NINE

Some time before…

Thermo flies into a small settlement of Namekians that were going about their day until one of the young ones sees him looking around. He ignores the little one as he stares at the odd tower that stands out in the distance compared to the humble huts that surround him. One of the child's parent looks at Thermo after noticing his child was distracted and panics and runs off with his child to one of the larger huts and bangs on the door. An old namekian opens the door to see what was going on and the one with his child tells him about Thermo's visit. The old namekian sees Thermo and panics himself and hurries to Thermo's side and tries to get his attention.

OLD ONE

"E-excuse me, sir. Is there anything you need from us?"

Thermo looks at the old namekian wondering why he was distracting him from his thoughts. He ignores the old namekian and decides to hover towards the tower.

OLD ONE

"Wh-wait!! What have we done!? D-do we need to send something? Is anything missing from the reserve?? I-i'm sure we sent you all we had! Please!"

Thermo stops and looks at the old namekian annoyed.

THERMO

"What are you talking about, old slug? Can't you see I'm busy."

OLD ONE

"Eh?? What? Are… are you not with the company?"

THERMO

"Company? I only came to explore the environment."

OLD ONE

"Um… then, are you from the East Islands? We could help you get comfortable during your stay here, sir. Anything you need. Just please give a good word for us to the others."

THERMO

"Others?? I have no idea what you're on about but you're starting to annoy me… this is your only warning: don't disturb me again if you know what's good for you and your colony, old slug."

???

"HAHAHAH!! What a thing to say! Huhuhu."

THERMO

".... Mmrrr~..."

Thermo turns around and sees a small acrosian with a smug look on his face laughing away at Thermo's threats to the Namekians.

???

"Although, I would personally make them do a few tricks to satisfy my annoyance. Huhuhu."

THERMO

"Name yourself."

???

"Hm? Do you not know who your senior is, new comer?"

THERMO

"I am below no one but my brothers in age. Now, name yourself. I won't repeat myself again, brat."

???

"... hmph. Fine. I'll humor you."

The strange acrosian suddenly appears in front of Thermo and his tail wraps around his arm, holding him tightly in his tail's grip.

AYESY

"They call me Ayesy. You should do well to remember your place in the hierarchy, newby."

Thermo started to feel his arm getting squeezed by Ayesy's tail. Thermo, now more annoyed. Clenches his fist and starts to counter the pressure. Ayesy starts to notice that and starts to squeeze harder but the counter was more than his tail could handle and he loses his grip on Thermo. Thermo takes the chance to yank his arm out of Ayesy's grip, grab his tail, pull him closer and punch him in the chin a few times like a paddle ball, using his tail as the tether, until he's sent flying back with the last punch. Thermo lets Ayesy's tail slip out of his grip and watches him tumble in the air holding his chin. Ayesy was now groaning in pain with tears forming in his eyes.

AYESY

"YOU… Sonofa-!!"

THERMO

"Tell me, Ayesy. Do you know what these namekians are talking about? It seems like they believe I'm part of some company. Do you mind filling me in while I let off some stress on you some more?"

Thermo give Ayesy a cocky, maniacal grin that pissed him off enough to send him into a rage in an instant. Ayesy suddenly cries out in fury as he increases his power level. The Namekians out in the open start to panic again and move out of the way, hiding behind nearby buildings, boulders, and walls ready for a fight to happen between the two.

AYESY

"You seem to think that you have a chance just because you're new around here, but I'll tell you now that the company belongs to the Mint brothers! And you are the lowest recruit!! But don't worry, this senior is very generous and forgiving, so I'll save you the embarrassment of losing your life on your first day!"

Ayesy rushes Thermo and starts sending a flurry of punches at his head, missing every time as Thermo makes no effort in dodging his attacks as he remains stationary in his place in the sky. Ayesy's attacks hadn't touched thermo once and made him even more angry. Thermo was simply watching his shoulders the whole time. Recalling his training on the Supreme Kai's planet when he trained with his brother, Hypo.

