Dragonball M, Chapter 2: Lighthouse! Across the Shores of Shattered Time!

[Cyke]

Ah, there he was. Parsley stepped to him, coming to within a foot of him. She then punched him in the arm. "Thar cherry pie you made was delicious, " she commended we with a rare genuine smile. "You'll make more, right?"

Zaofan breathes a sigh of relief as his shoulders relax. "Why, of course I will! I'm glad that you enjoyed..."

"WAIT, MY PIES! I completely forgot they were still baking when we all headed down to Capital City! To help Ishtar and Meagan!"

His body takes a sprinting position, but he doesn't take off. "...but hold on, if you just ate them, and they were okay, that means they weren't burnt or ruined, huh?"

[bruceleegreyhulk]

“I have heard of it. Why do you ask?”

Praxat replies to this saying " My people's Princess Qaztoh is hop up on the stuff." " she's been with these space pirates for 3 years and she probably got hook on the stuff by one of them. " " she has a tattoo of their symbol on her right shoulder it looks like a phoenix. " " Qaztoh is probably smoke some right now."

"she probably planning put it out and mask her eyes with a pair of bionic lenses to make it look like she's not one the stuff." " Qaztoh normally has gold color irises and star-shape pupils ,but currently her irises are reddish gold because her eyes are blood shot from smoking that stuff." " her pupils are also abnormally dilate for our species. "

[Lord Falcon]

Held remained silent, unblinking. It would be difficult for even the most astute of observers to determine if the gears that made up his mind had began working feverishly as he took in new information, or if the crew manning the machinery of his mind had decided to take a lunch break, deciding to leave these problems for more passionate minds.

"Okay." He said simply, "We'll just go with whatever feels right in the moment."



"Eh?" The Nevadian shifted his gaze towards the pink Majin, arching an eyebrow as he did, "The great destroyer or whatever he calls himself?"

What's he got to do with all this?

Sasheem was certainly one that the Nevadian was wary of. When they had first met, the Majin only hungered for destruction and food, each appetite unable to be satiated in the least. He was barely capable of reason, or being reasoned with, and perhaps Held found that disconcerting.

Had Eva and the Galaxy Police not given some details of Sasheems past, perhaps the Nevadian would have written him off as a simple maniac, who boasted an unusual power. After all, Held had managed to focus the Majin during the raid with something as simple as a promise of violence and pie, after all.

But, as history had it, Sasheem's had both the power and will to do what he wished, to the point he was considered quite dangerous. But, then again, so was Held, albeit for reasons not of his own doing. Still, the Nevadian wariness had grown even more disconcerting when Sasheem returned to them, clearly a rational, thinking being, whose hunger had remained, but who seemed even more focused in his goals.

"...You're not going to tell me that I've not given him nearly as much credit as I should, are you?" Held asked, returning his sight to Asha'Rah's chassis. "I mean, I'd be lying if I didn't find the guy to be kind of scary, but....."

Asha'rah chuckled softly, notes of approval and amusement dancing upon the air. Held was not off the mark at all.

"You are, I suspect, giving Sasheem exactly the credit he deserves. He is a narrow, smallminded soul. His desires are shallow, his outlook utterly centered around himself. His ultimate goal is simply to destroy everything for no greater reason than that he feels like it. He does not train. He possesses no scientific insight. He has no philosophy or inherently deeper understanding of the universe.”

Her eyes travelled across the sky as if to take in its scope.

“ He is simply strong. And for that reason alone he can stand toe to toe with any of us in a fight. For that reason alone, countless millions have died by his hand. Entire civilizations, men, women and children, wiped out on a whim. Countless generations of progress, of striving forward against all odds, lost to his amusement. What utter nonsense.”

Hands balled into fists, pulsing violet for a second before releasing their tension.

“During the Great Founding, when universes and the first gods were young, there was great debate about the nature of what creation would be like. It was a collaborative process, not without its own politics, but we respected that we all worked towards a common goal. But there was one point upon which I pushed back hard, repeatedly, and was always overruled without a satisfactory answer – the exponential potential of martial might. I foresaw a time when scientific achievement would be utterly outstripped, when arts and culture and all attempts to grow as a people would pale before a few individuals. Those individuals might be fair and just, but they could just as easily be…well…like Sasheem. It would not happen right away, but sooner or later a few select mortals would become utterly untouchable and stunt the growth of others through imposing their godlike power upon others. There would be no authority, no peers, no social circle to keep them in check.”

