CHAPTER 4 — The Convergence of Chaos
Before a certain time
The desert wind carried a low tremor as the sun hovered above the horizon, its early light brushing over the jagged landscape. Somewhere deep beneath this expanse of rock and sand, Dr. Gero's hidden complex thrummed with activity. Energy conduits glowed like veins beneath metal skin. Diagnostic drones zipped along suspension rails. Monitors blinked in unison like a thousand watchful eyes. And in the center of it all stood Gero—young, sharp, calculating—his fingers dancing across a translucent console.
He observed the hologram of the planet floating above him, thousands of glowing points marking energy signatures. Most flickered faintly; a few blazed like wildfire. Those few were the ones that mattered.
And the most outrageous one—fluctuating wildly like a toddler slapping a piano—was unmistakably Goku.
Gero narrowed his eyes. "His energy signature is somehow… less stable than before."
From across the lab, Delta-7 tilted its head. "Perhaps he's powering up?"
"No," Gero muttered. "This level of fluctuation can only mean one thing."
Delta-7 leaned forward, awaiting genius-level enlightenment.
Gero sighed. "…He's probably hungry."
Delta-7 nodded solemnly, as if this were a profound cosmic truth.
---
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away…
Goku stood with his back arched, hands on his stomach, groaning dramatically.
"Vegeta, I swear, I'm dying."
"You are not dying!" Vegeta barked. "You ate six entire bowls of noodles before we left!"
"That was, like… an hour ago!"
"We haven't even begun the training session!"
Goku groaned louder, collapsing on the grass.
Gohan appeared behind them, balancing three lunchboxes. "Um… Dad, Mom said you're not allowed to skip training because of 'pointless excuses.' She also said if you eat these before sparring, you're doing the dishes for a month."
Goku sat upright instantly. "I'll starve!"
Vegeta scoffed. "You do the dishes anyway!"
"No I don't!"
"You do now."
Piccolo, who had been quietly watching, exhaled through his nose. "Can we focus? I sense a disturbance."
Vegeta rolled his eyes. "You 'sense a disturbance' every Tuesday."
"This one's different."
"What, did the Namekian gods text you again?" Vegeta mocked.
Piccolo stared at him with dead, emotionless eyes.
"…I don't even know what that means," he said flatly.
Before Vegeta could retort, the ground beneath them hummed, vibrating with a strange, artificial rhythm.
Goku blinked. "Uh… that doesn't feel natural."
Piccolo nodded. "Exactly."
Vegeta crossed his arms. "Fine. I'll admit it. Something's off."
A loud boom cracked across the sky, drawing their attention upward. A drone—not one of Bulma's, nor Capsule Corp's, nor anything Earth-standard—was zipping overhead erratically like a drunken firefly.
Gohan squinted. "Should we… stop it?"
Before anyone could react, the drone paused midair, scanned them with a bright orange laser, then loudly announced:
"TARGETS IDENTIFIED: UNSTABLE, UNPREDICTABLE, AND HIGHLY ANNOYING."
There was a moment of stunned silence.
Vegeta erupted. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"
The drone made a beeping sound that suspiciously resembled laughter.
Goku offered it a friendly wave. "Hey little guy! You lost?"
The drone aimed its scanner directly at him.
"PRIMARY TARGET: LOW INTELLIGENCE, EXTREME THREAT."
Goku blinked. "…Should I be offended?"
Piccolo answered, "Yes."
---
Back in the underground lab…
Delta-7 pinged nervously. "Sir, the reconnaissance drone appears to be… improvising."
Gero pinched the bridge of his nose. "Of course it is. I gave it adaptive autonomy for fieldwork. I didn't expect it to develop attitude."
"Should I terminate its humor protocols?"
"…No. Leave it. It might confuse them."
Delta-7 nodded. "Confusion: a noble strategy."
Gero ignored that comment.
He zoomed the hologram in on the cluster where the Z-Fighters had gathered. Even at a distance, the energy readings flickered with chaotic variance. Each warrior was a variable—and unpredictability irritated him, even as it fascinated him.
