The old, rusty ship they had rescued from the scrap yard now sailed through space at an impossible speed.
It wasn't its engines, fused for decades. It wasn't its systems, dead long before they were born.
It was the energy of four children.
Ozari, Bills, Champa, and Shenlong had imbued every corner of the ship with their ki during the two months of travel. Without knowing it, they had turned it into something unique. An extension of themselves. A living being of metal and energy.
"Do you feel that?" Ozari asked one afternoon, watching the stars through the window. "The ship... it pulses. As if it had a heart."
Champa, who was reorganizing the food for the umpteenth time, nodded without stopping his count.
"Yeah. And when it pulses, we go faster. It's like it hugs us and propels us forward."
Bills, from the cockpit, adjusted their course with one hand while the other caressed the control panel.
"It's not just speed," he said in his serious tone. "The ship also protects us. When we sleep, I feel a barrier. Like a shield."
Shenlong, coiled around Ozari's neck, opened one eye.
"It's because we're family," he said with his childish but wise voice. "Family energy is the most powerful there is. Frya knew it."
A warm silence filled the cockpit.
That's why, when the bounty hunters first saw them pass by, they couldn't believe it.
"How can a ship like that be so fast?" one of them asked, adjusting his instruments with trembling hands.
"It's not the engines," the leader replied, narrowing his eyes behind his ship's visor. "Those engines are dead. Look closely, they're junk."
"Then, how...?"
"It's them," the leader interrupted. "Those children. They're the ones propelling the ship. They are the engine."
The bounty hunters fell silent, watching the small, rusty ship speed away at velocities that even the most modern warships couldn't reach.
"Boss... what kind of children are those?"
The leader didn't answer. But his hand tightened on the throttle.
"Follow them. But keep your distance. I don't want them to detect us."
And so, without the four siblings knowing it, the hunt began.
Meanwhile, across the four empires of the quadrant, news of the spheres had spread like wildfire in an oxygen field.
On every planet, every space station, every inhabited corner of the quadrant, street vendors offered "special radars" promising to find the mythical spheres.
They were scams, of course. Simple junk with LED lights and speakers emitting random beeps. But people bought them. Hope and greed don't listen to reason.
The Namekians had been searching for a month already. Their elegant, mystical ships, immaculate white with golden symbols, tirelessly traveled entire systems. They had found nothing, but they wouldn't give up. The elders meditated day and night, connecting with the energy of the cosmos, searching for any sign.
In the Buuh Empire, the pink nomads had completely vanished from known systems. When that happened, the most experienced mercenaries got nervous. The Buuh didn't hide out of fear. They hid because they were plotting something.
The Furos, the technological wolves, had deployed their impressive fleet. Their ships, the most advanced in the quadrant, swept space with state-of-the-art radars. Their money bought information from anyone who could sell. Their scientists worked day and night trying to create a functional radar.
But all failed.
Because the spheres couldn't be detected by technology.
Only by living beings with sufficient energy.
And in the entire quadrant, only a handful of beings could do it.
The four siblings.
And the servant of the shadows.
In the war room of the Wukon Empire's royal palace, holographic star maps floated in the air, marking territories, trade routes, and conflict zones.
General Radex, in his imposing Saya Phase, with his green hair bristling and his body covered in dark fur, studied the maps intently. His military toga, dark with golden details, fell over his elite armor. His long, furry tail moved slowly as he thought.
It was then that three young ones came running in, their laughter filling the solemn room.
Bura, a thirteen-year-old girl with lilac hair, a mischievous smile, and eyes bright as stars. She was fast, agile, and had a gift for getting into trouble. Her Glow Phase made her hair shine with a hypnotic violet tone.
Trenz, a young man with green hair, serious and calculating, with a determination unusual for his age. Where Bura was impulsive, Trenz was a strategist. Where she ran, he observed. His green hair, like Radex's, was a sign of pure royal blood.
Zumm, the youngest of the three, with messy black hair like a bird's nest, always in a hurry and eager to prove his worth. He was the smallest, but also the one who most wanted to grow up.
They were the children of Queen Vita and King Artex, the sovereigns of the Wukon Empire. And they were prodigies.