Now bored of Ayesy's attack, Thermo eases his way around the last punch and smoothly makes his way around Ayesy. Thermo was now behind him without Ayesy realizing. Thermo raises his tail above Ayesy's head and, with a sneaking grin creeping across his now dimpled cheeks, sends it down on him with an echoing thud to his whole back, knocking the air out of him and sending him into the Iced road below and cracking the stone pavement. Ayesy was now out cold.

The Namekians gather around Ayesy curious and anxious as they poke him a bit to see if he was still alive. Ayesy twitches and groans in pain still out cold. He lived but he might have lost his spine from the impact. Thermo's smile vanished as soon as he realized what he did.

THERMO

"Oops. I suppose I still don't know how to hold back enough. I only intended to tap his head."

Thermo floats down to the crowd and picks up Ayesy, holding him in his arms like a sandbag.

THERMO

"Well, since it's come to this, should I take him to that tower there? That's the company place isn't it?"

OLD ONE

"Uh…!! Y-yes! Yes, that is the company! Um… pardon me for asking this, but… what do you intend to do there?"

THERMO

"...Get some entertainment. It seems that the company has some strong willed demons I'm itching to challenge."

OLD ONE

"Um, then!! I-if… you don't mind, would you… w-would you consider… maybe… taking the tower down? If you do, we will forever be in your debt!! We will do all we can to aid you if you-"

THERMO

"Don't talk nonsense. I don't need weaklings that don't have any useful strength."

Thermo flies off towards the tower with Ayesy and gets greeted by a few large arcosians standing by at the door. They notice him with the unconscious Ayesy in his arm.

???

"Who's there? A newcomer."

?

"Hey. That's senior Ayesy, isn't it? What happened to him?"

THERMO

"... 'I' happened to him. And no. I'm not a newcomer. Just annoyed by weaklings like this fool. Either of you care to try and entertain me?"

The two guards panic for a moment. One of them rushes inside while the other readies himself for a fight, strengthening himself then gets ready to rush Thermo. THermo was suddenly in front of the guard and his fist was in his stomach before he could bother to throw his first punch. The guard was down with one hit. Thermo huffs out of boredom and enters the building casually, still carrying Ayesy. One by one Thermo concerns the tower of each floor looking for someone to challenge him until he finally makes it to the top where one mutated acrosian stood waiting for anything to happen. Three acrosians in their full forms are sent through the door of the office into the desk the mutated one stood at. He glares at Thermo who sets Ayesy on the sofa carefully as if treating him like a hurt pet.

MUTANT

"... who dares enter my establishment?"

THERMO

"Oh. this is your place. You must be one of those Mint brothers that own this tower then."

MUTANT

"And you would be?"

THERMO

"... Thermo. I was simply bored and came to take a look around when that one decided that I was below him. He's not a very smart person, despite saying he's part of some ranks."

MUTANT

"... Indeed."

Thermo and the mutant start clashing suddenly and the room begins to fall apart around them as they fight. Thermo is sent out of the tower window and a blast of energy is sent after him. He flies around it and the mutant immediately starts to chase him around the tower. Their battle lasts for all of ten minutes before the mutant decides to increase his level to his maximum height. Thermo felt the energy from this one this time and it got him excited as they clash again and again. Thermo was slowly losing but he was having fun nonetheless, until the mutant stops and speaks to him.

MUTANT

"... ingrate…"

THERMO

"Hm??"

MUTANT

"You ingrate!! Do you not know who I am??"

THERMO

"Should I? Do you own this part of the planet or something?"

MUTANT

"I own the whole planet!! This is my world, Damnit! How dare you come here and mock me!!"

THERMO

"... and as spoiled as ever I see. So, which are you? The youngest or the middle?"

MUTANT

"What?"

THERMO

"I'm the youngest of my brothers and I never get the attention I deserve, but that's the price for being born last."

MUTANT

"What does that have to do with anything??"

