The Saiyans were among roughly three dozen soldiers lined up outdoors. They stood atop an odorous, snowy surface while a chilly breeze blew from the black clouded, steel-gray skies. Standing across from them were three men in purple suits sporting a unique lime green armor that contained only a single shoulder guard and a triangular logo against a black plate in the middle. A tall, lanky frog-like man with copper skin stood on the left and a bulky, dark green man with black hair on the right. The shortest of the trio stood in the middle; he was similar to Zarbon, with blue skin and stylish yellow hair. He was the one to speak.
"Greetings, soldiers." As seemed to be the theme in the army, he spoke with a heavy accent. He pointed to the bipedal frog. "To my right, is Neiz. And to my left, is Dore." The blue soldier smirked and pointed to his chest. "And I'm Salza. The three of us together are…"
The three soldiers conducted a series of synchronized poses to the soldiers' bewilderment.
"Cooler's Armored Squadron!" The three said in unison.
Gohan scratched the top of his head with his tail while cocking his eyebrow at the "Squadron." For a band of violent space pirates, the top end sure seemed to be in no shortage of dorks.
"You are in great luck, as you are the first selections for the Cooler Force-sponsored Training Camp," Salza said, valiantly spreading his arms wide. "Those of you who survive will no doubt leave with warnings to pass along to the next crop."
The ominous tone and sinister grin didn't strike even a pang of fear within Vegeta, but he eyed his young protege standing to his left. Something in Gohan's resolve had cracked after Frieza's torture of Boysen. In his estimation, the boy was experiencing hallucinations and panic attacks; an absurd thought to the violence-desensitized Saiyan Prince. Most curious was his change in armor and his withdrawn demeanor since, taking to it almost like a calming mechanism.
The way Vegeta saw it, this camp would either get Gohan's head where it needed to be or reduce him to a mental invalid. He perished the thought of the latter.
"We believe that competition breeds greatness," Salza began. "All of you are part of units, so the members that complete all of their challenges over the next month with the best times and performances will earn points for their crews. Since you all are among Lord Frieza's best soldiers, the unit with the most cumulative points at the end of the course shall earn a rank upgrade."
Nearly every soldier's eyes lit up at Salza's words, most of all the Saiyans. For the other members, they saw new privileges. For the Saiyans, they saw a chance to finally get consistent top-flight missions and finally expedite their power growth. A simple task, in Vegeta's eyes. Nobody was more suited for rigorous training than the Saiyan race.
"Every day, you will all be woken up by an alarm and must report to this site at 0500 hours sharp. You will undergo an obstacle course that spans the entire circumference of the planet; given the small size of this star, it must be completed in six hours and not a second longer. Only upon timely completion will you be granted thirty minutes to hunt down a meal."
Salza observed the lineup, looking hard beyond the bluster for the first bead of sweat to drop. In the Cold Force, any sign of weakness would be immediately snuffed out
"And that ain't all, folks," Dore added with a grin. "You will undergo a series of strength and combat challenges that will vary day-by-day, and only after successful completion will you earn the right to a healing tank and sleep - however long that takes. If it takes you all day, you'll still have to report here by 0500 hours."
"And you'll still have to complete whatever you didn't finish on top of the next day's tasks," Neiz added.
Despite Vegeta's concerns to the contrary, Gohan wasn't spooked. On Planet Zuna, he had to fend for himself on an entire planet of aliens after his life and made it out in one piece.
Constant action?
No comfortable sleep?
Earning your food?
Bring it on, Gohan thought with a glare. His Saiyan comrades, all weary of his rattled disposition since their return from the battle with Kabnet, were pleased with the determination in his eyes.
Salza pointed to the small building at the top of the hill behind the soldiers. "You will all be living in that facility over there. You'll find gear that is to be worn underneath your uniforms. You'll also find your enhanced scouters. The only time you are not permitted to wear them is the obstacle course. Once that's over, they are to be worn for the remainder of the day, even during sleep."
"Yeah, because you might be shocked by the punishment you receive for not having it on," Neiz said with a troubling smirk.