“Would the gods step in to strike such people down? Such interventionism went against the entire point of creation to begin with. We were there to nurture and prune our gardens to greatness, not police them. Yet permanently changing universal mechanics on such a fundamental scale was beyond even a God of Creation after the Foundation was laid. I would need the cooperation of my peers and those above me – Zeno and the Grand Priest. While I continued to lobby for change, I created the Kami system as a stopgap measure, demigods meant to watch over their civilization as a whole and intervene only in very limited circumstances. But I knew they would not hold forever. Again and again I sent messages pleading for an audience. Again and again I pleaded for a gathering of gods. Again and again my messages fell upon deaf ears.”

Asha’rah breathed deep and slow, her features grim as she remembered the weight of those times, of her decision.

“So I rebelled. If I could not garner Zeno’s attention with words, I would do it with deeds. I called allies to my side and waged war across the Heavens. The aftermath of that…and the conspiracy that tricked both sides into the war…we live in it now. The slow collapse of the Kami system, Hammer’s world-poisoning prison, these are but a glimpse of what the multiverse lost in the war.”

[Sub-Zero MKA]

Zaofan breathes a sigh of relief as his shoulders relax. "Why, of course I will! I'm glad that you enjoyed..."

"WAIT, MY PIES! I completely forgot they were still baking when we all headed down to Capital City! To help Ishtar and Meagan!"

His body takes a sprinting position, but he doesn't take off. "...but hold on, if you just ate them, and they were okay, that means they weren't burnt or ruined, huh?"

Parsley wasn't even aware they had been in the oven that long. She assumed someone turned the oven off before they got burnt.

"No, they weren't," she answered, "so I assume someone turned the oven off." Either way, she was fortunate. There was nothing quite worse than eating a dessert that had been in the oven too long. The crust would be hard as a brick, the filling would be sticky and hard, it would have this disgusting black coating on the top. It was the worst.

Now, to shift gears, she thought about the training that was to begin between the two of them tomorrow morning. It would, in actuality, be beneficial for the both of them. Him because there was little doubt she would find some flaw in either his personality or his fighting style that hindered him from being as capable a warrior as he should have been; her because there was an ability she had been tinkering with the last few days that she wanted to test out. And there was no better person to fine-tune the aspect she had been working on thus far than him.

Well, that wasn't necessarily true, but two birds with one stone and all that.

"I suggest getting to bed early tonight. We begin at sunrise. If you're not up, I will wake you up." And he didn't want that.

[Tami]

As surreal as it was, Charco couldn't help but be impressed by how perfected the operation was. Honed by years, decades, or perhaps generations, these blind warriors reacted with precision in response to the words of mere children. He might have admired such dedication had it not seem so... pointless? Cruel? It was difficult to put words to his feelings.

It was as if he were watching a children's game. Perhaps this was nothing more than a children's game?

He didn't know much about Chroma, other than what he had experienced in his short time there. Then again, it appeared Cyanna didn't know much of the context of what was occuring, save for the obvious.

"So what's the plan? Do we crash it, or leave them be?"

He was at a lost when it came to determining the objective the Pendulum Room had given them.

"Seems pointless to get involved, unless something weird happens."

As soon as Cyanna spoke, they could sense the sudden appearance of two more visitors behind and to the left of them. The visitors joined them near the edge of the ledge, talking to each other as if Cyanna and Charco weren't there. They seemed somehow familiar to the young Chromakai, yet she wasn't certain how. As a result she found herself staring at them.

Two women, human-like, each around Charco's height. One with shoulder length silver/blond hair, the other with short, deep black hair. What distinguished them from humans were the feathered wings, one set silver/white, the other deep black, that lay folded against their backs. As they moved, it was possible to catch a quick view of their eyes, both with prismatic irises of many colors. [Reference Images]

Looking down at the combat below, the darker haired woman spoke first.

"Are you sure about this? If the Science Academy finds out, you'll be lucky if they only expel you. You know the rules about non-interference."

