Missing DNA

Disclaimer: If I owned Dragonball, Goku wouldn’t have been the main character. Toriyama owns it, and it’s a good thing that he does, since anyone else would ruin it (as we have seen from GT).

-thinking- “speaking”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Since Juuhachigou knew a thing or two about observation rooms from her forced “stay” with Dr. Gero, she quickly discerned a large mirror at one end of the room as a one-way window and turned off the lights to see who might be on the other side. As to be expected, the room on the other side was dark, but there were several dim lights scattered throughout it, enough to show them that, if they looked hard enough, they were looking at a lab.

Farthest from them were several glass tubes filled with liquid; a neon green light glowed in some, and a deep mauve light in others. Within each of them floated a person… though from where they were, they couldn’t discern their faces, but two of them, who were the only ones in tubes with blue light, they could identify from hair and body composition. Chi-Chi cried out when she recognized her husband, covering her mouth with her hands when she realized her outburst.

Juuhachigou’s eyes narrowed. “I see Son Goku and Vegita, but I don’t recognize the others at all.”

“But they all have tails!” Chi-Chi observed. “They’re all Saiya-jin!”

Videl moved away from the glass and looked back at it with an uncertain eye. “What’s a Saiya-jin, anyway?”

The women continued as if they scarcely heard the child, bringing their attention to a man hunched over a console of some sort. “That man… I’ve never seen him before. But he doesn’t look human,” Chi-Chi said.

“Him… I’m pretty sure he was the one that abducted me. Suiitto, I think is his name.” The android nodded as if to confirm her own thoughts as another figure came in. “And she’s Enrou. I’ll try to listen to their conversation for any clues.” A slight humming went through her ears as she adjusted their sensitivity and she pressed an ear against the glass.

“Suiitto-san, am I to assume that your attempt to find more Saiya-jin DNA from other planets was a success? There are many more tubes than I assumed there would be… and I see a female that I do not recognize.”

“You’re assumption would be correct, Enrou-san. I obtained four more DNA samples from a planet called Meet, and luckily one of them was female. I have cloned them and developed them along with the DNA that I found on Earth.” Some lights flashed on the console. “Peculiar… Enrou-san, do you believe that there are such things as souls?”

“What’s this? Since when were you one to begin a philosophical discussion?”

“Well, after so long of cloning beings, you’re bound to see strange things. Usually, when we develop them like this, we implement an AI through a surgery to install a chip into their brains, so that they aren’t brought into reality with an adult body and a newborn’s mind. However, I have found that sometimes, especially with warriors that died relatively young, they will already have a fully formed mind and all the memories they had up to their deaths.”

“Don’t tell me that you accredit this as proof of a soul! Certainly, there are thousands of more rational explanations for it.”

“I’m afraid that there aren’t. I’ve checked every whim and possibility; there is no corporal reason for such a reaction. When it appears, it’s a mixed blessing; I don’t have to cut into them and worry about how the chip will react with their brains. However, they tend to be more susceptible to ill effects, particularly insanity, in relation to mind control. Its very rare, but every one of these clones seems to be a ‘scientific resurrection’ of their former selves… at least, according to the brain activity.”

“This is all very interesting, Suiitto-san, but I hardly think that it has to do with the constant change in tube nine’s nutrition levels.”

“Oh that is what you came to talk about! The Saiya-jin in that particular tube has the blasted ‘thrifty’ obesity gene. I’ve been adjusting the nutrition levels so that he doesn’t end up in an unhealthy condition as well.”

“Hmm… and of course it would be unforgivable to change his DNA?”

“Of course! I wouldn’t dare take something like that out of the gene pool, no matter how inconvenient it could be to the research itself.”

“I see… well, I do hope you can make a decision on the levels soon. As you are aware, the ‘vitamin mixer’ that monitors them is in my study, and the alarms on it keep going off.”

“Ah. Terribly sorry, Enrou-san. I believe I’ve come to a decision, though, so there shouldn’t be any more problems.”

“I also came to check on—” She looked back at the group of women in the room and smiled. “Well, whadyya’ know! They’re conscious… and aware of our presence. The android seems to even be listening in on our conversation.” Enrou walked towards the glass. “My, my, I was getting worried about the black-haired woman. I was afraid that I set the stun to high and did damage… but I see that she’s perfectly fine.”

Although Chi-Chi couldn’t hear her as Juuhachigou could, she could clearly see that she was being examined, and she backed away from the glass, from the uncomfortable feeling that it gave her.

“Ah, good,” Suiitto looked back at them and grinned. “I’ll ready three more tubes, and after I alter them, we’ll be ready to start.”

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Kuririn went ballistic when it was discovered that Juuhachigou was gone as well. To add on, they saw a bulletin on the news that informed them that they might not be the only ones affected by these disappearances. The “Great” Mr. Satan’s young daughter, Videl, had turned up missing as well.

“What could be the connection here?” Yamcha bowed his head. “Everyone that disappeared was at least associated with the people at the Cell Games. Maybe it has something to do with Dr. Gero or Cell?”

“But they’re all dead,” Tenshinhan said, “We made sure of that. Gohan killed Cell. Dr. Gero was killed by the androids, and we destroyed his lab, so that there’d be nothing left. Who would be left to do this?”

“Maybe…” Bulma strained her mind, “…maybe it was one of the other surviving members of the Red Ribbon Army. Goku didn’t kill all of them… maybe they saw the Cell Games being broadcasted and decided to take revenge on those who stopped him?” Before anyone could respond, Bulma shook her head to her own suggestion. “But that wouldn’t make sense either. Cell was going to destroy the world afterwards.”

The television in the background kept blasting out the news about Mr. Satan’s daughter, with live footage of the “savior” screaming out his promise to track down and kill whoever thought they could do that to his little girl.