"Now, hurry up and get to the facility!" Dore shouted. "We'll expect to see you all back here in ten minutes to begin the obstacle course!"
The group of soldiers headed for the facility. As the Saiyans approached the doorway, a group stepped in front of them. Vegeta scowled hatefully at them.
"Are you lost, Cui?"
Cui - the purple, frog-like alien that had confronted Gohan and Vegeta during the former's first day on Frieza's base. His insufferable smile hadn't changed. Next to him were a tall, lanky teal-skinned man with a purple mohawk, a muscular man coated in red fur with the face of a bear. And the fourth member of the bunch was a short, pony-tail wearing girl with dark blue and green armor. Wait a second…
"Arepa?" Gohan asked.
The sprightly young girl could almost immediately sense the tension between the two groups and shrugged with a weary smile.
"I know you guys must feel real special with all of the shakeups you triggered, but don't get it twisted. You're still a bunch of worthless apes in my eyes!" Cui snickered.
With a snarl that would have mortified a lesser man, Vegeta clenched his fist and put his foot forward. "Your disgusting, buggy little eyes won't mean anything when they're clawed out!"
"Worthless trash," Raditz spat. "Why don't you get out of our way?"
"You're in no position to be firing orders, weakling," the skinny teal soldier said.
"Easy now, Stroh," Cui said, holding off his comrade with his arm. "That trash bug doesn't even warrant words." He laughed harder as Raditz's veins swelled and turned to the bear on his left. "What do you think we should do, Beari?"
Licking his prominent fangs, Beari grinned at the snarling Saiyan quartet with his arms folded. "Man, these turd faces won't even make it past day one! Who cares?" His child-like high-pitched voice made Gohan nearly fall over.
The other two allies chuckled while Nappa had to physically restrain Vegeta (though he was quite fired up himself). Stroh, Beari, and Cui left the scene. Arepa turned around to make sure they were out of sight and whirled back to Gohan.
"Zarbon assigned me to 'em. If ya ask me, that dude's an ugly ol' toad,'' Gohan, and even Nappa, laughed.
"Hurry your ass up, Arepa!" Cui shouted from the building. Arepa flashed a peace sign at Gohan and sauntered off.
"Gohan!" Vegeta shouted, snatching the boy's attention. He still wasn't used to Vegeta using his actual name. "Don't think for one second that girl is your 'friend.' I have no doubt Zarbon grouped her with them for a reason."
"Yes, sir," Gohan said, though he let his eyes linger on Arepa as she walked away longer than Vegeta cared for.
The Saiyans stepped inside the facility. It was a dank hall, the floor painted with the stains of years' worth of spilled blood from the trainees of past. All that lay in the room were rows of stone cots on each side, all of them holding padding and scouters. Besides that, a fw healing tanks in the back corner. Gohan walked to his cot and checked out the blue scouter, only twirling it around in his grip since he knew there wasn't much time to test its new capabilities. He assumed the padding was the gear they were instructed to wear, confirmed by all of the men applying them with their sleeves and pants (if applicable) rolled up.
The paddings had labels for designated body parts. Gohan pulled the top of his body suit down and first applied padding to his shoulder. His arm immediately buckled from the sheer weight.
"What the…?!" Gohan muttered as he struggled to move his arm around.
"Weighted pads," Vegeta said, all but his legs padded up. He didn't emit the physical reaction Gohan and many of others had, but his hoarse voice and furrowed brows showed that they strained even his body. "Similar to the ones I wore when training as a child." But far heavier, Vegeta noted. A half ton, by his estimation.
As Gohan placed the padding against his shoulders, forearms, chest, and legs, he felt like about ten extra bodies jumped into his own. Even reaching his arm out was a task from hell that tugged at his muscles.
"Let's just hurry the hell up and get over there." Vegeta walked at a deliberate pace. He, Raditz and Nappa grew up on a planet of intense gravity, so they had an easier time adjusting than Gohan and the other hobbling soldiers. Wanting to follow his elders' example, Gohan simply put his head down, gnawed at his own teeth, and marched behind them.
Though it took effort that weighed as much as the padding, Gohan made it to the three other Saiyans' sides. He could feel his body adjusting to the strain with every step, focusing his energy to his feet. As he marched, he looked up at Vegeta.
