Chapter Thirty Eight

Coming to terms with the fact that this is your life now, you swore to Caulifla that you'll get her to unlock that fabled Super Saiyan 2. God that sounds dumb. But no matter how you look at it you are still trying to walk off that concussion your future training partner gave you. Scratching your head you begin to doubt your own judgment.

"Erm... so... how should we begin?"

"I 'unno." She shrugs. "Last time... kinda did it by accident? Like regular Super Saiyan.

But guess where that got me."

"It bit you in the ass."

"Yes and not the fun way either." She leans back against a tree. "So... any bright ideas?"

You start pondering on the matter for a while as getting pancaked is not really on your bucketlist, especially now that you're exhausted. So you'll need to apply some good old fashioned human ingenuity to compliment the insane brawn of saiyan biology.

As you start formulating an idea you speak up.

"Hey... did you guys... gals, got around to asking Vados for help?"

"No. Why?"

"Hmmmm." That has some potential application. "And she's not here so we'll have to rely on second hand knowledge..."

Standing up you signal Caulifla to follow you.

Not in the mood to argue she does as you told and walks over to an open field. "Okay... now what?"

"I want you to go all out. No holding back, balls to the wall, full throttle Super Saiyan.

Can you do that?"

"What? Like right now?"

"Right now."

"Full power?"

"Full power!"

Not wasting any more time Caulifla clenches her fists and begins shouting as her power rises quickly.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."

She starts out small but as her hair starts to flutter and flash gold every now and then her voice gets louder.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

In a flash she turns super and continues her shouting until her body starts literally hulking out. Her muscle mass expands, along her breasts and... everything else. "There... how's that?"

You start rubbing the bridge of your nose as you give voice to your frustration with a groan.

"Uuuuugh... no. No no no. Not like that-"

"HEY!" You jump back a bit in fear as she leers at you. "YOU TOLD ME TO GO ALL OUT JACKASS! THIS IS ALL OUT! AND NOW YOU'RE TELLING ME IT'S NOT GOOD?!"

"N-No- I just... N-Never mind. Look just tone it down a bit. Okay? At least until you don't look like... this." Caulifla then starts to relax and like a balloon her muscles deflate. How do their bodies function?! But by the time she's done she still has some excess musculature left.

"Liiiittle more. There."

Caulifla is now breathing through her nose which signals to you that she's a bit annoyed.

"Great. Now what?"

"How does it feel?"

"Like balancing on a rope! Now spit out what you want!"

"Just... calm down a bit-"

"I AM calm!"

Okay. This isn't going anywhere. You don't get what the problem is but Caulifla is clearly agitated for some reason. Is this what you were like when Vados trained you? You hope not. "Okay... now we just gotta- uuuuh..."

"Okay... maybe we tackled this the wrong way..." You think outloud. "So how about this?"

Focusing for a moment you actually have to put effort into releasing your power as you defaulted to it being sealed at all times and then begin powering up. "HA!" With a quick little shout you push your ki to its max and as a pale blue aura surrounds your body you speak up. "Okay... You see this?"

"This is your maximum power? Huh... kinda small."

"Yes but remember that I use supplements.

Now pay close attention and try to follow me."

Closing your eyes you take a deep breath and slowly but surely start taking it all back in, causing your aura to subside.

"Ooooooh! So that's how you do it."

"I thought you might catch on a bit quicker like this. Now... can you do this?"

"Heh! Who do you think you're talking to?

I could do this in my sleep!"

Granted that was a pretty big boast as she does struggle for a moment with the technique. And as she does so, you realize what was the problem initially as the Super Saiyan transformation, and Saiyans in general seem to heavily rely on emotion to power themselves. So reining her in like that wasn't going to be easy. But it seems she's finally picking it up.

Unlike you she does require a few minutes of carefully controlled breathing to achieve the same thing but finally her roaring Ki disappears and she's left wondering if this is it. "So... what now?"

You give her a little smirk and raise up your open palm. "Now I want you to hit this."

"Heh... Okay! Just don't come crying to me when I give you a booboo! ORA!"

She does land the punch but right before the impact her Ki erupts from her body. "Huh?"

"Not bad. But try to keep it in next time."

She pulls back her fist. "Smartass!"

