Back on Earth, Goku was doing push-ups in his hospital room. Of course he was wearing his weighted clothing since otherwise he'd feel too light in his exercises. The doctor had constantly told him not to wear such things as he's supposed to be resting, but Goku had no intention of just sitting around when his body could move.
Master Roshi stepped into the room and saw Goku doing his training. "Ah, Goku. Glad to see you're lively as ever. Chi-Chi isn't here is she?"
Goku looked at Roshi and flipped himself back to his feet. Despite what the doctors said, he was relatively back to normal. "Nah, Chi-Chi got bored and went shopping. What's up?"
"Ah, firstly, here's a castella. I'm sure it'll taste better than that hospital food." Roshi set down a box containing the japanese cake. "Secondly, I got a message from Bulma about 2 hours ago."
"Oh, so they got to Namek safely? That's a relief. How is everyone?" asked Goku as he took a seat on his bed.
"Well, that's what I came to tell you in person. It seems that they're not the only ones who made it to Namek. Both of the saiyans are there too." said Roshi, a drop of sweat dropping from his forehead.
"What?! Both of them?! There's no way, I saw their condition before they left. Do they have something like senzu beans out in space?" wondered Goku, raising his head as Roshi started to speak again.
"That isn't the end of it. Just before I got here, Turtle sent me a message that Bulma sent another transmission. It turns out the saiyans aren't alone. There are at least 10 of their friends on Namek and they destroyed the ship. They're stranded on Namek." said Roshi, the tone of his voice dropping as he dreaded being the message carrier.
Goku gripped the bed tightly and stared at the ground, angered as this was just like when the saiyans attacked: everyone having to defend themselves and he isn't able to get to them immediately.
"And to make matters worse, apparently there's someone far stronger than Vegeta there too." said Roshi as he continued the bad news.
"What?! Then I have to go help them." said Goku as he got up from the bed and ran to a cabinet, pulling out a fresh gi made by Kami.
"Hey, if you're leaving, save me the trouble of chasing after ya." Both Roshi and Goku turned around to see Yajirobe standing in the doorway, holding a bag of what are undoubtedly senzu beans. "The next batch of senzu beans grew. There's only 7 though, but Korin said it should be enough."
"Ah, that's perfect! I'll need those if everyone on Namek is still alive by the time I get there." Goku changed into his gi and took the bag of senzu beans.
"Hold on, how exactly do you plan to get to Namek?" asked Roshi.
"Well, a couple of weeks ago, Bulma's dad came to visit. I figured I would ask him to build me a spaceship." said Goku as he opened up the window and hopped onto the counter. "After thinking about it for quite a while, I realized we have 2 saiyan ships here on earth. The busted one my brother came in and the one that brought me to Earth."
Roshi's eyes widened behind his glasses as he remembers that his former student Gohan had told him about finding a young child inside an unknown object. It would make sense for it to still be there. "That's right. So you'll be using that to get to Namek?"
"Sort of. He's remodeling it to add a bit more space, but it should work just as good. Once it's done, I should be able to reach Namek in about a weak or less." He looked out the window and took a deep breath. "Nimbus!" He then hopped out of the window and a cloud flew under him, then flying him in the direction of Bulma's house.
Upon reaching Bulma's house, Goku hopped off the Nimbus cloud. As he started walking around and looking for either of Bulma's parents, he noticed a familiar energy nearby and ran torward it, finding Piccolo just standing there. "Hey Piccolo! What're you doing here?"
Piccolo opened his eyes and looked over at Goku. "Took you long enough to get here. And what else would I be doing here? I heard you were getting a ship to Namek so I had to see it for myself."
"Ah, here to see me off then. By the way, having you seen either of the Briefs?" asked Goku as he and Piccolo started walking around.
"I can only assume that the woman who tried to talk to me earlier is who you're talking about. She was getting on my nerves so I shooed her away." Piccolo looked up as he saw a large spherical object in the middle of the yard with a man coming out of it.
"Ah, Goku. You should have let me know you were here." said Mr. Briefs as he stood in the entrance of the sphere. "I gotta tell ya, it's not quite finished yet. A few kinks here and there. Come on in."
Both Goku and Piccolo stepped inside the ship and looked around, the inside quite spacious. "This is awesome! My tiny little pod became all this?"
