Chapter 12: Off to Namek

Days of intensive care had come and gone for the saviors of planet Earth, most were given levels of treatment far outweighing their actual injuries, but King Furry insisted that they receive the best care the hospitals of Earth could provide, and that's exactly what they received.

After 4 days of such intensive care, only broken bones remained, meaning most of the survivors were able to get up and move around as they pleased. There were two exceptions to this though, Goku was still recovering from having nearly every bone in his body shattered during the fight, while Bora wasn't found for nearly a full day after the battle and so his recovery was going much slower than the others, further complicating his recovery was the fact he was missing a leg, the only reason he was alive at all was because the wound had been cauterized by the blast that had stolen it.

Being in the hospital so long left Goku a lot of time to think, and he could scarcely keep his thoughts from his still missing son. 'Darn it, I need to be better now so I can find my son, he's out there somewhere.' Doubts occasionally crept into his mind, the need to find his son was beginning to protest against the apparent morality of his last important choice 'Did I make the right choice? Should I have let Chi Chi keep the Saiyan on Earth to find out where Gohan is?' Every time he was alone these thoughts would begin to swirl in his head, slowly, as the days dragged by, beating down his usual cheery mood.

He was happier today though, only because he wasn't alone, all of his friends had gathered in his room, he wasn't sure why, but he could tell it was serious. "So what's up guys?" Goku asked when they were all gathered.

Bulma's seemingly brooding mood suddenly lightened, "We actually have good news, you see we've been talking the last few days and we think we have an idea to revive everyone." Bulma announced triumphantly.

Goku's eye's widened in surprise, "Really that's great! How?" His usual bright mood overtaking the gloom that had overshadowed him so much the last few days.

Bulma knew he would ask and she was on the verge of bursting with excitement explaining 'her' brilliant plan. Before she could begin a grinning Tien cut in "It turns out there is a whole planet of Piccolo's people, or at least the Saiyan's said there was after. He... saw... Piccolo..." Tien trailed off, receiving a prolonged death glare from Bulma, who was irritated at her thunder being stolen.

After he was completely silent Bulma began, "Yes there is a whole planet full of Piccolo's and if there are other Piccolo's there might be other dragon balls! All we have to do is find out where this planet is and we should be good to go." She finished.

"Wow another set of dragon balls that's great!" Goku was grinning ear to ear at the thought of getting all of his friends, new and old, back, and in the back of his mind a possible lead on where the Saiyans could be heading, "We should get going right away." Goku said as he began to squirm trying to get out of the device keeping him confined to his bed.

"Whoa slow down there Goku, we don't even know where the planet is. Besides Bulma and her dad are still working on building a ship to take us all anyway. I mean she's having to complete rebuild one of those little pods the pink guy showed up in" Yamcha argued as he tried to keep Goku from hurting himself worse.

"Yeah we should be done in a couple of weeks; Korin should have some more Senzu beans by then." Bulma added in.

"But if the Saiyans know where it is they could already be on their way there." there was a sense of urgency in Goku's voice.

That got everyone's attention, "Ok I get back to work right now." Bulma said suddenly worried as she turned to leave the room, before she could an unexpected voice chimed in. "I think I may have a solution to your problems."

Everyone turned to see Mr. Popo floating in the window. "There is a ship; I believe it was Kami's ship originally when he arrived here originally. It appears to be big enough for all of you to fit. It may have the location of Kami's home world in the navigation system." the genie finished.

"Hey that's great Mr. Popo!" Goku shouted happy things finally seemed to be going right for them again.

"I would suggest you come and examine it yourself to make sure it will suit your needs." He continued bluntly while looking at Bulma.

Bulma gulped for a moment before slowly edging her way out onto the genie's flying carpet; in an instant they were gone.

As soon as Bulma vanished, Tien took the opportunity to ask something that had been itching at the back of his mind since the battle had taken place. "Goku how was it you were able to get so powerful so fast?" The tri-clops asked, hoping to close the gap between himself and his long-time rival.

Goku grinned slightly before responding, "Well I trained with King Kai in Other-world for a while. His world had a lot higher gravity; I think he said it was ten times. But even with all of that I wouldn't have been nearly strong enough to help if it wasn't for this technique he taught me. It allows whoever uses it to multiply the amount of Ki you can use at any time." Goku finished.