For the next hour you had her performing this very same exercise, never a full on fight.

Initially she was infuriated by the fact that she has to practice but the thrill of overcoming a challenge eventually won her over.

And what a challenge it was.

At first she couldn't control herself at all and always lost control of her Ki which angered her. But angry gets shit done and she used her frustration to hone her senses. After a while she managed to land a hit which prompted a smile out of you. "Good. Good!

Now do it again!"

She smirks but overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer. On her next attack she fails again, causing her to get angry but you urge her to calm down. It's pretty obvious from her remarks that she's not happy about failing at something, about not getting something right away. But it seems to actually do good for her.

From every failure she learns and she whiffs her attacks less and less until she can perform the attack on a regular basis.

Once she's comfortable with that you tell her to try and chain attacks in sequence without dropping her hold on the ki inside her.

By the end she manages to fight properly using her Super Saiyan form in tandem with what you taught her and without breaking it once. But fighting only for two minutes like that combined with all the practice she did before leaves her exhausted. Falling on her butt her hair goes black as she looses her breath.

*pant* *pant* "And you fight like THIS?!"

"Yea."

"Man... you're crazier than I thought-"

"I wouldn't know about that. This is the only way I know so it doesn't seem hard for me.

Anyway I think we should call it here-"

"N-No! I can still fight-" She responds but she barely seems to be able to stand up and remains on her knee.

"I don't think so."

"W-What?"

"We can pick up later if you want. But we made good enough progress. And I don't want to wreck your body too much. So what do you say about some lunch instead?"

She looks like she's about to protest but a quick grumble from her stomach changes her opinion real quick. "Ugh... fine!" But as she attempts to stand up her legs start shaking like jelly and they give out. "DAMN!"

Shaking your head you walk over to her and scoop her up. As you lift her up into a bridal carry you half expect her to slap you but... strangely it doesn't happen. "Wha-wha-wha-wha-"

Not feeling like waiting for her to finish "What are you doing" you answer her prematurely.

"Hey. Feel free to walk."

"HnghngnnnnnnI'llwalkmyfootupyourass"

*grumble* *grumble*

You take her inside and seat her down on the sofa because you sincerely doubt she can balance herself on a regular chair and then get to work in the kitchen. Not wanting to overcomplicate things you opt for some good old stew to help the tired little girl get back her energy. You also throw in a couple extra vegetables, mainly some roots, because they are good for you and because you doubt Cauliflas diet is varied... at all.

Bringing the freshly made soup out you pour the two of you a portion each and proceed to dig in. Only to realize that the utensils in the Saiyans hands are shaking harder than if they were hit by a magnitude 9 earthquake.

So you sigh, put down your spoon and take hers.

"HEY!"

"Hush." You dip the spoon into the soup and gently blow on the liquid before moving it over to her mouth. "Say "Ah". And don't forget to chew!"

"Asshole..." She opens her mouth wide like a shark and you start feeding her. Luckily for you all her hostility seems to just flat out disappear as she begins moaning.

"Hmmmmmm! This is so good!"

"Maaaan that was good!" Caulifla says while stretching her arms. Giggling she starts actually praising you. "It feels real nice to finally have some good food! I think I get why Champa likes you little Earthlings so much!"

"Really?" You ask her smugly while sipping on your own lunch. "Are you sure it's only the food that we have going for us?"

"Weeeeell...." She pauses for a while before finally speaking up. "I don't know much about your Earth or Earthlings actually so yeah.

You on the other hand? You're pretty cool. In general."

You wait and attempt to process the genuine compliment you just got. "Why thank you! It means a lo-"

*SNOOOOOOOORE* With a tired body and a full belly Caulifla is finally all tuckered out.

"Of course." Finishing your meal you start pondering what to do with her.

You don't really feel comfortable leaving her like this. But at the same time you can't just drag her into your bedroom. You'd never be able to rid yourself of all the gossips. So instead you do the next best thing and look for Kale.

For a while you roam around the palace looking for the girl inside the palace but you come up short... "Where the Hell is this girl?"

You mutter to yourself as something in the corner of your eye catches your attention.

"What the?"

Going outside to investigate you find Kale sitting under the sun and on a rock while reading a book. "Oh hello Eric!"