"What can I say? I built it to your specifications. Had to build the entire thing nearly from scratch, so it's pretty impressive that I got it all done so soon." said Dr. Briefs, admiring his handicraft.
"Did ya install the artificial gravity machine?" asked Goku. Piccolo's ear twitched and just stared at Son Goku silently.
"Yes, right over here." Briefs answered as he walked over to it, explaining the controls. "It goes up to 100 times that of Earth's gravity, though I still don't think that's a good idea. Normally that would kill you."
"That's okay. It'll help me push myself so that I'll be ready to face off against the saiyans again." said Goku.
Piccolo stepped up behind both of them, freaking out Dr. Briefs with how intimidating the namekian looked. "Is this thing capable of flying?"
"Y-Yes. Just a push of that button over there will have the ship blasting off to Namek, reaching it within 6 days." said Dr. Briefs, turning his attention back to Goku. "Well, the bathroom, kitchen and bedroom are downstairs."
"What? If that's everything, then what exactly is there left to do?" asked Goku, who was still worried about everyone on Namek.
"Well, I figured you'd enjoy some music while you train so I still need to install some speakers. 6 days by yourself in this ship will probably drive you crazy." answered Briefs.
"What?! I don't have time to wait for speakers! I need to get to Namek as soon as possible!" shouted Goku.
"What are you in such a hurry for? I know you want to go to Namek, but isn't this a bit too much?" Briefs felt a little sweat drop from his forehead as he was being yelled at by the strongest guy on the planet.
"I got a message from Bulma. The saiyans that attacked the Earth also went to Namek and a brought a bunch of friends who blew up their ship!" answered Goku in a harsh tone.
Both Piccolo and Briefs stiffened up as they got the bad news. "W-Well why didn't you say so?"
Mr. Briefs quickly told Goku how to fly the ship and got out of it. Goku noticed Piccolo hadn't budged. "Piccolo, you have to get out now. If I start this ship with you on it, there's no other chances for you to get off."
Piccolo smirked as he pressed the start button, causing the ship to blast off into space. Before Goku could settle down from the launch ask him why, he started to explain. "I planned on going to Namek with you from the beginning. I have my own reasons."
Goku stared at Piccolo and smiled. "Well, we're gonna be stuck with each other for a couple of days, may as well get it out now."
Piccolo looked Goku dead in the eyes and sighed. "Kami and I have finally come to terms with our ancestry. Since he can't go, I have no choice but to fill in for him. Besides.." He turned his head to look out the window. "I owe it to Raditz. After all, he did save my life against the saiyans."
Goku continued to smile at his old foe, glad to see he's changed so much. "Well, we've only got 6 days to train before reaching Namek. I don't expect you to keep up, but I plan to make it to 100 times Earth's gravity before then. If it gets too much for you, I'm sure the lower area will do you some good."
Piccolo let out a grunt of disbelief. "You think I'm just gonna sit by and let you just abuse you saiyan biology and leave me in the dust? Not happening. I might not be able to use my weighted clothing for this training, but I should be fine in this training as long we have senzu beans."
Goku crossed his arms and tilted his head. "My saiyan biology? What does that have to do with us training?"
That's right. He wasn't there to tell him this. Thought Piccolo to himself. No harm telling him. "You saiyans are capable of getting stronger whenever you fight and recover from the fight. And according to Raditz, recovering from near death bumps your power quite a bit."
"Wow, Raditz told you all that? Man, he really was a good guy, after all." said Goku as he started walking over to the gravity controls. "Also, we only have 7 senzu beans. Think we'll need them all?"
"It'd be best to conserve as many as we can. We should split them in half and only consume them when we absolutely need them. That might be good enough to serve our training if they do restore our strength by at least half."
Goku nodded as he pulled out the bag of senzu beans and set it down. "Since you're not used to increased gravity, we should start with at least 15 times the Earth's gravity."
After adjusting the settings on the gravity controls, both fighters stumbled as the gravity instantly changed. Piccolo grunts and groans as he comes to truly realize how Goku had gotten so much stronger in just a year. He tosses his weighted clothing off and takes a heavy breath. "Alright. If 100 times is our objective, we can't waste anymore time."
Goku nodded in agreement as he started doing stretches. He looked out the window and smiled. "We're coming guys. Just hang on as long as you can."
