Piccolo was sure that this was all Goku's fault.

Their battle against Majin Buu had been going fairly alright, all things considered. Sure, the monster had killed something like 99.99999999999999% of the Earth's population with a single attack, and he'd turned almost everyone on the lookout into food and ate them, but Goku had reappeared just as he and Gotenks had broken out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and was helping them to keep Buu on the defensive until Gohan arrived.

The saiyan was without a halo, so Piccolo could only assume that he'd somehow been wished back to life – possibly by the Namekian Dragon Balls – but the questions could wait for later when they weren't fighting for their lives. So yeah, it had seemed to be going kind of well for a few minutes.

But then a truly impressive amount of shit had hit the fan all at once. First, Gotenks had defused right in the middle of an attack, having spent far too long show-boating. Then both of the kids had been absorbed by Buu to prevent them from refusing again. And then, when Gohan did finally arrive, Goku was distracted for just long enough to also be absorbed, the living putty blob enveloping him and smothering his movements. Before Piccolo or Gohan could do anything, Buu had transformed into a new form, with much more human features and an orange gi top over his chest as well as the head tentacle growing down his back and increasing in size, very much like Goku's hair as a Super Saiyan 3.

"Well now, who wants to be my practice dummy first?" Buu sneered.

Gohan had launched his attack, but Buu was now slightly more powerful as well as far more skilled than the teenaged warrior. The elder saiyan's experience and natural instincts would have been enough to tip the scales as it was, but with the tremendous power boost he was toying with Gohan. The fight was blisteringly intense, Piccolo even losing track of it several times as he spectated from the side. Tien showed up for a minute, but Buu kicked him in the face and he vanished over the horizon so it wasn't really an issue.

Piccolo had more or less resigned to the fact that they were royally screwed when, because irony was a bitch, the Prince of all Saiyans made the scene. Unlike Goku he still sported a crisp halo, but he was there nonetheless and that was certainly something. Abruptly, they had options. If there was a single person Piccolo trusted to know more about fighting and tactics than Goku, it was Vegeta, and he'd been incredibly powerful before he'd went boom.

Vegeta stared up at the brawl between majin and half-saiyan with impassive eyes. "I miss something?"

"Buu absorbed Goku and now we're all that's left to fight him."

"What about him?" Vegeta pointed past Piccolo's shoulder and the tall namekian turned to look. Taking cover behind a boulder was a familiar, afro'd man with a puppy in his arms, eyes and mouth wide as he watched the fight taking place.

"What about him?" Piccolo challenged, looking back at the full-blooded saiyan. Vegeta shrugged and dropped the matter. "We're pretty much out of options except one, and I already know you're going to bitch and whine about."

"Sounds promising," Vegeta deadpanned, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

"Goku taught Goten and Trunks a technique called the Fusion Dance that would allow them to become one being with their power joined and multiplied exponentially. If we used it now, we could become strong enough to defeat Buu once and for all."

"And just why the hell should I even consider the notion of debasing myself by merging with you," Vegeta scowled mightily, arms tensing in anger.

With Goku, there might have been some plea for Vegeta to do it out of the goodness of his heart, but Piccolo was well aware that the saiyan prince was a real bastard and could only be cajoled into doing something if it actually threatened one of the very few things he held as important: his pride or (very recently) his family. It was a bit of a low blow, but Piccolo was perfectly willing to do what was necessary in times of war.

"Because he killed Bulma and absorbed Trunks. The only way you have a chance of getting revenge is through fusion. Is that a good enough reason?"

Vegeta, to his credit, looked visibly stricken at the news, his eyes going distant and his mouth opening slightly in wordless shock. Whatever was going on inside his head apparently didn't need much time to formulate.

"Dammit, this had better be good namekian!" He spat without much real venom. Perhaps the news had hit harder than Piccolo had anticipated, because he'd been sure that Vegeta would have initially refused and tried to fight Buu himself before being smacked around and finally accepting the option. Ah well, he wasn't about to complain just yet. "And why don't you use this Fusion Dance with Gohan?"

"I seriously doubt Buu would refrain from destroying the planet long enough for me to teach Gohan the dance. We need the time he's buying us to make sure we get it absolutely right; a single mistake can cause the fusion to come out flawed and much weaker that either of us."

"So no pressure."

Despite his reluctance, Vegeta had learned the deceptively simple moves to the Fusion Dance far faster than Goten and Trunks had, going through several dry runs to iron out all the mistakes he made without realizing. Piccolo was wagering that even though Vegeta would have to lower his power to perfectly match his own, the resulting fusion should be capable of some form of transformation to increase its power and put it on level with Buu's current state.