"Hey Kale. Nice weather for some book reading. Then again I haven't seen any rain on this planet yet."

"Uh-hum. I found Champas library and helped myself for one."

"Really? What is it? Must be something special to have caught your interest."

"Uh... oooh... nothing." She tucks the book under her arm. "Did you... want something?"

You smile. "Do you think I'd only talk to you if I wanted something? ... But in this case, yeah I'd like some help."

"Hmmmm?"

"Could you come and help me?"

She doesn't need much convincing, especially after you mention how this concerns her as well. But upon entering the specified room she quickly changes her mind when she sees Caulifla knocked out. "SIS!" She rushes to her in order to check up on her friend. When she sees that her beloved sister is fine however she feels relieved. "Thank god!"

"Erm... yeah. Things got a bit out of control when we trained. So uh... could you take her to her room so she can get some rest?"

"Of course!"

Carrying Caulifla seemingly filled Kale with immense satisfaction. "I can be of use to sis!"

She seems to mutter to herself.

After a while Kale managed to get Caulifla to her bedroom and upon leaving she locks the door behind her with a sigh. "She's fine. I didn't wake her."

"Thanks Kale. I knew I could count on you."

She blushes a bit. "Thank you..."

While she's looking in the other direction you try and start focusing on that book she got tucked under there. But try your best you just can't make out what it is. Not without more... drastic measures anyway. "Erm... by the way Kale did you lock the room?"

"Oh yeah! I forgot!" She turns around and as she does so you start leaning to the side, hoping to get a better angle looking at the book.

Your back feels like it's about to break so you just say "Fuck it!" and use every bit of energy you have left and do a quick little time-stop which you use to kneel down and take a closer look. When you finally spot your prize however your concentration breaks and you fall on your ass, breaking the technique immediately. Kale turns around in shock and sees you on the ground.

"Oh god Eric! What happened? Did I knock you over? I'm so sorry!"

"N-nah it's okay! I just slipped. I leaned wrong and I slipped!" You lie through your teeth.

As she helps you up however you start having a proper conversation with her. "So erm... anyway I was wondering about the upcoming tournament and how we should... get better for it. And that's kinda what we did with Caulifla. But I'm interested if you're up for that.

I don't want to push you but-"

"N-no... If Caulifla wants to get better then... I don't want to get left behind! I want... to get better as well!"

Her determination is clearly visible. But you have to burst her bubble real quick. "That's cool! But not now. I'm... kinda running on fumes right now. Once I'm healed though we can get something in if you still want it."

She claps her hand around yours.

"Thank you!"

"D-Don't mention it!" You pull your hand back and start walking away. "I... gotta go! See ya tomorrow then!" But as you walk away from the girl you feel a bit like an asshole.

"Love can bloom? Couldn't the author pick any other name?"

For the rest of the day you just kinda went back in your room and burrowed in your bed in an attempt to recover. But being exhausted both mentally and physically you had a real hard time falling asleep. As a result you woke up late in the morning and felt really groggy.

Making your way to the kitchen you quickly got to brewing a pot of extra strong coffee.

Once you're done and finally have access to the sweet nectar of life you go into the dining area where you sit down, kick back and start sipping away. With your senses sharpening however you pick up a conversation going on in the hallway, with the participants approaching quickly.

"Yeah but... how are we gonna tell him?"

"We won't dummy! That's what they told us!"

Sounds like Hop and Sorrel having an argument. And just as they enter the room they reel back for a moment.

"Oh he-he-heeey... you're awake!" Sorrel speaks up nervously.

"Okay... I'll bite. What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing-" She continues but Hop quickly cuts her off.

"Your two warmachines are back."

"HOP!"

What? He'd figure it out anyway. But they told us to tell you that you shouldn't go and meet them. Or some crap like that."

"Why?"

"I just told you! I can't say."

"P-Please!" The bunny girl adds to that.

"Uuuuugh... what did they do?" *sip*

Walking out the door despite the protest of both Hop and Sorrel you make your way outside and try your best to locate the two tuffle kids. When that fails you start searching for a large congregation of powers as it's likely that the trouble they caused attracted an audience. And you're not wrong.

You feel Hyssop and his family as well as Hit but not the Saiyans. This feels... odd. There is one signal you don't recognize.