THERMO

"Quite a bit actually. Since all I've ever known was fighting that's all I was really known for so I never got anything done worth praising. This only gave me room to continue to build my strength until I was stronger than my second brother. So, which are you? The last born, or the middle? Only those two will ever have that inferior feeling that you have seeping through your energy."

MUTANT

"I am NOT INFERIOR!!!"

The mutant bulks up and expands his limits to their peak. Thermo is suddenly sent through the trees nearby and cracks the earth beneath him. The mutant doesn't give him a chance to recover as he bodies him again with a tackle and makes the crack into a crater. Thermo coughs up blood and clenches his fist together to slam his arms into the mutant's back, making the crater beneath them even bigger. Their fight continues with exchanging blows one after the other, some dodged, some connected. Some leave scratches and bruises until they are both out of breath from the rush.

MUTANT

"I am not inferior… especially not compared to the likes of a dwarf like you!!"

This statement hit Thermo in his core for some reason and it made him furious as he recalls his father speaking the same words about him. What a repulsive dwarf you turned out to be… Thermo suddenly increases his level and sends the mutant back into the building with a tailwhip and charges the mutant with a barrage of punches to his chest and face until the mutant was unrecognizable. Thermo finally stops and lets the mutant fall to the ground unconscious.

Two more acrosians fly over to them as Thermo lands next to the mutant now more annoyed as ever.

???

"Elder brother!!"

The two rush to the battered mutant crying and panicking over him, not knowing what to do.

???

"Hey! What did you do!? Big brother is so weak that a dwarf would be able to beat him! You used some kind of trick didn't you! You cheated! Oof!!"

THERMO

"Shut the hell up and get that asshole out of here before I wreck you both in front of him."

The two Acrosians are too scared to move. The mutant sits up and in a daze speaks again.

MUTANT

"The hell took you two so damn long?"

???

"Brother, what happened here?! You'd never let anyone beat you like this!"

MUTANT

"I didn't… that dwarf is just insanely strong. You must have gone through quite the ordeal to be this powerful… I am Mint. From now on, this tower and its factions are yours. Do what you want with it. I don't care."

THERMO

"... with pleasure. Though, you should take that one with you too. I don't want two faced bastards that like to talk shit and use their bosses name for the enjoyment he gets. The boot licking would get annoying faster than this fight ended."

One of the smaller arcosians goes inside and grabs Ayesy from the rubble. He was still unconscious. They all fly off from the building and leave all of the others that were beaten where they lie. Some of the Namekians from the village rush over and see the mess Thermo made of the place. They all seemed to be confused, wondering whether to be afraid or relieved.

THERMO

"Well… since you're all here. I guess I could put you all to use now. You can start by tying up the riff raff and throwing them somewhere they can't be an annoyance for now."

The Namekians don't argue and quickly do as he says, cuffing the defeated acrosians and dragging them away.

Back to the present…

Thermo hands the documents to the leader of the Namekians and flies to the top of the tower that was currently getting rebuilt. He enters the office and looks around to find some documents in the desk drawer. Most of the documents were records of crime cases from Plaska. Most of them being from the saiyans. The thought of them annoyed him more than when Plutos told him about them being involved.

PLUTOS

"Thermo?"

THERMO

"I'm still here. I found something to do with the primates. Seems they're in control of the underworld of this planet. And they're fairly recent too. Seems they've been here for a few years making things annoying before we even knew this place existed. My biggest question though, is how the other acrosians are related to them? And why are they working for them?"

PLUTOS

"They're what?!"

THERMO

"Don't get too excited. These acrosians aren't even from our universe, they're so weak that the idea actually makes sense, despite being absolutely disgusting to think about."

PLUTOS

"Ugh! I can't even… How many are there on this planet?"

THERMO

"A good lot of them actually. Most being the government, and even in the high ground. They are the rich ones here… they even make the tech?? No wonder it's so primitive here. The damn primates have been controlling the governing system ever since they landed. They were the cause of that outbreak you mentioned. I just can't…"

PLUTOS

"So what you're saying is that they're going to make this mission more difficult."