Tien was silent for a moment before speaking again, "Would you mind teaching it to me, it could come in handy we run into the Saiyans again."

"If you don't mind I'd like to learn it too." Yamcha added in.

"Goku would it be possible for you to teach us all?" Master Roshi asked as he noticed the determined looks on both Sgt. Caspin and Chi Chi's faces.

"Uh... Sure, it might be kind of hard right now though if you were hoping to get started." He responded indicating the current machine he was in.

"I understand but if the ship Mr. Popo found works we might not have another chance." The ex-crane student argued.

Goku saw his friends reasoning and agreed, "Ok I can at least get you started on the basics. But I'll give you the same warning king Kai gave me, this technique is dangerous, one miscalculation on how far you're pushing yourself and you could die."

The eager looks on the gathered fighter's faces immediately turned to shock at his statement but Goku pressed on "the risk is because it's basically a meditation technique that allows you to temporarily expand the channels for your Ki to flow, if you push it too far though all your life force could bleed away."

"Ok so it's kind of like tri-beam in a way." Tien responded.

"Yeah, in a way it is. But it's a little more complex than that. Ok first lesson everyone needs to meditate and try to trace all of paths your Ki flows through. When you find the place where all the paths lead to let me know and we can start the next part."

Just as everyone sat down around the room to begin their meditation a screeching voice rang through their heads "Goku what do you think you're doing! I didn't give you permission to teach them the Kaioken technique!" Most of the fighter's heads whipped back and forth searching for the source of the voice.

"Come on King Kai, it'll help us a lot." Goku pleaded to the seemingly disembodied voice.

"No means no Goku, using the technique is difficult enough in the mortal realm, let alone teaching it to newbies." The guardian of the north quadrant responded.

"King Kai, look I know it's risky, but we need to try if they run into the Saiyans or more of the other aliens that attacked the Earth they'd be in serious trouble unless I'm there and I'm not sure when the new batch of Senzu beans will be done." Goku countered.

King Kai was silent for a moment before responding, he weighed each option carefully, "Fine they can on one condition, none of them try to take the Kaioken beyond a times two, no matter what." he blue deity finally relented.

"Thanks King Kai you're the best. Any other pointers I should give them before they begin?"

"Yes, if you hold yourself right at or near your bodies limits too long, your muscles begin to burn inside your own body from the extreme amount of energy being generated, please, please be careful using this technique. It was designed to be mastered using an otherworld body, not a mortal one." King Kai responded.

"Good point, I shouldn't have forgotten that part seeing how it's part of the reason I'm here." the Earth raised Saiyan responded with his signature sheepish grin.

"Yes, Goku is a good case study on how to not use the technique. Anyhow the first of your friends are drawing near so I must go. Again I emphasis use extreme caution with this technique, or you'll be in a much better position to practice it." The connection then cut out as King Kai began to laugh at his subtle joke.

"Ok guys let's get started." Goku said as everyone else began to practice their own ways of mediation.

A few more minutes passed, before everyone was suddenly interrupted again, this time by a whooshing sound outside the window, followed by Bulma crawling back into the room.

"Great news guys, the ships in pretty good shape, for its age, It'll be able to fit a few of us too. So as soon as we decide who's going with me, I can get working on the ship." The blue haired heiress said.

"Well I'm going; my baby's out there somewhere!" Chi Chi shouted jumping to her feet.

Master Roshi's eye's widened at the opportunity to be in a confined space with Bulma and Chi Chi, "I volunteer!" he shouted, his voice bordering on rabid, as blood began to drip from his nose, as the old pervert began to inch towards them.

Chi Chi and Bulma both shut that idea down instantly, "No!" they shouted in unison, both lashing out violently with twin punches, trapping Master Roshi's face in between.

The Turtle hermit dropped to the ground a dazed look on his face as he stared at the ceiling through his cracked sunglasses.

"Well you know I'll go to protect you." Yamcha said as he wrapped his arm protectively around Bulma, causing Bulma to blush at her boyfriend.

"I'll go to." Tien said his voice solemn, "If there is any chance of bringing Chiaotzu and the others back, I will do everything I can to help."

