Chi-Chi set her sights on Master Roshi's island, vision tinted red with fury. Goku was going to get it - worse than he'd ever gotten it before. Honestly, the nerve of it all: stealing Gohan away overnight for god-knew-why without so much as a phone call. Didn't he care about Gohan's entrance exams, or his future at all for that matter?

"Chi-Chi, slow down, you're going to crash into Kame House!" her father cried from the back seat.

"I know what I'm doing, Dad," Chi-Chi snapped. She pushed the accelerator down further, the speed drawing ten-foot waves out of the ocean as the vehicle hurtled towards the island. "It'll serve that Master Roshi right for letting Goku and Gohan stay so late - he's the grossest, most irresponsible old man I've ever met, and he needs to learn his lesson!"

The Ox King whimpered something, but it was lost to Chi-Chi between the screaming engines and the blood pumping in her ears. Deftly, she slammed on the breaks, but the vehicle by no means lost its momentum. Chi-Chi yanked on the controls, pulling the nose of the car up towards the sky and twisting it away from Kame House with millimeters to spare.

After all, if Goku was inside the house, Chi-Chi wanted to strangle him with her bare hands, not take him down via vehicular manslaughter. Gohan could be inside, too.

Roshi, Bulma, Oolong, Turtle, and - Chi-Chi saw with a flash of rage - Krillin came running out of Kame House.

"Hey everybody!" said the Ox King, grinning wide and waving as though his son-in-law wasn't about to be flogged within an inch of his life. He wasted no time lumbering out of the car to greet them, and fell into a bow before Master Roshi. "It's good to see you again, Master - how have you been?"

"I've seen better days than this if the look on your daughter's face is anything to go by," Roshi said grudgingly.

Chi-Chi fixed him with a glare and leapt out of the vehicle.

"Oh, she's just upset because Goku didn't call last night. Say, speaking of, where's my little grandson? I haven't seen him in a while and I owe him a big old hug, y'know?" said the Ox King. He gave a hearty laugh that was cut short by Chi-Chi shoving him out of the way to grab Roshi by the front of his shirt.

"Hey, take it easy, Chi-Chi," Oolong shouted, hiding behind Bulma's leg.

"Y-yeah, Roshi didn't have anything to do with it!" Krillin added quickly.

"Chi-Chi! That's my old master there, be careful," said the Ox King.

Chi-Chi ignored them all in favor of violently shaking Master Roshi as though she could rattle the information she wanted out of him. "Talk, old man! Where's my husband? Where's my son? I got some great news I wanna share with 'em," she said through gritted teeth.

Master Roshi laughed in a vain attempt to diffuse the fury permeating the air around Chi-Chi. It did nothing but make her swell with rage, and she shook him harder.

"Great news, you say? Why, that sounds wonderful. What is it?" asked Roshi.

"The news is that they get to live if Goku can man up for five seconds and face me!" Chi-Chi roared into Roshi's face.

Someone put a hand on her shoulder, and Chi-Chi moved to sock them in the face but froze when she saw that it was Bulma. "As much as I would love to see you beat Master Roshi into an oozing pulp, it'll have to wait until later," Bulma said, evenly but with a heavy note in her voice that made Chi-Chi's blood run cold. "You see, you're not going to be able to give Goku that 'news' no matter what. Because…" Bulma's voice hitched, but she pressed on, "... because he's dead."

Chi-Chi's eyes were fixed pointedly at the mug of tea in her hands. She focused on the heat of it, which permeated her skin and warmed her through to the bone. It was all she could look at or think of in Kame House that didn't make her want to burn it to the ground.

"So let me get this straight:" Chi-Chi said, not daring to look at anything but her tea lest she beat whomever she made eye-contact with first to death in her rage, "My husband is an alien from outer space, sent to Earth for the sole purpose of destroying the planet, his alien brother abducted my four-year-old son and threatened to destroy Earth if he didn't, and now my Goku is dead and my son - and please correct me if I misunderstood this detail - has been kidnapped by King Piccolo?"

Her eyes flashed and Chi-Chi caught sight of Roshi, Krillin, Oolong, and her father lined up against far wall, all fidgeting in fear and rigidly stiff, as if in a police line-up.

It was Krillin who finally managed to answer. "Er - yes, well-"

"And at no point, throughout this entire ordeal, none of you thought to give me a ring and tell me what was going on?" demanded Chi-Chi.

Krillin gulped. "I, uh, well I tried to tell you after the fact, Chi-Chi, but-" Krilling squeaked as he was cut off by a mug of scaldingly-hot tea hurtling across the sitting room, aimed squarely at his head. Any normal human would have been hit and given second-degree burns, and Krillin only dodged in time due to his superhuman reflexes.

Chi-Chi was on her feet and seething. Her ki was ablaze, radiating furious pressure that made Krillin, Roshi, and the Ox King cringe further against the wall. Even without being able to feel energy, Bulma and Oolong both knew better than to get too close to Chi-Chi at the moment.

Everyone in Kame House braced themselves for an outburst, but suddenly the pressure vanished as Chi-Chi took a deep breath.

The others shared a look of confusion. "Chi-Chi?" dared Bulma.

Wordlessly, Chi-Chi started for the exit. Oolong screamed - he was in her path on the way to the door - and scurried out of the way.

"Chi-Chi, wait - where are you going?" Bulma asked, chasing after Chi-Chi across the sandy shore of Roshi's island.

The very image of composure, Chi-Chi turned to face Bulma. "I'm going to go get my son back," she said evenly.

The others dared follow the two women out of Kame House, each more disoriented than the last about the direction the day was taking.

"Get him back? How are you going to find him?" asked Bulma. "I don't know if you can sense energy like the guys, but even if you can, Piccolo probably took him hundreds - thousands - of miles away…"

"A-and even if you could find them," started Krillin, making sure to keep Bulma between himself and Chi-Chi, "what are you gonna do against Piccolo? He's probably the strongest person on the planet right now!"

Chi-Chi humphed, folding her arms over her chest. "You all have so little faith in me. Fine. I figured I'd have to take care of this myself from the get-go," she said. Chi-Chi hopped into her car, turning it on and drowning out her father and the others' objections with the sound of engines rumbling to life.

"If you're not going to help me, at least do this: find the dragon balls and wish Goku back to life. Dad, you take care of his body in the meantime," Chi-Chi ordered, her tone beckoning no argument. "I'll be home with Gohan as soon as I can."

"Chi-Chi, no!" pleaded the Ox King, but it was too late. Chi-Chi slammed her foot against the accelerator and spun the car around, taking off across the water and splashing everyone on the island in the process.

In moments, she was just a dark speck against the horizon, and her friends could only stand on the beach and watch - soaking wet.

It was the Ox King who finally broke the silence. "Anyone got a car I can borrow? Chi-Chi was my ride home," he said.