THERMO

"No more difficult than it first started. If we want to find out what that Kai wants us to actually do with this information."

PLUTOS

"*sigh* well. We better get to work on that report soon while you get that location set up."

THERMO

"... I'll send you my findings here when I'm done so you can do that."

PLUTOS

"Wait. I'm reporting?"

THERMO

"Well, I have to deal with some problems here, so you might as well since you have the free time. We'll talk later."

PLUTOS

"What?? Grrr… how dare he hang up on me. Fine I suppose I have to. I'll do it after it's all been put in motion. For now, let's check on the download progress."

Plutos was sitting in his lounge room with his monitor up watching the files flud in like water until he got two blue faces with black eyes on the screen, startling him.

PLUTOS

"Geh… Well, hello there, Men. Sun."

MEN/SUN

"Hello, Plutos."

MEN

"Supreme Kai wishes to speak to you today."

PLUTOS

"Oh good, his timing couldn't be more impeccable."

SK TALAFAN

"Oh, that's nice to hear..."

Supreme Kai Talafan pulls the two angels from the screen and steps forward, throwing them back into the background.

SK TALAFAN

"I was about to ask you about those files Thermo sent me."

PLUTOS

"Oh good. This makes things easier. So, as you've probably noticed, the saiyans have taken refuge here on this planet."

SK TALAFAN

"Get rid of them. They're going to ruin this planet if they stay here."

PLUTOS

"Well, that was abrupt."

SK TALAFAN

"After seeing this, I realized the darker side of this planet is more corrupt than I anticipated, despite it being so peaceful. It seems I've underestimated the level of dark energy here. Due to how low it felt on this planet, I disregarded it, but I don't think I have the luxury to let it be. Get rid of the saiyans and find a way to remove them for the planet."

PLUTOS

"... You might want to elaborate that."

SK TALAFAN

"Don't kill them off. I'd rather not have another race or species go extinct."

PLUTOS

"Understood. So aside from capture and banishment, does any method go?"

SK TALAFAN

"Absolutely not."

PLUTOS

"Tch. Fine. I'll see what we can make of this ridiculous situation. So much work… ugh."

SK TALAFAN

"Good to know you have some idea as to what you need to do."

PLUTOS

"I'll need my brothers to help me with the organizing."

SK TALAFAN

"Do it yourself. Hypo has more of a hassle to deal with than you do right now and Thermo seems to have taken up a lot more responsibility than I thought he would."

PLUTOS

"What??"

SK TALAFAN

"Don't worry. What he has to deal with does coincide with what you have in mind for your new play thing. Just be sure to stay modest with your actions."

PLUTOS

"... you're talking about the Namekians, aren't you?"

SK TALAFAN

"Of course there's them too, but I mean to say stay out of general trouble, like that tower incident."

PLUTOS

"That was NOT my fault! You know that! Also, I just resolved that issue and even offered to help with the damages! I'm lucky that the currency system here is the same throughout the galaxy! Else I'd still be flying around aimlessly."

SK TALAFAN

"Huh-huh! You're welcome. However, I don't think the saiyans are going to take just the change in your pocket. So be careful of your actions from now on."

PLUTOS

"No kidding…"

SK TALAFAN

"One last thing."

PLUTOS

"Hm?"

SK TALAFAN

"Take special care with your new toy. She is far more valuable than you've noted. Try to get in touch with her father. It may help you learn more about your new home and give you some ideas on how to move forward, but stay discreet about it."

PLUTOS

"Oh? Sounds like you have more interest in her than I do. What would make you say so?"

SK TALAFAN

"You understand soon. Keep up the good work, Plutos. You and your brothers are doing excellent work."

PLUTOS

"...*sigh* with pleasure."

The screen returns to the files he was downloading and shows the download was complete. All of the documents found in the police system were now in his possession. Including the hacking device Kobi used to gain access to Miu's information. The device was still active and seemed to be sharing information to another source. Plutos cracks his fingers and taps the little device on his table. A large display of screens and a virtual keyboard appears in front of him. Plutos instantly starts getting to work on the display.