The silver haired woman responded, "I have seen too many promising races fail due to now fault of their own. You see how they do battle? They take care not to damage each other's villages and farms."

"So what? They prize property over the lives and welfare of their own children! How does that make them more worthy that other races?"

There was silence, before a measured reply, "Their lives are harsh, made worse by their condition. Yet, they struggle, not only to survive as individuals, but to also protect their tribes. The children are not shielded from this harsh life, yet they do not show signs of weakness in the face of it."

The silver haired woman turned to her companion, arms outstretched as if to emphasize a point, "They know only what they can hear, they can not see the beauty of their world, and the beauty within each other. Their words are like music, yet music without art is limited. Without art, their can be no science. Without science, they will never move past this stage of development."

"That can't be true, they already have agriculture, and tools, and weapons."

"I have examined the bodies of some who died in combat. There is promise, but it stilted. It can be fixed. Besides, this can be thre most wonderful experiment ever!"

"Alright, but once you do this, they are your responsibility."

"You'll help me then?"

The dark haired woman spread her wings, "When have I ever not helped my sister?"

With that, the silver haired woman spread her own wings. Then the two sisters dived downward at high speed, each aimed at one row of children. As they reached them, as they touched each one, the children vanished.

Once the children were gone, the battle below slowly ended. The adults acting both confused, and possibly worried. Cyanna could hear them call out what could be names, waiting for responses but not receiving any.

As the two sisters flew upward, the silver haired one stopped in front of Cyanna and Charco, "They will not be harmed. This is only the beginning. You will find what you seek two thousand years into the future, my children."

With that, the sounds of the clocks returned and the world around them began to dissolve.

When it came back into focus, they saw the world around them had changed. They were now on an open plain, a grassy field with grazing animals in the distance and birds overhead.

[Cyke]

Parsley wasn't even aware they had been in the oven that long. She assumed someone turned the oven off before they got burnt.

"No, they weren't," she answered, "so I assume someone turned the oven off." Either way, she was fortunate. There was nothing quite worse than eating a dessert that had been in the oven too long. The crust would be hard as a brick, the filling would be sticky and hard, it would have this disgusting black coating on the top. It was the worst.

Now, to shift gears, she thought about the training that was to begin between the two of them tomorrow morning. It would, in actuality, be beneficial for the both of them. Him because there was little doubt she would find some flaw in either his personality or his fighting style that hindered him from being as capable a warrior as he should have been; her because there was an ability she had been tinkering with the last few days that she wanted to test out. And there was no better person to fine-tune the aspect she had been working on thus far than him.

Well, that wasn't necessarily true, but two birds with one stone and all that.

"I suggest getting to bed early tonight. We begin at sunrise. If you're not up, I will wake you up." And he didn't want that.

It is then and there that Zaofan learns a crucial lesson in internal voice versus external voice.

AHHHHHHHH. Why why WHYYYYY did I ask for this? This is going to hurt! No. Nono. Nononono, Zaofan. Shore it up. You asked her for this. You cannot make a request and then back out of it when she is willing to meet it. Not only would it be disrespectful, but no good can come from disappointing a Saiyan. You wanted this! You wanted to test your limits! You wanted to surpass them! You wanted to become stronger! Now is your chance! Do it, Zao! Do it for the good of the world! Do it for the good of your friends! Most importantly, do it for yourself! Be the better Zaofan! The one that your friends can depend on when all hell has broken loose, when all the chips are on the table and you're the last resort! Make Chef Brutus proud! Be a worthy student of Zxu'Ro and Master Balon! Be the pillar that Evangeline asked you to be! Get it together!

And what if...? What if I end up beating Parsley? Sure, the chances are slim, but you've never backed down from a challenge before, Zao! Saiyans are brute strength! But the Five Schools have finesse and strategy on their side! Imagine! I've been picturing loss and hurt, but I haven't imagined victory and triumph! The best outcome! Think positive about the possibilities!

That realization starts to get his blood pumping. Not in a troubled, worrisome, dreadful way, but now with anticipation, excitement, adrenaline.

Wow! Unreal! My gosh! This is AMAZING! I feel incredible! Yes yes yes YES! I can win! I feel great! I! CAN! DO! THIS! RAAHH--

Oh, right. Parsley's standing right there.

