章 34: Assistance

Bulma finished going over the reports sent by Big Gete detailing the status of the Prometheus Empire. She chose to use the royal palace on Planet Garden as her temporary work space. The Empress was worried about how the situation on Earth was progressing. She warned Raditz and Reiss to contact her if something went wrong. So far, there were no communications from Earth, so things should be progressing smoothly. But she was still unable to shake the growing sense of unease.

A group of Saiyan guards flanked her as she made her way across the bridge leading to the landing platform. She was eager to return to the Menagerie and unwind on the ship. As she walked to the shuttle landing pad, she saw two familiar Saiyans kneeling nearby in her path. When she was close enough to the the kneeling Saiyans, she cheerfully asked them to rise.

During her stay on Planet Garden, Bulma had become more familiar with Toma and Celipa. The pair of Saiyans were wearing black and red Promethean armor. Celipa had requested a pink leotard be made because the color wasn't an available uniform under suit color.

"What do you guys need?" she asked. She hadn't expected to see them at the landing platform waiting for her. "Did you guys want to train on the Menagerie, with Nappa?"

"No, we wanted to know if the Emperor needed any help?" the short haired Celipa asked confidently, crossing her arms.

"Well, Celipa wanted know, I just came for support. I know there is no way a Super Saiyan needs any help." Toma clarified. "I think she's obsessed."

Bulma smiled and laughed as the female Saiyan quickly turned to glare at her friend. Toma didn't understand what he had said to earn such a glare. It was true that in the last few years most of her conversations revolved around beating the emperor or becoming a Super Saiyan.

"I haven't heard anything, yet." Bulma answered. "I'm about to head to the Menagerie, if you come along, you guys can stay updated."

The pair nodded and followed along to the waiting shuttle. Even though Bulma enjoyed flying herself, recently, she had been using Saiyan pilots. She did this to make sure they understood the operation of Promethean ships.

The empress had become close with Celipa over the years. She found the female Saiyan's attitude a breath of fresh air. She was completely unconcerned with their status differences, either from brashness or stupidity, either way Bulma enjoyed her presence.

When the shuttle docked with the Menagerie, Toma separated from the two women to find Nappa. Toma found it hard to believe how much the bald Saiyan had changed since the time of King Vegeta. Now he was a respectable member of the Prometheus Empire willing to converse and train with others. Toma had to admit Nappa was thorough in teaching the training methods he learned from Emperor Raditz with those willing to learn. Toma found Nappa in the ship's galley talking with Commander Lime. He knew the two of them had gotten close over the years, which was surprising to Toma.

"Nappa, you guys waiting on word of Emperor Raditz?" Toma asked approaching the table Nappa was sitting.

"No, Lime was telling about me about an outbreak of pirates in the East Galaxy Area." Nappa said.

"The East Galaxy Area?" Toma thought about what Nappa said. "Is there really anything out there?"

"We aren't sure. Most of the information is sketchy at best." the commander informed him. "I'll see you on the bridge later." Lime nodded to Nappa before leaving the table with her tray.

"I guess you must be bored on Garden if you came all the way up here." Nappa probed. Usually Toma stayed on Garden helping to train the younger Saiyans.

"No, Celipa thought the Emperor might need back up." Toma shrugged. Nappa released a hearty laugh at the response.

Bulma and Celipa were sitting in the private lounge outside of the Emperor's quarters on the Menagerie. Celipa listened, wide eyed, as Bulma went over the plans for expanding the empire. She found that the Earth woman's plans were quite far reaching and long term. Celipa understood that the Emperor, or rather the empire, would need as many strong warriors as it could get. Fired up from hearing about the future of the empire, Celipa decided to go train. Bulma allowed her access to the private training rooms.

Commander Lime was sitting at the communications hub, her station, when she received a forwarded communication from Big Gete. According to the message, a Promethean ship, the Shadow, was in distress and needed assistance. The Shadow was tasked with exploring the East Galaxy Area. Its mission was to investigate the pirate situation, while prospecting for resources or new technology. The Menagerie was the fastest ship in the fleet and would be able to reach the Shadow in just a few hours.