"What the heck is that Cui guy's deal, anyway?" Gohan asked between winces.
With a strained laugh, Nappa answered. "Ol' fishboy just has sour grapes from when we invaded his planet."
"We didn't even purge the damn place," Raditz said, grinning. "We just roughed up a few buildings until their King agreed to join Frieza. That little turncoat saw the writing on the wall and betrayed them before we even did anything just to suck up. He exposed his spineless ass for his whole homeworld to see and just needs somebody to blame." Vegeta snickered at the memory from his youth, the young Cui cowering before him with his grotesque eyes bugging out and tagging along like a dog searching for an ass to sniff.
Gohan thought back to what Kiyomi told him - never sell out your people. It seemed like few in Frieza's army stood by that mantra.
Cooler's Armored Squadron laughed amongst themselves as they watched the struggle march. "It's like a turtle procession," Salza quipped.
Just a second after most of the soldiers slogged in, an alarm on Salza's scouter went off. "Time's up!"
Sauza looked above the swarm of heads to find four soldiers far behind the rest, struggling to march through the snow. With a bloodthirsty chuckle, Salza lifted both hands and conjured small blades of energy from each of his fingers and flung them to carve up the unlucky lemmings. Many soldiers grimaced as their blood painted the white snow.
"They'll live," Salza said. "But that's the punishment for tardiness."
Gohan winced and nodded. He didn't need any harsher warning than that.
"Now, lemme lay out some ground rules for ya!" Dore yelled, his imposing voice demanding everyone's attention. "There will be NO use of energy for this course. If you're gonna get used to those weights, you just gotta sweat through 'em." Many gasps escaped the crowd, to the amusement of the squadron. "We got cameras set up everywhere that we can watch through our scouters, so we'll know!"
"And you are to run in your full gear, armor and all," Neiz said. "Now, you'll start it off going west." Neiz moved his body and pointed to his left.
Dread filled Gohan as he and the other soldiers turned in the Neiz's direction. He'd been confident at first, but the extra provisions cast doubt on his capabilities. The weakness he'd been trying to escape had snuck back in.
"Now, how you tackle these obstacles is your own choice," Salza said. "You can thwart them at your own peril as long as you don't use energy."
"If you got any complaints about that, then keep 'em - 'cause I doubt you're strong enough to do anything about it." Dore yelled.
Those words tensed Gohan in a good way. That was his drive. That was why he needed to train and overcome this. So he could become strong enough that he, and only he, decided things.
Dore triggered his scouter's timer with the click of a button.
"Alright, weaklings...BEGIN!"
The soldiers took off...to the best of their ability, at least. Just like before, the Saiyans led the way down the trail of snow. Cui was having none of that noise.
"Beari, can you at least jump?" Cui yelled, struggling to speak as he exerted himself.
"Sure thing!" Beari yelled. The pads hadn't been nearly as rough on him.
"You know what to do!"
"Got it."
Defying his size, Beari leapt ahead through a series of flips until he planted his immense feet right behind Gohan. The impact knocked the tiny Saiyan over, allowing Beari to grab his tail. Gohan tried to get up, but all of the strength sapped from his body.
Just as Beari was about to lift Gohan up, however, Vegeta kicked him into a tree dozens of feet away.
"Didn't I tell you to wrap your damn tail, idiot?!" Vegeta rebuked as Gohan tried to pick himself up. The irritable Prince did that job for him, grabbing Gohan by the hair and tossing him as far as both of their bodies allowed. Both out of spite and to get back ahead, Vegeta jumped up and used Cui's spotty, bald cranium as a springboard.
With the dirty tricksters behind him, Vegeta raged ahead. He and the Saiyans kept a brisk pace until one section stopped them dead in their tracks. Two cliffs - and a net of flaming barbed wire raised just inches above the ground in between. The Saiyans weren't the only ones to stop; nearly every soldier wondered what the hell they were going to do.
It was Vegeta who just said screw it and popped down to crawl. The smoldering flames raging inches above his back? Nothing. He was determined to raise the bar for the rest of the wimps. Dreading getting shown up by a "mere monkey," the others followed.
