King Piccolo Saga: Part I
Somewhere on the Earth, in a beautiful area filled with grassy plains and large mountains in the distance, found Tien, Chioatzu and Master Roshi; they had been frantically searching for the dragonballs ever since King Piccolo's liberation and the radar had pinpointed one in this area.
After a few minutes of searching, Chiaotzu ecstatically held up the three-star-dragonball with a large grin, chuckling. "Hey, guys! I found it!"
"That gives us five," the elderly teacher said, his expression unchanging.
"There's still one, not including Piccolo's ball," Tenshinhan added.
Master Roshi brought the Dragonradar up to his face. CLIC! He turned the radar on then it immediately began scanning the entire planet for a unique energy signature. "Let's see..."
"What's going on?"
Beads of sweat dripped onto the wise old man's raised brow as he looked at the small screen. "They're both together..." He was surprised; he knew that Goku had one...so...what happened to it? How did King Piccolo get his hands on it? "...and moving toward us."
Tien clenched his fist tightly. "Piccolo is on our traces!" he exclaimed, eyes wide and it shock.
Elsewhere...
A purple car was hastily moving across the country side. Inside of it was Son Goku—who as of right now, was severely injured after miraculously surviving the vicious onslaught the green-demon, King Piccolo had dealt, and a new friend of his he had just recently encountered named Yajirobe.
"Yajirobe, why didn't you help me?" the boy asked with a huge grin on his face despite his injuries.
"I'm not crazy! I don't wanna die!"
High In the sky, in the self-proclaimed Emperor Pilaf's airship, Pilaf, Mai, Shu, King Piccolo and Piano were fixated on the global dragonradar. BIP! BIP! BIP! Suddenly, five small dots appeared, all gathered in one location.
"The five dragonballs are coming toward us!" the blue imp, Pilaf pointed at the screen in shock and awe.
Piccolo Daiamo, the most poweful being on the planet, a demon nonpareil, smirked broadly. "Who is the fool who dares come towards me?" he boasted aloud. "How does he know that I have the dragonballs?"
Inside Tenshinhan's Plane
"We're nearing Piccolo," Roshi confirmed, looking at the dots on the dragonradar. "We'll be helpless against him..." his tone became all the most serious. "...If we can't get his dragonballs and summon Shenron." he took off his sunglasses, placing them in his pocket. "We have no choice. We'll need some luck."
"Hmm..."
ZOUM! Yajirobe and Goku zipped passed an unsuspecting civilian on a bicycle. "Where is it?" the fat samurai asked.
"Uh... To the left," Goku responded nonchalantly. "Cool car."
"You think so too, eh?" Yajirobe smiled. "When I stole it, I thought it was for a good cause." he looked at the boy in the corner of his eye as he spoke, "You should leave Piccolo alone, though."
Still in pain, Goku could barely keep his eyes open. "You know him?"
"I've heard stories about him. He's a horrible monster! He tried to conquer the world once, but lucky for us, an expert martial artist stopped him."
"I'd like to know how he did it." The monkey-like-tailed-boy wondered.
"No idea."
It was truly amazing. Up until a few days ago Goku thought he already faced the top contender in the world—Tenshinhan. But to think there was not only a demon stronger than him but even another martial arts master several years ago got him excited.
"So, what happens when l the dragonballs are brought together?" The samurai had never even heard of such artefacts before.
"Shenron appears and grants you a wish."
"Any wish?" he immediately queried. 'What could Piccolo want?'
"Yeah." the car was coming close to a dead-end. "Take a left."
"Youth!" King Piccolo exclaimed, clenching his fist. "Eternal youth!" he laughed.
"We'll land here," Roshi sternly said.
"For what?" Tien wondered. He decided to do it anyway before hearing a reply.
"To transform the plane back into a capsule." Roshi immediately got out as the hatch opened.
"All right." Tien and Chiaotzu got out as well.
"Touaah!" the old master ripped through the air with his fist, leaving the wind generated by the attack to blow a hole into the ground. Roshi turned to the group. "We'll hide the dragonballs in here."
"Ok." the white-faced boy simply replied, placing the balls into the hole. "I see."
"That should make it harder for Piccolo."
Chiaotzu quickly covered them up with dirt.
