Yamcha stepped forward confidently, bouncing back and forth on his toes in front of Nappa.

"I don't feel like I really got a chance to show my stuff in that last fight," he said. "Let me soften him up for you, guys."

"We're fighting together, Yamcha," Tien said firmly, stepping up behind him. "None of us can take him on our own."

Yamcha deflated somewhat, but nodded. Nappa grinned.

"All at once or one at a time, doesn't make a difference to me!" he laughed. "Go ahead and do your little teamwork thing, see what that gets you."

"Like we practiced," Kami said, looking at each of them in turn, and as a single unit, all eight of them phased out of sight. Kami, Gohan, Krillin and Chiaotzu took to the air, forming a rough circle above Nappa's head. The others ranged around him on the ground in a similar fashion, Chi Chi some distance away behind cover, Gine directly in front of Nappa.

"Oh dear," Vegeta called, sounding bored. "They have you surrounded."

"Means it doesn't matter where I aim!" Nappa replied gleefully.

"Oh, yes it does," Vegeta informed him sharply as Gine attacked. "You're not to harm the woman, remember?"

At these words, Nappa froze, and Gine's jab landed on his jaw, twisting his head back with a loud crack. Growling, he turned and reached for her, but before he could disobey orders, Chi Chi's energy blade whistled through the air, and Nappa swung his head around to look.

"Duck!" Vegeta shouted, and Nappa did, the blade swinging harmlessly by him. He straightened, grinning, and didn't notice the blade coming back around until it sliced his left ear clean off, taking his scouter with it.

Nappa roared and flailed angrily, unwittingly smacking Tien to the ground as he tried to take advantage of his distraction to attack. The fighters in the air began peppering Nappa with ki blasts, none strong enough to do real damage, but all strong enough to hurt. The burly Saiyan lashed out with ki blasts of his own, most of them going wild, but one of them landed a direct hit on Krillin. Chiaotzu caught him with his telekinesis and lowered his unconscious body gently to the ground, away from the battle.

"Krillin!" Gohan screamed.

"Second formation!" Gine called harshly, taking to the air. Gohan stayed where he was, and Gine grimaced. This was what she had been afraid of. It was one thing to catch birds in the forest to bring home for dinner; it was quite another to face down someone who was trying to kill you, and yet another still to watch your comrades fall. Gine had been frozen with fear in her first fight, too, and it was only thanks to Bardock that she was still alive today. He had been strong enough to take up her slack, and laid back enough that he didn't even rib her about it, but there was no room to take up anyone's slack here and now. Gohan needed to get his act together quickly or they were all doomed.

Kami landed and called to the boy, and after a moment of hesitation, Gohan joined him. Chi Chi joined Gine in the air and they exchanged a glance, both of them relieved Gohan hadn't frozen up. Nappa aimed a punch at Kami, who sidestepped the blow with millimeters to spare. Grabbing Nappa's arm, Kami used the Saiyan's momentum to throw him to the ground. This gave Gine and Chi Chi a wide opening, Gine attacking with the massive Kamehameha she'd been building, Chi Chi with another blade. Gine's blast hit him full on, but he reached up and punched the flat side of the blade, dissipating it in a shower of sparks.

Growling in anger and frustration, Nappa leapt into the air, ready to grab Gine and Chi Chi by their throats, but Tien and Yamcha both hit him from behind with a Wolf Fang Fist and a Dodonpa. When he turned to deal with them, Kami and Gohan blasted him from the ground, allowing them to escape.

"Enough!" Nappa roared, powering up so intensely it sent a shockwave through the battlefield. He kept his eyes on Yamcha, ignoring the shots from Gine and Tien, and swatting Chi Chi's blade out of the air again without looking. When he reached Yamcha he grabbed him by the hair and swung him around like a sling, letting go to slam him into the side of a tall rock formation. The formation crumbled, burying Yamcha under the rubble.