Bulma was sitting on a elegantly designed couch in the Emperor's quarters. She was wearing a pink robe and her hair was wrapped in a yellow towel. In her hands was a datapad with her sister's book loaded on the screen. The book was her sister's first bestseller and Bulma had yet to actually finish it. She had gotten over halfway through the story, but she wasn't usually in the mood to read after working through documents all day.

"Empress Bulma," Commander Lime's voice spoke over the intercom.

"I'm here." the Empress responded.

"We've received a distress call from the Shadow." Lime explained, "The Captain would like to investigate."

Bulma considered the request to investigate the problem facing the Shadow. She did want to help if possible, plus they might find something useful. However, she was still worried about what was happening on her homeworld. There still wasn't any word from Earth, and Bulma didn't want to check at a bad time, making the situation worse.

"Tell the Captain he has my permission to investigate." Bulma answered. She was confident Raditz would be fine. He had some of the strongest people she knew helping out against the cyborg threat.

The Menagerie traveled through the black sea of stars at its fastest speed towards the coordinates of the Shadow. While the ship was waiting in the Garden System, the crew's duties had become more lax. The crew of the ship manned their stations with great bearing and professionalism when the Captain gave the order to move out.

"What the hell are you doing!" Bardock glared at Yamcha. He was ready to blast the Earth man into dust for kicking the cure out of his son's hands.

"It seems the bio-weapon was a success." Yamcha grinned. "Kochin should be pleased by the results of the test."

BAM!

Yamcha was struck by a fierce punch to the face by Bardock. The ponytailed Earthling didn't react to the pain at all. Two trenches were dug by Yamcha's heels digging into the ground as he tried to stop.

"Tsk, Tsk." Tien shook his head from side to side sarcastically, "That wasn't a nice thing to do to your ally."

BAM!

Bardock attacked again this time delivering a bone shattering kick to Tien's midsection. Krillin looked shocked, seeing his friend get blown off of the plateau they were standing on by Bardock.

"What!" Krillin didn't know what else to say.

"Look at their heads! They have gold vein things attached!" Bardock explained as best he could.

Krillin noticed what Bardock was talking about when he looked closer at Yamcha. There were golden vein like wire attachments running from the back of his head to his forehead. Tien quickly flew back and landed next to Yamcha. The pair's eyes glowed golden before they powered up their Ki.

"Gohan, go help your cousin!" Bardock snapped and turned to Krillin, "You up for fighting your friends?" Krillin focused on the job at hand nodded in response.

Gohan obeyed the orders of his grandfather and flew towards Reiss's location. His cousin was doing a very good job at putting up a fight against the cyborg Kochin. He wasn't sure if he could even be of help to his cousin. As Gohan flew, he heard the sound of rock crumbling behind him. When he looked back, he saw that the plateau had crumbled into rubble from the fighters powering up. His grandfather and Krillin were engaging Yamcha and Tien in a mid air battle.

"I'm here to help out." Gohan said as he landed by his now bulky cousin, "What do you need?"

"A distraction." Reiss said without taking his eyes off his foe.

"Do we need to strategize?" Gohan questioned.

"No need, just do what you want and I'll adapt." Reiss answered.

Gohan nodded in understanding and charged his Ki while Reiss and Kochin waited. When he reached his max power, Gohan charged full speed towards Kochin, periodically vanishing and reappearing. The boy stayed right outside of Kochin's reach while he tried to unbalance him.

Reiss watched for a moment before figuring out how to work with Gohan's tactics. When he knew how to proceed, he rapidly closed the distance to Kochin while firing Death Beams at the cyborg. The beams were targeted in such a way that they would narrowly miss his cousin. The beams would appear from under Gohan's arms or legs after he punched or moved. If Reiss was less skilled, Gohan would have died ten times over from the beams.

