Commander's Return

"That is... one big ship..." She said, marveling at the size of the ship in front of us. 

I laugh a bit at her reaction.

"It most certainly is." I said. 

To be honest, it's a little strange seeing this ship again. 

I know that I've only been gone for a little under two month, but I can't help but feel a little nostalgic. After all, it was my home for eight years of my life. 

As the ship flew closer, the oxygen dome turned on and the hatch that lead inside hissed as it depressurized, opening to reveal the three members of the Armored Squadron. 

"Commander, what a wonderful surprise." Salza said with a smile. "I thought you were supposed to be on an extended vacation?" 

I let down the barrier and breathe in the artificial oxygen that was within the dome. 

"Something came up." I said before nodding at him and the others in a casual greeting. "Dore, Neiz, how've you all been?"

"Can't complain." Dore said as he rubbed under his nose. "Everything has been smooth sailing after you left."

"Really now?" I cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah." He nodded. 

We look at each other for a few seconds before we both broke out into laughter. 

"You are so full of shit." I tell him. 

He flies closer and claps my on the shoulder before pulling me into a tight hug. 

"Good to see you, Commander." He says. 

The other members do the same, exchanging our greetings before Salza looked behind me, finally noticing that there was someone else here. 

"Who's this?" He asked. 

"This is Lila." I told him, motioning for her to come cover. "She's a friend."

Hesitantly, Lila steps forward and extends her hand towards Salza, "It's nice to meet you..."

Salza looks at her with widened eyes, glancing down at her hand for a brief second before looking back up to her face. 

Suddenly, he grasped her hand with both of his before kneeling down on one knee with a star struck look in his eyes. 

"Je t'aime..." He says.

Not understanding what he had said, Lila just raised a confused eyebrow, but before anyone could say anything, I appeared directly above Salza and punched him as hard as I could right on the top of his head. 

The blow caused a loud sonic boom when it connected, sending Salza flying off like a rocket into the cold vacuum of space.

""SALZA!"" Dore and Neiz shouted as they flew off at breakneck speed to try and catch Salza before he suffocated to death. 

I cross my arms and close the door on this nonsense. 

"Fucking pretty boy prick..." I muttered, my left eye twitching in annoyance. 

"What is it? What did he say?" Lila asked. 

"Don't worry about it." I told her. 

____________________

After grabbing their comrade, All five of us went in the ship and walked through the halls together, heading towards the command room where Cooler was always located in. 

Salza groaned in pain as he rubbed the top of his head, flinching when he had touched the large bump that was starting to form.

"Si j'avais su qu'elle était déjà prise, je n'aurais jamais empiété sur votre territoire..." He muttered under his breath. 

"Elle n'est pas mon territoire, et il serait sage de votre part de la laisser tranquille." I told him, not even glancing back. 

Salza flinched back in absolute shock when he heard me speak, realizing that I had both heard and understood what he had said.

"Since when could you speak French?!" He asked. 

Dore and Neiz started to snicker at the him, which made Salza snap his head over to them with an angry expression. They quickly looked away, trying to play it off with some nonchalant whistling.

Lila was just confused as she didn't understand anything that was going on. 

We finally get to the door to the Command Room and I step inside, seeing Cooler looking out over the stars like he usually does when he has nothing else to do.  

"Still staring out at nothing, huh?" I asked. 

His chair slowly turned around and he looked at me with overwhelming annoyance. 

"It's calming. You know calming, it's the thing people feel when you stop talking." He said.

"Eat shit and die." I tell him. 

"Yes, fuck you." He replied simply before nodding his head towards something behind me. "Who is that and why is she just staring at me as if I'm some sort of apparition come to haunt her?" 

I turn around and look towards Lila, seeing that Cooler's description was not inaccurate. She stared at him with eyes wide as saucers, almost as if she couldn't believe that he was sitting in front of her. 

"Hey..." I called out, placing my hand on her shoulder. "You okay?" 

Feeling my hand, Lila seemed to snap out of her trance, shaking her head before giving a hurried nod. 

"Uh... Yes, yes... I'm fine..." She muttered. 

My brows furrowed a bit but I let it go for now. I didn't want to push her about the subject whilst we were in front of anyone, as something told me that this was a private matter. 

I nod at Lila, making sure that she was alright before turning back towards Cooler, "This is Lila. A friend who I've met during my travels."

"Charmed." Cooler said to her before looking over to me again. "What are you doing here?"

"What? No pleasantries first? No heartfelt tears of joy?" I asked, placing my hand over my heart. "I'm hurt."

Cooler looked at me with a blank expression, not looking the least bit amused by my antics.

"I'm here looking for the Onyx Squadron." I told him, cutting the bullshit.

Behind me, Salza, Dore, and Neiz all glanced at one another, giving each other looks that I set me on edge.