"Uncle Radex," Bura said, bowing respectfully despite her boundless energy. "We heard you're going to search for the spheres."
Radex looked at them with pride. His blood. His legacy.
"That's right," he replied, his deep voice resonating in the room. "If the legend is true, we will find them. And when we do, the Wukon Empire will dominate the quadrant. The Namekians will kneel. The Buuh will flee. The Furos will pay tribute."
"Take us with you!" Zumm exclaimed, jumping with excitement, his tail wagging like a puppy's. "We can help! I want to fight!"
"Zumm, don't interrupt," Trenz said calmly, though his eyes also shone with contained excitement.
Radex hesitated for a moment. They were children. His nephews. The hope of the crown.
But they were also wukons. And wukons didn't hide.
"Alright," he finally said, a smile appearing beneath his stern expression. "You will come. But you must train. This is not a game. The bounty hunters will show no mercy. The other empires hate us. And the spheres... the spheres attract the worst the universe has to offer."
"We will train," Trenz said seriously. "We won't let you down, Uncle."
Behind them, an imposing figure crossed his arms.
Frex, the crown prince, older brother of the three young ones. With hair as dark blue as night and the gaze of a born warrior. He was eighteen years old and had already proven his worth in a dozen battles. His Saya Phase was feared throughout the quadrant.
"I will go too, Uncle," he said in a grave voice, deep like a distant thunder. "I will protect them."
Radex nodded, satisfied.
"Then let's prepare the fleet. The hunt has begun."
As the young wukons left the room, excited for the adventure ahead, Radex turned back to the star maps.
"Innocent children," he murmured to himself. "They don't know what awaits them. But neither do I."
And for the first time in decades, General Radex felt a small pang of uncertainty.
Because at the other end of the galaxy, a dark being watched.
And his plans were much bigger than an empire.
Days later, in a remote region of space where even trade routes didn't reach, the four siblings' small ship stopped before a massive asteroid belt.
Thousands of rocks, some the size of mountains, others as small as houses, floated in an eternal dance around a dying sun.
Bills observed the floating rocks with an analytical gaze. His feline eyes, large and expressive, calculated distances, speeds, and trajectories.
"We've traveled together, but we've never fought together," he said, breaking the silence. "For years, each of us trained alone. Bills against the void. Champa against his hunger. Ozari against her loneliness. Shenlong... well, Shenlong was in an egg."
Shenlong shifted, uncomfortable.
"It wasn't my fault."
"I know," Bills said with a hint of a smile. "But now we are four. And if what awaits us is as dangerous as they say... we need to be stronger. We need to fight together."
Champa stretched, cracking his knuckles with almost childish enthusiasm.
"Stronger? I'm already strong! Did you see how I stole that food on the last planet? No one could catch me!"
"You're fast, Champa," Ozari admitted with a smile. "But they're not market guards. They're empires. Entire armies."
"And the traitors," Bills added, his voice growing deeper. "The ones who killed Frya... they're gods."
Their mother's name hung in the air like a crystal bubble. Fragile. Sacred.
Shenlong uncoiled from Ozari's neck, floating before them. His small golden body glowed with a faint light.
"I want to fight too," he said with his childish voice, but with a determination you wouldn't expect from such a small being. "I spent five million years dreaming of you. I'm not going to just watch."
Ozari smiled and extended an arm. Shenlong coiled around it, but only for a moment. Then he floated again, ready.
The four looked at each other.
And without a word, they attacked.
What followed was beautiful chaos.
Ozari launched herself first, her Saya Phase activating in a flash of red hair and orange energy. Her fists struck an asteroid the size of a mountain, splitting it in two.
Bills appeared behind her, his purple aura cutting through the void like a razor. Kicks. Punches. Precise movements that turned rocks to dust.
Champa laughed as he flew among the fragments, his power enveloping him like a flame. He wasn't as elegant as Bills, nor as fierce as Ozari, but he was unpredictable. He'd hit one asteroid, bounce off another, laugh, shout, enjoy himself.
And Shenlong... Shenlong was a surprise.
The little dragon moved like a golden whip. He coiled around rocks and squeezed until they burst. He shot small energy beams from his eyes. And when Bills or Champa passed nearby, he'd latch onto them and use them to propel himself even faster.