When Reiss closed the gap between himself and his opponent, he stopped firing the Death Beams and moved on to hand to hand combat. Every time Gohan would dodge Kochin, his older cousin would appear and follow up with a kick or punch to the cyborg. Eventually, Gohan was able to create the opening the blue haired boy was looking for. Reiss moved in with the appearance of performing a twin open palm thrust into Kochin's gut.

PROMETHEUS BUSTER!

Hundreds of tiny orbs erupted from the back of the mammoth Dr Kochin as Reiss jumped away from his victim. The blue haired Saiyan watched as ice began to coat the torso of Dr. Kochin. The cyborg's eyes flashed a multitude of warnings. His body's freezing organ was ruptured, and needed serious repair, along with his energy generator unit. If he didn't shut off all of his body's added functions, he would die. But if he did, he would be too weak to defend himself.

Vegeta's was dancing around, avoiding the life draining grip of Dr. Gero when Kakarot arrived back on the scene. Now that he knew to avoid getting grabbed or firing Ki blasts at Dr. Gero, the fight would be a piece of cake. The prideful Saiyan could feel that all of Kakarot's energy had returned. He must have eaten a Panacea bean. Kakarot looked determined as he transformed back into a Super Saiyan.

"I'm not done with this guy." Kakarot said to Vegeta.

"Fine. But if you mess up, I will finish it." Vegeta stated before turning to the remaining cyborg. He was wondering why Wheelo was just standing motionless, but it didn't matter to him. The tall haired Saiyan fired a Ki blast at the ground in front of Dr. Wheelo.

"If you are just going to stand around, you can't blame anyone if you get hit by a stray blast." Vegeta taunted.

The glow in Dr. Wheelo's eyes subsided and he focused his attention on the person that attacked him. When Wheelo's eyes stopped glowing, everyone noticed their Scouters reactivate. Not only was Wheelo controlling two people, he was also behind stopping the Scouters.

"I wasn't 'just standing around' as you said." Wheelo explained. "I was going to kill your friends as the bio-weapon killed your leader."

"What!" Vegeta looked back to see Tien and Yamcha getting off the ground with confused looks on their faces. As far as Vegeta could tell, Bardock and Krillin had fought Tien and Yamcha. All four of them looked worn down from the conflict.

Raditz was half buried in rubble from being on the plateau when it collapsed. He pressed the button on the side of his Scouter after he saw that it had reactivated.

"Ramen…" Raditz called the Yardratian back. He felt that his Ki was becoming highly unstable and the virus hadn't even reached the contagious stages, which would be worse.

The Yardratian appeared next to the downed Raditz. He was stunned by the battle that was going on, and the condition of his Emperor.

"Don't worry, my Lord, I'll get you out of here." Ramen assured him. The Yardratian brought his index and middle fingers to his forehead and focused on their destination. When he found it, he touched Raditz by the shoulder and attempted to teleport. A spasm of unstable Ki from Raditz disrupted the Yardratian's Instant Transmission.

Celipa had finished training in the gravity gym of the Menagerie and was standing in the shower of her room, letting the warm water pour over her well toned body. She wanted to try fighting on Earth against the new threat, but figured the Super Saiyans had it under control.

BOOM!

The Menagerie was rocked by a massive explosion. The entire ship shook causing most of the crew, that were standing, to fall down. Celipa thought quick enough to float off of the deck to avoid losing her balance.

The enhanced gravity abruptly shut down in the training room where Toma and Nappa were sparing. Red warning rights flashed all around them as they tried to figure out what had caused the explosion they heard. Crew members were quickly moving along the hallways assessing and repairing damage.

On the bridge of the ship, Ramen appeared in a violent blast of light. The Yardratian had fallen to the floor unconscious, he looked wounded and was alone. The bridge crew looked at each other, confused by the situation. As soon as she ran out of the bathroom to grab her under suit to go investigate what happened, she saw Emperor Raditz sitting against the wall in a pool of blood, looking in her direction.

"I know... this is the worst time... but I need your help." Raditz smiled weakly. He was thankful Saiyans had a different mindset when it came to modesty, getting slapped might kill him.