On Namek, Krillin, Tien and Gohan were approaching the abundance of energy where the dragons balls were. "Alright, this should be close enough. Drop your power as much as you can and we'll walk the rest of the way." said Krillin.
Both Tien and Gohan nodded and did as instructed. After landing on the ground, they ran up the side of a cliff and dropped down, peaking over to see what was happening. They found a small village with houses that looked familiar. "Hey, those houses look a lot like Kami's ship." said Gohan.
"Yeah, but the guys going into the houses sure don't look like namekians." said Tien, seeing quite a few guys aliens wearing the same kind of armor as the saiyans.
"What do you think they're doing? " asked Krillin, watching only 3 of the aliens just standing around. "Those 3 standing there have power way greater than those lackeys or even the saiyans, especially the one in the middle." After taking a closer look, he noticed the aliens on the left and right each were holding 2 large orbs that had a familiar look to them. "Guys, look what those 2 are holding! They're dragon balls!"
"Ah, they're massive!" said Tien as he was astonished at the sight of the namekian dragon balls.
The bulky pink alien turned his head in the direction where the 3 earthlings were. The 3 of them ducked their head quickly enough to not get spotted.
The alien in the middle, sitting in some kind of pod looked to the alien looking away. "Something the matter, Dodoria?"
"Nah. Just a weak reading on the scouter at the cliffs over there, though it isn't there anymore. Probably just a wild animal." answer Dodoria as he looked forward again.
The earthlings were covering their mouth and shaking as they almost got caught. "That was too close for comfort." said Krillin, saying aloud what everyone was thinking.
"Lord Freeza, we could only find 5 of them! It looks like the others are out at the moment!" said one of the soldiers. The soldier walked out of the namekian house with a couple of new, green aliens close behind. "Cooperate peacefully, otherwise I start shooting." the soldier said to the alien.
The earthlings widened their eyes as they looked at the aliens coming out. They look just like Kami and Piccolo. They must be Namekians!
The namekians stiffened a bit as they saw Dodoria and the other alien carrying 2 dragon balls each. They could already tell that these men didn't earn them so they feared the worst.
"Good day, my name is Freeza. As you've probably guessed, I'm looking for these so-called dragon balls." said the alien sitting in the floating pod. "I'm curious though, aren't there supposed to be 10 of you here? Where are the others?" After the Namekians chose to be silent, Freeza spoke again. "If you choose to be difficult by staying silent, I will have no choice but to kill you."
The largest of the namekians grunted as his people were being threatened. He opened his mouth and started speaking in namekian, though Freeza raised his hand to interupt him.
"Now now, no speaking in namekian. Use something we can all understand." ordered Freeza.
The namekian groaned as he was being ordered around by this foreigner. "The others are out working the field. What you see here is just the young and the elderly."
Freeza simply smiled. "Good. If you simply answer honestly, nothing bad will come to you. Now that I have you answering my questions, I'll continue from earlier. Where is the dragon ball. I believe there's one here, correct?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. We don't have anything known as 'dragon balls' on this planet." said the elder namekian, despite knowing that he speaks of the wish orbs that his associates are holding.
"How interesting. The 2nd namekian that we killed said the same thing. He absolutely refused to give me any kind of info due to his own stubbornness. Though he was far more compliant to talk after we killed one of his friends." said Freeza with an ever calm expression.
Hearing this caused both the namekians and the earthlings to stiffen. "W-What kind of monster is he?" asked Tien.
"Once he began talking, he told me all about the origins of the dragon balls and how they were created by your Grand Elder, as well as the fact that each dragon ball is in the custody of an elder. He also told me that one must prove to be a man of valor if you wish to have the elder give you the dragon ball. Of course when I tried, he said he could absolutely not give the dragon ball to me. So I had no choice but to kill him." explained Freeza, closing his eyes as he remembers it vividly. "The next 3 elders were far more understanding and were happy to give me the dragon balls when I showed them the one I already have."
The elder namekian clenched his fist and glared at Freeza. "They were happy to give it to you? What ridiculous lies you speak!"
"Oh, but they were far too eager to help us after we did this.. Zarbon, give them a demonstration." commanded Freeza.
Zarbon smiled and moved at quick speeds, appearing to the left of one of the elder namekians. He swung his leg right into the elder's neck, causing the namekian to drop to the ground, his life ended in an instant.
One of the other elders became furious and raised their arm up, preparing to attack. "How dare you!"