"Look at that!" Champa shouted as Shenlong used him as a catapult to launch at an asteroid. "We're an amazing team!"
The fight lasted hours.
Asteroids exploded one after another. Energy flew in all directions. Blows that would have destroyed smaller planets echoed in the void, but there, amidst the rocks, they only made dust and more dust.
When they finally stopped, panting, sweating, exhausted but happy, the asteroid belt... had disappeared.
Where thousands of rocks had been, now only a field of fine dust remained, glittering in the distant light of the dying sun.
"We did it," Ozari whispered, looking around. "We destroyed everything."
"I feel sorry for the asteroids," Champa said without an ounce of regret. "But it was fun."
Bills floated in silence, observing the dust. Then he looked at his siblings.
"Not bad," he said, and for him, that was enormous praise.
From a ship hidden behind a distant rock (the only one that had survived), the bounty hunters watched in terror.
"What kind of monsters are those children?" one whispered, his voice trembling.
"Their power... it's at the level of a wukon in Saya Phase," another replied, adjusting his instruments. "Or maybe more."
"They're demons," said a third, the youngest of the group. "We shouldn't be here."
The leader, a hard-eyed man with scars on his face, watched in silence. Then he gave the order:
"We're leaving. But we're not giving up. We'll wait. Every warrior has a weak point. Everyone gets tired. When they do... we'll attack."
The mercenary ships drifted away in silence, slipping through the shadows of space.
Without knowing it, the four siblings had been marked.
Tired but happy, the four siblings looked for a place to rest.
They found a planet with crystal oceans, white sand beaches, and a warm sun that caressed the skin. There were no signs of intelligent life. Only virgin nature.
Perfect.
They bought food. Well, Champa bought food. The others watched him haggle with an automated vendor at a small nearby space station, using part of the money they had "borrowed" from the criminals.
Champa was a natural negotiator. Or maybe the vendor just wanted to get rid of him.
Either way, they arrived on the planet with enough supplies to feed a small army.
They cooked enormous fish over improvised campfires. Champa, for a change, took charge of the cooking, using his power to heat the stones where they roasted the food.
"Not a very dignified use of a fighting technique," Bills said, watching with a raised eyebrow.
"It's the best use," Champa replied, flipping a fish the size of his torso. "Hot food is happiness. Happiness is energy. Energy is power. Ergo, cooking makes me stronger."
"That logic has more holes than a sieve," Ozari said, laughing.
"But it works!"
Shenlong, who had tried to "help" and ended up covered in flour, floated nearby with an expression of wounded dignity.
"It wasn't my fault," he said. "The sack was badly placed."
"Sure, sure," Champa laughed. "The cursed sack."
They ate until they burst. Champa broke his own consumption record. Ozari discovered she loved smoked fish. Bills, to everyone's surprise, turned out to be a master at filleting with surgical precision.
And Shenlong... Shenlong discovered that food was one of the best things about being born.
"Is it always like this?" he asked, mouth full. "Is there always food?"
"As long as Champa doesn't eat it all," Ozari replied.
"Hey!"
After eating, they bathed in the ocean. They splashed. They laughed. Champa tried to catch fish with his hands and failed miserably. Bills floated in the water, looking at the sky, feeling for the first time in his life that the void in his chest didn't hurt so much.
Ozari swam over to him.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing," Bills lied.
"You're a bad liar, brother."
Bills smiled. A small smile, almost imperceptible, but a smile nonetheless.
"I was thinking about Frya. Wondering if she would have wanted this for us. Peace. Food. Family."
Ozari was silent for a moment.
"I think so. I think this is exactly what she wanted."
That night, they slept deeply in their ship, bellies full and hearts content. The ship, sensing their peace, slowed down and drifted gently in the planet's orbit.
But Shenlong wasn't completely asleep.
Somewhere in his mind, a faint but insistent signal called to him.
A sphere.
He opened his eyes in the darkness.
"Ozari," he whispered. "Bills. Champa. Wake up."
"What's wrong?" Champa murmured, still half asleep.
"I feel it. The first sphere. It's close."