Gohan, however, had a different idea. Sure, there was a no-energy rule, Gohan had one thing these brutes didn't: control over his Ki. He leaped up and the second his foot landed on the scorching, sharp barbs, he unleashed his Ki for a microsecond. Just enough force to both shield his toes and launch himself.
So what if it was "cheating?" These guys cheated for a living.
Vegeta could see Gohan leap ahead and wondered how in the hell he'd pulled it off. Another soldier tried to mimic him, but only earned himself a blazing, impaled foot.
Gohan landed back on the ground and widened his gap from the rest as his limbs loosened up a bit more. The further he ran, however, the more the temperature dropped. The heavy congestion filling his lungs forced him to slow down for his breathing's sake. His jog took him to the edge of a cliff, where he could hear the water raging down below.
When Gohan took another step to see how steep of a drop he would have to take, he froze.
Not because of the height. In fact, he wouldn't have to jump at all. But he would have to go down a slope of ice water. With the massive stream of ice came a stream of memories from the day Frieza punished Boysen for his treason. It wasn't just a brutally cold riverbank in Gohan's eyes - it was a powerful flow of Frieza's everlasting strength. His eyes sought out an alternate path, but there wasn't anything out for miles that wouldn't have just set him back.
Worst of all, he could sense the other soldiers drawing closer.
Gohan brushed one foot over, shutting his eyes to squeeze away his vision of the ice grinding him away. He slid his other foot over as his heart erratically pumped oxygen through his veins.
What was he doing? He could never conquer Frieza if he was scared of a little ice. Oh, how he could hear Vegeta's disembodied voice reprimand him, reminding him that the technique he feared so much only worked on the weak.
"I'm not weak!"
He screamed it aloud before he made the leap into the unbearably cold frosty waters with his eyes clenched shut. Luckily, it was a precipitous slide - not that it made the ride easier to endure. His skin felt like it was going to peel off at any second. When his foot finally hit a ridge of land, he thrust himself forward and fell face-first into the rancid snow.
Gohan survived the ice. Was it awful? Yes. Did his entire body feel numb? Yes. But he got through it. He could do this.
Unfortunately, while he coughed and reeled on the ground, Cui and the recovered Beari not only escaped the stream with flying colors, but took turns kicking him into a nearby tree. Cui was amphibious and could easily adapt to ice water, while Beari had the protection of his fur. They took amusement out of their new lead while running with (relative) ease.
Everyone else who escaped the glacial slide wasn't so lucky. Soon after Cui and Beari left, the bulk of fighters washed up and gasped for air as Gohan had done. Nappa was among the first to get up, his size making providing some insulation against the weather. In a shrewd move, he slung Vegeta and Raditz over his shoulders before he took off, though he hadn't noticed Gohan crawling away from a tree branch that had fallen on top of him.
But though Nappa was only thinking ahead, he should have known better. The instant Vegeta regained his bearings, he viciously elbowed Nappa in the gut and leaped out of his shoulders. When his large partner doubled over, he kicked him for good measure.
"I didn't recall asking for your help, Nappa!" Vegeta snarled, his mind zipping clear past his earlier assistance of Gohan.
Figuring that Nappa would get himself back up eventually, Vegeta and Raditz pushed on ahead. The plant-rich jungle they entered gave them limited visibility. Blowing leaves and insects out of their faces, and adjusting their body to the schizophrenic climate, the two Saiyans swung from tree to tree until they reached another steep precipice. They stopped in their tracks, but when they saw the sight ahead, they nearly fell over the edge - from laughing.
A set of twin vines were the only path from their cliff to the next. Below the vines, a pit of fire. Clinging to the vines? Beari. Clinging to Beari's legs? A whimpering Cui.
By the time Gohan and Nappa finally made it over, Vegeta and Raditz had already squeezed past their two rivals. They had their core strength to thank, as it allowed them to push forward from arm to arm. If he were in a more sadistic mood, Vegeta would have just kicked Beari and Cui over; but he wanted that fish-face bastard's death to come after realizing how hopelessly overpowered he was in battle.
