(That afternoon)
Sitting in the ruined center of the industrial district of West City, surrounded by news and engineer crews from all corners of the metropolis, the world's largest manufacturer of computers and technology was currently undergoing post-disaster control. The recent scuffle between the Z-fighters and their uninvited guest had rung the bell for all emergency services and departments across the capital, calling them into immediate action to fix all the damages that'd been caused. Though Capsule Corp had dispatched its numerous divisions to assist at the affected sites, its second biggest priority was fixing up their base of operations, which was where most of the problems had occurred.
Thanks to the newly formed protocols and provisions taken by the Briefs family in regards to world and city-wide destruction, it was reasonable to see why they were so well prepared for situations like this.
For the most extreme and outrageous individuals, they were probably used to having explosions and earthquakes shaking up the countryside around them. However, for most of the members of the Z-fighters, even after their many years of fighting planet destroying monsters, aliens and demons alike, there was no way they could get used to taking attacks that practically had their bones ringing from head to toe following every single bout. Hell, they may have been the toughest people in the quadrant, but it wasn't like they enjoyed getting their asses kicked. No one did.
This was made painfully obvious by the poor states the group's main fighters lying scattered throughout the hospital room where Gohan was still lying incapacitated.
On the one hand, Chi-Chi, Bulma, Lime and Erasa, all of whom had watched the entire fight from the sidelines, were in perfectly good condition. Because of this, they were actually able to help out with the heavy lifting once the actual battle was done and dusted, and their lives were no longer in mortal peril. Since there had been so many swords and blasts being thrown around, there was no way that four normal humans, whose fighting skills were way below the bar, were going to get involved in that kind of crossfire.
Sitting on the other side of the spectrum though, was every other person who was able to take the full force of a blow that could crack a planet in two, only they were in less pristine condition. Sure, Piccolo, Zangya, Paprika and Videl were up and about, but all of them were still sporting bruises, scratches and scuffs that could make a boxer jealous. The Namekian, adorned in a newly constructed uniform, still had burns and bruises riddling his body, with several, newly healed cuts crisscrossing his complexion. Positioned alongside him, Paprika was also on route to a fast recovery and, as a courtesy to the nurses at the facility, had only accepted bandages around her chest, neck and torso to cover her horrendous spear wounds. Though this did little in dulling the excruciating pain that she was in, she was surprisingly still able to hold it together.
Furthermore, while Zangya had both her hands bound from the burns and blisters inflicted upon her during the fight, along with a generous amount of first aid patches slapped across her cheeks, shoulders and chest, the raven haired teen standing next to her directly beside Gohan's bed had her arm in a cast and bandages wrapped around both her legs. At least the poster girl of Satan City could count her lucky stars that she was still able to walk and had only taken a handful of flesh wounds.
Those who couldn't were bedridden. Trunks for example had collapsed from fatigue with his best friend Goten, and both of them were snoring away on one of the free beds with band aids and bandages covering their bodies. Kana was also lying under a set of covers nearby and was looking just as miserable as the others from all the injuries they'd sustained.
However, unlike a select few of them, she didn't have advanced healing and could only stare enviously at her two, fellow aliens, her shoulders wrapped tightly in bandages. Since she took two lances to the upper body, she couldn't move her arms any higher than her waist, which really hampered her abilities to move.
"I have to say… out of all the hits I've taken over the last hundred years… that one had to be the most painful…" the Seirei mumbled, drumming her fingers on the air as she looked down at her right shoulder to see how it was doing. "Man… this sucks… and I was hoping to go exploring as soon as I was conscious." It didn't escape anyone's notice that she was wearing a white hospital gown, with her damaged, interstellar plug-suit hanging from a hook on the nearby wall.
Hearing the girl loud and clear, the Namekian standing in the background grunted and glanced in her general direction, "It's the attacks that you don't see coming that hurt you the most. You were so focused on trying to take out the bad guy that you weren't able to sense her weapons coming in from above."