"Ok great, looks like a solid group." Bulma beamed.

"What about me, how will I get there if you need help?" Goku asked, worried he was being forgotten.

"Well it looks like you're going to be here for a while still, so I was thinking my dad could keep working on the other ships after I left and you could take one of those, when you get all healed up" Bulma responded to her oldest friend.

"Ok that sounds great." Goku said satisfied with her solution.

"How long do we have before the ship is ready?" Tien asked, eager to know how long he had to train.

"I'd say a few days, no more than 3 at most." Bulma said after giving the question a moment thought.

"Great, I should be done by then." Tien responded with a smirk, before sitting down to get started again.

"What if the Saiyans come back here while you guys are gone?" Sgt. Caspin asked joining the conversation for the first time.

Everyone was silent for a moment; the Saiyans could wipe out the whole planet while they were gone.

Finally Goku spoke up, "Well you guys got pretty strong in a year, so if you trained enough people they should be able to help, especially if they learn the Kaioken" Goku broke the awkward silence that had invaded the room.

"But all of the world's strongest fighters have already joined; anyone else we get would be a whole level below us." Caspin argued.

"Well you and the rest of your team were a whole level below the rest of us before you got usual bright grin.

Sgt. Caspin had to admit he had him there, "Ok so how are we going to find these other fighters you were talking about, another tournament?"

"That's a great idea, especially if King Furry promotes it or something, we'd get all the best fighters gathered in one place, just like the good old days." Yamcha butt in.

"Ok its settled then, I'll let King Furry know about the plan, and my way back." Bulma said as he turned and left the room giving the others a chance to begin their meditation once more.


Tien had spent the last two days, focusing on trying to make progress on increasing how far he could push the Kaioken technique before they had to leave. He had left the others to limit the distractions; the others periodically vented their frustrations out loud at their slow progress.

Tien was running out of time to master the technique at the level Goku had. So far he was barely even able to manage gaining an additional tenth of his power.

He would not be deterred though; he just needed to push himself harder than he ever had before, 'Chiaotzu I promise you I will make sure you come home, no matter who or what stands in my way.'


While Tien was making some headway in mastering the technique out on his own, the rest of the survivors still stayed in the hospital room, trying to gain whatever insight they could into master the difficult technique.

So far besides Tien, only Yamcha and Master Roshi had been able to find the center of their energy, though neither had managed to figure out how to widen their Ki streams yet.

The pressure was beginning to mount on Master Roshi though, he needed to master the technique soon, otherwise he would be unable to teach his future students how to learn the technique themselves.

Luckily he was free to focus his entire attention to learning the technique while King Furry and his teams set up the tournament, and made sure the world knew it was coming. In less than a week, the next wave of the Earth's defenders would be selected and the training would begin.

'I just hope I'm ready before then.' He thought as he tried yet again to increase the flow of his Ki.


Bulma had spent the last three days working around the clock preparing the ancient ship for the voyage, but it was now complete. It was time for her and her three companions to leave on what might be the greatest adventure of their lives.

Although the ships navigation system no longer seemed to have the location of Namek stored in it, they were able to find out it's coordinates from King Kai, though Goku the previous evening. It would take them just under a month the reach planet Namek with the surprisingly advanced engines on the ship; in fact they were much more effective than the pods the other aliens had arrived in. She couldn't wait to see what other technological marvels the Namekian had on their planet.

"Come on you guys, what are you waiting for, the faster we get going the faster we can bring the others back." Bulma shouted from the boarding ramp of the ship, the other three finished their goodbyes and hurried to join her.

A few seconds later they were in what would be their home for the next month, each scanned the room and immediately noted the lack of personal space, the entire ship was one giant room and nothing more. Only Yamcha was disappointed at this fact, he had been looking forward to some quality time with his long-time girlfriend. Tien and Chi Chi were more interested in the fact that there was more than enough space to do some training.

"Well, here you go guys, our home away from home for the next 20 days give or take." Bulma said as she fell back onto her mattress which had already been brought inside. Chi Chi and Tien had just brought sleeping bags with them and nothing more; they were only expecting to sleep when they were too tired to care about the conditions.

"It'll do let's get going, my Gohan needs me!" Chi Chi shouted as she sat down in her seat indicating she was ready to get the mission underway.