Still somewhat groggy and now kinda pissed on top of that, because apparently your kids caused some harm to someone completely random and now you have to clean up their mess, you approach the area where you see everyone slowly turning around in sheer terror as they realize you are here. Hyssop in particular seems like he's frozen and the dude is made out of fucking ice. But out of all of them it's the twins that charge past them to quickly stop you.

"E-Eric! You're here! Why are you here?!"

Kamin starts muttering incoherently.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted those two!"

Oren follows his sisters erratic behavior.

"Okay kids. I'm glad you're okay and I'm happy to see you but I swear to Champa if you caused trouble the first chance you got I'll do some things that'll make you hate me.

But only because I love you."

"DADDY!" You hear a strange, high pitched voice speak up.

"Excuse me wat?"

Jogging past the crowd and the two Tuffles is a little girl with milky white skin and azure eyes, much like those of Kamin and Oren but lacks the same facial markings the twins share. She wears a plain white sundress and nothing else. Running to you with her bare feet she stops and hugs your leg. "Daddy I finally found you!"

Shocked you stare at her as well as the two kids. "E-Errrr... Ah! Wh- err-"

"She is... our... sister." Kamin says. "It's so weird to say this..."

"And she has no combat capabilities or precepts... The Tuffle rebels asked us to take her somewhere safe because she..."

"She's the hope of our race..."

You suddenly feel... light headed. Your body starts moving on its own, as if your mind just gave out and now your body is operating solely on instinct. You take one final sip from your coffee before the cup slips out of your hand.

Finally you reach down and give the little girl a big ol' hug and lift her up. She giggles in excitement as you do so. "Ahahahaha! Higher! Higher!"

You take a closer look at her and spot one feature which differentiates her from her siblings, her long and blonde hair. Setting her back down on the ground you pat her head and start leading her by the hand.

"Okay lil' shits... I didn't plan on being a father but... here I am. Now Imma need a lot more coffee and an explanation. So if you'd kindly follow me that'd be lovely. Because I'm about to loose my mind here." The little girl then looks up at you with a sad expression.

"Not because of you. Don't worry."

Going back inside you have everyone sit down while you go into the kitchen to brew a fresh pot of coffee. The little girl followed you inside of course and watched every single motion of yours with absolute focus. Once done you don't even bother with a cup and just take the whole friggin' thing outside.

As you sit down the girl drags a chair next to yours and you just start chugging coffee.

With a loud gasp you then continue. "A'ight. That bought me about 5 minutes of caffeine rush before I go fucking crazy so... explanation please?"

"W-Well..." Kamin mutters something as all parties present, even Hit look as uncomfortable as possible. "The uh... Bio-Revolutionaries as they call themselves are locked in a fight with the traditionalists dubbed the Machine Empire-"

"They were... not doing well until recently when the tide of war suddenly started shifting in their favor. As they said they had a... uncanny lucky streak."

"But the war is still far from over. In fact it's still escalating with the Empire resorting to more and more drastic measures. But they all keep failing."

"However the revolutionaries felt the need for a... backup plan in case they failed." Oren gestures at the little girl. "She is uh... our sister modeled mostly after us by the rogue Superintelligence."

"The Tuffles realized that they could never undo the damage they did to their own bodies so... They did the next logical thing and created a new being which will serve as the template for future Tuffles."

"As similar as she is to us her design is... quite unlike ours. She is a Neo Machine Mutant but she has no offensive capabilities and her genome is made to be an almost perfect replica of what Tuffles used to have.

Buuut... since they had little to no samples left from the age when Tuffles were still organic..."

"They uh... had to get creative."

"They used what samples they got from... you to fill in the gaps."

"And a large portion of her psyche was modeled after yours as well since you... uh...

Apparently... did something to the central intelligence?"

You swiftly respond. "You shut your ears and don't think about that! We'll talk about it once you're old enough!"

*ahem* "Anyway the rest of her is an amalgamation of several of the Tuffles brightest minds. Or their brain scans at least."

"Greeeat... Planet Mom still doesn't bother to call me after all that but she gives me another child to handle. Lovely."

"That's not it!" Kamin cuts you off. Apparently she's... angry. Shit. Probably what she saw on Plant affected her. You don't blame her though. You wouldn't go back to Plant if Champa ordered you to. Makai was better.

