jay. I'm going to take some of this. Don't worry, I'll be careful. I handle dangerous chemicals all the time."
Jay knew better than to resist so he leaned into it, held himself still while she took a sample. The cold glass of a small test tube pressed against his cheek, the fluid flowed down into it. Bulma pulled it back and placed a stopper in the top.
"There. The fact your powers form a physical substance when they're stressed is fascinating."
Bulma may just have been trying to make him feel better. After all, liquid darkness and smoke were pouring out of his mouth, he was covered in blood and bruises, and his suit was full of holes.

While it wasn't much more than letting him lean on her out of necessity, to keep him from faceplanting into the floor, it felt nice to be held like this again. They were even holding hands- though that was due to her almost touching the incredibly dangerous shadow-fluid coming from his mouth.
Sure, it'd be better if he wasn't trembling, injured, and so weak that he needed to be held up in the first place, but it was still a good feeling. He was turning red.

"Keicho probably wasn't the last threat. How long until you recover?"
An uncharacteristic response from Graowr, but, Jay was fairly sure he knew how Majin absorption works. That was probably just a bit of residual Keicho, both the slightly deepened voice and the tactical thought process. Then again he hadn't known Graowr personally for very long. It's possible that only the voice was an artifact of absorption and this tactical mindset was what happened if they got serious.

"If I can get a-" Jay coughed again, still choking on the black substance flowing out of his mouth. "-Solid minute, no interruptions- before anything else crazy happens, I can be back to... let's say Seventy percent." Undermining his confidence somewhat was the coughing that kept interrupting him.

"That's good, seventy's a big number and a minute's not super long."
Nope. It's absorption. Graowr's usual cheerful, peppy self was back in force. No sign of Keicho's mental influence anywhere.
When it wasn't being called upon, it wasn't shining through. If Graowr could 'get serious' they weren't doing it right now. Maybe before taking Keicho out; but definitely not after.


"About that, where is Keicho?"
Through the smoke, and especially Jay's battered and bleeding body that was intercepting Bad Company's fire, Bulma hadn't actually seen where the delinquent went.

"Gone, and He won't be coming back. Don't worry about it."
Graowr answered, not going into detail because she assumed that this was a question about where people she absorbed went, rather than asking what she'd done to him. Bulma hadn't said she didn't see that part, and talking about how her insides work was something that never seemed to go over well.

"He stole someone's diary too? What a bully-"
Graowr remarked; having spied A journal, one of those cheap children's diaries, beneath Keicho's own 'dragon radar' entitled 'the great and terrible truth of the incomparable Emperor Pilaf'.
It was either a diary or a badly titled fanfiction, and a glance at the byline revealed it was in Pilaf's own hand. That explains where the dragon ball and radar had come from, but what revealed even more was the second journal beneath the first, which was Keicho's. It told of how he'd been accosted by the Pilaf gang whilst searching for methods to mercy kill his monster-transmuted father, and had turned that situation around to rob them, seizing their dragon radar and their dragon ball, among other possessions, including Pilaf's diary.
Keicho was keeping a record of everyone he had crossed. Reasonable I suppose, given what he was getting up to.

Also In Keicho's stash, there was a glistening object, slightly smaller than a dragon ball, and a similar shape. Glass-like, a swirl of fiery red, ocean blue and forest green with a gleaming golden centre.
Neither of the other two had noticed it, but it made Jay's blood run cold.

No... Where did Keicho get one of these?
Did he have more than one? Has he been handing them out the way he'd been firing the arrow around?
If he had- There's no telling how many people he'd killed, directly and indirectly. This is a million times worse than Bug-Eaten.
He didn't have more than one. He can't have. The effects would be obvious by now. He probably didn't even know what it was or what it did.

But, even if it was the only one here, Jay had to secure it. If it was lost in the shuffle and ended up in the wrong hands again, there's no way he would get lucky twice. It'd be used, at least once, and that means at least one body.

Thankfully, 『High Hopes』was in range to snatch it, and could do so fast enough that it wouldn't be noticed, as it slipped the small orb into his pocket.
It would seem that Jay might just get his one minute break from crazy, or, at least from 'crazy' that made him exert himself.