"Yeah, the faster we get there the quicker we can bring Chiaotzu and the others back." Tien added in.

"Fine, ok, everyone buckle up and we'll get going." Bulma said disappointment in her voice at the lack of interest her friends were showing in her new ship.

Putting in the coordinates the King Kai had given them, she pressed the launched button and everyone immediately felt the force of lift-off wash over them. It would be a long three week long trip to Namek; they could only hope they would be ready for whatever waited for them on the other side.


King Furry and his people had finally finished the arrangements for the tournament, meaning Master Roshi and Sgt. Caspin had to put a temporary hold on their training in order to judge it.

People from all around the world poured into the stands, eager to see the potential future members of the Earth's new Special Forces.

Thousands of hopefuls had arrived eager to prove themselves among the worlds strongest. The participants ranged from members of the EDF eager for redemption from their earlier defeats to martial artists from around the globe, itching for a chance to prove themselves among the world's strongest now that there seemed to be a new World Martial Arts tournament for them to compete in.

Master Roshi could tell though that unfortunately nearly all of the fighters present were weaker than even the blue force was before their training.

Though strength wasn't everything, after watching the weak techniques the fighters were using while warming up, his hopes of finding even adequate students were already fading.

Things got underway quickly and Master Roshi and Sgt. Caspin paid close attention to the names of the more impressive fighters, with three z fighters staying to train a new wave of students they could choose up to thirty of the fighters, once Bora was released from the hospital that is.

The first few rounds went relatively quickly as the more experienced fighters easily disposed of the more amateur ones. Most of the fighters who focused on just brute strength or their size, their attacks were much flashier than they had been during past tournaments, and their defensive postures were very much more for show, causing them to waste precious energy, in elaborate dodges or blocks.

'Looks like I'll have to start with the basics with whoever makes it out of this lot, even Goku and Krillin were more refined than most of these bozos even before my training.'. It was clear that the strongest fighter, and the most likely to win it all was among the least skilled.

The curly haired favorite was currently hamming it up in front of the camera crew that was covering the event for people around the world.

"Mr. Satan! Over here!" A reporter shouted over the others crowding around one of the apparent front runners of the surprise tournament King Furry announced only a week ago.

"Yes, uh you." Hercule responded to the man.

"Thank you, why did you decide to fight in this tournament, and what do you think your chances are for winning?" he quickly asked in the brief moment of silence from the other reporters.

"WHY I DECIDED TO FIGHT? THAT'S SIMPLE" He shouted, making the group back off slightly, "My wife… my wife was killed in the disaster in East City. A disaster I believe the government caused!" He shouted. causing the reporters to go crazy for a second before being silence as he continued, "Yes I think they caused it as part of some plan to trick everyone into believe the phonies up there!" He shouted pointing directly at Master Roshi and Sgt. Caspin, much to their shared surprise."Yeah that's right I'm on to you two and once I win I will defeat you both showing once and for all you're a bunch of no good tricksters! It's your fault my sweet daughter has to grow up without her mother!" The rising star of the martial arts world finished, indicating to his still puffy eyed daughter in the stands.

Videl was trying her best to be strong like her dad was; she really was, but the sorrow of her mother dying less than a week ago was on the verge of overwhelming the five year old. She was hoping she would feel better after her daddy beat the bad men that hurt her mommy, but in the back of her mind she knew it wouldn't bring her back, she was smart enough to know that dead meant forever.

Master Roshi felt the sadness and anger boiling in the man who would likely be one of his students soon, and decided he would try and deflate some of it, for the little girl's sake. He rose from his seat and started to make his way towards the group.

Hercule could feel his heart pounding into his ears, his anger demanding he beat the old man senseless, but he restrained himself for the moment. If only to protect his still growing stardom.

Finally when Master Roshi arrived, he cleared his throat and began to speak, ". I'm sorry about the loss of your wife, and all the others who died in the Saiyan's attack on East city. I wish we could've been there to confront them fast enough, but there was no way for us to know that that's where they would land. We tried to warn people as best we could, but it just wasn't good enough." He finished his voice solemn.

