c002 Capture Lan Qi, Where Did You Get Your Gun?
"Stand right there and put your hands up!"
The officer in front an aging policeman with a worn uniform and the typical capsule-brand sidearm aimed his pistol at Raditz with both hands trembling. "We received reports of you violently assaulting civilians and robbing property. You are required to come with us. You have the right to remain silent, although anything you say may be used as evidence against you in court!"
"Tsk… Earth's legal procedures," Raditz muttered, amused by the absurdity of hearing such lines directed at a Saiyan warrior with a battle power over a thousand. He stepped forward until his armored chest pressed against the gun's muzzle. Grinning, he said, "Let me warn you in advance. I'm not planning to cooperate. You may fire if you wish… but you won't like the consequences."
This reaction was far from what the officers expected. The old policeman's breath hitched, his jaw trembling as he stared into Raditz's predatory eyes eyes no normal criminal would ever have.
Gasps rippled through the gathering crowd.
"Who is that guy!? He's insane!"
"He's a monster who walks straight into a gun!?"
"Just shoot him! People like him shouldn't be walking around!"
What began as casual street curiosity had now turned into a chaotic spectacle, with passers-by gathering just beyond the police line. Even so, the veteran officer forced himself not to be swayed by the crowd.
"Are you serious?" he asked, swallowing thickly.
Raditz pinched the gun's muzzle between his fingers. "I never joke. Even if what I say sounds absurd, I eventually make it reality. If reality doesn't match, I'll force it to match."
By experience, the officer knew he should radio backup and attempt to subdue this criminal together with his unit. But a cold instinct sharper and clearer than training told him there was something inhuman in front of him. Something far worse than any Earth criminal.
It felt like staring into the face of a demon. And the demon smiled.
Before he realized it, the officer pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
The gunshot cracked across the street. The noisy conversations instantly fell silent. Even the onlookers who moments before shouted for violence stared wide-eyed, mouths agape.
Though Raditz was arrogant enough to provoke anyone, almost no one actually believed he should be shot on the spot. After all, more than a dozen armed officers were present, while Raditz appeared unarmed.
"Murder!!!"
A scream shattered the silence, followed by panicked shrieks as pedestrians fled in every direction.
"Captain?!" the surrounding officers gasped.
"I, I didn't mean to shoot!" The old policeman panicked and tried to drop the gun.
But he couldn't.
It was still locked in place held firmly in Raditz's hand.
"Relax," Raditz said with that same cruel, lazy smile. "I'm not hurt. But you… are in trouble."
Before anyone could move, Raditz jerked the officer forward, twisted his arms into a grotesque knot as easily as tying a rope, and flung him into the sky.
"AHHHHHHHH!!!"
The officer screamed as his body soared nearly a kilometer before crashing and hanging limply from the lightning rod atop a distant office tower.
Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!
Dozens of guns dropped to the ground. The officers shuddered violently, their faces pale. The running civilians panicked even more.
Raditz dusted off his palms as if he had merely brushed aside a large insect and continued walking, completely ignoring the officers.
And for him, truly, it was no more than a triviality.
"Hmm?"
After a few steps, Raditz stopped abruptly. His scouter flicked downward as he noticed a familiar face among the scattering crowd. A woman with long blue hair, panicking as she squeezed between fleeing pedestrians.
Raditz raised a brow. "That looks familiar… That's… Lan Qi?"
Launch Lan Qi—the woman with the bizarre split personality condition. Blue-haired, gentle, soft-spoken, and slightly airheaded in her calm form… only to transform into a blonde, gun-wielding bandit the moment she sneezed.
An iconic character who appeared during the early manga days when Son Goku and Kuririn had just begun their martial arts journey under Master Roshi. Later, she left Kame House to chase after Tien Shinhan after the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai… only to be left behind and eventually reduced to doing courier work to support herself.
And right now, she was here staring at Raditz with confusion, fear, and the same airheaded innocence that defined her blue-haired personality.
Before he could even call her name, she suddenly
"ACHOO!!!"
And Raditz's eyes widened.
The transformation began.
At this time in the original timeline, Launch should indeed still be living with Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu in the mountains, following her departure from Kame House after the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai. Even in the manga, she admired Tenshinhan deeply, and although her screen time diminished after that tournament arc, she canonically remained near him until she eventually disappeared from the main narrative sometime before the Saiyan arrival. Tenshinhan himself was later killed by Nappa during the Saiyan invasion, while Chiaotzu self-destructed against Nappa moments before that. Because of all this, Raditz couldn't help narrowing his eyes slightly.