"This is the first convergence," he murmured. "Their instinct drew them together. Good…"
He monitored Goku's expression.
Goku smiled up at the drone like it was a long-lost friend.
"…annoying, but good."
Suddenly, a new energy spike flared into existence on the map, sharp, dense, immense.
Gero froze.
Broly.
"Ah," Gero said with a dark smile. "The catalyst arrives."
---
Far above the valley…
Broly descended from the sky like a meteor wrapped in green flame.
He landed with a quake that sent rocks tumbling and birds fleeing for miles.
The drone attempted to scan him.
It scanned.
And scanned.
And then its scanner caught fire.
"UNSCANNABLE! UNSCANNABLE! UNSCANNABLE!" the drone screamed, zipping in frantic circles.
Broly blinked. "…Huh?"
Vegeta rubbed his temples. "Oh, wonderful. The brute is here."
"Vegeta," Goku said, "that's rude! Broly's our friend!"
Broly hesitated, unsure.
"Friend?" he repeated softly.
Then he smiled. A big, warm, earnest smile.
Vegeta looked physically pained.
"Oh, fantastic. He's learning vocabulary now."
Piccolo gestured toward the drone. "Something sent that. And it's watching us. We need to figure out from where."
"You're right," Gohan said. "This tech doesn't look like anything Earth has."
Goku nodded thoughtfully. "Hm…"
Everyone waited for his profound insight.
Then—
"…I'm still hungry."
The group groaned.
---
Inside the lab…
Gero folded his arms, analyzing the chaos unfolding on-screen.
"Their coordination is weak," he muttered. "No discipline. No unified strategy. They rely on improvisation."
He tapped the hologram and zoomed in on each face.
Goku—bafflingly powerful.
Vegeta—driven, prideful, volatile.
Piccolo—controlled but reactive.
Gohan—potential dormant, mind cluttered.
Broly—raw power, emotional flux, a walking singularity.
"Individually dangerous," Gero murmured. "Collectively? Even more so."
Delta-7 shuffled anxiously. "Sir… should we proceed with phase two?"
Gero smiled faintly. "No. Let them chase. Curiosity will draw them in deeper than fear. And once they find their way here…"
He turned toward the vast chamber behind him.
Rows of suspended capsules lined the walls, each containing a silhouette—vague, incomplete, shifting with energy. Prototypes. Experiments. Possibilities.
"…our next generation will greet them."
---
Back at Capsule Corp — comedy escalates
The group reconvened at Capsule Corp, where Bulma was already furious.
"You let a hostile drone scan you?!" she snapped, waving a wrench at Goku, who flinched.
"It said he had low intelligence," Vegeta added gleefully.
Bulma shot him a look. "It wasn't wrong."
"Hey!" Goku complained.
Broly, inspecting a potted plant, poked it too hard and snapped the pot in half. He froze, panicked.
"I—I fix?" Broly offered.
Bulma sighed. "Goku, take your giant toddler outside."
Goku grabbed Broly by the wrist. "Come on! We'll find something fun that you can't break!"
Broly frowned. "Everything breaks…"
Vegeta muttered, "Finally, something we agree on."
Piccolo ignored them all and addressed Bulma. "You recognize the tech, right?"
Bulma turned serious. "It's incredibly advanced. Beyond even what Trunks found in Cell's timeline. Whoever built it knew how to cloak energy signatures. That's… terrifying."
Gohan gulped. "So it's someone like Cell?"
Piccolo shook his head. "More deliberate. More clinical. More precise."
Vegeta's eyes narrowed. "…Red Ribbon."
Everyone froze.
Even Broly, mid-sniffing a cactus, sensed the shift.
Bulma swallowed. "But they're gone. Wiped out."
"No," Vegeta said quietly. "Not gone. Replaced."
Piccolo added, "Someone rebuilt their tech. Improved it. And they're watching us."
Goku placed a finger on his chin. "So we go find them."
Bulma sighed. "Of course that's your solution."
---
Meanwhile… the drone returns
Gero watched as his drone, smoking and twitching, limped back into the lab.
"Situation report," Gero ordered.