Hercule was furious he was tired of their constant lies, "How dar-" A small voice interrupted him though, "No daddy says you bad men hurt mommy!" Videl shouted running up out of the stands and beating her small fists on the old man's knees.

Master Roshi's heart was on the verge of breaking as the small girl smacked his leg over and over, tears streaming down her face. Finally he decided he would tell them about something he had hoped to keep secret; maybe it would bring the girl some hope.

"I probably shouldn't tell you this." He started as he knelt down in front of the girl.

"Don't you speak to her?" Hercule shouted now ready to pound the old man's face in.

Master Roshi stood up and spoke to Hercule instead, "What I was about to tell your daughter is there may be a way to bring all of the people who died at the hands of the Saiyans back."

The news crews were all over the story, as the pushed back a stunned Hercule. Videl's eyes were wide, a small amount of hope building in her mind.

"Re-Really?" Her voice was about to crack up at the thought of seeing her mom again.

Hercule had had enough; Master Roshi looked up just in time to dodge the blow from Hercule that came just inches from his face. "How dare you lie to my daughter like this, you sadistic son of a-" Hercule stopped again mid-sentence as his second swing was suddenly stopped dead by just one of Master Roshi's fingers.

The camera crew's eyes bulged at the display, as Hercule struggled to push the seemingly immovable finger back. Master Roshi took the chance to continue, "Again I am sorry that we couldn't stop them earlier, if you are still angry I'll give you the opportunity to fight me or any of my students if you win."

Hercule finally giving up on moving the finger, growled silently for a moment before responding, "Fine, when I win I'll show you old man!" he shouted before picking Videl up and storming off.

The rounds flew by, as the group was steadily weeded down to the final fight, eventually Hercule Satan defeated one of King Chappa's best students to claim his right to battle Master Roshi to avenge his wife.

Both fighters took their places in the ring, Master Roshi knew he needed to eliminate all doubt from Hercule's mind about the Z fighters being tricksters, so his win would have to be without using Ki attacks, and would have to absolutely dominate him, which given the range in their strengths should be no problem.

As soon as the announcer yelled "begin", Hercule charged like a wounded bulls, unleashing a flurry of bone shaking punches, at least they would've been bone shaking if any of the punches landed, Master Roshi, much to everyone's surprise easily dodged all of the larger fighters attacks, before delivering a quick tap to his stomach. The blow although appearing to be light, was enough to knock the air from his lungs and knock him back a foot.

'Damn, the old man has a good right hook.' Hercule rationalized in his mind, as his hand involuntarily rubbed his now aching gut. "Let's see how you like my dynamite punch aghhh!" Hercule shouted as he swung his arm with all the strength he could muster, Master Roshi decided to let the punch land to prove a point.

The blow landed on Master Roshi's check, and didn't even manage to make the old man flinch. Hercule was shocked, his eyes bulging at just how little his attack actually did.

Master Roshi took the opportunity to grab the champ and lightly toss him from the ring before he could even recover.

The stands were silent, shock overcoming them at the sight they had just seen, their belief of the strength of the world's defenders firmly cemented.

Master Roshi broke the silence by walking over to Hercule and reaching a hand down to help him up. "You're strong I'll give you that, unfortunately right now you're no help to the planet. Let me train you with the others and you can help us make sure an attack like the one that hit East City never happens again."

Even though disbelief was still washing through his system, Hercule couldn't deny it anymore; the fighters before him were definitely not human. 'Get away! You're aliens or monsters or something!" he shouted backing away from Master Roshi's outstretched hand.

The accusations caught Master Roshi off guard, "No, we're as human as you are, I mean you all know Sgt. Caspin's been a member of the blue force for years." he tried to calm the distraught man.

Yeah, I'm still the same, just a lot stronger than I was before, the training is insane, but it works." Sgt. Caspin added in.

Hercule still wasn't convinced, but part of him wanted to see if they were telling the truth. "Ok… fine… I'll do your training." He finally conceded getting up on his own; he still kept his distance from them, not sure that they were actually human.

"Glad to hear it, we'll need all the help we can get if the Saiyans come back." Master Roshi responded his tone more cheery.

Sgt. Caspin motioned for all the other fighters who had been deemed good enough to receive the training to gather around.

