"Congratulations, sweety!" a squeaky voice made Bulma's head dig deep into her body and tuck her neck in. Dr. Brief and Bikini came out from the campsite and a clump of overjoyed people to whom seeing a wedding may have been a single temporary respite in these turbulent times.

"Mom, dad!?" Bulma freaked out. "You guys were here the whole time?"

"They were ones of the first people we've pulled out," Chayote admitted with a shrug.

"Fine," Vegeta crossed his arms and turned away with a pout. "I'll play along with this charade for now, just so I can restore the Saiyan race to its former glory. After that, we'll take our leave and repopulate Planet Vegeta once more. Let it be known that king Vegeta the IVth will not be the last king of the Saiyan race nor will he be the king that sealed the end of his race."

"How very humble of you..." Bulma crossed her arms, realizing just how much work she still had ahead of her to make this a salvageable relationship. The events inside of the Big Gete Star clarified that deep down Vegeta cared for both her and Trunks. He just had massive problems showing it when someone else may have witnessed it. Vegeta turned away with a grumpy scowl.

The king's mood soon only got worse when a particular Ki signature came into range. Just a whiff of Son Goku's Ki made Vegeta's mood change from simmering wrath to something that blew the lid completely off as the king's elevated blood pressure became apparent through pumping blood vessels on his face and the Saiyan royalty began gnashing his teeth.

"Someone should warn them about Kami Upa's new mystical protection," Krillin pointed at the sky, even though nothing could have been seen yet.

"I'll do it..." future Trunks revealed himself from the crowd and strutted toward the edge of the God's Temple, walking straight past Vegeta who lost all traces of his venom meant for Son Goku and became aghast at the spitting, half-cybernetic version of his preschooler son strut by him. The Saiyan royalty turned to demand that future Trunks explained himself to him but the half-cyborg took a plunge off of the God's Temple and into the Sacred Land of Korin below where he had laid out the wreckage of Krillin and Yamcha's spaceship and remodeled it to serve as a makeshift mechanical home with functional com systems.

"Yo!" before long, Son Goku's cheerful voice filled the skies as the Saiyan rolled through the skyline with his wife in his hands. It was only when the twin living cannonball landed firmly on Goku's feet and gently placed Chi-Chi down as well that everyone realized something was wrong about the pair. There was a noticeable and rather large curve around Chi-Chi's belly.

An overwhelming wave of vocal, unintelligible exclamations of wonder littered through the air while Gohan's face became colored with a luminous beam as tiny crystal specks formed in the corners of his eyes. He was going to be someone's older brother soon enough. Goku seemed to be surprisingly aware of what was going on with his wife's body as he shyly rubbed under his nose with his index finger with a goofy chuckle.

Chi-Chi bowed, offering two Ultimate Dragon Balls to the astonished crowd. Once future Trunks returned to the God's Temple with a quick swoop upward, Vegeta was the only one interested in him and not engaged in the asphyxiating circle forming around Chi-Chi offering their congratulations to the soon to be increasing in size new family. Those who had enough wits to them found little offerings to tribute to the family as well.

"Sorry, everyone... I've trained hard to help you fight the Androids but... It seems I won't be able to..." Chi-Chi scratched her cheek with a wave of love-struck pink washing over her cheeks because of this predicament. Despite it holding her back from doing her part, she'd never for the life of her call this an "awful" development or use any synonym of that negative connotation. This was a blessing and wonder and no one except Vegeta thought anything other than that. Even Vegeta seemed to plainly not care and not loathe or envy the success of the Son family home.

"That's... Not entirely true..." Chayote sighed and looked away. The more keen-eyed observers may have noticed that the Saiyan's facial expression mirrored that of the soon-to-be mother. Even the iron-clad, cold and calculated, time-traveling assassin that was future Trunks pocketed his hands and avoided everyone's stares.

"My, my, Chi-Chi-san!" Bikini jumped in joy around the young mother, holding Chi-Chi's hand. "How wonderful! Another child!"

"So, are you going to use that Saiyan do-hickey or not?" Dr. Brief raised his index finger, switching his focus from Chayote to the surrounding crowd.

"Saiyan... Do-hickey?" Chi-Chi became confused.

"Thank you, Bulma-san's old man. I was just getting to that... At my own pace..." Chayote scratched the back of her head and wrestled against the inevitable tide of what she had to reveal. Eventually, the Saiyan just sighed and pocketed her hands inside of her blazer while gesturing for everyone to follow her and turned around. "It'll be easier if I show it..."