Zarbon tossed one of the dragon balls in his arms into the air, dodging the energy beam that the elder made and hit one of Freeza's soldiers. Zarbon then responded and fired a beam at the elder, scorching him and making him collapse to the ground, dead as the other elder. Zarbon landed back on the ground and caught the dragon ball that he'd thrown.
"H-How could they do that?" Krillin asked.
"They didn't even have a fighting chance." said Tien, trembling at the might of the aliens.
"H-How terrible." said Gohan, gritting his teeth as his anger was starting to act up again.
"How about it. Are you willing to give us the dragon ball now?" asked Freeza.
"What do you hope to gain from slaughtering my people and taking our 'dragon balls'?" asked the remaining elder, holding tightly onto the 2 younger namekians.
"Oh, it's a simple wish really. I just want to get my hands on immortality is all." answered Freeza, seeing to problems with just blurting out his wish.
"Ah, no way. He and the saiyans are after the same thing?" Krillin couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Maybe they aren't Vegeta's friends after all." said Gohan, his anger still in control but fluxuating.
"Whether they are or not changes very little. They're still monsters trying to get their hands on the dragon balls." said Tien.
"I will never give the dragon ball to the likes of you." declared the elder namekian. "Even if it costs me my life."
"Oh? So you'd rather die than just handing it over peacefully? I wonder, will you feel the same even if we kill those young ones you're holding onto?" asked Freeza, narrowing his eyes.
Both the elder and the earthlings were stunned at this threat. "You would even kill the children?!"
Dodoria's scouter suddenly beeped as some high power levels started approaching. "Lord Freeza, we've got company!"
In the sky, 3 namekians looking closer to Piccolo than Kami were flying toward the village. The eathlings were surprised to feel just how strong these namekians felt while the elder looked glad to see the namekians. "You came, at last!"
One of the 3 namekians looked at the dead elders and grit his teeth. "It looks my feeling of dread was right on the mark."
"Well isn't this disappointing. We were so close to an agreement." muttered Freeza. "It's a shame, you interrupted your precious work just to come here and die."
The namekian raised his fist and glared at Freeza and his men. "I promise you, you're going to suffer for every namekian you killed. We won't let you ruin Namek's peace any longer!"
"Oh, so you actually plan to fight? Dodoria, what are their power levels?" asked Freeza.
"Lemme check." Dodoria pressed his scouter and started scanning their power levels. "Heh, what do you know? They've each got a power level of 1000. Looks like we won't have to even get involved, Zarbon."
The elder namek watched as Dodoria used the scouter to read the strength of his fellow namekians. So that's it. That's how they can find the few villages across the whole surface of Namek. If they didn't have them, they'd never be able to find the remaining wish orbs.
One of the soldiers stepped forward and started laughing. "You really want to tangle with us with such pathetic power levels?"
"Those guys, can't they tell the namekians are suppressing their energy?" wondered Krillin.
"The saiyans were surprised when they learned we could do that." said Gohan.
"It's those devices. They can only read the current strength of an opponent and not their max." said Tien as he put their observations together into a solid conclusion.
"Get them!" shouted one of the soldiers as he started rushing towards the namekians, causing the others to follow.
One of the namekians started shouting as he raised his power and kicking the closest soldier, knocking him into a mountain wall, surprising all the soldiers. The other 2 namekians joined in and started attacking the soldiers, easily taking them down.
Zarbon turned to Dodoria. "A power level of 1000 you say?"
Dodoria looks shocked as he uses his scouter again. "I don't get it! Each of their power has tripled!"
"Well this is something new. It looks like the namekians are capable of controlling their power levels." said Freeza, finding it quite fascinating, despite his soldiers being killed at the hands of the namekians.
The elder took notice that there were only 3 scouters left to destroy, including the one Dodoria's wearing. "Children, get behind me."
"This is just sad. Looks like I'll have to get my hands dirty." said Dodoria as he started to put down the dragon balls. "Hope you don't mind me taking out all 3."
The elder saw his chance to attack and fired a beam of energy from his finger, aiming for Dodoria's scouter and destroying it but only making the brutish alien stumble.
All 3 of the aliens looks at the elder with surprise, but Dodoria smirked. "Did you really think a pathetic attack would be enough to kill me?"
The elder leaped high into the air and screamed as he fired 2 more finger beams, aimed for the other 2 scouters and destroying them.