With their small size, Gohan and Arepa had the easiest time jumping around the vines, laughing amongst each other even as some less than fortunate soldiers fell to their fiery deaths.
"Hey, Gohan! I betcha five fish you can't do a double flip to the next vine!" Arepa challenged before doing exactly that.
"Watch me!" Gohan yelled. But he didn't do a regular front flip like Arepa did - he did a forward backflip, launching himself clean past Arpea and still easily grabbing hold of the vine.
"Cripes, Gohan! Remind me to never bet against ya again!"
Gohan laughed, feeling warmer from hearing Arepa's friendly platitudes. Shortly after Vegeta and Raditz made it on land, the two children did the same. And when Nappa kicked a soldier that was in his way for too long down below, so did he. As soon as Nappa got both feet on soil, Vegeta and Raditz bent down and chopped off the ends of the vines. They swung all the way down to the bottom of the other cliff across, anyone not strong enough to keep their grip condemned to a molten end.
"Nice one, guys!" Nappa yelled as they continued running.
Meanwhile, Cooler's Squadron laughed while they watched the madness unfold on their scouters. It never failed - the soldiers always resorted to violence amongst themselves to survive the course.
"And this is why we make a competition outta this!" Dore cheered. "Those idiots are tearing each other apart!"
"I must say, I knew the Saiyans were hardcore - but I didn't realize they were this cutthroat," Salza marveled. "Nobody's ever thought to chop the vines before."
"I guess Lord Cooler wasn't lying when he said his brother was scared of those guys," Neiz observed.
The rest of the course went smoothly - if you were a Saiyan, at least. There were a few hazards from the environment and animals, though it seemed like Gohan could thwart any living thing that snuck up on him no matter where they struck from. Of course, the other Saiyans hadn't figured out that Gohan could sense Ki.
Five hours and 27 minutes later, the Saiyans leaped down a cliff and were right back where they started with Salza, Neiz and Dore waiting for them. With nobody else around to see besides the other Saiyans, Vegeta bent down on one knee to gather himself; he'd rarely felt so much exhaustion beyond direct combat. The other Saiyans weren't in much better shape; Gohan had to lay down, even. He'd taken the most physical punishment of the Saiyans and after three and a half hours of running, it all piled up.
"A little over 30 minutes to spare, Saiyans; somewhat impressive," Salza remarked. With his face obscured, Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Your unit gets a point. Stay put until time is up. I want the rest of them to know who won."
Ten minutes later, Arepa arrived. Being the only one of Cui's crew not to pester the Saiyans worked to her favor, though her armor was notably torn up. She didn't stand still for even two seconds before passing out. Gohan almost laughed until he remembered Vegeta was around; he didn't need another scolding.
A few minutes after Arepa returned, so did her "allies," Stroh, Beari, and Cui. Their scaly purple leader walked with a hole in his boot courtesy of the lava Vegeta's stunt had brought his feet dangerously close to. It left his webbed foot exposed, much to his embarrassment. As Vegeta continued catching his breath with his back turned, Cui stalked towards him with his right arm curled back to deliver his receipt.
Before he could strike, however, Gohan stepped in front of him. As far as he was concerned, Cui was the one due a receipt since it was his nonsense he started the back and forth between the two crews on the trail.
"And just what do you think you're doing, twerp?" Cui said, dismissing the half-Saiyan's blazing glare. "Outta my way, I owe your Alpha Ape for earlier!"
"Is that so?" asked a certain gruff voice.
Vegeta, having cursed himself for not being aware of Cui and needing Gohan to back him up, whirled around to his rival. Though he was short on fuel, his eyes produced flames in abundance. Raditz and Nappa soon joined the fracas.
"Hey!" Salza shouted. "As much as I'd like to see a brawl, calm it down." Dore's groans fell on Salza's deaf ears.
The feisty fighters followed orders, but let their glares linger. Revealing the immature child that still lived beneath his stoic front, Gohan pulled down his eyelid and stuck his tongue out at Cui and his men. Vegeta snarled at Gohan out of embarrassment, but then Cui and Beari went and did it right back; Vegeta looked up to the Gods in the sky with utter bafflement.