The rest of the civilians didn't follow the re-assembled Dragon Team party further. Kami Upa relieved the gathered warriors of their Ultimate Dragon Balls and brought them to be reassembled in their chest once more so that they did not destroy the Earth by the end of this year. The rest of the Dragon Team followed Chayote down the round staircase and into the depths of the God's Temple, which weren't often explored by anyone but Kami Upa and Mr. Popo. Chayote stopped before an old, wooden door encrusted with golden mosaics and altered with cybernetic security panels. She pressed her thumb to the security check and then leaned for the retinal scan, licked the open security panel.

"Conserve your wishes..." Chayote muttered with an off-handed wave of her hand. Still visibly flustered by what she was about to reveal. With a voice sample and the correct password being spoken, the security system opened up with pleasant, hydraulic expulsion of air and let Chayote lead the way in. The Saiyan woman stopped in front of a metallic egg with complex machinery and wires surrounding a baby who thrashed lightly with kicks as a reaction to the disturbance of people entering the incubation room.

A wave of unintelligible exclamations washed all over the room once again, this time prompting the baby to let out inaudible whines and begin wriggling around in the machinery feeding it necessary supplements and the thick, bubbly orange goop it floated submerged in. Once the initial spark of the shock died down, those present in the incubation chamber realized they were aggravating the fetus so they rushed out from the room. All except Vegeta, who approached the pod and examined it.

"Hmm... A Saiyan incubation pod. The alloys and machinery are all Earthling design, though it seems decent. Impressive," the king of Saiyans admitted. "Who made this? It couldn't have been a hysterical broad like you..."

"It was Dr. Brief, Bulma-san's father. I gave him the general blueprints for how it worked, and he picked up the pieces. Bulma-san and I used to do this sort of thing all the time," Chayote crossed her arms and exhaled all of her oxygen while slumping her head down.

"Making a profit from Saiyan technology? Tsk..." Vegeta grumbled for a second before shrugging and walking off. "Then again, I suppose Bulma has that right now..."

"Who's the father?" Bulma asked immediately after Chayote left the incubation room and closed the door to give her son some peace. The president of Capsule Corps must have known deep down, there weren't all that many people around on Earth that Chayote knew that well or had that sort of connection with.

Taps on the ancient steps made everyone look behind them. The blunt noise of boots tapping against ancient, magically enchanted quartz mixed in with a hydraulic noise of artificial joints. Future Trunks turned through the wall of the round staircase and revealed himself, having dragged his feet all the way down there. The human half of his face appeared flustered. He had made a real mess of the past timeline. That was clear now.

"Trunks!?" Bulma's eyes bulged out as her jaw lingered on being wide open long enough for a reasonable sense of dread of it disconnecting and dropping to the floor to come up.

"Trunks!?" Vegeta mirrored Bulma's shock. "You mean this... This freak is... Trunks? But... My son's name is Trunks, isn't it? It can't be just a common Earthling name."

"This man is me from the future," young Trunks pulled on the leg of his father's bodysuit and pointed at future Trunks, looking satisfied that he got to show himself off as smart and useful to his dad by explaining something so baffling to him.

"You became pregnant with the child of my son from the future!?" Bulma howled out, throwing her fists around as she began approaching Chayote, intending to pummel the Saiyan. Krillin and Yamcha restrained the thrashing woman, looking taken for a loop why holding a mere untrained Earth woman felt like such an arduous task to hardened martial arts veterans like them. A pair of them, no less.

"Hmph... You better not be taking aim at the Saiyan throne. I'm still undecided about Trunks' status as a Saiyan prince because of his hybrid bloodline. This abomination is a whole different class of wrong entirely. You're lucky I'll permit it to live. Only because we're short and only if it proves itself a powerful warrior," Vegeta gently pressed his hand against Bulma's shoulder and guided her behind him.

"You asshole! That's still my son you're talking about!" Chayote stepped out, cracking the enchanted quartz with her step. Her body pumped with vigor and bulked up in a single motion as her hair that normally rested in a slick ponytail slipped out from the rubber band and spike up in thick, black strands over her head as her eyes began switched to an amber shine.

"Come on, you guys..." Goku ran out in front of the pair with pacifying gestures with his palms. "Calm down. It's not like Chayote had a son with your actual son or anything. Future Trunks is his own man, I mean... Isn't he technically just as old as us?"