"Now listen! Chiaotzu, you'll hide behind that rock. Tenshinhan and I will try to steal the dragonballs while Piccolo is looking for ours." Roshi ordered, pointing toward said rock. "Once we succeed, we'll pass them over to you and you can summon Shenron with the seven balls." he turned toward Chiatozu. "You just have to say, 'Shenron! Come forth!' and say your wish." just then, he looked down at the radar, seeing the dots are getting closer and closer. "Good! They'll be here soon! Places!" the Turtle Hermit yelled.
They ran to their places as planned.
Back on Pilaf's airship...
Pilaf looked at the global dragonradar wide-eyed, and again, in awe. "They're there!"
King Piccolo, ever the strategist, easily recognized the most likely solution. "It must be a trap." he smiled confidently, almost as if he was trying to contain his laughter. "Amuzing..."
Tien and Roshi were hiding behind another rock, looking at the radar, gauging the time of his arrival. "They're coming." beads of sweat fell down his forehead.
"Huh?" Tien peaked around the corner. "They're coming in an airship!"
"I see it."
Down in the cockpit of the airship, Mai grabbed the head of the transceiver. "King Piccolo. We're just above the dragonballs."
"All right!" The tall demon replied, standing up from off his throne. "I'm off!" he smirked.
Instead of landing, the airship stayed steady, hovering in the air. The group were standing outside, on the roof of the vehicle.
Tien peaked out even further, being even more careful not to get spotted. "They're not landing... They're going to keep the two balls in the ship."
"We'll have to go up there." Roshi was a little scared to do it, but if the entire world is on the line, he'd have to just suck it up.
The blue imp looked over the railing of the airship. "There's no one there!"
"They're hiding. They want to steal my dragonballs. I'll keep them on me!" the elderly King of demon's stuck out his unnaturally large tongue, placing the two balls on them then receded his tongue, swallowing the dragonballs. They were now within his own body, unable to be reached by his enemies.
"That's him! That's Piccolo Daiamo!" I saw him! He ate the dragonballs!"
"What?!" the Turtle Hermin yelled to his great horror. "By the diseased turtle! We can't get the dragonballs without killing him!"
"All right, then!" Tenshinhan surprisingly said with confidence. "Let's fight!"
Roshi, still looking ahead to King Piccolo threw up his open hand as if signalling stop. "Stay here! Let me take care of him!" even more nervous sweat accumulated on his forehead. "I won't die! I drank the Elixir of Youth!"
Tien took an offensive fighting stance. "What?! Are you saying that I came here for nothing?" he brought up a tightly clenched fist in front of him, clearly angered by Roshi's new plan. "I want to fight!"
Without warning and no time for Tien to react, the aging martial artist brought out a spray can, then shot it out in Tenshinhan's face, Roshi instantly covered his own mouth with his own hand. It was knockout gas!
Tenshinhan wasn't exactly aware of what just happened. All he knew was that he was now focusing as hard as he could to stay standing. "Wh... What the..." try as he might, Tien collapsed then and there.
Master Roshi lifted Tien's legs, dragging deeper inside the cave. "Sleep..." he layed him down slowly and carefully. 'I was lying, there's no such thing as an Elixir of Youth; I'm just about as immortal as you! Still, I'm the only one who stands a chance against King Piccolo. If I'm not up to my reputation, the fate of the world is in your hands.'
The Turtle Hermit walked to the back entrance of the cave, looking at the red-cheeked boy, and shouted, "Chiaotzu! Can you hear me? The operation is cancelled! Whatever happens, don't show yourself!"
"Ok! I understand!"
Roshi turned back, ready as ever to reveal himself. "Speak of my memory to the world." he muttered as he walked outside.
"Eh?"
"Down there!"
The Turtle Hermit looked up in the sky. "I'M HERE! PICCOLO!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.
King Piccolo smirked, looking down at the man who called him. From that distance, he looks about as intimating as an ant. "Coming out already? How do you know my name?" he queried. "It doesn't matter; you're going to die!" The demon leaped off the airship balcony to the ground below, landing with a loud THUMP! Piccolo Daiamo easily towered over his opponent.
Roshi growled. "My dragonballs are buried here! If you want them, you have to go over my dead body!" he exclaimed, pointing his index finger on the spot.