Muten Roshi glowered. “The reporters are certainly eating that up, even though he’s not saying anything new. Can we change the channel?”

Bulma shot him an angry glance and swatted his hand away from the controller. “You can go without your exercise programs for a few hours! Finding everyone is more important!”

Gohan, who had remained quiet for the duration, rose and went for the door, immediately gaining everyone’s attention.

“Oi! Gohan!” Kuririn called after him. “Where are you going?”

He turned back to them tentatively. “I’m going to go talk to Piccolo-san and Dende. Maybe they saw something while up at the temple.”

Kuririn tilted his head. “But Gohan, you might get abducted as well if you leave like that. I mean, both of your parents have gone missing all of the sudden…”

Gohan nodded. “I’ll be careful, but I should go check. They might have been taken, too.”

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The solution in the tubes was an amazing substance. Chi-Chi quite quickly realized that it was kept at a comfortable temperature and given a specific texture that made her think that this is what pillows would feel like if they were made out of a liquid lighter than air. She was surprised that she was allowed consciousness while in this tube, but something seemed to keep her from moving much more than her eyes.

She wanted to ask someone what was going on. She wished that she were able to communicate with Juuhachigou, or talk to her son or Bulma. They would probably know what this thing they were stuck into was for and why. Surely someone would know what to do.

A sound alerted her that the person in the tube to her left was moving, so she moved her eyes as far as she could to see. The woman within (a girl she didn’t readily recognize), shifted about by her own accord freely, unlike all the other still bodies that floated as if hanging on wires. –Somone broke out of their control!- She thought –Maybe she can get out and free the rest of us!-

But as she watched, the woman only fidgeted around and moved as if testing out her body. Her brown tail swished excitedly around, continually wrapping and unwrapping itself around her body.

Chi-Chi’s eyes widened. Whoever that woman was, even though she could move, she wasn’t even attempting to get out. Who could she be? Was she abducted like they were? If she was, why isn’t she trying to escape?

A strange sensation went through Chi-Chi’s spine, and it tore her thoughts away. As her nerves stretched, pain up shot up to her heart and head. –What’s… happening to me?-

Vibrations like knuckle cracking quaked below the lumbar region, and her skin strained as something formed at her tailbone. In fact, the tailbone itself was elongating and creating new sections of itself. It grew longer and longer, and new muscles formed along these bones that immediately seemed to connect with her nervous system, and she gritted her teeth to the growing pains. The skin at her base stretched to fit around it all, and it soon began tingling as new hairs sprouted on it; the new muscles jerked and quivered at the sensation. The metamorphosis took what felt like hours before the tremors in her nervous system finally stopped. The end result was a tail; a long, brown, furry tail, just like the one her son had.

The new appendage couldn’t move anymore than her other muscles in the solution, no matter how much the thing twitched to do so on its own volition. The futile jerking only managed to make it vibrate, causing a completely different tingle than before. The tail was much more sensitive than most of her body, and the feeling it gave was completely alien to her.

The rest of her body changed as well, but with the major stress from the tail’s sprouting, she wasn’t aware that every fiber of muscle changed in her, and when she would finally be allowed to move, she would be faster, stronger, and more coordinated.

But she did already understand that she had been turned into a Saiya-jin.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Gohan touched down on the surface of the large, floating hemisphere to find something he did not expect. “Trunks-san? I thought you went back to your own time several weeks ago.”

He nodded. “Yeah, but I just remembered something that happened after… after the androids killed the fighters in my timeline. Mother said that some aliens came, hearing that there were Saiya-jin on Earth, but left when they found that they had all died. Then they raided Dr. Gero’s laboratory, I suppose to get any information he might have logged about Saiya-jin, and left.”

“Really?” Gohan tilted his head. “Why didn’t you mention that before?”

“It didn’t seem all that important. Actually, you were the one to tell me about it… that is, the ‘you’ of my timeline. You said that one of them asked you a few questions, quickly pricked your arm and took a hair so fast you could barely see him do it, and left. You said that he did the same to me as a baby, too.”

“Weird… But why is this important now?”

“Well, you said that they were particularly strong, perhaps strong enough to defeat the androids on their own, and that they seemed to have been looking for the Saiya-jin genetic code, by the sound of the questions you were asked. But Mother was the one that suggested to warn you guys about them… she met them briefly when the one took my DNA, and she didn’t seem to trust them from the impression she got.”

Gohan furrowed his brows. “I suppose she wouldn’t be able to trust them if they were powerful enough to stop the androids but unwilling to help.” Then he remembered what he came for. “Where’s Dende? Or Piccolo-san? Are they here?”

“Dende is surveying on the other side of the lookout; he’s trying to see if there’s a connection between the aliens and the disappearances you guys have been experiencing. I gave him a description of the aliens, and he said that they’ve appeared various times around the world in various places. Piccolo I think is just meditating inside.”

Gohan nodded to him and went immediately into the temple, searching around for Piccolo’s suppressed ki. As he expected, his teacher was hovering in a dark, out-of-the-way corner, and he need only approach before Piccolo sensed him and broke to a normal standing position. He even took the initiative in speaking. “I’ve been concentrating on finding the cause of the disappearances myself. I suppose that Trunks has told you about the aliens in his timeline?”

The young half-saiya-jin nodded. “Do you suspect there’s a connection, Piccolo-san?”

“I don’t just suspect it; I’m convinced of it. I frequently sensed a strong and unknown entity appearing and disappearing on the Earth’s surface, each in the same areas as the disappearances. That entity has to be alien. We should be able to discern where they’re hiding soon.”

“I’ll help,” Trunks joined in, “if I can. With what mother told me about them, I might be able to assist in finding them, and, if necessary, fighting them.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

See! I said that I’d fit Mirai in somehow.