"One last point," he announced as the two of them took positions for the real deal. "The Fusion Dance will only last for thirty minutes and we will be unable to refuse for some time after, so we need to take care of business as swiftly as we can."

"Just so long as it doesn't start talking like you, we shouldn't have a problem," Vegeta snipped, rolling his shoulder.

Gohan wasn't looking good at all at this point, so there wasn't a single moment to waste. The two remaining Z-Fighters assumed the starting position with military precision.

"Fuuuu!"

Tiptoe towards the other, hands arcing overhead.

"Siooon!

Snap arms to the opposite side and balance on one foot.

HAAAA!"

Plant both feet and lean at each other to connect the extended fingertips.

Cue flash of light and wind.

Buu paused, one hand gripped in the front of Gohan's gi and the other cocked back, and glanced in surprise at the unexpected disturbance. He'd pretty much been ignoring Piccolo and Vegeta in favor of dismantling Gohan, secure in the knowledge that neither of them could pose much of a threat at all if they tried to intervene. But now it seemed that they had done something unusual, and there was something in the back of his mind that was telling him that this was possibly problematic.

Gohan coughed up a bit of blood.

The luminescence died down, divulging the new being born of fusion. Wearing the customary black and orange vest and white pants of the Fusion Dance, his most notable characteristic was that his skin was straight up Piccolo's shade of green. There actually seemed to be a clear divide between Piccolo and Vegeta in his physical features. The namekian had given him his skin tone, elfin ears, clawed fingers, stern gaze and the pink bits on the insides of his arms. The saiyan had provided his entire hairdo, musculature, sharply angled features and his trademark scowl. The only thing that was a blend of the two was his height, which had pretty much leveled out at around Goku's height.

Buu finally realized what had happened, courtesy of bot his and Goku's memories, and paled slightly in the face of this new and most likely serious threat.

Gohan coughed up a bit more blood.

"Your assholery ends here, Majin Buu!" The fusion spoke with unshakable authority and resolve. Unlike Gotenks, whose voice had been both Goten and Trunks' layered over the other, his voice seemed remarkably singular. Neither Buu nor Gohan had ever realized just how similar the two had sounded before just now. Weird.

"I know this trick, and I'm not impressed! The one from before was all talk and could never have beaten me, so what chance do you think you possibly have?" Buu was still holding Gohan, and shook him absently as he spoke.

The fuision opted to let actions speak for him, throwing out one arm towards the majin. Instead of launching a ki blast, the entire limb stretched out at lightning speed and closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Buu let go of Gohan to defend against an attack that never came. Instead, the extended arm grabbed hold of the half-saiyan and drew him back to earth, setting him down next to the fused fighter.

"Take a breather kid, you've earned it."

Gohan looked up at his savior with fatigued eyes. "Mr...Piccolo...?"

"Not really," the fusion took a step forward, cracking his neck. "I don't plan on sticking around for more than twenty nine minutes or so, but in the meantime, I guess you can call me Picceta."

"Do you really think you'll have what it takes to take me down?!" Buu jeered, somewhat reassured now that he'd had a moment to re-access the situation. This new guy wouldn't be able to match Gohan, let alone himself, so there was really nothing to worry about here.

Picceta thought otherwise. Slightly widening his stance, he raised his fists and let his power surge up around him, an exotic blend of tempered namekian control and raw saiyan energy. Growling along with the escalation of his ki, the fusion began to tremble as his body was pushed to the breaking point; beyond the point any other might have quit. At the head of the surge, he threw his head back and loosed a defiant roar as the energy took on new life, becoming transparent to the naked eye but keeping its shadow on the ground.

Steadying himself, Picceta let his head roll forward and leveled a glare of unspoken hatred at Buu. Instead of the legendary golden hue of the super saiyan, the fusion's hair was now a striking orange like that of an enormous flame – the only outward indication of the immense inferno that now raged just beneath the surface.

"You have gone unopposed long enough, you spit out wad of chewing gum! I will make you pay for every single life you have taken before eradicating you from existence entirely!"

Buu was unimpressed. "I think you haven't a single idea what you're getting into. Not even Gohan could beat me, and he was the best you had. What chance does a-"

His insult was cut off by a fist literally embedding itself in his face.

"I already told:" Picceta snarled, smashing his knee into the Majin's chest with enough force to cause the back of the gi he wore to explode into tatters. "I'm going to crush you...and throw you into the wind!" He held up two fingers, unstable yellow energy coalescing at the tips in preparation. "And then I get to rub this in Goku's face forever!"

DBZ DBZ DBZ DBZ DBZ

AN: I'm thinking of making the titles of the chapters the name of the fusion that's introduced in them. Would this be a good way to state the fusion's name without shoehorning it into the dialogue or would it just take away from whatever suspense there is?