Arepa woke back up having missed the whole confrontation. She barely even regained her bearings before Cui barked at her.
"Get over here, Arepa!" Cui shouted. Arepa ignored her aching, weighed down limbs and rushed over to her crew with little certainty about the commotion.
"So is this like, the starin' contest portion of the obstacle course or somethin'?" she asked.
"Quiet!" Cui and Stroh ordered. Arepa folded her arms with a huff. Gohan let the smallest half-smile creep to his lips for a brief second. Just enough for Vegeta not to see, at least.
With Arepa killing the tension, the crews dispersed and took makeshift seats on a few stray logs. As the clock drew closer to six hours, six other soldiers joined the scene. Three of them passed out from exhaustion before they even reached Cooler's men.
Dore's timer went off just after some of the others made it down. "TIME! Sorry, but the rest of you assholes are late!"
Salza scanned over the number of soldiers within their vicinity. "Twelve. Twelve soldiers, out of 48 beat the timer. Three quarters of you can't even make it through the course in time. If this is what his best men can do, no wonder Frieza needs us training them!"
Vegeta snickered; Neiz sure as hell wasn't talking about his crew. He shifted his focus to Gohan, thinking about how the boy took up for him against Cui. In his mind, Vegeta could see the beam from Planet Linden racing to his face while he stood powerless, and Gohan kicking him out of the way at the last second.
Raditz and Nappa only ever stuck their neck out for Vegeta when instructed, and that was only after he exhausted all other options. His harsh rejection of Nappa's help during the course was just a sample of Vegeta's many harsh rejections of his subordinates' unsolicited help. Vegeta put a lot of effort into appearing strong; he had to, in this world.
But there was something different with Gohan. The full-bloods' faulty assistance came from loyalty; it was their duty as Saiyans. Gohan, a half-breed from a far-removed planet, had no concept of that. Supposedly, he didn't even like Vegeta. He helped simply because he could; a conversation he had with a certain technician made it obvious that it was just how he operated.
A symptom of Gohan's compassion that Vegeta sought to weed out. Yet, if the boy didn't act on altruistic impulse, Vegeta wouldn't have been sitting there at the moment.
Whatever, Vegeta mentally scoffed. A tangled thought the heartless Prince of Saiyans didn't feel like unpacking at the moment.
"The twelve of you who actually made it through can go to the forest out north to hunt," Salza instructed, pointing his thumb in that direction. "The rest of you weaklings better go to the facility to get your scouters and only get your scouters. If you linger there for long we'll know you're trying to use a healing tank."
Desperately craving sustenance, the lucky dozen headed for the woods. It was a small patch of land densely populated with trees, layered with an intense mist and an aroma of blood. So strong were they both, that many had a hard time even scoping out signs of animals. Even the Saiyans, whose acute senses made them natural hunters, struggled to make out their surroundings.
Well, every Saiyan except for one. With his Ki sense, Gohan easily scoped out a wolf nearby and struck the back of its neck to bring its life to a painless end. The attack triggered a fearful dispersion from the other concealed animals, exposing themselves to the more privy Saiyan elders. Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz weren't as merciful as Gohan, gruesomely attacking their prey.
Just as Gohan was leaving the trees with the other Saiyans while dragging the wolf carcass behind, he saw Beari closing in on a deer. Feeling spiteful, he put the wolf down, dashed forward and kicked the red bear into a tree.
"That's for grabbing my tail earlier!" Gohan shouted. The deer ran off, but Gohan caught up to it, calmly chopped its neck, and hauled it over his shoulders while dragging the dead wolf with him to his crew.
All three Saiyans sat around a fire with their kills piled up, approving of Gohan's violence. "Now you're starting to get it," Raditz snickered
Most pleased of all was Vegeta. It was about damn time the boy made genuine efforts to assert himself. Dare he say, he was proud. The layers of his mind assumed it was merely the teacher in him speaking and nothing more.
