"Come on, pick up, pick up, pick up…!" Bulma muttered, her leg jittering in anticipation as she dialed Tarble's house, then redialed, over and over again.
She'd already called Tater's mansion. Cynthia had answered instantly. Apparently, Tater was already on his way to the fight, but Cynder was absolutely terrified by the auras that he could feel, even from a continent and a half away.
The holographic communication device buzzed, then stopped. No answer.
Without hesitation, Bulma dialed again.
Her father had already contacted Dr. Hyperion… rather, the two doctors spent most days in near-constant communication anyways. When she'd walked into her father's lab to talk to the forty-something year-old doctor, she'd been waved out of the lab by her father's usual brand of dogged nonsense. Apparently, she'd nearly caused his cruiser to be sunk during the game of 'Battleship' that the two doctors were playing through the holographic communicators.
Honestly, the only two people Bulma couldn't deal with were her own parents and their strange, stubborn-as-a-brick mentalities.
The world could end and those two would simply go, 'Okay. By the way, we need a new teapot. The design on this ceramic simply feels outdated.'
Which meant her only way to contact the Celatian village where Tarble was, was by calling Tarble's lab in his apartment. That was all she could do right now, so she was determined to do so until someone finally answered, no matter how long it took.
Twelve and three-quarters of a ring later, Lynn finally appeared, projected above Bulma's table, sitting in a chair in Tarble's study. "Is that… a foot in your lap?" Bulma couldn't help but ask.
The toes wiggled. "Hi, Bulma!" Pepper's voice sounded from beyond the projected radius. "I'm eating marbles!" She said cheerily.
"Late pregnancy." Lynn explained, rubbing Pepper's foot idly as she shrugged.
"Her pregnancy made her crave marbles?"
Lynn shrugged again. Their Saiyan stomachs could naturally process nearly anything, even things that weren't food. Apparently, Pepper liked the crunch of the marble. Likely because her taste buds were messed up, though possibly just because she was Pepper. "You're calling about Tarble's fight, right?" Lynn asked, changing the subject.
"...I think Zeck's dead. Tarble's in trouble. You need to go help him."
"Zeck's dead?" Pepper asked.
"And you need to go help Tarble! This thing he's fighting is strong! He's-" Bulma started, but Lynn cut her off.
"I can't. I'm sorry about Zeck… Tarble says that the Dragon Balls should be able to wish him back. We'll bring ours over to your place once Tarble's won the fight, but I can't leave the village right now." The Saiyan explained.
"What-Why?! Your husband is in trouble! He could die!" Bulma shouted.
"Tarble doesn't lose, when it matters." Pepper declared from off'projection. "Rub my toes."
"I can't believe I'm doing this… Besides, we can't help Tarble. Even if we wanted to." Lynn told Bulma, "We can sense the fight from here, Bulma. The only person who can keep up with a battle like that is Pepper… at full power."
"Maybe." Pepper admitted.
The unfortunate truth was, ever since the power spike, the Saiyan women had been able to follow the battle from their home, half a continent away, with startling clarity. The battle was hovering around the hundred million level, the power levels regularly fluttering up to 150-200 million for short, concentrated bursts.
That meant two things. One, both fighters had power levels of around 100 million, and could control them rather well. And second, neither fighter was particularly used to their power levels yet. Normally, Tarble could easily concentrate his ki to double, even nearly triple efficiency for single attacks, after all, with ki control that even Pepper couldn't very well match, when he was in the zone.
Naturally, what they were sensing worried them considerably. Which was why Lynn was rubbing Pepper's foot in Tarble's study, right beside the vault that held the Dragon Ball inside.
Lynn did want to help, but there were two facts that stopped her cold.
Fact 1: The power difference.
Tarble was the strongest of all of the Saiyans currently on Earth. Ignoring his mastery of the SSJP transformation, his power level in base form was past 3 million, due to the fact that he'd completely integrated the SSJP physiology.
Pepper was the only other who'd managed to break much further than a million, and she couldn't fight all-out, six months pregnant.
Lynn had stalled years ago due to her inability to use Ikari mode. Her actual base power level hadn't even truly broken a million until after the 2-on-1 battle with Tarble. Her full, FSSJ power was only on par with Zeck's true full power.
And Tater was actually worse. In the three-and-a-half years since his battle with Tarble at the 20th World Martial Arts tournament, he'd quadrupled his power level and then a bit… but his late start still had him only at Lynn's level… in base form. Which put his maximum power somewhere just over 10 million. Rising by the day, but still not high enough to contribute to Tarble's current fight as he was.
And they were also stopped from helping Tarble by Fact 2: Responsibility.
Lynn was, effectively, the only person other than Tarble who was capable of holding down the home fort. If Tarble fell, Tater would be the planet's last resort, but Lynn would be the village's last resort. Ensuring that their home stayed standing was her responsibility, even if Tarble failed and died.
Which meant that all they could do was sit and hope that Tarble didn't fail. Luckily, he'd only ever lost once, when it counted.