Everyone woke immediately.
The ship accelerated.
Ozari propelled with her orange energy, Bills and Champa took turns maintaining the pace, Shenlong guided with his mystical sense, his green eyes shining in the darkness of the cockpit.
Two months.
Two months of travel at light speed.
Two months of training in between.
Two months getting closer and closer to their goal.
During that time, they lived.
They saw nebulae of impossible colors. They crossed space storms that would have torn normal ships apart, but which only shook them a little. They visited strange planets, met fascinating creatures, learned about the universe they were destined to save.
They also fought. Argued. Champa and Bills had an epic fight over the last bag of space potato chips. Ozari had to separate them using her Saya Phase. Shenlong laughed so hard he almost fell out of his nest.
But they also grew closer.
One night, while the others slept, Ozari found Bills awake, as always.
"Don't you sleep?"
"Not much," Bills admitted. "But it's not bad. I like looking at the stars. Thinking."
"About what?"
"About how I never imagined this. A family. A home. A mission."
Ozari sat beside him.
"Me neither. In the Wukon Empire, I was always different. The red hair. The Saya Phase. Others looked at me like I was a freak."
"I was different too," Bills said. "I was alone. Always alone."
"Not anymore."
"Not anymore."
Another night, Champa confessed something while cooking.
"Sometimes I'm scared."
"You?" Shenlong asked, surprised. "Of what?"
"Of not being strong enough. Of when the moment comes... I freeze. Of failing you all."
Shenlong coiled around his neck.
"You won't fail. Because you're not alone. And because you're the bravest brother I know."
"Braver than Bills?"
"Bills is brave in a different way. You are brave with your heart. That's harder."
Champa said nothing. But that night he cooked twice as much.
And so, between laughs, fights, confessions, and stars, two months passed in a blink.
Until finally, before them, it appeared.
A black hole.
Massive. Devouring. Impossible.
Its dark silhouette against the starry background was like an open mouth ready to swallow everything. Around it, light curved. Time distorted. Reality itself seemed to bend.
And floating right inside it, defying all logic, all physics, all common sense, a small sphere shone with its own light.
"There it is," Shenlong whispered, his green eyes fixed on the object. "The first sphere."
Ozari observed through an improvised telescope they had built from ship parts and a bit of creative energy.
"It's beautiful..." she said, amazed. "But it's in the most dangerous place in the universe."
Champa swallowed. For the first time in his life, he wasn't hungry.
"That... that consumes everything that gets near. Ships. Planets. Light. Time. Everything."
Bills was silent for a moment. His analytical mind worked at full speed.
"Not everything," he finally said.
The others looked at him.
"What?"
"The sphere. It's there. If the black hole consumed everything, the sphere wouldn't exist. Something protects it. Or something in it makes it resistant."
"And what does that mean?" Champa asked.
"It means we can reach it. But we need a plan. And a rope. A very, very long rope."
On a nearby planet, rich in strange minerals, the four siblings worked tirelessly.
They extracted rare metals from the depths. Flexible but resistant materials. Alloys that no professional miner could have obtained without heavy machinery.
But they didn't need machinery.
Ozari broke rocks with her fists. Bills cut veins with laser precision. Champa transported blocks the size of buildings. Shenlong melted and shaped the metal with his golden energy.
For four days, they worked day and night, taking turns sleeping only a few hours.
They built a tether. A rope. A hundred kilometers long. Every fiber imbued with the ki of all four. Every knot reinforced with pure energy.
Something that would have taken a team of engineers with advanced machinery months... they did in four days.
"It's... beautiful," Ozari said, stroking the thick cable coiled beside the ship.
"It's ours," Bills said. "And it will take us to the sphere."
From their hidden ships, the bounty hunters watched in disbelief.
"Did you see that?" one asked. "They extracted minerals from a mine we couldn't open in a month. In one day."
"They're demons," another replied. "They don't realize how powerful they are. They have no idea."
"Doesn't matter how much power they have," the leader said, his gaze fixed on the rope. "No one can beat a black hole. When they try... we'll be there. To pick up the pieces."
The ship approached as close as possible to the event horizon.