Goku and Aster reconvened with the other trio at around this point.
"Sir! I can feel your pain, so intense- how badly are you hurt?"
The golden Lucario stared at his bloodied master; wide-eyed with worry.

"Not gonna lie to you, buddy, it's pretty bad."
Jay coughed, once more, though this time his throat finally cleared. The last of the shadowy substance turning to smoke and billowing away.
"But not as bad as after my fight with the Queen of Hell, so not even in my top ten toughest fights-"
Jay tried to reassure Aster that while excruciating, this was miles away from the worst condition he'd been in.

"The 'Queen of Hell'?"
Goku repeated, intrigued. He had no idea who or what that was, but she sounded strong. This mister Jay was getting more interesting by the minute. If mister Aster was being trained by him, and he acted like Jay was in a whole different league, then he had to be really strong, because mister Aster was.
Graowr, too, intrigued him. Being 'made of magic' and having clearly fought alongside Jay twice now (the thing that happened at the Angelo Stone, with what little of it Goku would have seen) marked her out as another powerful new friend. Once things calmed down a bit, hopefully he could see how strong they both were, firsthand.
"The Enemy dissolved on contact with the water. I initially thought it was escaping through conduction again, but I felt genuine distress from it."
Aster explained, unsure of Red Hot Chilli Pepper's fate.
"Then this isn't over. Water disperses his stand, but doesn't destroy it. He can recover from that at an unbelievable speed.
Thankfully, he's not the only one. Give me another ten seconds, I'll be ready for more. Especially now that I have a 『S T A N D 』of my own!"
Jay's eyes glistened, shining with a renewed excitement. This new world he'd ended up in was so... fun. Sure, his old life was never boring, but almost everything that had happened since coming here had been like stepping up a gear from his day to day heroics. It was like everything here was a major event, non-stop 'big leagues' stuff.
Ten Seconds; seemed almost too easy.
Surely nothing could happen at the last possible moment.

10. Nothing happened.
9. Something definitely happened, but somewhere else.
8. The strange feeling of being watched.
7. There was a 'ping' on both dragon radars, as if a Dragon Ball, or multiple, had moved into closer range.
6. Rumbling in the ground. Hopefully nothing more than a minor earthquake.
5. The rumbling moved. Earthquakes don't change epicentre. It's something else.
4. "Fire-breathing Mutant Tyrannosaurus, the locals called her 'Queen of Hell'. She was nice though; until the Zerg infested her. I was a lot sicker so it was a really hard fight. I'll tell you guys more once this Red Hot Chili Pepper incident is over."
Jay answered Goku's question, though his answer raised further questions. He'd spent a few seconds trying to figure out how to answer without causing too much confusion, but that was the best he'd come up with.
3. "The Zerg?" This time Bulma reacted with a puzzled expression. Unaware if this was some kind of organisation or a creature.
2. "Alien monsters that killed my family. They can 'infest' other creatures to control them. Not all of them have that ability, and they reserve it for beings they consider 'useful'."
Aster gave the quick version. Spite flooded out of him. Genuine hatred that all who heard his telepathic voice would feel as much as hear.
1. "Sounds soooo Evil, maybe we should-"
Graowr began, but was cut off by the 'sound' of a Psionic creature 'loudly' announcing its own arrival.
"The Swarm cannot be evaded, you merely delay the inevitable!
- Our Queen has tracked him to this Terran Settlement. Find him. Do not allow 'Jason Shintensei Evernight' or his beast-companion 'Aster' to escape!"

Oh; Right. He'd come here to break Joraxa's lock on him. Seems it had almost worked, but a brood had been sent after him.
The fact they hadn't immediately set a hive cluster up told him that they weren't trying to overrun the town or gather biomass, this was a more precise mission. A smash and grab. On one hand, limited enemy forces, likely with few reinforcements, which is good. But on the other, that means a decently large Zerg attack force is assembled here, and they probably have no qalms with killing civilians since Kerrigan isn't at the helm.

"So these Zerg guys are after you and Aster? Why?"
Goku asked, curious as to why anything would be chasing them, though not entirely surprised that someone was. After all, it had been his experience that people who are strong and try to do good things are often chased.

