Chapter 3: The training begins…unexpected ally and unexpected enemy?

While in the journey, Krillin felt Piccolo's ki going to the same way as he was. He approached him and greeted him as an old friend, yet Piccolo, just like in the first encounter, answered coldly.

"These things we found," the Namek began. "They're some sort of ship from Bulma and Vegeta. Don't think I'm going to that spoiled brat party, I'm just giving it back."

"Whoa!" Krillin exclaimed upon hearing that. "You wish! Forgive me, but there's no chance I'm letting you do that! These ships have a gravity system on them. We could train all we want, and travel across the universe!"

They landed outside Capsule Corp., but they felt their friends' energies on the inside.

"In that case," Piccolo made a toy with his powers, and then gave it to Krillin in a box. "See you."

Piccolo barely talked, yet the words were just enough for his rude nature. However, Krillin was happy that the ruthless King Piccolo that had once sent a minion to kill him, was now a peaceful Namek that made part of the Z-fighters.

The party went smoothly. Despite the childish games, Krillin had fun with Goku and the others. And so, the time passed and Krillin realized he had counted minutes to arrive to his home, with his wife and his daughter. But little he knew that something would happen in that moment that would change his life completely.

Trunks, before his birthday was over, wanted a fight in the gravity chamber. Goten, Goku, and even Vegeta offered to be their opponents, but Krillin took the lead and told everyone that he was to be the young saiyan's sparring partner. Vegeta and Trunks laughed, while Goku and Gohan told Krillin it was awesome that he wanted to keep his skills sharp.

"Fine! Show me what you can do!" taunted Vegeta's son. He was confident he would defeat the Earthling despite the fact that he hadn't trained a bit after Buu's defeat, contrary to his father.

The battle began quickly, with both opponents sharing a couple punches in stomach, face, and in general the whole body. In a moment when Trunks had punched Krillin, the latter took the chance to grab the former's hand and throw it into the wall, but the kid recovered in time and powered up, flying towards his opponent. His effort was stupid though, as the experienced fighter gave the kid a perfectly timed punch in the jaw and sent it towards the ceiling.

Exasperated, Vegeta managed to put the gravity system while nobody noticed, making his son and Krillin fifty times their weight. Krillin knelt suddenly as Trunks took the chance to power up into a Super Saiyan and take the hell out of the human. The man tried to fight back, yet his opponent's power was greater than his and there was barely any chance. All of a sudden, an idea came to Earthling. He was gravely injured, but in enough condition to pull out his plan and succeed. When Trunks was done with an attack, Krillin finally got separated and took the opportunity.

"I've had enough!" he yelled at the top of his voice, as he powered up to his limits, and charged against the saiyan.

Trunks was ready for a direct punch and decided to block it with enough timing, so he got in attack position. Krillin approached the kid with his fist ready, and just when it seemed that it'd hit, he vanished into the air, just like the Z-fighters usually did.

"Blast!" thought Trunks. "Where'd he go?"

The answer, unfortunately for him, was right in his back.

"Destructo Disc!"

An energy saucer, charged with all of Krillin's power, was directed to Trunks' back, and was about to hit him in the back and slice him into a pair of lifeless flesh. Nevertheless, as Krillin had done earlier with himself, the ki blast disappeared just before Krillin's eyes.

"What?" screamed Krillin in anger as his only shot to beat the young saiyan had vanished into the air by somebody's interference.

The gravity went down again, and Krillin felt relieved that he was both alive and standing in Earth's gravity of almost 10. He felt disappointed though, as he sensed an enormous energy right next to him with the Destructo Disc in his hands.

"Gohan! I was doing fine, and you come and grab my Destructo Disc, spoiling my only chance against Trunks! Who do you think you are?" spat Krillin, obviously bothered due to his newly-refreshed battle spirit.

"You're overdoing it, Krillin. You could've killed Trunks there." Gohan calmly stated.

Krillin would have liked to give Gohan a beating, but neither we was able to do it in his state of energy, nor on full health he would've stood any chance. This teen was holding his most powerful technique as easy as a pizza. Eventually, Gohan overpowered the Destructo Disc and the ki blast disappeared, this time for good. Trunks stopped his Super Saiyan state, and Krillin stood up, still burning with rage but struggling to hide it.

Before anyone could say anything, a message from telepathy came directly from King Kai. As always, something had happened, and, as always, it was an intergalactic force concerning evil that threatened the universe. AGAIN. The God told the Saiyans to go to a planet far away from Earth, claiming that it was a real emergency that had to be attended in that moment, or else the universe would be doomed.

"Aren't you exaggerating a bit, King Kai?" asked Goku.

"I'm not fooling around Goku! These guys live in a planet named Batora, to which I will give Bulma the instructions so that she can program a space ship to depart right away!" snarled King Kai.