"Maybe..." Bulma settled down. This made it possible for Krillin and Yamcha to let go of the seething woman. "I'm just alarmed about how this didn't seem disturbing to either of you long enough to consider what you were doing. It's not like I'm worried about the health or morality of that child. I'm worried about that of you two."

"I'm wondering how Chayote and Trunks pulled it off..." Krillin turned to Yamcha. "Isn't future Trunks halfway converted?"

"Why are you lingering on that?" Bulma gave Krillin a scolding glare. "Do you have your eyes on one of the Artificial Humans or did the curiosity of a scientific mind just awaken in you?"

"I'm just saying, no need to shoot the messenger here..." Krillin shook his hands in excuse.

"Now that the... The novelty of this situation died down. As I wanted to point out, Chi-Chi doesn't have to miss out on our attack on the Artificial Humans. Dr. Brief has made many more incubator pods for the female staff of Chayote Security and we've got plenty of empty spares," Chayote explained while rubbing her elbow with embarrassment shrieking through her body language.

"I see... That is their primary use. To allow women warriors to join the battlefield as soon as possible. Kakarot's wife properly swollen up, so her pregnancy must be quite advanced. If the fetus is over three months in its development, you can leave the rest to the pod and join the battlefield in a couple of hours," Vegeta nodded, still looking sulky though it remained unclear if it was because he just found out that his son had a future time traveler version of him or that this version made a spawn of his own whose standing as of yet remained baffling to the king of Saiyans.

Chayote felt warm arms wrapping around her neck. It was Chi-Chi. The woman's arms slipped down, grabbing Chayote's hands and pulling them up as the two mothers joined in their mutual comfort.

"Congratulations, Chayote. It seemed like your son wasn't very far off from being fully developed. Have you chosen a name for him yet?" Chi-Chi wondered.

"Saiyans keep their babies inside incubators for a few months and sometimes even a few years after they would have been born naturally. Though this is more because their placement inside of an incubator is usually because their mothers have missions to take part in that often take a long time. That's why Saiyans rarely get named until after they'd have been born naturally or a few months after that even. And if their mothers never return from those missions, the children might only leave the incubating pod to be shot out into another planet. Those poor children never even set foot on Planet Vegeta's soil," Chayote explained. "I'm going to be a different kind of mother, I've decided. Just like how Earth has welcomed me and gave me a second chance to live my life differently, I'll do my best to give my son the same luxury. I think I'll call him Navy."

"Navy? Is that a Saiyan name?" Chi-Chi wondered.

"It is," Chayote nodded with a warm smile. Even though she couldn't see her son and didn't want to disturb his peace any more than they already have, she could feel him all the way through this secure door. "You know, just because you can trust your son to the incubation pod and join Kakarot in battle, doesn't mean you have to. I've come to learn that Earthling women take motherhood much more seriously and protect themselves and their unborn children. I think that's something us Saiyans can learn a lot from."

"Nonsense," Chi-Chi shook her head and felt her own child by touching her belly. "I'm sure that you feel the same way, which is why you had Dr. Brief build this machine in the first place. You want to rid this world of Artificial Humans and their cybernetic conversion. You want your son to grow up in a peaceful, loving, and humane world. Not Dr. Puri's simulated society of her drones."

"I guess you're right. Those few months having to stay behind and wait for Navy to grow strong enough to pass him on to the pod, leaving Trunks to leave on rescue missions and worrying about him all the time... I can't understand how Earthling women do it for nine whole months. Unable to pitch in and pummel whoever's threatening the fathers of their children..." Chayote clenched her fist tightly and returned to a time she felt truly weak and helpless. A time where she felt worried to even switch sleeping positions, wondering if she wasn't doing something wrong to the bundle of joy slumbering and growing inside of her.

"Plus, I never really liked that Puri lady and the weird looks she's been giving Goku-sa!" Chi-Chi beamed a malicious grin while positioning her hands in a polished position for an upcoming beat down.

"Wow, I think I might have missed a few things..." Chi-Chi gasped after entering the chamber of the God's Temple with her son having been passed on to the Saiyan incubation pod. Her body felt tremendously light and weakened at first, but the same machinery connected to the pod that scooped her child out safely connected to Chi-Chi's bodily systems and replenished her health in just a few hours of time while taking care of her son for her.

The martial artist reacted with this much surprise to an open map of the world beaming out from a gadget with Chayote Security insignia on its side. The alloy that the gadget was made from seemed to mirror the integrity and texture of Kami Upa's magical quartz and felt pleasant to touch, but was just as indestructible. Lines of men and women in suits, holstering assault rifles of white magical quartz and padded with armored vests of the same magically enchanted material underneath, stood around the Dragon Team as future Trunks explained the situation to them.