"Their Queen and her Dad both want to take my essence for my powers- which means capturing me, dead or alive. Apparently she also wants Aster.. But I'm not letting that happen."
Jay answered, he stood himself up, shakily.
He seemed better but not by much. He was still looking awful.
"You don't have to help me out with this. In fact if I didn't know Goku was gonna want to charge straight at them, I'd ask you all to leave me to it."
Jay knew that they probably wouldn't take that chance to leave, but his conscience wouldn't let him not offer it.
He was wobbling quite a lot as he walked; heading for the door closest to where the Psionic Zerg voice had come from.

"I thought you'd be back to Seventy percent by now? This seems more like point seven..."
Bulma remarked, quite concerned. Watching him struggle was quite upsetting, after all he'd only been so badly hurt because Keicho had aimed for her.

"That estimate was less a recharge than it is a cooldown. I can get myself back up to around Seventy percent now... I just haven't done it yet, because when I do, it'll draw all of their attention immediately. I don't want to lead them to you. The rest of us can at least protect ourselves against something like this. but Keicho disarmed you and you're not as durable as we are.

If- if you died because of me... I don't think I can go through something like that again. So, try to stay clear."
This was the first sign Jay had shown of being damaged, not physically but of being what they call 'damaged goods'.
Hurt in a way regeneration had no chance of ever fixing. Scarred, and not just in that cursive X on his chest.
Getting someone like Bulma killed, would be too much for him to take. Perhaps it was worth digging into that, later.


Once he'd staggered a short distance away from the Nijimura Residence, followed closely by Aster, slightly more distantly by Goku and even further by Graowr, Jay straightened up his back and let out a long, powerful scream. The scream echoed not just sonically but psionically as well, once again it was more of a roar than a pained scream. His aura flared to life; going from embers to a towering inferno of gold, blue and purple.
『High Hopes』appeared beside him.
His remaining injuries healed. His strength seemed to rush back into his body.
"I'd call this around Seventy Percent... with the other thirty tied up in recovering.
Get ready, because there's no way she didn't hear that."

As if in response, a Nydus worm burst up from the concrete and spewed out: dozens of Zerglings, eight Hydralisks of the 'Frost Wyvern' strain, and another entity of some kind, that burrowed before it could be seen.
"Not that I doubt you, Jay, but there are significantly more of them than last time."
Aster seemed intimidated. Rightfully so. These things are dangerous.

"Yeah, well, I'm about a hundred times stronger than I was then. More if you count 『High Hopes』 . Watch this-"
Jay chuckled, pointing at one of the Zerglings that had spotted him and moved to pounce. He mimed shooting at it, as it jumped towards him.
"Bang."
『High Hopes』surged forward and reduced that first Zergling's head to red mist, skull and all. Jay kicked the still-oncoming corpse back into the crowd of Zerg.

"You're stronger too, Aster. Not to mention we aren't by ourselves this time... Go ahead, You try. Not too hard though; I wouldn't want you to wear yourself out in wave one. It's never just a handful like this with the Zerg."
Jay smiled, as 『High Hopes 』deflected every ice spine launched at him. It seemed to defend autonomously but attacking took more attention.
Aster wasn't convinced it would be as easy as his trainer made it sound, but he trusted him enough to at least humour him.
He tried a simple and low-effort move, Vacuum Wave, fast, but far from the strongest of his attacks. Condensing a mass of air and launching it as a burst of extreme pressure. When aimed at the head of one of the Zerglings, it seemed to bring it down in a single hit, possibly due to a broken neck, or perhaps internal cavitation due to the pressure differential.

"I had no idea I'd already made it this far-"
Aster marvelled at his own strength. The difference between last time and now was night and day. A full-power Aura Sphere had merely stunned a Zerg Bioform before. Now he could take a Zergling down with a single Vacuum wave?
'Though I'm reminded of how long this journey will be- I am convinced... As you said on the night we met: we are going to do great things together!'
Aster thought as he rushed into the battle beside his trainer.

"Jump in any time you want- They only get tougher from here. Just watch out, these ones aren't the biggest or strongest, but you'll still get hurt if you underestimate 'em."
Jay called out to Graowr and Goku. Goku had been waiting to be invited, Martial Artist pride and all, while Graowr had been applying her newfound tactical knowledge gauging the capabilities of the enemy and finding where best to put herself.

