The first chapter was written by Revu. I used to send first chapters to authors who finish them one day. Now I'm going to see if I can try it with this story. Please review.
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"Do you know why your friends laugh at you?"
"My friends don't laugh at me!"
"Of course they do!"
"I'm a well-respected fighter, one of the strongest on earth!"
"What have you ever done to earn respect?"
"I've been through and seen a lot, what would you know?"
"I know all about this…"
"What?" Images from Krillin's life flashed by: Raditz smacked him across the face with his tail and sent him hurtling into Kame House, Piccolo beat him senseless at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, Freeza impales Krillin with a horn and bucks his limp body around, Krillin burst through the clouds to attack the metallic shell of Dr. Wheelo but is smashed across the face with a metal claw before he gets the chance, Krillin is caught off guard by Tambourine and a kick across the head snaps his neck and he dies, the monks of Orin Temple beat up Krillin as a kid, with only one hand Dr. Gero pummels Krillin to the ground, Krillin is blown into the sky by Frieza's attack and barely manages to scream for help before his body explodes. "No more, please! STOOOP!"
Krillin snapped up from his hammock in the attic of Kame House, suddenly wide awake. He tried to calm himself but was too slow for the tears that were building to be released, "When did I become so pathetic?"
With a shake of his head and stoning his demeanor, Krillin jumped up, "I may not have always been a big help when people needed me, but I'm still here! I can be different, I can do this!"
It was the middle of the night still as Krillin flew on his own to Capsule Corp. He floated for a moment before he landed by the space capsule that Vegeta trained in, "I've gotta prove myself, I can still be a valuable member of the team!"
The door to the spae ship opened and Krillin stepped inside, "What setting is it that Vegeta always trains at, five hundred times gravity?" Krillin looked at the control of the gravity machine for a second. "Well… if I turn it up to five hundred I'm just asking for it. I want to get there, but I should probably check how I do with something a little lower first. Maybe three hundred?"
The dial on the machine was turned to three hundred times gravity, and then Krillin pressed the 'on' button. The color in the room went red as the machine powered up and Krillin immediately felt his weight beginning to shift in his body. Then all at once the machine reached full power and he was forced to the floor.
On his hands and knees, Krilling tried getting back up, "Come on Krillin, you can do this…" First one foot went up, then the other, then he started to stand straight, "Now… walk!" With exaggerated clomps Krillin made his way around the room, "Oh man… this can tire out a guy really quick."
No one stood by the control panel, but the control knob began to turn. First to three hundred and one, then to three hundred and two, then it began spinning much more rapidly.
"Getting… so… weak…" Finally Krillin's leg gave out from under him and he ended up face down on the floor of the ship. He tried pushing himself up, but his arms just barely moved. "No! I've got to… get up… or I'm gonna die here!"
Krillin struggled with all of his strength, but just couldn't get himself of the floor. His vision was turning red as his heart coped with delivering blood to his brain in conditions it wasn't used to. All Krillin could hear was the sound of his heart thumping in his ears. He didn't even notice the door open and someone enter.
A pair of boots stopped in front of him for a moment as if regarding what to do with him, then moved over to the control panel.
The gravity returned to normal and Krillin's body swelled back out, "Oh Kami, thank you!" Krillin breathed out in relief.
"Feel fortunate that I have no desire to explain to Bulma why one of her friends was crushed to death on my training floor, otherwise I would have left you to deal with it yourself," Krillin knew, out of all people, he had Vegeta to thank for saving him.
"Thank you," Krillin managed to choke out.
"I don't want your thanks," Vegeta crossed his arms and stood intimidatingly over Krillin, "I've grown accustomed to witnessing how pathetic you humans can be, but you take these limitations to the next level both physically and mentally."
Krillin stared at Vegeta, at a complete loss of words for a moment, and even then the only thing he was able to reply with was, "What?"
"I'm calling you an imbecile, now go find someplace else to bury your carcass!" Vegeta chased Krillin out of the training room and Krillin quickly fled the compound from embarrassment.
"I was really almost crushed to death by three hundred times gravity. My friends are training in over five hundred, and just half of that is enough to just kill me!" Krillin grumbled to himself.
After a few minutes of flying, Krillin was over the ocean again, "I… I should just give up. It's not like I'm ever going to be able to actually help any of my friends again. They don't even need me around!"
The sky was beginning to lighten as the sun approached the horizon.
"Stupid saiyans for being so strong!"
The light from the sun flashed across the ocean as a new day began.
"Stupid Krillin for not being strong enough."
More tears came to Krillin's eyes, "I wish… I wish things could have been different. If I knew a long time ago what I know now I could have kept up with Goku and then… and then… I could have been strong... maybe even the strongest!"