"Uh, wouldn't it be better if we used my dad's Instant Transmission? Or the Supreme Kai's?" wondered Gohan.

"The Supreme Kai is actually very busy, he's trying to fix something with Yemma and the Other World souls. Plus, Goku's instant transmission needs sensing energies, remember?" King Kai blurted. He seemed really bothered by Gohan's question, and in general for the Z-warriors disagreement.

In the meantime, Krillin and Trunks got healed by Senzu beans, and got fresh and untouched clothes from Bulma, who, told by King Kai about the situation, programmed a brand new spaceship for five people, of course, with the gravity system characteristic of Capsule Corp. since Goku had gone to Namek.

"HOLD IT!" stopped Videl, who was present in the party but absent for some time since he had to deal with some unfinished business of his father while he was away. "Gohan, does that mean we won't train anymore?"

The young man lowered his head, closed his eyes, and sighed.

"Yes Videl, that's what it means. Taking you to that planet would be putting you in serious danger. Sorry."

"Sorry to interrupt the beautiful moment," began King Kai with sarcasm. "BUT YOU HAVE TO GO RIGHT AWAY!"

Although it wasn't common that King Kai lost its composure in pressure moments regarding the universe's fate, nobody took notice. And so, after bidding farewell to everyone in the party, including Chi-chi, Videl, Krillin, Master Roshi, Oolong, and the rest of the people who had assisted, Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Goten and Trunks departed to take care of the threat that King Kai was so worried about.

Everyone was leaving from Capsule Corp, as Krillin approached Videl and talked to her for a second.

"Hey Videl. I heard you were training with Gohan, but, since he's gone, how about you and I train for a while?" Krillin proposed to her. Suddenly, he thought that his words were a little too promising, but there was no way to retire them now.

"I…I…" Videl was unsure about this proposal, but the human had been a great fighter, it was obvious that he had enough experience to teach her some real skills. "Fine then, Krillin, I'll train with you. Just give me a call when you're ready. Oh, and don't you dare take me lightly just because I'm a girl!" her tone changed in an instant.

"I'll be departing to Namek in a few days, and travelling there might not be a bad idea after all. We'll get in about three months, good time for training. Just call me when you're ready to leave, 'kay?" informed Krillin with enthusiasm.

Videl nodded as she and Krillin departed from the scene to their respective mansions. Krillin arrived quickly, not wanting to delay himself more .Moreover, it was late enough and 18 wouldn't be happy, and hell, that wasn't a happy scene to be at. Nonetheless, upon arriving, 18 was wrapping up their daughter in sheets, and wishing her good night. Krillin came in through the enormous window and 18, instead of scolding him, welcomed him warmly. But Krillin stood firm, ready to say what he had to say.

"I'm leaving, Eighteen. I'm going to Namek to train and I'll be absent half-a-year, so I can match Goku and the others' strength. I've decided that and nothing you'll say will make me stay."

18 was so astounded at this, that she had to think about it a pair of seconds before fully understanding what her husband was saying to her.

"You what? Are you insane? What use will that be? Do you plan to leave me alone? What will be of our girl?" retorted 18. She couldn't bear it.

"I told you that nothing would change my mind. Please take care of Marron while I'm gone." Was Krillin's answer, as he turned towards the window where he had entered in the first place, and started leaving his home to begin training in the spaceship while Videl told him that he was ready.

18 started crying.

"Fight me!" demanded the woman in tears. "If you lose against me, then there's no chance of you to even match those hot-headed monkeys!"

Krillin turned back again, and, upon gazing her, he opted to do it. She wasn't probably right: 18 was android and was actually as strong as Cell had been in his first form, which was probably about a Super Saiyan's strength by that time, even further. Krillin was sure that his wife's power hadn't diminished between the Android Saga and the Buu Saga, but neither it had grown. He was to be careful.

The human nodded and they took off to some faraway place, leaving their daughter home, completely forgetting about her existence. While on the way, Krillin was shivering with anticipation due to having his final test. If he could do it, he'd train and become powerful. Now that Goku and the other Z-fighters were in a battle, it was about time that Krillin enhanced his skills to match everyone's. It didn't matter what Tien say, he would become the strongest without exception. And he would spar with Goku and fight Vegeta for serious, even take Gotenks on if there was the chance and land powerful hits on Gohan despite the young Saiyan's released potential.

18 landed smoothly and so did Krillin. She got into position, clearing some hair that had gotten into her face. Krillin got into position too and began gathering energy in his fists, ready to give powerful punches to his opponent despite being her own wife. That was it, just one chance. His tactic was to be the same as the one against Trunks, to find an opening and then strike.

Krillin started with a hard, energy punch to his wife's stomach and caught her off-guard, but then she grabbed quickly his fist and sent him flying as she used her Infinity Bullet technique, which Krillin received directly. As he regained his composure, 18 approached him at high speed, ready to punch him.