The green demon started with a snicker that rapidly evolved into an all out chortle. "You make me laugh!"
"Not for long."
Chiatozu looked on at the confrontation with horror in his eyes.
Tenshinhan came to, witnessing the confrontation himself. "No..." he could barely speak.
"Hehehehe! You shouldn't taunt me like that! Do you know who you're talking to? You're playing with your life! You're behaviour is suicidal!"
Back on the airship's balcony, the others also watched what was transpiring below. "Hehehe! King Piccolo will beat him in a second!" a strange looking, pterodactyl-like demon named Piano commented.
"I know who I'm talking to."
Piccolo chucked again. "No kidding?" he thought this old man must be absolutely foolish to challenge him, especially since he actually had heard of him. He continued to smirk.
Roshi raised a brow. "It's not the first time we've met. The last time I was with my master. I've already had a meeting with you."
"Huh?" The Daimao had now stopped smirking and listened carefully, his gaze becoming less and less confident by the second.
"Would you like to know his name?" he asked rhetorically. "Mutaito!"
"Huh?! Wha..?" King Piccolo had now completely dropped his confident attitude, now staring wide-eyed at the teacher, paralyzed with fear.
The Turtle Hermit took out a capsule from his inside his overcoat and threw it on the ground.
BOM! The capsule-technology exploded with a giant ball of white smoke. As soon as it cleared, a small, electric rice-cooker, blue and white in appearance, and with a Kanji saying 'Evil Containment' on the front was now visible.
"The rice-cooker!" he shouted frantically. "No! Im-Impossible!"
Chaotzu looked shocked, to say the least. Was Roshi really planning to...
Tien, laying down, stomach-first, was shocked as well. 'T-The Evil Containment Wave! He knows the secret technique! He'll die!'
Master Roshi tightly clenched both of his fists and brought them in front of him, knees bent as well. "I'm sure you haven't forgotten... The technique that allowed my master to seal you within the electric rice-cooker!" he shouted.
"Ah... AAAH...!" Piccolo Daimao screamed, fearful. Was his reign to be prematurely ended by this... old man?
"This isn't good!" Piano yelled. "Incredible!"
"Eh?"
"NOOOOOOO!" The ancient demon leaped high in the air, desperately attempting to escape out of fear.
Fluorescent light projected out from the Turtle Hermit's fingertips, completely enveloping the fleeing Demon King; he was being twisted inward, his body bending along the surge of green light. Piccolo's entire body was repeatedly curving, whirling, stretching, closing...
...and drawing ever closer to the instrument of his defeat.
"Master! No!"
Roshi quickly thrusted his hands downward, angling the light toward the open rice-cooker. A split-second away from the tall demon's form being contained inside the pint-sized prison, it was destroyed by a yellow beam from his offspring Piano, saving King Piccolo but even Roshi's life. "What!?" The ageing martial arts master cried out to his shame.
The Demon King stood back up. Panting heavily but slowly getting over the intense shock, he smirked broadly. "I'll admit, you actually did have me worried there." he looked up to Piano. "...but it seems Piano's interference not only saved me from being imprisoned, but also saved your life as well..."
Roshi collapsed to his knees. "I... I would have got em... I would've got-" he fell on the ground. At first he was just barely awake before gradually drifting away to unconsciousness.
King Piccolo laughed manically, aloud. "Perhaps I spoke too soon," he stated as he walked toward him, lifting the old man up by his coat. "Oh?" he was able to faintly feel a heartbeat. "You are still alive... Let's fix that, shall we?" he threw a devastating punch at Roshi's jaw, the force sending his body sliding along the dirt. "Ha ha ha! He was no match for me! He's dead!"
Several tears started falling down the boys chalk-white-face. Master Roshi was willing to risk his own life to save theirs. He understood that despite their previous mentor, the Crane Hermit's influence on him and his friend, Tien, Roshi still believed—and rightfully so, that they weren't entirely evil, and they only acted the way they did because that's all they knew—it was their upbringing. Chiaotzu never would have thought someone could care for him as much as he did for Tenshinhan and vise-versa.
"No!" Tien yelled, slamming the bottom end of his tightly clenched fists on the ground, leaving a small crack in the earth below.
"We won!" Piano laughed. "Well done!" the entire group was happy.