"Dammit!" Tien spat, rushing forward. Nappa grinned and let Tien hit him, then snatched his arm up in a hand so large it was nearly the length of Tien's entire forearm. Trapped, Tien could do nothing as Nappa swung around to use him as a shield against the ki blade slicing toward him. Chiaotzu screamed, but Chi Chi flung her arms wide and the blade dissipated into nothing, scattering a few glittering bits of hot ki energy that peppered Tien's skin with burns but otherwise left him unharmed.

Gine had just enough time to let out a sigh of relief before Nappa shrugged, said, "Oh well," and pulled Tien's head off his shoulders.

All the air felt like it had been sucked out of Gine's lungs. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her suddenly blurry vision. Tien's neck was spurting blood, coating Nappa with it, mixing with the blood dripping from his severed ear. Distantly, she was aware that someone was screaming, but she knew it couldn't be her. She didn't have breath to scream with.

Nappa tossed Tien's body into a bloody heap on the ground and turned his attention to Chi Chi. He hadn't made it more than a few feet toward her, though, when Gohan, red in the face and yelling at the top of his lungs, slammed into him so hard he tackled him to the ground and plowed up a good-sized chunk of earth in the process. When the dust cleared, a dazed Nappa was being pummeled by a child no bigger than his foot, blood streaming from his nose. As Gine watched, Nappa shook himself, backhanded Gohan off his chest, and leapt to his feet.

"I'm done playing around!" he bellowed. "You weaklings are all gonna die and I'm gonna enjoy every minute of it!"

He swung around, looking for Gohan, but before he found him a small blur crossed the edge of Gine's vision and Nappa startled.

"What the hell—?"

He spun in place, trying to reach something on his back. Gine saw Chiaotzu, clinging to the Saiyan's broad shoulders with a venomous look on his tear-stained face. His ki began to spiral, a giddy, lethal feeling that Gine didn't understand. Kami, apparently, did, because he bellowed,

"Chiaotzu, don't! He wouldn't want you to—"

"I don't care!" Chiaotzu snarled, starting to glow. "Tien!"

Gine heard the boom before she saw it, a sound so loud it was a physical sensation. Then there was light, and then dust, and then nothing.

No, she realized. Not nothing.

Nappa.

Still standing. Still grinning.

Still alive.

"Pathetic," he said, brushing dust off the top of his head. "Now where was I?"

With a deep yell, Kami launched himself at Nappa, pounding him with such a fury of blows that the Saiyan was forced back. Gine joined him, the two of them fighting in perfect sync. Nappa kept yielding, taking one step back, then another, and another, and for a moment Gine thought they had a chance.

But only for a moment.

Suddenly Gine felt something hard and gritty pressing on her cheek. She squinched up her face and felt sand enter her mouth. It was the ground. She was on the ground. Her head spun, and she pressed herself harder into the dirt, afraid for a moment that she was about to be flung off the surface of the planet and into space. What had happened? Slowly the thick fog of pain parted enough that she could tell there was a part of her face that hurt more than the rest of her. She'd been struck. Nappa had punched her. That was what had happened.

Gritting her teeth against the pain, Gine heaved herself to her feet. A trickle of blood ran down her forehead and she swiped it away impatiently. She couldn't hear anything, couldn't see anyone, and slowly she looked around, head still throbbing. To her left was the Prince, standing calmly with his arms crossed, grinning at her. Snarling, she looked away from him and found Nappa, crouched low. Was he hurt too? No, he was about to attack. But attack what?

Movement caught her eye, and she found Kami on Nappa's other side, picking himself slowly up off the ground, looking as battered and bloody as she felt. He was looking in the same direction Nappa was, and in the instant Gine saw him he disappeared, phasing forward too fast for her to follow. She looked where he'd been looking, and to her horror found Gohan, face white with pain or fear, collapsed on the ground, and Chi Chi, curled protectively around him.

Before Gine could blink, or think, or move, Kami was there, arms spread wide, and Nappa's attack broke around him like water. Chi Chi and Gohan were spared, the rushing air ruffling their hair and clothes, but no more. Kami was not so lucky.

Clothes nearly burned away, body bruised and bleeding, teeth bared in triumph, Kami fell, and did not get up again.