Murderers Who Leave No Trace · Which Ones Are the Artificial Humans?

Son Goku, Son Gohan, and Piccolo all fly to the island where Trunks has said the Artificial Humans will appear. Goku, "Hey, Gohan! You don't have to fly that fast, we'll get there in time. And you'll wear yourself out before the fight even begins." Gohan says okay and begins to slow a bit.

"Son Goku, what do you think? Do you think we'll be able to beat this enemy?" Goku, "I haven't even seen them. How am I supposed to know? I'll answer you after I fight them." Piccolo, "I envy how easy you're taking this. I believe that we can beat the Artificial Humans. However, I can't get this bad feeling out of my head." Goku, "A bad feeling?" Piccolo doesn't say anything. "Piccolo, if it gets dangerous, please don't do anything foolish. If you die, we'll lose the Dragon Balls."

Gohan breaks in on the conversation. "Father, look! It's Kuririn!" Kuririn's flying a few yards ahead of Goku, Gohan, and Piccolo, and apparently hadn't noticed them. Gohan yells to him. "Kuririn-san!" Gohan speeds up and flies with him. "You've gotten big, Gohan." Goku jumps up to them, too. "What's wrong, Kuririn? You don't look very happy." Kuririn, "I'm just worried about fighting those monsters. After all, I'm not a Super Saiya-jin." Gohan, "...about nine kilometers south of the Southern capitol... That's it! That's the island!"

The four of them land on a mountain overlooking a large city. Goku, "It's a pretty big island. This is bad. There's a rather large city on that island, too." Gohan, "If we can't get them to fight somewhere else, the people on the island might become victims of the fight..." Goku, "Yeah, probably." Kuririn, "I feel two large ki's on that mountain. It's probably Yamucha and Tenshinhan."

They fly over to the other mountain, and indeed, it was Yamucha and Tenshinhan. Yamucha, "I thought that was Goku and the gang!" He waves to them. "Hey!" Bulma's on the mountain, too, and she's holding a small baby. Gohan and Kuririn land first. Yamucha, "What took you guys so long? You were almost late." Bulma steps forward. Goku, "Bulma!" Gohan, "It's Bulma-san!" Bulma, "You've gotten a lot bigger, Gohan." Gohan and Kuririn are still surprised by the fact that Bulma's holding a baby, but of course, Piccolo and Goku have known about that for three years. Goku walks up to her. "Stupid! Why did you come here?" Bulma, "I came to watch. But don't worry, as soon as I get one look at the Artificial Humans, I'll go back home."

Kuririn, "What freaked me out is that thing you're carrying..." Gohan, "Did you get married to Yamucha?" Yamucha crosses his arms. "It's not my child." Gohan and Kuririn look over to him. "We've already broken up. You'll be really surprised when you find out whose kid that is." Yamucha turns and walks away. Goku walks up to Bulma and starts talking to the baby. "I bet your father is Vegeta, isn't it, Trunks?" Gohan and Kuririn... surprised yet again...and Bulma joined in the fun this time, too. "How did you know that?! I wanted to surprise you all, so I haven't told anyone." Goku remembers that he's not supposed to know this yet and struggles for a quick explanation. "Uh... it just felt right! He does look just like Vegeta! Look at his face!" Goku laughs. "You got his name right, too." Goku, "Really?! Maybe I have ESP." Kuririn, "...is that really Vegeta's child?!"

Piccolo walks up to them. "What happened to Vegeta? I don't see him anywhere." Bulma, "I have no idea! It's not like we're living together. But I'm sure he'll be here. He was really looking forward to this day and trained hard for it." Goku, "He'll come. He'll certainly come." Tenshinhan finally joins the conversation. "I left Chaouzu behind. To tell you the truth, I don't think he stands a chance in this fight." Goku nods his agreement.

Gohan walks up to Bulma. "What time is it now?" Bulma, "It's 9:30. They should show up in a half hour." Goku, "You should leave now. Especially since you have that baby to care for." Bulma, "I'll leave after I get a look at the Artificial Humans." Piccolo and Tenshinhan stand together on a cliff, looking down on the city. The city seems peaceful and calm, like on any normal day. Ten, "Thirty more minutes."

