Jacket and Rittsuo plummeted from the exploding starship, crash-landing on a debris-strewn rooftop. As they struggled to their feet, coughing from the smoke, they found themselves face-to-face with three figures.
"Hehehe… Rittsuo, Jacket! Welcome to Earth!" Dr. Rocco stood before them, a wide, unpleasant grin stretching across his wrinkled, alien features. Flanking him were Dr. Gero and the rotund, pale form of Android 19.
"Dr. Rocco!" Jacket and Rittsuo spat the name, their faces contorted with hatred, wishing they could tear the fugitive scientist apart.
"Are you perhaps… confused?" Rocco continued, ignoring their venomous looks, his tone dripping with smug triumph. "Puzzled by the monumental gap in power between your outdated pursuit models and the magnificent androids I am creating now?"
"Why?" Rittsuo demanded, his voice tight. "How did you achieve this?"
"Because I was once like you—a frog at the bottom of a well, content with my tiny puddle!" Rocco declared, his beady eyes gleaming. "But after my exile to the North Galaxy, I was fortunate enough to witness… a battle. A clash between two beings whose power defied all known scales. My former 'masterpieces' were pathetic jokes in comparison. The androids you just witnessed—Number 11 and Number 12—are super androids. Their core components are derived from the genetic material of those very beings! How could your Homeworld's pitiful scrap metal ever hope to compete?"
"Impossible! Such life forms cannot exist! It's a lie!" Jacket shouted, shock warring with denial.
"And that is precisely why you remain pathetic," Rocco sneered. Then, his expression shifted to one of cruel, gloating pleasure. "You have chased me across the stars for three years. Made my life… inconvenient. Do not worry. I will not kill you. I will remake you. I will turn you into androids yourselves. And then… we will return to Planet Hazak. And you will personally destroy the world you swore to protect! Hahaha! This is the price for exiling me! The price for your relentless hunt!"
"You monster! We will never let you succeed!" Jacket roared, his body beginning to swell unnaturally. He turned to Rittsuo, his voice desperate. "Rittsuo! Run! You must escape! Don't let this madman's scheme come to fruition!"
"Jacket!" Rittsuo's eyes were filled with anguish, but his hands moved with practiced speed, pulling a small, complex device from within his tunic.
"A spatial randomizer!" Rocco's eyes widened in alarm. "Android 19! Stop him!"
The chubby Android 19 shot forward with surprising speed, a meaty hand reaching for Rittsuo. But Jacket, his body now ballooning and glowing with unstable energy, threw himself in the way. Android 19's hand, hardened and sharp, pierced clean through Jacket's expanded chest.
Yet Jacket didn't fall. He wrapped his arms around the Android in a final, desperate bear hug. "Rittsuo! LIVE! WARN HAZAK!" he bellowed.
With a final, defiant roar, Jacket detonated the energy within him.
BOOM!
The explosion was contained but violent, engulfing Android 19 and the rooftop in a sphere of light and force. In the instant of the blast, Rittsuo, tears of fury and grief in his eyes, slammed his thumb down on the device's activation button.
A sphere of crackling blue energy enveloped him. There was a flash of distorted light, a sound like tearing fabric, and he was gone.
"Damn it! He escaped!" Dr. Rocco snarled, shielding his face from the dissipating energy. He glared at the scorched spot where Rittsuo had been, then at Android 19, who was slowly extracting himself from the crater, his pale chassis slightly blackened but otherwise unharmed. "Hmph. No matter. He's just a rat scurrying back to his hole. Even if he reaches Hazak, what can he do? With my super androids… I have nothing to fear!"
---
At Kame House, Master Roshi lounged on a beach chair, soaking up the sun. A well-worn magazine of questionable artistic merit was held aloft in his hands. The occasional lecherous chuckle drifted on the sea breeze.
A large sea turtle, ambling nearby, suddenly raised its head. It spotted something bobbing on the waves some distance out. It shuffled over to Roshi's chair and nudged his leg insistently with a flipper.
"Someone… floating… out there…" it grumbled.
"If they're floating, let them float. Mind your own business," Roshi muttered, not looking up from his "research." He absently nudged the turtle away with his foot.
A moment later, his brain caught up with his ears. He lowered the magazine and squinted out to sea. "Wait, what? Someone floating? Huh. There really is. Doesn't look like a local either." He sighed dramatically. "Oh, fine. Go on then, fetch him. Can't have corpses littering my view."
With considerable effort, the large sea turtle paddled out, towed the unconscious, waterlogged form back to shore, and deposited it on the sand.
"Whoa. This guy's face really took a hit from the ugly tree, didn't it?" Roshi muttered, peering down at the short, bruised alien. "And these injuries… nasty. Well, can't just leave him here."
He hoisted the unconscious Rittsuo over his shoulder with surprising strength for an old man and carried him inside Kame House. After some rummaging through cluttered drawers, he finally produced a small wooden box. From within, he took a single, precious Senzu Bean.
"You're in luck, stranger," Roshi said to the unconscious form on the bed. "I had to beg this off Krillin for a real emergency. Hope you're worth it." He popped the bean into Rittsuo's mouth.
The effect was instantaneous. Color flooded back into Rittsuo's face. His wounds closed without a trace. His eyes snapped open, filled with confusion and panic.
"Where… where am I?"
"This is Kame Island, and you're in my humble home, young man," Roshi said, striking a pose with his walking stick, attempting to look wise and venerable. "You're lucky. I just happened to have the one thing that could save your sorry hide."
"It was you who saved me? This life-saving grace is something I will never forget!" Rittsuo scrambled off the bed, bowing deeply. "Please, sir, I must ask—do you know where I can procure a spacecraft? My ship was destroyed by a madman! I must return to my home planet immediately to warn my people! A catastrophe is coming! Even your Earth could be destroyed!"
He babbled in a frantic rush, leaving Roshi blinking in surprise.
"So you're not from Earth! That explains the… distinctive look. If you need a ship, Capsule Corporation is your only bet. But what's all this about Earth being destroyed? We have Son Goku here. I doubt anyone's destroying anything with him around."
Rittsuo launched into another frantic explanation, detailing Dr. Rocco, the super androids, and their terrifying power. As he spoke, the playful glint faded from Roshi's eyes, replaced by a rare, grave seriousness.
"Androids, you say? Powerful enough to threaten the planet… That does sound troublesome. Hold on. I'm calling Goku."
At that moment, Goku was in the Capsule Corp lab with Bulma and her father, Dr. Brief, examining the various strange ores he'd brought back from the rock planet.
The lab door slid open. Saeko entered, holding a wireless phone. "Goku, it's Master Roshi. He says it's urgent."
"The old pervert? What does he want?" Goku took the phone, puzzled. "Yo, Master Roshi, what's up?"
"Goku, we have a serious problem!" Roshi's voice was uncharacteristically tense. "I just fished an alien out of the ocean. He's babbling about powerful androids appearing on Earth, saying the planet might be in danger! You need to get over here, now!"
"What? Androids!" Goku's expression instantly sharpened. "I'm on my way." He handed the phone back to Saeko. "I'm heading to Master Roshi's. All of you, stay here. Don't go anywhere."
"Goku, what's wrong?" Bulma asked, concern etching her face.
"Nothing major. Just a few clowns making trouble. I'll be back in a flash."
With that, Goku raised two fingers to his forehead, focused for an instant, and vanished with a soft pop of displaced air.