"So, does that mean Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu might also be nearby?" Raditz rubbed his chin. Their ki signatures were relatively small Tenshinhan's tri-beam mastery and Chiaotzu's telekinetic tricks were impressive for Earthlings, but nothing remotely threatening to a Saiyan warrior like him. Their possible presence didn't interest Raditz at all.
But Launch? Raditz found her far more intriguing.
A biological anomaly who switches between two entirely different personalities complete with ki signature changes triggered by something as simple as a sneeze. Even in Frieza's army, no one had such a bizarre ability. It was a mutation or psychological phenomenon worth studying. Maybe even usable.
Deciding quickly, Raditz flashed forward, caught up to the blue-haired Launch, and swept her up onto his shoulder with a casual motion before rocketing out of the city in a burst of ki.
"AHHHHH!!"
Launch was so startled that her entire body stiffened. The rush of wind, the panic, the spinning sky all of it triggered the inevitable.
"Ah—ACHOO!"
In a blink, the blue hair transformed into fierce golden curls, the gentle expression shifting into a violent glare. Without hesitation, blonde Launch reached behind her and produced out of nowhere a fully loaded submachine gun, opening fire at Raditz mid-flight.
"You bastard! Where are you taking me, huh!? Put me down before I fill you full of holes!"
Raditz actually blinked in surprise. Even though he'd been paying full attention to her, he still hadn't reacted in time to the sneeze. And more incredibly, he genuinely hadn't seen where she pulled the gun from there was no pouch, no holster, no capsule container.
His Saiyan armor absorbed every bullet harmlessly, the impacts nothing more than a gentle tapping.
Within seconds they reached a remote section of mountain forest. Raditz finally stopped, tossed Launch onto the grass, and began walking around her in a circle with a mix of curiosity and fascination.
"Ow! Hey! Damn you!" Launch clutched her head and scrambled backward. Now that she realized she wasn't in the city and was alone with this monster, her instincts kicked in. She pressed her back against a tree and glared warily. "Who the hell are you? What do you want from me, huh!?"
"You're calling me a bastard so what do you think I want?" Raditz grinned arrogantly.
Launch's face hardened. Without missing a beat, she reached into her shirt and somehow pulled out an oversized rocket launcher again from seemingly nowhere and fired it at him. "Go to hell, freak!!"
"Aha! So it is some kind of dimensional storage trick," Raditz muttered with genuine interest.
This time he saw it clearly: Launch's hand vanished briefly into her clothes, but there was no physical space large enough to store heavy weapons. No capsule smoke, no compression hiss. Just… retrieval.
Raditz swatted the rocket aside, letting it explode against a distant boulder and flatten a small hill. Then he stepped closer, curiosity shining in his eyes.
He grabbed Launch by the wrist and inspected the fabric of her shirt and jacket, searching every fold and seam while she kicked and shouted. He wasn't stripping her only examining where the impossible storage ability could be originating from, particularly because her clothes in the manga had no capsules or pockets big enough for these weapons.
"W-what do you think you're doing!?" Launch's face flushed red with rage and embarrassment as she struggled, holding her collar closed with her free hand. "You pervert! Don't touch me!"
Raditz ignored her screaming, feeling along the inside lining of her jacket and sleeves, then checking under the folds of her waistband with clinical precision. His scouter scanned for spatial distortions, but detected nothing.
"Hmph." He frowned. "Impossible. The angle was correct. The weapon definitely came from here. But there's no hidden compartment, no capsule unit, no ki-compression space… Where is it?"
"I'm not a pervert's science project!!" Launch roared, her whole face glowing crimson. "And stop treating me like some cheap second-hand goods! Do I look like second-hand goods to you!?"
But Raditz wasn't even listening. He tossed her jacket into the grass and examined it again from all sides, still muttering, "There has to be something. A dimensional fold? A subliminal capsule? She clearly drew the launcher out from this exact region why doesn't anything show up…?"
Launch shook with humiliation and fury, hugging herself tightly as she scooted back. Her breathing was sharp and fast not from fear of violence, but from pure rage at being manhandled and ignored.
And Raditz, crouched over her clothes, still looked more fascinated by the "weapon storage phenomenon" than anything else.
....