Dr. Briefs, "Hey, Trunks! Trunks! I made you another toy!" He walks out, only to find that Trunks and Bulma are gone. "She must have taken him to show off again. Oh well." He sits down on the floor. "He is a cute grandson, after all. There's no helping it. He'll be really surprised when he sees this!" Dr. Briefs hits a button and a huge bird-animal-looking shape thing... whatever... pops out. Dr. Briefs starts laughing. In the background, a clock reads 10:14.

Gohan plays with Trunks, Piccolo and Ten still stand over by the edge, and everyone else is huddled around Trunks with Gohan. Trunks laughs. Gohan asks Kuririn to try. Kuririn steps up toward Trunks when Gohan backs off. "What? Me? Okay, but what kind of face should I make?" Kuririn starts thinking and Trunks laughs at him. "I haven't done anything yet!" Everyone starts laughing (except Piccolo and Ten, of course). "Something is coming this way." Everyone stops and looks over to Piccolo and Tenshinhan. Piccolo, "But it's not evil." Gohan, "Is it Vegeta?" Kuririn, "But he's evil."

A capsule aircar speeds toward the mountain, Yajirobe hanging out the side. "They're over there!" The aircar lands on the mountain. Goku, "It's Yajirobe!" Yajirobe jumps out. "You came to fight with us?" Yajirobe hands him a familiar brown bag. "These senzu are from Korin-sama." Goku takes the bag. "Wow, thanks! Korin-sama thinks of everything!" Yajirobe gets back in his car. "Do your best!" Goku, "Huh? Aren't you going to fight, Yajirobe?" Yajirobe looks back at him. "I'm not like you idiots. I don't want to die. So why would I hang around with you?" He flies away.

Tenshinhan, "Don't you think this is odd?" Everyone else turns to him. "It's already past 10:00, but I don't sense any sign of the enemy." Gohan looks down at the city. "Now that you mention it..." Yamucha walks up to the ledge with everyone else. "Maybe he was lying to us about the Artificial Humans..." Bulma runs up to Yamucha. "He said 'around 10:00.' It's only 10:17 now. Let's wait a little longer." Yamucha, "But I don't feel any strong ki anywhere. If they were that strong, we could feel their ki's no matter where they were on the Earth."

Yajirobe's aircar suddenly explodes and everyone looks up at it, shocked. "Yajirobe!" The smoking remains of the car plummet. Piccolo, "Look! Something's there! That's what attacked!" Two small forms float in the middle of the wreckage, then drop down into the city. Ever observant Tenshinhan points this fact out. "They're landing in the city!" Yamucha runs up. "Where'd they go?!" Goku, "I didn't get a good look at them. What's this mean? I couldn't feel their ki at all!" Gohan, "They're Artificial Humans, so they don't have any ki..." Yamucha gasps. "What?!"

Yamucha, "Where are they?!" Kuririn, "Damn..." Tenshinhan, "Since we can't feel their ki, we'll have to search for them with our eyes." Goku, "Okay, let's go down there and find them. Bulma! Take care of these!" He throws her the back of senzu. "Don't do anything foolish! As soon as you find them, let the rest of us know! Gohan, take care of Yajirobe. He should be alive." Piccolo, "Let's go!"

Each of the Z Senshi land in a different area of the city. Goku lands on top of a building and starts looking. "Who are they? Where are they?!" He looks around. "I should have had Trunks show me their pictures or something."

Two unfamiliar sets of legs (we only see up to about their knees) land in the city - presumably, the Artificial Humans - and start walking. A man rides through the city on what looks to be somewhat of an airborne skateboard. Kuririn lands in front of him and he falls off. Kuririn, "Damn! Where are they?" The man looks at Kuririn, frightened, probably due to the fact that Kuririn is a small man who just fell out of the sky. "He flew!" Kuririn ignores him and starts checking out individual people. "It's not him... or him..." He finally turns around and talks to the man on the ground. "Hey, have you seen anything unusual?" The man, "Ye... yes..." Kuririn, "What?!" The man points at Kuririn. "You..." Kuririn...obviously didn't get the answer he was hoping for.