The drone crackled. "SITUATION: CHAOTIC. TARGETS: STRONGLY UNHINGED."
"Unhinged?"
"ONE OF THEM ATE AN ENTIRE TREE."
Gero paused. "…Which one?"
The drone shook violently, sparks flying. "T-TH-THE GREEN-HAIRED WALL."
Broly.
Gero sighed. "Wonderful."
Delta-7 raised a mechanical hand. "Sir, this may be tactically useful. Their behavior is unpredictable. Perhaps—"
Before Delta-7 could finish, a loud explosion erupted down the hall.
Gero stiffened. "What now?"
A maintenance bot rolled in, completely covered in melted wiring, still smoking.
"Lab K: destroyed," it wheezed.
"How?"
The bot pointed at the still-twitching drone.
"THIS UNIT'S HUMOR SUBROUTINE INSULTED A PROTOTYPE."
Gero glared at the drone.
The drone stared back innocently.
A panel fell off.
Gero pinched the bridge of his nose for the second time that day.
"…Deactivate its humor protocol."
Delta-7 attempted to comply.
The drone screamed and flew away.
---
At the same time — training grounds
Goku had convinced everyone to spar before tracking the signal. Gohan protested, but Goku insisted:
"If we don't warm up, something bad always happens."
Vegeta scoffed. "Something bad is already happening, you clown!"
Broly cracked his knuckles. "Fight now?"
Gohan groaned. "I just wanted to study…"
Piccolo put a hand on his shoulder. "If it makes you feel better, consider this research."
"That… helps a little."
Vegeta flared his aura. "Alright, Kakarot. Let's— WAIT! WHAT IS THAT?!!"
He pointed at Broly, who was holding a kitten he had found behind a boulder.
The kitten purred loudly.
Broly smiled softly. "Little creature."
Vegeta sputtered.
Piccolo muttered, "This is why our enemies study us. Even I don't know what's happening half the time."
Before the spar could begin, the ground beneath them shook violently.
Goku gasped. "That's the same feeling from before!"
Piccolo frowned. "No… stronger."
Vegeta's eyes widened. "It's coming from underground."
Gohan pointed. "There's a fissure in the canyon opening!"
Broly put the kitten on his shoulder. "Fight?"
Goku nodded, expression turning serious for the first time all day. "Yeah. Someone's calling us."
---
Back in the lab — the reveal begins
Gero typed a rapid sequence across the interface. Massive doors slid open behind him, revealing the awakening chamber.
Fluid bubbled. Machinery hissed. The silhouettes inside the capsules became sharper—limbs forming, energy pulsing, eyes flickering open.
Delta-7 stepped back in awe. "Sir… it's happening."
"Yes," Gero whispered.
He turned toward the central pod—larger than the rest, surrounded by coils and conduits humming with immense power.
"Prototype Zero," he said softly. "Awaken."
The chamber thundered with energy.
Light burst from the pod.
And far above the earth trembled.
---
The convergence begins
Goku's eyes widened. "Something's rising! Strong!"
Piccolo nodded. "Stronger than anything we've sensed since—"
Vegeta finished the sentence silently.
Since Black Frieza.
Broly stepped forward, aura crackling.
The kitten meowed.
Everyone ignored the kitten.
The ground split open, and a wave of mechanical energy surged upward like a geyser.
Goku grinned. "Found ya."
Piccolo added, "And whatever's down there… knows we're coming."
Gohan swallowed. "This is bad, isn't it?"
Vegeta smirked. "Bad? No. This is perfect."
Broly cracked his neck. "Fight."
Goku tightened his fists.
"Let's go!"
They launched into the canyon as the fissure widened, revealing a stairway descending into darkness—metallic, cold, deliberate.
Waiting for them.
Watching.
Inviting.
---
In the lab — Gero's final words of the chapter
Gero watched the fissure open from his monitors.
"They're coming," Delta-7 reported.
"Yes," Gero said.
He turned toward Prototype Zero, its form fully illuminated now—tall, imposing, eyes glowing with a color no organic being possessed.
"Let them come," Gero said.
"After all…"
He smiled.
"…the experiment has only just begun."