Vegeta was gone.
The second his ki vanished over the horizon, Krillin and Gohan collapsed to their knees like puppets with cut strings.
"That… was way worse than on Earth," Krillin wheezed, wiping sweat from his bald head. "He didn't even hit us and I feel like I just fought King Piccolo again."
Gohan stared at the ground, fists trembling. "What do we do now? We lost the radar… We can't stay here. We should go home."
Krillin's shoulders slumped. "Yeah. Without the radar we're blind. And if Vegeta's already this strong…" He didn't finish the sentence.
They both knew what came next: Frieza.
A monster even Vegeta feared.
Silence fell, thick and hopeless.
Then
"Heh… heh heh heh… HAHAHA!"
Bulma's laugh started small, then exploded into full-on evil-genius cackling.
The two warriors whipped around.
Bulma stood with her hands on her hips, looking entirely too pleased with herself.
"You idiots really thought I'd hand over the real Dragon Radar to that spiky-haired psycho?"
She whipped out a second, identical device and waved it like a trophy.
"Tah-dah~!"
Krillin's jaw dropped. "You… you had a spare?!"
Gohan's eyes sparkled. "We can still do this!"
"Spare?" Bulma snorted. "That thing I gave Vegeta was a fake I built specifically because I knew something like this would happen! The real one never left my pocket."
Krillin blinked twice, then twice more. "So… we're back in business?"
"Better than that," Bulma said, tapping buttons. "The fake radar will send him on a week-long tour of every empty island on the planet. By the time he figures it out, we'll have all seven balls and be long gone!"
Gohan pumped a fist. "We can beat Frieza to them! We can bring everyone back!"
Bulma's smile softened for a second (reviving Yamcha still stung), then hardened again with determination.
They huddled together, already plotting routes, hiding spots, and escape plans.
Bulma reached for the long-range communicator. "First, let's tell Chi-Chi and the others we're okay "
A voice suddenly boomed across the plain, echoing inside their skulls like it was coming from everywhere and nowhere.
"HEY!! CAN YOU GUYS HEAR ME!?"
All three jumped a foot in the air.
Krillin clutched his heart. "W-what the ?!"
Gohan looked around wildly. "That voice… it's coming from inside my head!"
Bulma shrieked and dropped the communicator.
The voice spoke again, cheerful, a little panicked, and unmistakably familiar.
"It's me! King Kai! North Kai! Listen up this is an emergency broadcast to every halfway decent fighter in the local star system!"
A beat of stunned silence.
Then Krillin whispered, eyes wide:
"…Oh no."
Because if King Kai was using telepathy across half the galaxy…
Something had gone very, very wrong.