Gravity pulled at them. The ship's alarms blared. The hull creaked.
Bills tied one end of the rope around his waist. A simple knot. Effective.
"I'll go," he said calmly. With a peace that only the truly brave know.
"Bills..." Ozari began, her voice breaking.
"I'm the fastest. The most precise. The lightest. If anyone can do it, it's me."
"But..."
"Ozari. Trust me."
She looked into his eyes. She saw something she hadn't seen before. It wasn't determination. It wasn't pride. It was love.
"I trust you, brother."
Champa approached and punched him on the shoulder.
"Come back soon, okay? I still have to beat you in our next fight."
Bills almost smiled.
"Dream on."
Shenlong floated before him. His green eyes shone.
"Frya watches over you, Bills. I know it."
Bills nodded. And without another word, he launched himself into the void.
They released all their power.
Ozari, in Saya Phase, her orange aura burning the void. Champa, with his power at maximum, red like a furious star. Shenlong, golden and bright, his small form radiating ancient energy.
The rope tightened. The ship creaked. The black hole roared.
Bills flew. Gravity pulled at him with inhuman force. His energy fought against gravity. His muscles burned. His teeth ground.
But he kept going.
One hundred meters. Five hundred. One kilometer. Ten. Fifty.
The sphere was there. Floating. Shining. Waiting for him.
He reached out his arm. His fingers brushed the surface.
And then he touched it.
The pain was immediate. Explosive. Unbearable.
The sphere weighed a thousand tons. A thousand tons of pure energy, condensed into an object the size of a hen's egg. A thousand tons pressing against his hand, his arm, his soul.
Bills screamed.
A scream that pierced the void, that reached his siblings through the rope, that echoed in their hearts.
But he didn't let go.
"PULL!" Ozari roared, and her energy doubled.
"PULL!" Champa shouted, and his power burned brighter than ever.
"PULL!" Shenlong cried, and his small body trembled with the effort.
The rope creaked. The ki-imbued fibers shone with their own light. The black hole pulled harder. The three siblings pulled with everything they had.
Bills felt his arms tearing. His lungs burning. His consciousness beginning to fade.
But at that moment, he saw something.
A woman. With silver hair. Kind eyes. A warm smile.
"Don't give up, my son," she whispered. "I'm proud of you."
Frya.
Bills found strength where there was none.
And he pulled.
The sphere gave way.
He shot back toward his siblings, the sphere clutched against his chest, the black hole roaring in fury behind him.
They all fell together. Ozari caught Bills. Champa caught Ozari. Shenlong coiled around all three.
They floated in the void, exhausted, spent, breathing heavily.
But alive.
And in their midst, floating gently, the first sphere shone with an ancient light.
Hours later, still trembling from the effort, the four siblings gazed at their treasure.
The sphere was small. The size of an egg, a bit larger. Its surface was smooth, perfect, as if polished by eons. On one side, an engraved number glowed with a faint light: "1".
Ozari took it carefully. It weighed like a thousand mountains. But her energy held it, enveloped it, made it manageable.
"It must weigh at least a thousand tons," she said, amazed. "A thousand tons of pure energy. That's why it was in the black hole. Only there could it be hidden. Only something that dense can withstand that gravity."
"And we can carry it," Champa said, still out of breath. "Because we are Frya's children."
Bills, leaning against the ship's wall, pale but with a smile on his lips, nodded.
"And this is only the first."
Shenlong curled up next to the sphere, feeling its warmth.
"There are six more. Somewhere in the universe. Waiting for us."
Champa, with a final effort, created an energy shield around the ship.
"I can't do any more," he murmured, collapsing. "I spent more energy today than in my whole life. More than in all my food thefts combined."
The others nodded. They were empty. Exhausted. Broken.
But they were smiling.
They had done it.
The first sphere was theirs.
As sleep overcame them one by one, Shenlong coiled around Bills, who still trembled from the pain.
"Rest, brother," he whispered. "Today you were a hero."
Bills didn't respond. He was already asleep.
Outside, in the darkness of space, several bounty hunter ships surrounded them in the distance.
Waiting for the perfect moment to attack.
One of them adjusted his visor.
"When they wake up... they won't be alone."