Appearing unsurprised by the appearance of the man, the orange haired invader smiled, "It certainly has been, Prince Vegeta."
Gohan glanced across at his dad's rival curiously, "You know her?"
"Yes. We met over twenty years ago, back when my people were still pushing papers for that chrome dome of a former boss of mine," the Saiyan royal responded, narrowing his eyes. "I was a kid back then, but I remember seeing her when she was visiting my father's palace to discuss business regarding our planet and its inhabitants. She was a bit of an airhead then and she still looks like an airhead now." His remark earned a playful grin from the glowing girl, which had all the Z-fighters present sweat drop, including Eighteen. "But don't be fooled by her appearance. She is incredibly strong, somebody who Frieza detested but wouldn't dare to cross. Even after all this time, she looks like she hasn't aged a day."
"Seriously?" Krillin looked a little gob smacked at that, turning to stare at the radiant being in the sophisticated plug suit. "Twenty years ago, right? She still looks like she's sixteen!"
"She ages gracefully, that's for sure," Trunks voiced in, narrowing his gaze on the long haired alien, "But that doesn't explain the reason for her being here and why she's not on her home planet."
This was yet another question that was easy to answer. "It's because she's a wanderer," Vegeta went on, stopping any and all other remarks in their tracks, "Rogue, drifter, whatever you want to call her. She's a freelancer-slash-explorer who traipses about the universe visiting other worlds and studying their cultures. She also moonlights as a member of the Planet Trade Organization, the one that Frieza and his family was formerly a part of. If I remember correctly, this girl was charged with the inquisition and acquisition of rare and valuable planets. Her main job for the group was to determine whether or not the security of a planet and its inhabitants were in good hands, and whether the guardian of the world, otherwise known as the strongest warrior on the planet, was able to meet the organization's standards for chief overseer of that region."
"Huh. Sounds like a big job," Gohan commented.
"If you like to call it that. Frankly, I like to think of it as a fun weekend; hopping from planet to planet and beating the stuffing out of the strongest people on them," Vegeta said, at the same time narrowing his eyes. "Basically, if the guardian of the planet fails to meet the inquirer's standards, then she takes the planet for herself, transports it, and sells it to another galaxy to be safe guarded, until the role of protector can be passed on to somebody who is deemed worthy."
This quickly had Krillin's attention. "Sh-She takes planets and sells them? How?" Even Eighteen appeared a little bit surprised.
"Using her home world's technology, she's able to compress entire worlds into code and transport them via ship, which is floating above our heads as we speak," Vegeta informed, prompting a couple members of the group to turn their gazes skywards before focusing back on the person in front of them. The sight of her standing there with her glowing orange head brought a spit from the flame-haired man. "In my opinion I think that's a very stupid practice. It's basically the organization's way of playing God with every single person in the universe."
"I think so too," Kana spoke up, alerting the group to her presence once more while she stood there, perfectly still, with a curious smile on her face. "But I'm not interested in what the organization does, which is why I only work for them part time. I'm just in it for the money." She said this while tilting her head and giving the group a very cute look. "I left my home planet a long time ago to explore the universe and to take in everything there was to see… not to mention have as much fun along the way as possible. Since I'm a security investigator, the last thing I want to do is wreck a perfectly good planet such as this one. That's the demolition department's job… which of course happens to be the same section that your group terminated when you killed Frieza and his family. So you don't have to worry about the earth being destroyed by me. Something like that will just depreciate its value."
Okay, so while this girl loved planets and wanted to avoid destroying them, she also worked for cold hard cash as a mercenary. On one hand she was cheerful and polite, but on the other hand was a calculative gun-for-hire.
To the Z-fighters, this girl had a very odd moral compass guiding her.
So much for black and white. This one was living entirely within the grey area, despite being all bright and cheerful.
"Yet you are willing to abduct planets and put them into zoos for auction?" Trunks replied, gritting his teeth while balling his fists. "You can't decide whether or not a planet has to be protected. That kind of decision and control shouldn't be given to one person. That's for the people living on the world to decide."
"I agree," Gohan replied, also narrowing his eyes.
"Hey, don't take this the wrong way," Kana exclaimed, raising her hands defensively and giving them all a nervous look at their growing hostility towards her. "I'm a very fair person and I don't usually move planets that often. It all depends on their rarity that the organization requires a person be sent to investigate, which is only ever done once every couple hundred thousand years. That's why they hire me, since I have all the right tools and strengths to determine whether or not a planet is safe." She then looked back at them when she saw them settle a bit. "That's the way things work. I get paid either way, so there's always a bonus involved; one service charge and one delivery fee."
Piccolo gave her a deadpanned expression, "How very equitable of you."
"I only use the right amount of strength to determine whether or not a planet is in good hands. I very rarely have to exceed my limits," Kana continued, beaming back at the Z-warriors before a more mischievous smile crossed her lips. "Of course, for this case… I may have to make a special exception." When she saw the group respond nervously and seriously to her remark, the girl once again produced her scouter and began making passes on her opponents. She glanced across at Krillin, "You have a power reading of 8,000,000 riki; an amazing level for a human." Her eyes then fell upon Eighteen, whom she scrutinized carefully. "No life force. I assume you have an artificial framework, but your body appears mostly human. You even have internal organs."
