Super Dragon Ball: Paradise Hysteria

Brain Death Experience

"What exactly are we looking for?" Lazuli wondered on the com speakers while she and Bulma floated in the widespread scrapyard leftover after the devastated M-2 just took off wherever it was headed. It was tough enough navigating the field, given that it spanned an entire planet's worth in radius and spanned several times as much in M-2's trail. Lazuli wasn't as bright as Bulma, but she felt sure that looking for something in such a wide junkyard would've required more precise scanning technology and a pod to move around in, rather than floating around in spacesuits with jetpacks.

"We'll know when we find it," Bulma didn't ease Lazuli's frustrations one bit. "For now, let's just find one demolished Machine Mutant, one looking as healthy as possible, and one in between. I've got some data on Machine Mutant anatomy from Giru."

"Alright, you're the one with the fat wallet..." Lazuli groaned and tapped the side of her headgear, activating a scouter displayed over the front visor. She looked around while Capsule Corps archives identified the discarded junk floating as wide apart as different cities. Here and there floated static Machine Mutants and upon fixing her scouter on the allegedly deceased artificial beings, it displayed more information about it, such as the extent of damage and its functionality. "At least we're not winging it," Lazuli sighed with moderate relief at the fact that Bulma cooked up this extraordinary radar for this occasion.

"Hmm... Yep, this one looks properly obliterated," Bulma dashed up to a miserable pair of legs attached to a torso that's been blown off halfway with wires and done away parts still party sticking out. "This one will do," she mumbled to herself, with the coms still active while placing the wrecked Machine Mutant inside of a capsule to be brought back to the ship for some examination later.

A few moments later, Lazuli got her eyes on a relatively unscathed sample as a mere dot in the view of the system's star muzzled by the tinted visor. Lazuli pressed her feet to one another and blasted off, riding her jetpack further and further toward the promising signal. It didn't seem like she'd ever get used to space. Everything felt like it was taking forever. Even flying to that miserable deceased Machine Mutant took almost twenty minutes. Having closed the gap, Lazuli jerked the corpse around and examined its state.

"This is strange. This one's only got light scrapes. The shell's scratched, but I can't see any internal damage," Lazuli reported.

"Nice find, let's see what that one died from in the lab. I think I found our ace sample too–really banged up, but I don't think it should've died of it. Alright, we've got oxygen for forty-five more minutes, let's get back to the ship and check those samples out," Bulma replied.

"You mean you're going to dissect them, right?" Lazuli asked with a hopeful glint in her tone.

"What's the matter, never took you for the squeamish type," Bulma teased her overpaid hired hand.

"It's not that. That old hag Puri had me and Lapis learn all that stuff about biology and chemistry and cybernetics, I think she wanted us to pass as her partners and department heads. That stuff always bored both of us out of our minds," Lazuli groaned.

"Don't worry, as curious I am to see how good of a researcher you'd make, I'll do the work. Nothing personal, it's just that what's happened to Vegeta is killing me inside and I want to have the full picture in my mind myself. Besides, I might be rich, but my personal funds aren't bottomless. I dread imagining what you'd ask me for this much overtime, as you put it," Bulma replied as the two followed their directions back to the ship.

******

Super No. 16 and Super One-Nine entered Dr. Puri's control chamber, walked up behind their family matriarch, and stopped. Super No. 21 was watching the readings from outside the Luud Star and observing the situation developing with her out of the loop. A hint of slight frustration hung over Super No. 21's face, whereas her children appeared emotionless.