He straightens himself, politely and dutifully nods in the affirmative to her, slightly tilting his upper torso and shoulders with the nod. "Yes, of course. I look forward to your lesson, Parsley. First thing in the morning. Thank you for taking the time to meet me then."

[bruceleegreyhulk]

Qaztoh is still walking around the Lookout smoking on Juppter thinking to herself ( hmm the Galaxy Police. the world galaxy in their name seems to just refer that they only have jurisdiction over one galaxy. the IGCPO has to exist because there's no possible way that space law enforcement group called the Galaxy police has jurisdiction over multiple galaxies." " especially not with a name like that." )

(yeah with that name like that it doesn't make sense that they could take down a criminal who was in another galaxy from their own. wait unless the word galaxy in their title doesn't refer to just the Milky Way Galaxy but Galaxy Super Clusters! yeah that would make more sense. Oh yeah that is there's no such thing as the IGCPO . )

( that muscle headed Captain of the Space Pirate group I was living with made that **** up. come to think of it that muscle head makes up a lot of bull **** stories. like the time he told me he took on horde of Galactic Lawman from the Galaxy Police with just a toothpick and a stick of gum . yeah that was obviously bullshit. )

( yeah there's only one space Law enforcement group and that's the Galaxy Police. I really shouldn't believe that muscle head's stories most of them are just bull ****. )

[Sub-Zero MKA]

It is then and there that Zaofan learns a crucial lesson in internal voice versus external voice.

AHHHHHHHH. Why why WHYYYYY did I ask for this? This is going to hurt! No. Nono. Nononono, Zaofan. Shore it up. You asked her for this. You cannot make a request and then back out of it when she is willing to meet it. Not only would it be disrespectful, but no good can come from disappointing a Saiyan. You wanted this! You wanted to test your limits! You wanted to surpass them! You wanted to become stronger! Now is your chance! Do it, Zao! Do it for the good of the world! Do it for the good of your friends! Most importantly, do it for yourself! Be the better Zaofan! The one that your friends can depend on when all hell has broken loose, when all the chips are on the table and you're the last resort! Make Chef Brutus proud! Be a worthy student of Zxu'Ro and Master Balon! Be the pillar that Evangeline asked you to be! Get it together!

And what if...? What if I end up beating Parsley? Sure, the chances are slim, but you've never backed down from a challenge before, Zao! Saiyans are brute strength! But the Five Schools have finesse and strategy on their side! Imagine! I've been picturing loss and hurt, but I haven't imagined victory and triumph! The best outcome! Think positive about the possibilities!

That realization starts to get his blood pumping. Not in a troubled, worrisome, dreadful way, but now with anticipation, excitement, adrenaline.

Wow! Unreal! My gosh! This is AMAZING! I feel incredible! Yes yes yes YES! I can win! I feel great! I! CAN! DO! THIS! RAAHH--

Oh, right. Parsley's standing right there.

He straightens himself, politely and dutifully nods in the affirmative to her, slightly tilting his upper torso and shoulders with the nod. "Yes, of course. I look forward to your lesson, Parsley. First thing in the morning. Thank you for taking the time to meet me then."

Parsley looked at Zaofan strangely for the near three minutes he had been staring at her in dead silence. It... it was absolutely unnerving.

Why is he... just staring at me?

!!!

Do I still have pie on my face?!

NOOOOOOOOOOO

Mercifully, he started speaking again just as she was devising a means to discreetly wipe her face clean. "My pleasure. Until then." She nodded firmly and turned on her heels to walk away.

Perhaps, if he was paying attention, he would see her hand raise to start rubbing her face. Why? Only one person knew the agonizing truth.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"Not at all," Blizzar shook his head. "Pantaloon is of course a gifted inventor, but these drones constantly update their processors, always getting a one up on the hackers. They are designed for one job and one job only...to dispense justice to intergalactic level threats and they will do so with precision and dignity. Furthermore, only members of the Galaxy Police are provided with the override codes, which change every three days. These codes are of course a last resort."

Blizzar took a look at one of the blueprints, pointing to it before continuing on, "As for the robotic sentries, there's a sort of mystical cortex...forgive my lack of knowledge in these matters but I am told that their A.I, so to speak is impentrable. More golem than proper robot. Of course the GP has emergency access codes of a sort for them as well."