The screens start moving around in all kinds of directions for a few minutes and a new screen shows up with a download icon at sixty percent. Plutos takes hold of it and scans it's tracings to a location near Miu's school. It was coming from one of the rooms in the west building. He remembers finding Kobi in that area when he first met him and his friends. Plutos takes action and stops the download and sends the location to Officer Kosuke's computer and then to Officer Flute. He then hacks into the device to find out that it was a computer. He links to the camera to get a picture displayed on his monitor to find it to be one of his more innocent looking friends with messy, spiky, black hair and bright blue eyes. He was very scrawny and seemed to be panicking about his download stopping. Plutos uploads a picture of the boy to Officers Kosuke and Flute and removes the download form his and the boys devices, making him panic more. Plutos decided to enjoy this a bit more and looked through the boy's personal files and histories. He had quite a bit of purchase history with computer pieces and dark web shops. The boy also had a good amount of currency in his account shared with another account. It seemed to be his parents and siblings. This was a golden opportunity he couldn't pass up.

PLUTOS

"*Thinking* Now, I know what Kai said about getting into trouble. But a little bit of fun wouldn't hurt as pay back for the mess this brat and his friends caused, right?"

Plutos types in a code and pushes it at the kids screen. He didn't seem to notice as it quickly loads up and completes its transfer. Plutos closes the interface and decides to wait for a call from one of the officers, who calls him just a minute later. Officer Flute had called him right on cue, just as he expected, though he didn't like it.

PLUTOS

"Hello, slug."

FLUTE

"... Reptile. I see you're being pretty uncharacteristically active."

PLUTOS

I saw my friend was still in a bit of trouble so I decided to give her a bit of help from my end. It's nothing too strange to help a friend in need, is it?"

FLUTE

"It is if it's your kind. Anyway I've Already sent A few units out to the location you sent me and Officer Kosuke. I'll brief you when the hearing is."

PLUTOS

"Good. I want to know every bit of the trouble these little shits are going to get into for this mess they made."

FLUTE

"I hate that I agree with you."

Flute hangs up and Plutos turns off his monitor, puts the display device in his pocket, and heads out to get some fresh air when the device suddenly starts beeping as soon as he steps out the door. He takes it out to answer it curiously.

OFFICER KOSUKE

"Is this the little shit that was colluding with my idiot son!? And he still has the audacity to keep this up!? Does he not realize this is a federal crime that could get his whole family in trouble!?"

PLUTOS

"Well. First of all, you're welcome. I didn't think it would hit you that badly. Is your job really that important?"

OFFICER KOSUKE

"Miu's livelihood is that important! I can't have shit like that slide on my first month as a deputy commander either, but she deserves better than that!"

PLUTOS

"My thoughts exactly, but let's not get too ahead of ourselves just yet. We still need to make sure the others are getting their just desserts, yes?"

OFFICER KOSUKE

" I already talk to their parents and the school. The other two are going to be on probation for a few months. Kobi is going to boot camp with this one in particular!"

PLUTOS

"Because he seems to be the brains of this operation? Or do you just not want your son to be by himself."

OFFICER KOSUKE

"... I'll be reasonable. Don't worry. Especially when it comes to my own son. My father would have done the same to him if he heard about this. Lord, I pray he doesn't find out about this later."

PLUTOS

"Sound like you have quite the worries to deal with. I'll leave you to that."

OFFICER KOSUKE

"Ah! W-wait wait wait!! I actually called you for something else! The boss had rejected your application, and I don't know why. It seems he doesn't understand how much you've actually contributed to this case and the last one. Well… despite the tower incident."

PLUTOS

"That was not my fault!! For the heavens above… I even gave you proof that it wasn't!"

OFFICER KOSUKE

"I get it. I know. But the boss seems to think the east islanders are trying to start a fight with Mozu after that and now we have to deal with him making a big deal out of this."

PLUTOS

"... let me meet this boss of yours."