"Ma'am, I don't think you should be here..." Mark Satan tilted his shades and approached Chi-Chi, gently taking her up by her elbow and trying to guide her out but the martial artist slipped out from his grip just as silky-smooth with a dazzling technical precision that left the veteran martial artist ajar. "What the..." he mumbled while staring at his shaking hands. He was sure that he had the gentle guiding hold applied and yet it was as if Chi-Chi was out without wasting a breath for it.

"Here's a quick rundown of the situation again, since Chi-Chi just joined us now," future Trunks greeted the new arrival with a nod. "Android 21's forces have a foothold all around the world. While Chayote and I worked on rescuing settlements and evacuating people, they've established headquarters and stretched us out too thin by applying pressure to civilians all over the world. By creating multiple battlefields in different world capitals and regions, they've distracted us from setting up camps. Now, most of the cities have major artificial human production factories but we have successfully evacuated most of their surviving civilians."

"Hmph..." Vegeta sneered in disgust. He didn't even elaborate on what he found disgusting in this debriefing though it wasn't hard to deduce from the sum of it that the king of Saiyan would have rather had his son prioritize the obliteration of his enemy over the rescue of civilians and playing to the toot of Android 21's horn.

"Thanks to Chayote Security agents, we've gathered intel on most of Dr. Puri's One Models. They are an elite unit of Artificial Humans modeled after the generals of the Rainbow Brigade and high-ranking officers of the Red Ribbon Army," Chayote dragged her finger and revealed a handful of points of interest across the world map. "Dr. Puri must be a stickler for nostalgia, since the One Models have modeled their bases after the Muscle Tower of old, with a few tinkers here and there. Each one of them fulfills an important function of Dr. Puri's mechanical stranglehold over the world. Mr. Satan, could you please run down the facilities you and your agents learned about?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Mark Satan bowed and ran up to the round circle of martial artists, trying to budge in between Vegeta and Bulma but, seeing how Vegeta just gave the Earthling a death-inducing stare of bemusement and didn't move, the afro-donning head of security ran up to Gohan and Dende and squeezed in between them to approach the map.

"This here's one of the Muscle Towers in Ginger Town. It's run by a blond fellow named Android One-Eight, modeled after some creepy guy that took over the airwaves once upon a time – General Blue. It's unclear what the exact function of this facility is, but it's got an opening on the roof and its roof seems to be modeled after a stadium of some sort. It also emits some kind of powerful electromagnetic waves, also a frequency that our radars can't even pick up that fries electronics, kind of like the thingamajig of the tower's chief." Mark Satan explained before dragging the tower down and turning farther to the north over Mt. Paozu and East City.

"There is a moderate chance of Mecha Frieza's remains being within this facility, so be on the lookout for them specifically. They are the key to beating Android 21 and saving my future," future Trunks advised the martial artist that would take up tackling this tower.

"This here's another Muscle Tower. It produces a bunch of heavy machinery and is a decently sized mecha-army production facility in itself. This scrapyard's run by a nasty guy called Android One-Six." Mark Satan pointed out. "He's a large guy that puts the "muscle" in Muscle Tower!"

"I've met him before. I'd like to settle matters with him, if possible," Tenshinhan interjected. "I'll take care of his production facility at the same time."

"Deep at the bottom of the Red Sea, there's another Muscle Tower. Our naval officers reported heavy underwater activity all over the southern archipelago region and the mechanical invaders have even postponed the 24th World Martial Arts Tournament in the rebuilt Papaya Island. We're unable to send any naval agents anymore because of the heavy cybernetic activity all in the world's oceans nor can anyone fly over them since the mechanical leviathans also serve as portable missile bases." Mark Satan explained before blinking out the Red Sea Muscle Tower. "This one's also responsible for the extraction of underwater mineral veins and natural gases, supplying Android 21's factories with materials needed for the production of her empire."

"I am particularly interested in this facility..." future Trunks hovered his hand over the west-central region not too far from the Sacred Land of Korin. "It appears that this facility is researching duplication technology to duplicate any produced Artificial Humans and cybernetic soldiers instead of the complex process of rebuilding them. I believe Dr. Puri might wish to duplicate Mecha Frieza's remains and create an army of Mecha Friezas under her command to deal with more capable opposition."

"I guess Cooler was right, Frieza really is way behind him..." Vegeta closed his eyes with a cocky smirk.