Where the bright morning sun had been just a moment prior, the sky now darkened. Thick black clouds rolled past Krillin mystically fast. Lightning began filling the sky in a violent show of terrestrial power.
"Did someone summon the dragon without me knowing?" Krillin stopped and stared. The lightning was actually even more violent, and the storm more turbulent than the he had ever seen caused by the ritual summoning.
The wind was making it hard to stay airborne, "What's… happening?!"
A blinding flash and deafening roar were the last things Krill was able to make out.
It seemed like an eternity passed that all Krillin could see was never ending white, and all he could hear with his obnoxious ring. After several moments the ringing began to fade, and then Krillin could see the inside of his eye lids followed by his hands in front of his face, but the rest of the world around him was still white.
"What…"
"Do you truly wish this?" A deep echoing voice boomed from behind and caused Krillin to yelp and turn around. The figure in front of him, it had a human like form, but it was blurry. The tone of the skin, facial features, details like hands, fingers, feet, they were all impossible to make out.
Krillin immediately became defensive, "Who… who are you?"
"You wished to be the strongest, is this truly your wish?" Krillin could have sworn he recognized the voice from somewhere. It was like a fading memory that he couldn't place.
I've gotta be dreaming…" Krillin tried staring deeper into whoever this was in front of him. The blurriness moved in waves like a transparent fire, nothing about this seamed real so Krillin played along, "More than anything, I want to be strong. Stronger than all the others, I want to know what it's like to have them look to me to save them rather than always being just another burden…" Krillin gulped not realizing he'd held so much emotion in this statement, "I… I want to not be so…" Krillin finally choked on his words before he broke.
"Pathetic?" Krillin's eyes widened, and he realized that he'd used that word to describe himself already.
"Yes, I'm pathetic…" Krillin admitted.
"I can assist you," the being tilted its head and looked down at Krillin still with an unreadable blurry expression.
More time passed as Krillin felt lost in this unnatural place that couldn't be real, "What do you want from me?"
"How badly do you want your wish? A wish that would be impossible for even the Eternal Dragon Shenron and the Dragon of Love Parunga combined to grant?"
More memories of all of Krillin's failures flooded his mind. The times he was beaten, the times he was killed. All of it going so far back now. "More than anything," Krillin finally replied.
"Then we can make… a deal," The being held out what looked like a contract.
Krillin was able to read it fine despite it being held by someone he could see no details of, "I get my wish and you get… to trade places with someone of my choosing?"
The being nodded, "I will grant you the power, any person you choose will be sent to my world, and whenever you enact this power someone of my world will be sent to yours. You have ten years to use this power at least once. If after ten years you have not used it then you will return to being the weakling you are now. You are however free to use it as often as you so wish."
"So… this power doesn't kill anyone, just causes them to trade places?" Krillin verified.
"Correct."
Krillin gulped, "This is probably the craziest dream I've ever had anyway, so why not?" A pen appeared in Krillin's hand and he signed the contract.
The taller being immediately rolled it up and looked down at Krillin, "Thank you…" The space where its eyes should be was then noticeably black, still completely devoid of detail. Krillin stared into them as it seemed that this whole world of nothing was being pulling into the black spaces of those eyes. Krillin couldn't resist the force either as he was pulled into the empty churning nothingness. The closer he got to the void the larger it became, or the smaller he became. He screamed as he fell into a whirlpool of bleak emptiness.
As the world came back into view Krillin came upon the floor hard. A finely polished wood floor, like the kind you'd find in a temple dojo. Krillin sat up and rubbed his head and immediately noticed everything about him felt weird. Looking at his hands they even looked… smaller.
"You're such a miserable runt, I can't believe the master wastes his time on you," The voice was really familiar. Krillin turned around and saw several of the monks he used to know back when he was a monk of Orin Temple. The same monks who used to beat him up and torment him. They looked exactly the same as they did all those years ago when he was a boy.
As Krillin stood he looked down at himself. The clothes he was wearing, they were the outfits of the Orin monks, and he was… a boy. "What? How?"
Footsteps were coming up fast from his side, the tall thin monk threw a punch to Krillin's stomach. Krillin remembered taking the hit and being flung against the wall as a kid, but his reactions were different this time.
Krillin caught the punch with ease, he could barely even feel the force of the fist collide with his finger that he blocked with, "I still have all my strength?"
"Did he actually block it?" The other monks grimaced in shock.
Krillin held his hand against his assaulter's abdomen and simply flicked his finger. The hit drove the monk completely through the opposite wall of the dojo.
The monks stared at the body shaped hole in the wall with their mouths agape.
"Now…" Krillin stretched his arm out like he was getting ready to throw a baseball, "Who wants to test me next?"