Gohan tossed his two carcasses into the fire and took a seat. Truthfully, he felt embarrassed with himself for acting on a negative impulse, but he needed to make it known that he wasn't to be pushed around. Just as the Saiyans were about to eat, a cacophonic voice robbed their attention with its whining
It was Beari, charging at Gohan. "You're gonna be sorry for that!" he screamed as all four Saiyans stood up with their shoulders squared for a battle with Cui's whole gang. Just as Beari jumped up to attack, however, Cui and Stroh seized him by the arms.
"Easy now!" Cui yelled, tightening grip on Beari's massive arms. "Don't worry, we'll get these monkeys back soon enough."
"Don't make me laugh," Vegeta said. "You just didn't want your teddy bear to end up as our next meal."
Even Gohan smirked when Beari ravenously tried to rip free from Cui and Stroh's restraint. That overgrown bear squirming around like a colicing baby was a sight too funny for words. Stroh and Cui dragged Beari back into the forest, hoping to find something before time expired.
With their animals cooked thoroughly, Nappa wasted no time in tearing a leg off of his kill's head and biting a chunk out of it. "Oh yeah, now this is what I'm talking about! It's been so long since we've eaten real food!"
"At least you waited for the meat to cook this time," Raditz snickered as he tore into his food. "Though I think you learned your lesson from Lifera."
While Nappa growled at Raditz, Vegeta swung his head back and laughed even as some of the chunks of his food spilled from his mouth. Gohan cracked a small smile, rarely ever seeing Vegeta actually enjoy himself. "What happened?" he asked.
"Planet Lifera, miserable old planet we purged," Vegeta said in between carnivorous bites. "The inhabitants were absolutely disgusting to look at but this big oaf was so starved he just ate their corpses raw." Gohan grimaced at such a casually barbaric description.
Happy to pile on, Raditz added, "He didn't realize how many parasites and worms lived in those overgrown bugs. You did a helluva number on those space pods on the way back!'
"My biggest regret in life might be not having a photograph of Zarbon's face when he saw the inside of that pod," Vegeta said, covering his mouth to halt his laughter.
With a peevish scowl, Nappa chucked his food down and folded his arms, incoherently mumbling about how it wasn't even that bad. Even Gohan had to join in on the laughs, having never had a moment with the Saiyans where there wasn't a macabre tension hanging over everything. For once, he saw them all as guys screwing around and joking. It was...comfortable.
Much like they'd done with the obstacle course, the Saiyans outdid their fellow soldiers in the combat training. The 1,000 push-ups, 2,000 situps, 1,500 squats and 500 pull-ups against tree branches were only the beginning. The first round saw every soldier have to line up and deflect a barrage of energy blasts rained down on them by Salza. They had to withstand it for thirty minutes, and anyone hit would have their timers reset immediately; Cooler's squadron had their scouters linked to the soldiers' and could reset their timers with a simple vocal command. Vegeta and Cui, the strongest of the bunch, finished in thirty minutes clean and moved onto completely destroying the heavily fortified giant trees with only their fists and feet.
From there, they had to snap 5,000-pound weights chained to their arms and legs with their energy, withstand 50 energy blasts from Dore without being knocked down, find a white tiger, seize one of its long teeth and keep it driven into their shoulder for ten minutes and find a way to wrap up the wound (those with body suits like Gohan, Vegeta, and Arepa used pieces of their clothes).
The final challenge? Neiz, revealing the mutant nature of his race, split himself into ten bodies that each unit had to knock unconscious. Only a few crews could pull it off in under an hour. Though Neiz's power level was divided amongst the clones, the soldiers were so beaten down that even Vegeta and Cui struggled despite being stronger than them at full-strength.
After a day that had taken the lives of ten soldiers out of the 48 that arrived on the planet turned into night, the Saiyans were the first to stumble into healing tanks. They had snatched up nearly every point there was to take, asserting their dominance over Frieza's top ranks. The healing tanks were a welcome reward for their mighty efforts.
Well, until after only ten paltry minutes, a timer went off that led to the healing solution draining back into a pump and the glass door popping back open.
"Wh-What?" Gohan asked as he ripped off his breathing mask. He looked around, wondering if there was some sort of mistake. However, Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz emerged from their tanks soon after with similar confusion.