"A problem spot on the map is this facility right here..." Mark Satan reached out and pointed at the facility over on the mountain ridges separating the irradiated wasteland where once stood the Red Ribbon base and the Sacred Land of Korin. "It serves as a problematic signal and radar jammer. It's because of that facility that we're operating under old information that gets men and women killed out there. It's also run by a guy called One-Five. I've got a bit of a beef with him, so if you'd let me..."

"Mr. Satan..." future Trunks rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry, it's just that... They modeled this guy after the guy that killed my master and it's just... I got pummeled halfway to death too and I just want to set things right now!" Mark Satan insisted, pressing his assault rifle closer to his chest.

"This enchanted technology you're using ensures the highest possible odds of survival. Under no circumstances will they put you on even grounds with One-Five," future Trunks shook his head, expanding the profile information that the Chayote Security had on One-Five.

"Huh? This guy? I've taken on this guy before. He's a complete chump. How the hell did they salvage enough of him to build a cyborg out of?" Chayote gasped, identifying Earth's deadliest assassin, Tao Pai Pai himself, underneath the cybernetic shell.

"Don't underestimate the One-Units," Piccolo advised. "It took Bardock's Super Saiyan strength alongside that of my own to beat one and based on what Trunks told me, it didn't seem to finish the job back then either."

"That's right, Chayote, you underestimating the Artificial Humans because of their untraceable Ki is how you lost to Android 18 in the future," future Trunks nodded.

"This... This is the hive. I struggled to believe that the president of Capsule Corps flew in here with some supermassive death star thing at first. Now I've had my coffee and I think that's not just an optical illusion floating in space over our heads. I advise you use some super-death-laser thing and blast this hive out from orbit instead of kicking it and making the hornets mad," Mark Satan pointed at the center of West City, on the ruins of the Capsule Corps building where stood a massive skyscraper produced with inhuman efficiency and speed only available to cold, metallic work automatons.

"That's Puri & Co, huh?" Bulma crossed her arms.

"Multiple dangerous individuals are working from there, including Artificial Humans 17 and 18, Bardock and Dr. Puri herself," future Trunks leaned over the map with a sigh. "This is where Dr. Puri's main labs are. This is the head of the snake we need to cut."

"Excellent, so let's just have Bulma blast it out from orbit with the Big Gete Star and call it the end of this question. I've got a people to settle on this ruined rock!" Vegeta seethed.

"I can't. I don't have full control over all the Capsule Corps Star's systems yet. Plus, even if I had the access to its offensive capabilities, it's built to devastate entire planets and we very much intend on living here afterward. We need to do it the old-fashioned way and by the book," Bulma objected to her husband's proposition.

"If you wish to fight, Vegeta, you can send your Saiyans to hold back the cybernetic soldiers and machines of war they've built from interfering with our efforts of disabling their operation. Because our enemy is cybernetic and often relies on artificial intelligence, we cannot just destroy Android 21's base–we need to dismantle the whole thing, destroy every facility and avoid leaving a single supercomputer that could rebuild the whole thing from scratch functional. Everything needs to go," future Trunks pointed out, giving the past version of his father an icy stare and refusing to refer to him as his father. From the looks of it, that seemed just fine for Vegeta as well, who didn't consider this half-converted Saiyan runt a kid of his own either.

"We need to unload the passengers quick. In its current size, the Capsule Corps Star is consuming an entire load of energy, so I need to reduce it to something about moon-sized. Plus, the longer it stays in orbit, the greater the chances Puri will muck it up for us somehow. It is just an artificial cybernetic biome, and I broke into it by using Puri's handiwork, after all, meaning nothing prevents Puri from breaking into it either," Bulma pointed out. "It would best serve my skills tending to the Star so that it doesn't go haywire and get hacked."

"I'll protect you, mom!" little Trunks clenched his fists by his sides and turned to Bulma.

"Fine then," Vegeta sighed. "I'll have my Saiyan survivors clean house for you Earthlings since you've proven yourself incapable of protecting your planet by yourselves and have let this scrapyard infestation play you for fools this far. You can watch a superior race of elite warriors at work. There's much you lot can learn from us."

"Remind me which one's asking which one's help to settle again?" Krillin joked, leaning to Yamcha's side.

The ultimate battle of humanity against the forces of the machines was about to begin. Already, too much time has been wasted. With the cosmic distraction now being behind, it was time to push the Artificial Humans out from Earth and put an end to the cybernetic revolution they were about to bring on the world that doomed Earth's future.