“How interesting. It seems this should work just fine. How soon can it be implemented?”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

As they walked, Sarada let out the sigh she had been holding in since the meeting began. "You know, you humans never cease to amaze me. I would have thought the ones I'm familiar with were the only ones that were special in some way."

She wasn't sure what kind of surveillance the building had or if Grinthorn would have been capable of listening in, but she wasn't taking any chances.

Jinzi nods before activating a personal privacy screen, letting them speak freely.

“Your thoughts?”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Praxat replies to this saying " My people's Princess Qaztoh is hop up on the stuff." " she's been with these space pirates for 3 years and she probably got hook on the stuff by one of them. " " she has a tattoo of their symbol on her right shoulder it looks like a phoenix. " " Qaztoh is probably smoke some right now."

"she probably planning put it out and mask her eyes with a pair of bionic lenses to make it look like she's not one the stuff." " Qaztoh normally has gold color irises and star-shape pupils ,but currently her irises are reddish gold because her eyes are blood shot from smoking that stuff." " her pupils are also abnormally dilate for our species. "

“I see. And you would wish her...cleansed....of this addiction?”

[Sub-Zero MKA]

Jinzi nods before activating a personal privacy screen, letting them speak freely.

“Your thoughts?”

With the privacy screen up, Sarada dropped all pretense. "He's fucking weird," she answered in a hushed tone.

It wasn't even the smile or the way it seemed that he knew much more than he had any business knowing. And while those were a big part of what had her feeling uncomfortable, it was mainly the fact that he had no ki signature. Or, perhaps didn't appear to have one. The latter was more realistic, as the former would mean he was either a machine or dead.

"He has no ki signature. When I tried to get a read on his power, I got nothing." She frowned heavily. "Not only that, he knows more about me than he should." At first, when he first mentioned her exploits, she assumed he meant the ones on Earth, like the battle with Battersea, Fife, and Jagam. She assumed Jinzi told informed him of all that. Now, she wasn't so sure. "How much about us did you tell him? About us and what we've been doing."

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

With the privacy screen up, Sarada dropped all pretense. "He's fucking weird," she answered in a hushed tone.

It wasn't even the smile or the way it seemed that he knew much more than he had any business knowing. And while those were a big part of what had her feeling uncomfortable, it was mainly the fact that he had no ki signature. Or, perhaps didn't appear to have one. The latter was more realistic, as the former would mean he was either a machine or dead.

"He has no ki signature. When I tried to get a read on his power, I got nothing." She frowned heavily. "Not only that, he knows more about me than he should." At first, when he first mentioned her exploits, she assumed he meant the ones on Earth, like the battle with Battersea, Fife, and Jagam. She assumed Jinzi told informed him of all that. Now, she wasn't so sure. "How much about us did you tell him? About us and what we've been doing."

“Hardly anything. Just a few mentions, not a deep dive. Whatever he knows he somehow found out on his own.”

[Sub-Zero MKA]

“Hardly anything. Just a few mentions, not a deep dive. Whatever he knows he somehow found out on his own.”

Sarada's frown deepened. She supposed it wouldn't be too much trouble to find the details or even footage of the battle with Battersea and his daughter. But that was hardly enough for him to proclaim to be impressed by her exploits.

Or was it?

No, it wasn't.

"Hardly anything, huh? I guess I won't know how bad that is until I find out for sure just how much he knows about me. I can't just outright ask him or he'll know something is up." She made a sound of frustration. She would have loved nothing more than to grab him by the collar and start punching him until he spilled everything, but she knew that doing that would have far reaching ramifications outside of him knowing for sure that she was on to him.

"He doesn't have a ki signature. He knows more about me than he should. Everything about him is offputting." She shook her head. "He can't be human. He just can't. I know the other can do some amazing things, but none of them are like this. What all do you know about him?"

[KingofPie]

“How interesting. It seems this should work just fine. How soon can it be implemented?”

"The Drones can be deployed within the next month. The Robotic Sentries, the month after. Although whenever we get a lead on that next level metallic alloy, we may drop by to give them an update....which, if we properly utilize the genius of our top researches, shouldn't take more than an hour to update them with," Blizzar answered. "Any further questions, President Grinthorn?"