The Artificial Humans keep walking...

Piccolo stands in the middle of the city, looking around. A few people stare at him, but nothing more. Tenshinhan stands atop a building, looking around for possible Artificial Humans. Gohan holds Yajirobe by the arm as he pulls him out of the water. "Are you okay?" Yajirobe, "What was that?!" Yamucha runs through the city, anxiously searching for them. "So they really do exist..." And the Artificial Humans keep walking... Two random passerby (or passerbies? I don't really know what the plural for that word is...) are still watching Yajirobe's crash. "It fell into the ocean..." The Artificial Humans walk past them. "Hey, did you see it, too?" They stop while the humans talk. "A skycar just blew up..."

The "camera" moves up from the Artificial Humans' feet, and we finally get to see their faces. The shorter one is a fat clown-looking man, a white face (like the real color, not the skin color), and long, thin eyes. The taller one looks like an old man with long hair. They both wear some rather odd clothes, and hats with the Red Ribbon Army logo stamped on them.

The taller one turns toward the man. He repeats his question. "Did you see it?" The fat one turns to the man, too. He walks up to the man. "Wha...?" The Artificial Human headbutts the man who was talking, then punches his friend into a building, presumably killing both of them. A car stops in front of the taller one. "Hey! Get out of the way!" The taller one turns and walks toward the car. "You're in the middle of the road!" He puts his arm up into the air for a second, then jams it into the hood of the car. The man tries to go, but can't. He looks up, just to find that the Artificial Human is holding his engine. The Artificial Human walks over to the car door, holds the man by the neck, picks him up, driving him through the roof of the car, and holds him. The man gasps for air, and another person passing by drops her bags and screams.

Yamucha suddenly hears a scream and stops. "A scream!" He turns and runs toward the source. The Artificial Human drops the driver and turns toward the screamer. "A human with an unusually high energy level is coming this way. Has my search system failed?" The fat one replies, "It is no failure. My search system has detected the same energy." The taller one, "It is far stronger than my data on humans allows for." The fat one, "We've already found him... Son Goku..."

Yamucha reaches a corner and stops, peering around the side of a building. "It was around here." He looks down and sees one of the dead men lying on the ground against the building. Out in the street are two more, and a wrecked car. Yamucha runs out into the street. "Where'd they go?! Where'd they get to?!" Down the street, a gas station attendant looks out from behind a pump. Yamucha, "Hey, you!" The man screams and runs off. He yells to two people looking through a window in one of the buildings. "Who killed these people? Did you see anything?" One of them, "Yeah, it was a weird couple." The other, "They were just there, but they disappeared." Yamucha, "They disappeared? Damn... Anyway, I'd better call the rest." The two Artificial Humans watch Yamucha from the sky, hovering high above the ground. The fat one, "Incorrect. That is not Son Goku. It is not in complete agreement with my data banks." He scans Yamucha. "But there is a 95% chance that this is a human called Yamucha..." The older one, "No matter. We can get a lot of energy from him."

Yamucha looks around. "But the people we're looking for aren't here... It would be meaningless to call everyone." The Artificial Humans drop down behind him. Yamucha turns to them. "Did you see anything? Where did the two killers get to?" Yamucha suddenly notices the Red Ribbon Army emblem on their clothes. "No way..." The taller one, "We killed them." Yamucha jumps back. "Everyone!" The tall one walks to Yamucha, arm outstretched. A small red ball is in the palm of his hand. He puts it around Yamucha's mouth, and Yamucha struggles to free himself, but can't. The Artificial Human lifts him off the ground, and the small, fat one walks out into the street to join them. An eighteen-wheeler suddenly comes up the street and veers out of the way to avoid hitting the Artificial Humans and Yamucha, and instead crashes into the gas station, setting off a huge explosion. Goku, Tenshinhan, Piccolo, Kuririn all see it. "What's that?!"

Yamucha, helpless against the strength of the Artificial Human, realizes what's going on. "My... strength..." The Artificial Human puts his other hand straight through Yamucha's chest. Bulma sees the explosion from the cliff and runs up to the edge to look. Gohan flies toward the mountain with Yajirobe. In the city, people flee from the large explosion.