"It's too dangerous for her to stay on Plant! So they... asked us to take care of her."

"They had no idea we stuck with you."

"Did you tell them?"

"No..." Oren shuts his eyes. "But we thought this'd be the best for her."

You sigh. "Okay okay. Point taken. Don't worry. I'm not mad just... confused. I'll need time to digest all of this. But before I do anything let me ask one thing! Because depending on your answer I might just go and nuke what's left of Planet right now. I'll find that Saiyan bomb if I have to! What... do you mean by... the "Hope" of the Tuffle race?"

"They... want to use her as a template for making future Tuffles. Plant simply doesn't have the resources to make... anything as special as her from scratch. So they want to use her designs in the future. No weapons and all that. A fresh start." You can sympathize with that.

"Yeah Plant wasn't in the best condition when I was there. Pretty sure a war didn't do it any good. But okay. If they don't mean "Literally Reproduce" then I'm fine with it." You then turn to the subject of your conversation. "And what about you little one? Do you have a name?"

"No Daddy."

You ruffle her hair and smile. "Don't worry! We'll get you one!"

========

Planet Earth. A small blue planet around the edge of an unassuming, spiral galaxy.

Significantly more mundane than it used to be, now that Elena experienced the vastness of space but it's still home. On this little rock the Saiyan Cabba and her have been talking over things, with the girls curiosity being practically insatiable.

"And that's how you drink the pan-galactic gargle blaster. Wouldn't recommend it."

"Wooooow!" Elena stared at the Saiyan boy with sparkling eyes. "The universe is so much more interesting than I thought! I can't wait to travel across it someday!"

"Heheheh.... Eeeeeeeh... Wouldn't recommend that either."

"Why?"

"You see... There is a lot I didn't tell you."

Cabba looks up at the sky. "Lot of bad people who want to do bad things. Just like everywhere else.bBut unlike here... out there people that can blow up planets exist.

That's why we need things like the Sadala Force or your brother."

"Wait..." Elena paused to piece two and two together while completely sliding over the "your brother" part. "You're an actual space policeman?!"

"Uh... yeah?"

"THAT IS SO COOL!" She reached out and grabbed the boy by his hands. "Thank you so much! It's good to know there is even a space police to protect us!"

"Ahahah! Y-You're welcome! Haha!"

But with her curiosity finally sated after many, many, many answered questions the girl finally turned on the Saiyan and while still holding his hand started dragging him away.

"Come! Come!"

"Wha- Where?!"

"You told me all about where you come from so now it's my turn! If you're gonna be our super important ambassador you'll need to learn as much from us as you can!"

"Weeeeel-" Elena wanted to begin a long winded explanation but she got cut off rather quick.

"Whoah gurls! Would you look at that!

It's little Miss Assful!"

"Ugh... Why?" The girl asked.

"Are these... friends of yours?"

"Do they look like my friends?"

"Kinda?" Cabba scratched his head.

"On my planet best friends greet each other with a punch in the face."

"Who's that dork with you?" The group of girls swarmed around them and quickly diverted their attention from Elena to Cabba. "Look at this geek! He thinks he's from Rome or some shit!"

"Ugh. Could you guys leave? We are not in school anymore-"

"Oy bitch! Who talked to you?"

Upon hearing that word Cabbas attitude quickly changed and he stood up. "Hey! It's not nice to call someone that! Elena is a very nice person and you're acting very rude towards her! Now apologize or leave!"

"Or what? You're gonna slap us with your noodle arms?"

"He looks like he needs some milk!"

The girls Elena simply refers to as "bitches" in her mind continue to mock them until the leader of the group steps up to Cabba.

"But it looks like he got some balls at least. SIKE!" She raised her leg and swiftly kicked Cabba in the nuts. "EEEP!" Which she quickly regretted.

"You... shouldn't do that." Cabba stated as the girl reached for her broken toes.

"L-Let's get out of here! This guy has an iron junk!" And just as quickly as they came these fine ladies swiftly departed and "ran" to the nearest hospital.

This turn of events pleased Elena immensely who stood up and hugged Cabbas arm.

"That was amazing! But come on, let's go! You do look like you need some meat on your bones!"