"Ah, damn it! He was going after the scouters!" shouted Zarbon.
"Scouters?" asked Krillin.
Tien went wide-eyed as he looked at Gohan, who was still wearing a scouter and had a spare scouter in his pocket. "One of those devices that can read an opponent's strength and location! The saiyan had them!"
"So that's it! They don't have a dragon radar, they've just been tracking down namekians and forcing them to give up the dragon ball!" shouted Krillin. Luckily everyone down below was too preoccupied to notice him. "That's why the elder destroyed them when he found that out!"
Dodoria growled and raised his fists into the air. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!" He flew up and was approaching the elder.
"Dodoria, wait! Kill the 3 younger namekians first!" ordered Freeza, causing Dodoria to freeze up immediately.
Dodoria did a couple of flips and landed in front of the namekians. "This should be easy. You'll all be dead within seconds."
"You honestly think you can take all 3 of us at once?" the namekian asked.
"Take you on? Now that's just a joke." said Dodoria. In the blink of an eye, he was already behind the namekian, his hand thrust right through his torso. He didn't hesitate to continues his attack, firing a beam from his mouth and killing a second namekian at point blank range.
The remaining namekian kept jumping back and away from each of Dodoria's swipes, firing energy from both of his hands at Dodoria and actually hit, creating a sizable explosion. Though from the crater of the explosion, Dodoria simply walks out with hardly a scratch on him.
"It.. It's over.." muttered Krillin as he couldn't help but look away.
Dodoria flew right towards the namekian and rammed his spiky head into the namekian's torso, not stopping and rams him into a wall, killing the last namekian.
"Hmph, I take it you now understand that it's pointless to retaliate or run away. Just come down and cooperate." said Freeza to the elder namekian.
The elder stared at Freeza and his men and dropped back to the ground, not saying a word.
"Good, I'm glad you understand the situation." said Freeza, his smile still present. "So, since you've destroyed our precious scouters, I suppose giving the dragon ball will suffice as an apology. Otherwise the children's lives will be the payment."
The elder groaned as Freeza continued to make threats, knowing too well that he would go through with them. "Very well. In exchange, I want your word that you will not lay a hand on the children."
Freeza gave a wide grin in happiness. "You see? Had you given the ball to us from the start, all of this could have been prevented."
The elder started to walk away to grab the dragon ball. The earthlings up on the cliff just watched in horror, all 3 of them trembling. "Geez, those guys are nothing but cold-blooded." said Krillin.
Gohan stared down at them, raking his fingers through the dirt as his anger was starting to get the better of him, his power rising. Had the scouters not been destroyed, he'd have already been caught. "How.. How dare they.."
"Ah, Gohan. You need to calm down. We're in no condition to be taking those guys on." said Tien, putting an arm on Gohan.
The elder came back, holding a dragon ball with 5 stars in it. "Here, take the ball and don't come back."
"Very good. Now while you're at it, tell me where the other 2 dragon balls are." commanded Freeza after his soldier takes the dragon ball.
"What?! You really think I would sell out the rest of my brethren just to let them meet the same fate as those here?" said the elder, glaring at Freeza. "We had a deal. Honor your word and leave immediately!"
"Oh my, it appears you're no different. Your kind simply have no desire to speak about each other. I guess you'll just have to die with the children." said Freeza with a smug face.
"What?! Why you-" said the elder before taking Dodoria's elbow to the face, flying back and collapsing to the ground his nose bleeding. "We had a deal. You said you'd leave us alone if we gave you the orb."
"But if I don't have all 7 of them, then what's the point. If you wanted the deal to go right, you shouldn't have destroyed our scouters." said Freeza. "Now tell us where the last 2 balls are."
"I told you already, I'd rather risk my life than let you terrorize my people any further." declared the elder as he started to get back up.
"Hmph, very well. If you wish to die, then who am I to keep you from it. Zarbon, Dodoria. Kill them all." ordered Freeza.
Whoo boy, I did not expect this chapter to be this long. Freeza really has ways of making things drag on. I didn't plan on putting this on such a cliffhanger, but it was already getting really long and I don't want to make a single chapter drag on too long. Feel free to let me know how I did and if you felt if I did something wrong. I'll see you next time in the next chapter of Dragon Ball Z: A Saiyan's Tail.