"I'm surprised someone still knew of that technique. It doesn't matter because he's dead! I'm not afraid of anything!" Piccolo extended his hand out, palm up. Bringing his index and middle finger upward, he utilized his unique telekinetic abilities and 'lifted' the dragonballs up from beneath the ground. The tall demon smirked a wide-open mouth smile. "Now I have all the seven dragonballs! I'll finally be young again! Then no one will be able to challenge me!"
'H... He wants to be young again. Now I get it.'
"And now... Come forth, Shenon!" he called out ecstatically.
All seven dragonballs instantly started glowing, the sky turning pitch black as well.
'The sky's all dark!?' Chiaotzu looked around, unsure of what was happening around him.
"Shenron's going to appear!" the blue imp called out.
"Piccolo will be invincible!" Mai, the female of the group, said.
'Damn! No! I have to do something!' Tenshinhan thought in desperation.
Pure energy cackled in the surrounding air, gradually rising up several stories, eventually forming into a large dragon to the amazement of everyone watching.
"I... Incredible!" Piccolo Daimao muttered.
— Chiaotzu, can you hear me?
— Huh? Tien?
— Listen! I'm not completely sure on what's going on but I know have to say our wish first... Before Piccolo does. Tell Shenron... To destroy Piccolo! Okay?
— Ok! I understand.
"WHAT IS YOUR WISH?" The Dragon boomed. "I REMIND YOU THAT YOU ONLY GET ONE."
"I'll tell you. I want..."
As he was able to proclaim his wish and as Chioatzu was about to call out his own, something happened that shocked everybody: Roshi, still alive and well sat up, placing his hands over his face, fingers widely spread. "Solar Flare!" a high energy release of bright, white light projected throughout area, blinding all but the latter and Shenron.
"Ahh! My technique!" Tien, although blinded by the intense light, was completely amazed at what just happened. Roshi wasn't dead afterall!
"WHAT?!" King Piccolo yelled in annoyance and confusion, rubbing his eyes, desperately hoping to regain his vision.
"I wish for youth!" Roshi screamed at the top of his lungs, quickly standing up.
"No! That's my wish!"
Shenron's magnificent red eyes glowed brightly, his whiskers undulating in the wind.
The Turtle Hermit's body started vibrating. His old, worn out muscles suddenly revitalized and grew larger heightening in strength; the wrinkles on his skin disappeared, returning to how it once looked hundreds of years ago. His white beard and mustache were completely erased and he was now clean-shaven. Roshi's baldness was no longer present as he suddenly grew a full head of black hair. He also regained a mouth full of teeth. Roshi now looked as youthful as he did when he was eighteen years old. And all before anyone got back their sight.
"YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED."
Roshi clenched his fists then opened his hands, no longer feeling the familiar tinge of arthritis. He couldn't believe it; the dragon was actually able to restore his youth, and before he had a chance to restore Piccolo's, getting the idea from hearing his boasts. "Woohoo!" he cheered. "I don't believe it! I'm young again!" the young man renewed with vitality was smiling broadly. But he knew this wasn't the time for further celebration; a few moments later he fixated a serious-looking stare on the demon. It was now time to try to defeat Piccolo once more.
The effects of the Solar Flare technique had finally subsided; the King of Demon's opened his eyes and returned a gaze of horror.
Hey everyone! This a story I've had on my mind for quite some time now. I've always thought Roshi could be a member of the Z-Fighters if he kept training, even as an old man, I still think he could've been really powerful but instead he felt he was too old. However, I realized that if he was as youthful as the others he'd feel as though he were part of the new generation; Roshi says a lot of times in the Tien saga that a new generation has arrived and he can finally step down...Well now he's a part of it and can still give guidance to this new era! Also, sorry about the majority of the prologue being essentially the manga written descriptively, but it had to be done. I'd also like to thank Mr. Arkham, author of Fall of Lord Frieza and Guardian for helping me somewhat with the planning. Initially I wasn't planning on Roshi using Solar Flare, so I'd like to thank him for the idea, and if you have the time you should check out his stories. Plus, SuperVegetarott edited this chapter for me, so if you have a chance check out his stories as well!
Begins during the King Piccolo saga, will go on through Dragon Ball Z as well.