Noticing their apparent focus on Jay, Graowr took a few of the Hydralisks by surprise from above with a puffed-up fist, while
Goku, once permitted, dived literally headfirst into battle, headbutting a particularly far-forward Hydralisk, sending it sprawling with a loud cracking sound. Soon after, He whipped the power pole around, warding off the Zerglings that tried to engage, and bashing a few on the head.
They seemed set to clear out this first scouting wave fairly easily, though the burrowed creature had yet to reveal itself.

---

Meanwhile, back at the Hotel

---

Yamcha and Puar were making another attempt at stealing the Dragon Balls; but were thwarted once more.
They had run away, scared off by the fact that the room was 'haunted'. Objects moving on their own, lights flickering, a mysterious figure in the halls and scariest of all, Objects continuing to float around even when they could SEE Oolong.

"Heh! Suckers. Fallin' for some of the oldest tricks in the book. Ghosts ain't real."
The Pig guffawed, once again victorious over the pair. A whole lot of String and a bit of shapeshifting had gone a long way.

"What was that, little pig-man?"
A strange voice came from behind him, in a darkened corner of the room. A darkened corner where the group's collection of Dragon Balls appeared to be hovering.

"G-Ghosts ain't r-real?"
He repeated, far less confident than the first time.

"Then I guess you won't mind if I borrow your dragon balls? After all, I'm not real! Ahahahaha!"
The spectre cackled, (it was actually『Red Hot Chilli Pepper』 , having reformed since being dispered by Goku and Aster, but Oolong wouldn't know that.) Oolong had no idea how to face a ghost, and therefore allowed it to make off with the dragon balls, likely too shocked to even attempt a defence of them.

Chili Pepper, with needless dramatic flair leaped from the window, aiming for another set of powerlines, but was immediately shot at with some kind of high-powered net launcher, as a net, moving with unbelievable speed, closed itself around the Stand.

Much to Akira Otoishi's surprise, the net indeed bound his stand. It wouldn't be impossible to escape, but the fact it could tangle him at all was quite surprising.

Where did it come from? Who had fired a net that could trap a Stand, and resisted electrical attacks well enough to not burn when he tried to shock his way out?

It seemed to have come from a Cat-Shaped Hot Air Balloon. The cat balloon had a lucky coin seemingly stuck in its head, and a large red R emblazoned on it.

"...To protect the world from devastation-"

 

[Son Goku]

“To unite all people within our nation,” a male voice said.

Two spotlights shine on a woman with long curved magenta hair and a man with periwinkle hair both wearing white uniforms with a red R emblazoned on their the front of their shirts.

“To denounce the evils of truth and love,” the woman said.

“To extend our reach to the stars above,” the man said.

“Jesse”

“James”
The duo then pose together to make an R shape.

“Team Rocket blasting off at the speed of light!” Jesse said.

“Surrender now or prepare to fight!” James declared.

As a cat with a lucky coin on his head resembling the hot air balloon umps in front of them.“Meowth! That’s right!”

A blue creature then appears out of nowhere and does a salute “Wobbufett!”


“Just who are these idiots? And how did I get captured by them?” Akira Otoishi thought.

“What kind of Pokemon do you think we managed to catch James? Some kind of new Electric/Ghost type?” Jesse asked.

“Maybe it’s one of those new-fangled Digimon I heard about,” James said.

“Digimon Smidgimon, whatever that thing is it has those Dragon Balls we came here for, let’s nab them already,” Meowth said.

『Red Hot Chili Peppers』managed to break free with its strength as it tried to run away.

“Oh no you don’t, Mimikyu I choose you!” Jesse said.

As she throws a Pokeball in front of RHCP’s path revealing a strange clothed creature with a tail made out of wood. RHCP was not impressed.

“This rag is what you think can stop me?” RHCP boasted.

“Mimiyku use Shadow Claw!” Jessed ordered.

As a dark claw of shadowy energy extended from Mimikyu as it swiped at RHCP, he barely was able to dodge it as he slashed in the torso. His stand user from far away also feeling the effects/damage. He punches Mimikyu sending a powerful current of electricity through it. Mimikyu’s head seems to go limp as he smirks thinking he’s won.