"Yeah. And I ended up getting skewered like Maho meat between two pikes, before being placed over a nice, hot plate of batter," Kana remarked, groaning as she let her head and glowing hair rest on the pillow behind her. "The only difference is that I haven't been barbequed."
"Give or take a couple of minutes and you probably would've been," Zangya spoke, keeping her eyes firmly pasted on Gohan's bed while the poor demi-Saiyan slept. With all the people currently stationed in the room, there was no need to question whether or not the boy was well-defended.
Because as soon as the fight outside between the Z-fighters and the blonde haired assassin had come to an end, once they were patched up, not a single one of them wasted any time in returning to the boy's room. It was their instincts as friends and fighters that pushed them into action, and compelled them to move over to their friend's side.
Paprika, hearing the whining of the glowing Seirei nearby, looked up from her post against the wall to glare at the stricken traveler, "Consider yourself lucky that you were only stabbed. At least you haven't had the pleasure of having most of your flesh burned off of your body, and some massive alien's arm the exact same weight and girth as a tree run through your spine and liver." Her rather graphic description of her previous battle with the monster Zeru had Bulma, Chi-Chi, Erasa and Lime turn a sickly shade of white and look across at the demon girl in shock. "Let's see you try and bounce back from a beating like that, especially after most of your internal organs had been punctured."
"Oka~y. Too much information~" Erasa commented in a sing-song voice, while at the same time trying not to collapse from shock.
Sensing the teen's concern, the demon rolled her eyes, "I'm just trying to make a point."
"Which is what exactly?" Lime asked, glancing across at the white haired fighter with an odd look in her eyes.
"That there are more painful things that can happen to you in a fight then just getting impaled?"
Videl, picking up on the line of conversation, looked over at the Makyan with a sympathetic smile, before then turning it towards Kana. When she saw the bandaged Seirei gazing back at her, the crime fighter shrugged, "Don't mind her. She's just a little bit sore because she got taken out of the fight so quickly." Her little teasing comment had the white haired girl grit her teeth and look away with a huff. Following it up with a sheepish laugh and a scratch of her head, the raven haired crime fighter continued to speak, "Of course, I got taken out at the very end of the first round, so I'm not exactly one to talk."
Waving her hand at the battered girl, Chi-Chi then beamed at her warmly, "You did your best, sweetie. No one should be expected to ask any more from you."
While everyone, sans Paprika and Piccolo, shared a round of joyous smiles and murmurs, Bulma quickly looked across the room from her post beside the bed. After taking stock of everyone's individual conditions, her eyes quickly fixated upon one particular individual, who she could see was standing defensively behind Videl, right by the demi-Saiyan's bedside. "The real hero for today though definitely has to be our resident golden girl Zangya." The blue haired woman nodded to the Hera when her gaze darted in her direction. "She really stepped up in that fight and showed to the world that a woman's fist can hurt just as much as any man's."
"Yeah… not to mention that when she gets pissed off, she gets really pissed off," Lime added with a mischievous grin.
When all the other people in the room nodded at that assessment, Erasa's head perked up from where she was standing and beamed at the former space pirate. "If it wasn't for her… everyone in this room would've been beaten or worse… and Gohan-kun would be dead right now." Rising up from where she was kneeling by the demi-Saiyan's bed, the chirpy girl quickly skipped around to where Zangya was and stood in front of her. Taking the woman's hands in hers with a happy giggle, the blonde squeezed them gratefully while her eyes shimmered with delight. "You were fantastic out there. Way to go, girl."
In a heartbeat, Erasa then hugged the startled Zangya, almost picking her up off of the floor with the strength she exerted. Thanks to this, and the combination of compliments and remarks flying around the room, the Hera's steel-like shell finally cracked and a deep shade of scarlet spread over her cheeks. Clearing her throat when the high school student finally set her back to the ground, the orange haired fighter looked back at her crew nervously.