"What is it?" I asked them, my tone becoming more serious. 

Cooler looked towards Salza, giving him a nod. Seeing this, Salza walked over towards the console, bringing up a map of some planet that I've never heard of. 

"This is Cooler Planet-555. A wet, cold, and all around unpleasant chienne of a planet. Two days ago, the Onyx Squadron was sent out to grab a biological sample." Salza says as he pressed another button. 

The map switched to a picture of a small plant, the size of which could probably only grow to about the length of my knee.

"This is the Vilous plant. All around nasty little thing. If eaten, it will make you lose your sight, then your hearing, and then you'll bleed out of every orifice before eventually you die from a horrible, painful death." He explained. 

"Okay, and I'm guessing there's something else that the plant does that you need it for?" I asked, looking towards Cooler. 

"No. The poison is exactly why I want it." He replied. 

"I'm feel like I'm gonna regret asking this, but why exactly do you need a highly poisonous plant?" I asked. 

"Because this plant is one of a rare few that produces a potent enough poison that can affect Frost Demons." He answered casually. "So I am planning on feeding it to my father."

Yeah, that's about what I expected to come out of his mouth...

Hearing a slight gasp, I didn't need to look behind me to know that Lila was absolutely mortified at Cooler's casual demeanor on killing his own father. 

"Putting aside your intention on committing casual patricide, I'm assuming something went wrong when they went to go retrieve it?" I asked before Lila could do something stupid, like asking why. 

"We have no idea." He said, shrugging his shoulders. 

"Pardon?" I said, looking at him incredulously.

"Once they had landed on the planet's surface, we had lost all communications with the Onyx Squadron. We don't know what happened." Salza spoke up.

"Yes, which is why we were about to head over to assist. That is, of course, until you popped up out of nowhere and stopped us in our tracks." Cooler added. "How did you do that, by the way?"

"Picked up a few tricks since I've been gone." I replied. "Teleportation. Gotta love it."

"So it would seem..." He nodded slowly. "You think that your little trick can take all of us there then?"

"Don't know. Never tried it on a ship this large." I told him. 

"First time for everything." He replies. 

"True enough." 

I knelt down and placed my hands on the floor one the ship, closing my eyes and focusing on everything and everything that the ship had aboard. 

"You might wanna hold on to something." I told them. 

Lila quickly grabbed onto me and the Armored Squadron latched onto anything that they could find. Cooler just raised a brow and calmly placed his hand on the railing that was beside him.

The moment that I teleported us, Dore's face turned green, well... green-er, and he proceeded to empty the contents of his stomach all over the command room floor. 

"Really?! We just had this place cleaned!" Salza exclaimed.

"Oh my... Eegh!" Lila suddenly covered her nose in disgust. 

"What did you eat?!" Salza asked Dore as he did the same.

"...Some... Some of those ground up worms and... stuff that Neiz is always eating..." Dore groaned. 

"Melila Worms and Carcusa Flies." Neiz says.

"Yeah... tho- Mmph!" Dore suddenly threw up again. 

 "Ugh, it's going to take stink in here for days!" Salza groaned. 

Cooler and I glanced at each other with knowing looks. 

"As dysfunctional as ever." I said. 

"You expect them to grow brains in a couple of months?" He asked before turning his attention towards the Armored Squadron. "Have someone clean that up and get ready for landfall. We have soldiers to rescue."

____________________

[Two Days Ago]

"What does Cooler need with a bunch of useless plants anyway?" Raditz asked. 

"You think he tells me anything?" Vegeta asked him back as he slipped on his gloves. "Only ones who know that information is Zyleth and his so-called Armored Squadron."

A disapproving grunt came from the corner of the ship, causing both of the Saiyans to look over towards the third among them. 

"What?" Vegeta asked. 

"He left." Broly told him. 

Vegeta's eyebrows furrowed for a moment before he suddenly gained a look of remembrance. 

"That's right. He did." He muttered. 

"Zyleth left?!" Raditz suddenly exclaimed, looking back and forth between his two comrades. "How long ago was this?!"

"Two months." Broly replied. 

"A little less than that, but yes, almost two months ago." Vegeta nodded. 

"And why didn't I hear about this?! Why didn't you tell me?!" Raditz asked. 

""We did."" Both Vegeta and Broly told him at the same time. 

"No, you didn't!" Raditz yelled. 

""Yes, we did."" They both said. 

"While you were wallowing in your own self pity about how many vacation days you've already used up." Vegeta told him. 

Thinking back, Raditz did remember them mentioning something about Zyleth leaving. He just thought that he was going on another mission. 

"Oh... right..." He mutters. 

Vegeta rolled his eyes and opened the door to the ship, ready to step out into the cold, harsh wetlands that took up most of the disgusting planet they were on. 

"Let's hurry up and get this done." He said, the other two coming up behind him. "I have a call I need to make."