"Kamehameha!" shouted Krillin as he quickly did the maneuvers necessary for the technique execution.

The blue beam was easily deflected but Krillin was able to get close to 18 and land a pair of energy-charged punches. However, the energy faded as the android started to defend herself, thus ensuing a close combat in which Krillin was shown to have a clear disadvantage.

After a while, 18 was tired of playing games with Krillin since she knew that she wasn't unleashing her full potential, and she had to win. She wouldn't let Krillin win because she had already suffered a lot with being taken away from her real human family and having turned into a monstrous android. But Krillin (and Marron, lately) had made her feel like a real human. The only remainder of her android part was her name, which had been forgotten due to Gero's experiment. However, she didn't put too much thought into it and just let it go.

Krillin was losing, and badly. Every time he tried to dodge 18's punch, using afterimages, she would chase him and keep punching him. It was strange how her wife was stronger than Trunks, although it could be attributed to the fact that androids didn't lose power unlike humans, who, if lacked training, could actually worsen their shape. Possibly that part of the young half-saiyan was active, and as such, his fighting capability had been diminished. Or, 18 was going all-out on him while Trunks, in his stupid saiyan pride, had held back.

It didn't matter anyway, he was getting owned like always (or probably, like never). In a sudden moment of wrath, Eighteen kicked Krillin hard and sent him against some rocks. Krillin received the full impact of the crash, and suffered even more as his wife approached at blinding speed and began punching his stomach.

"Will you really leave me Krillin? Will you?" shouted the woman in desperation, as Krillin, of course unable to answer, tried to gather energy in his hands again and send a final Kamehameha with all of his hopes. If it failed, everything was lost.

However, without warning, 18 stopped punching and felt paralyzed. A small, purplish spaceship landed near and transformed itself into an enormous monster without a clear face, but a buffed up body made of a tentacles and thin legs that appeared to be a bunch of strings put together. The beast, slowly, made a hole in the middle of its body, released similar tentacles to the ones making up its body, and surrounded 18 with them. Then, the paralyzed body of Krillin's wife went into the beast.

Having recovered a bit from the beating, Krillin got in front of the beast as it swallowed his wife. He couldn't believe it, he was always unlucky. And although his wife could have killed him without wanting, he would have preferred that to losing her. His hands began gathering the energy that he had previously intended of using on his opponent, and he was ready to use, instead of a Kamehameha, a Destructo Disc to cut off the head of that blasted monster.

"Hey you idiot!" shouted Krillin.

The beast turned back before turning itself into a spaceship again.

"Give me back my wife! I'm your opponent now, piece of garbage! Get ready!"

The giant only stayed there, apparently staring at him. It was hard to notice since it didn't have eyes (or at least something similar).

"Spit her out. Now!" Krillin was starting to get serious. The energy almost filled his hands.

"Do it! Or else!"

The energy was ready, yet the monster was standing as if nothing, completely oblivious to Krillin's talk.

"You wanted it! DESTRUCTO DISC!" screamed the human as he quickly did the energy saucer in his hands, and sent it towards his opponent.

The monster's head got cut off, just like Buu's body had been sliced some time ago, when he had gone to the other world in search of strong fighters. And just like that time, Krillin knew that something would go wrong, despite the fact that it appeared that he had won.

He was right. The monster regenerated quickly his head, and released the same tentacles as before, targeting Krillin. Unable to react in time, Krillin felt his whole body uneasy as all of his energy was quickly drained, but the tentacles didn't seem to suck him in, like they had done with 18. Soon, he lost consciousness.

The sunrise was beautiful. It was probably too early in the morning, but Marron hadn't got up still. Her parents weren't back but she hadn't realized it, she had only noticed them leaving, through the door of his room. She knew of neither her father nor her mother during the whole night, but she was sure that they would come back. With that feeling, she had gone to sleep the previous night.

Krillin got up. He felt the body heavy and opened his eyes, remembering what had happened. He had come to fight with 18, she had been killed (or kidnapped), and, as he had tried to save her, he got knocked out cold. And all due to his weakness. He thought on what he was to do to become stronger, on how, the day before, he had found a capsule, he had gone to look for a sparring partner and only Videl had been up for the challenge, how he was supposed to go to Namek.

Namek…that was it! The Namekian Dragon Balls would surely bring her wife back! With the spaceship, he could go with Videl and Marron (not to leave her alone) and bring 18 back, training in the way. With this clear, he picked up Marron, lied to her telling that her mother had fought with him and that she had gone to other planet, in rage, but that everything was going to be OK: they were going to that planet, and apologize, and everything was going to be perfect. Believing him in her child innocence, she agreed. Then he picked up Videl, opened the spaceship, and departed to Namek, believing, like his daughter that everything was going to be O.K. despite the fact that the situation looked bleak.