"As you know one of the main motivators of this tournament was to find other good fighters from around the world to help us better defend the planet if it ever attacked again in the future. You thirty have been selected as the best of the best; if any of you don't wish to receive the training please speak now so your replacement can be grabbed before they leave." Sgt. Caspin said to the fighters gathered.

When no one spoke up, Master Roshi cut in, "Alright then, everyone we'll begin training immediately, we have a plane big enough for-" His speech was cut out when Hercule spoke up, "I can't go immediately I, I have to figure out what to do with my daughter."

"Ok, I can give you the coordin-" he was again cut off when Videl spoke up, "No I'm going with you daddy." She shouted running over and grasping her arms around her father's leg.

"She can come with us; we have more than enough room." Master Roshi decided after a moment of thought, he couldn't justify taking the girl's father away from her too, not so soon after her mother had perished.

With that the 32 fighters, and one little girl, loaded into the plane, they took off to Master Roshi's preferred training island, ready to take their places among the world's defenders.


(3 weeks later)

The dreamless state Vegeta had been in came to a sudden, violent end, his time in stasis had ended several moments before the pod collided, but he wasn't fully awake until he actually hit the ground. His eye's immediately popped open, his heart pounding in his chest, 'I was supposed to hit the damn landing pad, curse these pieces of junk, can't even hit...' Vegeta's train of thought trailed off as he opened his eyes to a bright green sky, instead of the black one he was expecting.

'Definitely not Frieza planet 79' His earlier anger returning, as he now shouted out loud "Damn it this fucking pod couldn't even hit the right planet, when I get my hands on Frieza for giving me this…" his angry shouts ended in the same shocked silence as his earlier thoughts as he saw something else outside his viewport that made his blood run cold.

Frieza now stood directly outside his pod, seemingly materializing out of the thin air, his glare piercing into Vegeta's very soul. Within a nanosecond the Tyrant had ripped the door clean off of Vegeta's pod, as the Saiyan Prince watched numbly too overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of the creature of his waking nightmares. "Vegeta… it has been too long." Frieza started his tone similar to how he would usually address Vegeta, as if he was nothing more than a child or even a play thing, but this time there was something colder about the ice demon's voice, a sort of desperation that made Vegeta's skin begin to crawl.

Before Vegeta could collect himself to respond to the Tyrant of the galaxy, another voice rang out. "Lord Frieza, Dodoria is not in the other pod, it's just the monkey brute." Zarbon called from somewhere in the distance."

Frieza's pupils constricted in rage, his hand shot out faster than Vegeta's eyes could follow as his fingers wrapped around his throat. "WHERE IS MY WISH YOU DIRTY MONKEY!" Frieza's rage caused energy to stream off his body, the sheer magnitude of his strength completely overwhelming Vegeta's budding energy sense.

Finally as blackness was filling in Vegeta's vision he was able to force himself to answer, "I didn't get it." everything continued to fade for the Saiyan Prince as his world went dark.


Wow this chapter took me forever to write, I'm sorry about that everyone, I was hoping to have this up a couple weeks ago but I just couldn't be satisfied with it. I think part of the problem is I'm out of the grove of getting a chapter up every couple weeks, paired with a bunch of other stuff going on right now.

The chapters after this one is going to jump right into the action on Namek, so I hope everyone is ready for that! Things are going to start getting crazy pretty fast.

Thanks again everyone for your patience and continued support!

Reviews:

Super Mystic Gohan- There were 3 separate sections with a commander, two were male and one was female, the female on died when Gohan headbutted through her. The other two were vaporized by Oozaru Raditz during his transformations. I think I had the middle section so it was all female terms but I could be mistake, I'll read over it again to make sure. I'll also make a note of the three separate commanders at the bottom of the chapter in case that's what the issue was. But thanks for alerting me to the issue either way.

You were correct in your guess about Vegeta wanting to kill Raditz because he gave the location of where the boy came from. Vegeta doesn't know Raditz had been tortured for the information and probably doesn't care. The way he would see it was Raditz messing up yet again by somehow angering Frieza enough that the tyrant would want him dead.

Glad you liked the Gohan bit at the end, out of the whole chapter that was the most important development, it'll definitely influence his actions down the road, but which way it'll change him is a mystery I'll leave for another day.