“Mimikyu use Shadow Ball!” Jesse ordered.

As RHCP looked back at Jesse confused he received a point-blank Shadow Ball to the face knocking him back. That was when RHCP realized that it was following orders from that woman. He then makes his way toward the trio and their hot air balloon.

“And now for the finishing blow, it’s time to use your Z move, Let’s Snuggle Forever!” Jesse said.

Jesse twists the gem on a bracelet on her right hand. The trio and Wobbufett make a heart with their hands before posing together. Mimikyu then begins glowing with a strange power then lunges towards RHCP revealing the eyes within the bottom of the cloth as well as its arms before it wraps around RHCP. RHCP while inside Mimikyu’s disguise is screaming as he is being pummeled by Mimikyu.

Mimikyu then throws RHCP out of its disguise he is then flung away in the opposite direction into the sky as a twinkle is seen. Leaving behind the bag with the Dragon Balls in it.

“Excellent work Mimikyu, it’s nice to see someone else blasting off for a change,” Jesse said.

“Now all we need to do is land, grab the bag, and bring it back to the boss,” James said.

“Oh, I know he is going to be so pleased. I wonder what he plans to wish for,” Meowth said.

When imagining Archer using the Dragon Balls to summon the wish-granting dragon, which appears nothing like Shenron as they don’t know what he would look like, Meowth puts on a bad voice impression of his boss “Oh mighty Shenron, I wish to have control over all of the Pokemon on Erde Nona with which I can then use to take it over,”

“More importantly imagine the promotion and praise we would be drowning in for giving him this opportunity” Jesse interjected.

“We could become the new Rocket Executives! The increased pay, the fancy food, luxury in our laps!” James said.

“It’s time to hit the big time!” the trio yelled in unison as Wobbufett said its name once more.

Meanwhile back with the heroes. They continue to fight against the Zerg. Goku punching and kicking away at them as they come close. While Aster uses Bone Rush to smack them away. As Goku and Aster are back to back. They feel a rumbling beneath them. As they jump out of the way a very large Zerg pops out of the street.

Goku tries using his Power Pole on the creature as well as a combo of strikes from his fists but it doesn’t even phase the creature as it’s exoskeleton, carapace, or skin, or whatever it is too thick and tough. Goku ends up smacked away by one of the Zerg’s arms. Aster then rushes over to Goku. Goku gets up as he gets an idea inspired by when he and that hedgehog Sonic combined his Kamehameha with Sonic’s spindash.

“Hey Aster, you know that Aura Sphere move of yours? Let’s combine it with my Kamehameha!” Goku said.

“Huh, oh yeah, let’s do it!” Aster said.

As the two jump in the air, they charge up both of their attacks in their hands in unison before unleashing them together. The Aura Sphere melded with the Kamehameha increasing its size as it rams into the large burrowing Zerg and explodes on impact. Destroying the protective shell that goated its body.

With the shell gone, Goku extends his Power Pole and whacks at the creature on the top of it’s head. Before giving it a good kick to the snout. Causing the Zerg to go unconscious. With that done Goku then high fives Aster as Aster then has a fist out. Goku is confused by this.

“You’re supposed to bump my fist with your fist, Jay taught it to me,” Aster said.

As Goku then punched Aster’s fist who recoiled from the pain. “Next time, try doing it more gently when you fist bump someone,”

Goku then smiled as he scratched his head “Sorry about that.”

Meanwhile, in the house, Bulma is clinging on to the Stand Arrow and the Dragon Radar that once belonged to someone named Pilaf. Although she notes that the Dragon Ball Radar is a lot less advanced than hers. Looking at it seems the Dragon Balls are still in the general area.

Bulma then looks to the Stand Arrow. She has been useless this whole time while the others are risking their necks out there. She points it to her forearm as she prepares to stab herself with it. Flinching before it happens. Yet somehow the trajectory of the arrow changed and it missed her arm.

Then she tried again, and again, and again, this goes on for a minute before she gives up and angrily throws the arrow away across the room and pouts. “Whatever, not like I needed one of those Stand things anyway,”