"Th-Thank you." Grinning back at the bubbly blonde, whose face was getting a little too close for comfort, the Z-fighter then took a moment to catch her breath and calm her nerves. "That means a lot." When Erasa stepped away, Zangya then glanced around at the rest of her friends, whom she could see were viewing her with respect and admiration. It was then, after taking a moment to soak it in, the Hera decided to add her own opinion to the pool for the sake of transparency. "But I'm not the one you guys should be thanking. If Android 16 hadn't been in the room at the time that woman broke in, I don't think Gohan would be with us right now."
Hearing this, Videl's smile widened even further and, turning towards their hostess, directed her next question towards her. "How is the big, metal lug? Is he doing alright?"
Bulma quickly answered the teen's question with a smile, "He's fine. Right now dad's working on repairing the damages done to his CPU over in the computer lab. He should be up and running again in the next twenty four hours." She then chuckled and raised a finger to add a second piece to that report. "He'll also be installing some new software and personality patches, so he'll be able to converse with you guys more articulately next time."
"Ah. That's good," Videl sighed, at the same time sharing a look with Piccolo and Zangya standing nearby. "It was getting hard talking to a toaster that could only speak in lines of computer dialogue."
The Hera nodded in agreement, "I'll say."
Piccolo, not really caring one way or another about the composites of human speech patterns in a robot, slowly turned his attention to the other beds. Passing by Kana, who was doing everything she could to pass the time, his gaze then landed on Goten and Trunks. Seeing the duo curled up on the single spread with the covers scrunched up in their hands as they snored away, the Namekian breathed a heavy sigh and closed his eyes. "It was a close one, but we managed to chase off that assassin and stop her from causing anymore damage." He then cracked an eye and peered at the others. "However, I doubt this will be the last time we see her. She'll be back."
His words in regards to their opponent put game expressions back onto the fighters' faces. While Paprika had remained relatively unchanged throughout the entire conversation so far, the sudden shift in mood was sensed by all and acknowledged by those who were the most willing to speak on the matter.
Sitting in the chair directly beside her oldest son's bed, Chi-Chi glanced over at Bulma with uncertainty reflected in her eyes. "Is there anything we can do? I mean… is there a chance that we can find out where that woman came from so that we can chase her down and stop this from going any further?"
Obviously she was concerned about the safety of her family. The proof was all in the tone of her voice and the fearful look in her eyes. She was scared and, at this point, she would take even the slightest of chances of putting an end to this chaos as quickly as possible.
Sadly though, Bulma could only shake her head at the woman. "I'm not sure, Chi-Chi." She then turned to the rest of their troop. "There really isn't much evidence for us to go on. All of the weapons and clones Hasky threw into battle against you guys dispelled after every time they were used or damaged. The only thing we did find on the property was her arm, which Zangya managed to slice off in the final moments of their fight." A shrug shortly followed her remark. "The computers down in the lab should be able to analyze the material and work out where it came from. But if it's anything like the guy Gohan fought before, I doubt we'll be able to get much. We already know who the woman is. We just don't know who she's working for."
A momentary silence then fell over the group, prompting a couple of them to shuffle about uncomfortably. The entire ordeal made all those who'd come across this roadblock before feel the same weight and emotions that they felt several weeks prior. The uncertainty of the situation had chests tighten and fists clench, as restlessness and fear spread between all of them.
However, there was something to be said from all this. From the doom and gloom of the news shared to them by the Capsule Corp president, Zangya had only one thing left to say.
"At least we accomplished one thing," the Hera whispered, drawing everyone's gazes towards the warrior as she glared right back at them. "We now know that Gohan getting the heart virus and being attacked by these assassins aren't just random occurrences. Someone is trying to kill him."
Piccolo nodded, along with many of the other fighters in the room, "The question now though… is who?"
It was a riddle that had the entire atmosphere inside the room go completely stagnant and all the Z-fighters scratching their heads. Out of the five billion plus people on the planet, who could possibly want one of their own dead?
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