The group looked surprised, with Gohan glancing across at the blonde haired woman. "She can read power levels that well?"
"So it appears," Eighteen replied sternly.
"I'm guessing it has something to do with her tech," Piccolo voiced in, a bead of sweat running down the side of his face.
Kana then turned on him, which brought a surprised look to her face when she analyzed him more closely, "A Namekian. There's one living all the way out here?"
The green-skinned warrior glared back at her, "Technically I was born on this planet. This is my home just as much as it is everyone else's."
"Fair enough," Kana replied, her scouter beeping and drawing a whistle from her lips. "You're not afraid of hiding, aren't you? 60,000,000 riki. That's astonishingly high for a member of your race. Most impressive." She then looked over at the remaining three and beamed when she analyzed each of them through her visor. "All three of you have Saiyan traits, especially Vegeta. I'm guessing he's the only full-blooded Saiyan on this planet." Her attention then fell upon Trunks, "And judging from your facial contours and build, you must be Prince Vegeta's son."
The time traveler had the common sense to appear surprised, "You could get all that from just one look?"
"It's one of my skills," Kana then tilted her head, gauging all of their power levels and eventually stopping. "The two of you are registering around 10,000,000 riki respectively… while your friend…" She then looked at Gohan, who was still glaring seriously at her. "Your power level is hovering at around 15,000,000 riki." She looked around at all of them, taking in each of their forms. "So many rare races living harmoniously on one planet…"
Piccolo frowned back at her, "Well… what can we say? We've all learned to live with each other." Still though, there was such an odd variation in the numbers she was giving them. She was obviously using a low reading setting for higher tone figures so that she didn't overload her system. Her results also coincided with this new riki value she was using.
Shrugging, the fire haired girl continued, "All of you have power levels that could definitely have given Frieza and his family a lot of trouble. While that's certainly extraordinary, considering his level is around the 12,000,000 mark, I'm going to venture a guess that it was the Namekian who destroyed him, since he's the strongest one here." A laugh then pulled her gaze over to Vegeta.
The Saiyan Prince smirked back at her arrogantly, "Guess again, Kana, but the Namekian's power level didn't reach that level until only recently."
"Oh?"
"Let's just say his strength is a little bit slow on the uptake. And it wasn't the Namek that killed Frieza either…" He then glanced across at Trunks, whose glare remained unchanged even when the girl's gaze fell upon him, "It was this one."
This statement drew a blink from the girl, "So… it was a Saiyan after all." She then deactivated her scouter and frowned suspiciously. "But that doesn't make much sense. Your power levels must have grown substantially since the time you fought that lizard all those years ago, which means you must have been a lot weaker when your group first faced Frieza." Kana then frowned, "Unless… there's something about you lot that I just can't see…"
Gohan, guessing what her problem must be, smiled in the confused alien's direction. "You know, you really shouldn't rely on your technology to read a person's power level. It's not only incredibly inaccurate; it also has a ton of flaws and doesn't give you the full scope of the person's abilities." When he saw Kana turn to him, the boy grinned, "For one, it's a really outdated system. And secondly…" Focusing his ki, the demi-Saiyan clenched his fists and widened his stance as the atmosphere around him suddenly began to churn. Then, with a sudden yell of effort and an influx of energy, a golden aura exploded from his body and he jumped straight into Super Saiyan, his transformation cracking the ground at his feet and kicking up dust. While Trunks, Vegeta and Piccolo didn't appear surprised in the least, Krillin and 18# did, whereas Kana was caught completely off guard by the boy's unexpected alteration.
Aura fluctuating around him, the now blonde haired Gohan grinned, "It can really let you down when it counts."
Following his lead, Vegeta and Trunks also powered up, the former keeping his arms crossed when his aura shot up and his muscle mass increased, and the latter going through a momentary effort to transform. Both of them bulked up slightly and their hair spiked, indicating they jumped straight into their 2nd Grade Super Saiyan forms. Piccolo meanwhile removed his cape and turban, tossing it on the wind while a blue aura exploded from his body, joining the other three in their display of power increase. Krillin also followed suit, his white aura jumping around his body as both he and Android 18# assumed fighting stances.
The civilians scattered around the area stared in awe at the performance and began clamoring amongst each other excitedly at the sight of the now glowing super humans. It became obvious to many of them that the people they were now looking at were the same fighters that'd appeared at both the Cell Games and the Intergalactic Tournament, and knew right away that they were in for one hell of a show.
While everyone else maintained their distance Videl, who'd managed to land her jet-copter on the edge of the park and capsulated it, had finally arrived on the scene and was now looking across at the group in amazement. Having only witnessed this display on television, the daughter of the great Hercule Satan was now seeing their transformations up close and personal for the first time ever. Since all of them had their attention focused strictly on the alien invader, the raven haired fighter was given a full, unobstructed view of all of them, especially Gohan who, cool as ever, stood in the center of their formation.
"Wow… so this is what their powers look like?" Videl murmured, remaining on the edge of the park and off to the side. Even though she couldn't sense spirits like they could, she could still feel the incredible vibrations in the air. It was absolutely overwhelming.