"The hell's going on?!" Nappa groaned. "Why's it over already?! I'm still aching like hell!"
Vegeta narrowed his eyes at the screen display next to the tanks. In red letters against a black screen, a "0:00" figure blinked on and off. "Now I see. It's locked to a timer."
"Seriously?!" Gohan yelled. His "healing" had effectively been the equivalent to a few bandaids and kisses from mom.
"Figures," Raditz muttered. "No use complaining, I guess."
With his body frankly still thrashed, Gohan limped to his cot. Just as he began his climb up top, a finger tapped his shoulder - Arepa. Beneath the litany of cuts, bruises, and swollen eye was a smile as she raised her fist.
"Those other idiots won't say it, but you guys kicked ass." She extended her fist out to Gohan, who gladly punched it back.
"You didn't do too bad, either."
"Now if you'll excuse me, I'mma be tumblin' to a healin' tank," she said as she turned around and walked off with a pronounced limp.
Gohan watched as Arepa stepped into the tank that was doomed to only grant her ten minutes of relief. He laughed thinking of what her ensuing reaction would be, though he planned on being asleep by then. Though Cui and his crew were jerks, at least he had one friend among them. While his scouter limited where he could move his head, Gohan nonetheless fell asleep.
A fist slamming against his cot woke Gohan up after only four hours of sleep. Through his half-lidded eyes, he could see the agitated faces of Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz glaring at him.
"Wake the hell up, boy!" Vegeta yelled. "What the hell happened to your scouter?!"
Vegeta and the others had been woken up by a loud siren that blared directly into their ears from the scouter. Gohan, on the other hand, lifted his hand to his left eye and realized he didn't have his.
"I don't-"
"HEY!"
The Saiyans all turned around to see Neiz scowling from the doorway. "I thought we said you have to wear your scouter even while you sleep, runt!"
"But it was on when I went to bed!"
Gohan's defense meant nothing to Neiz, and before he could press any further Neiz hit him with a bright, pink blast. The energy surrounded Gohan's entire body and unleashed a surge of unceasing electricity on it, reducing Gohan only to ear-piercing screams of blistering agony.
Vegeta advanced towards Neiz out of instinct, but knew it was for naught. The toad-like soldier didn't cease his attack either, keeping Gohan submerged in the supercharge even as it thoroughly tore through his body.
"You might want to get out before 0500, Saiyans!" Neiz warned. There was little they could do but leave Gohan behind. They missed Cui and his crew laughing at Gohan before they joined them outside. Arepa however, wasn't among them. She couldn't get herself to turn away, her eyes glued to Gohan's suffering. A heaviness weighed down on her features as Gohan's screams wreaked havoc on her ears.
"Hurry up and get out of here, brat! The boy hasn't learned, yet!"
With a growl, Arepa marched out with her eyes squeezed shut. When she met Cui, she opened them back up and stared icicles into her boss.
After five minutes, Neiz relinquished his electric grip on Gohan, the bright light fading. Smoke emanated from Gohan's charred skin as his body collapsed, earning callous cackles from Cooler's soldier.
"Hope ya make it on time!" Neiz taunted before he left Gohan to convalesce.
With his body violently convulsing, Gohan was unable to move. He could only linger with his body to the floor, the burning smell of his own flesh invading his nostrils. Through the numbing pain that robbed him of any feeling in his limbs, Gohan could only think about the scouter.
He knew he had it on when he went to sleep. Hell, it had kept him from sleeping comfortably on his left side like he typically preferred. Somebody had to have removed it. That rat Cui or his lackey Beari, no doubt.
After what felt like hours, Gohan could finally feel his fingers twitch. The pads had made it considerably harder for him to get any real sensation back. With the effort it took to fire a full-power Kamehameha, Gohan pointed his arms forward and clawed his fingers to the wooden floor to crawl ahead. He wouldn't let dirty tricks or electricity set him back; if he was going to be strong, he would have to endure it. Above all else, Gohan strove to be a survivor.
By the time he inched passed the doorway, he'd regained enough sensation in his legs to lift himself a few inches off the ground and lunge ahead. It sped up his journey to the waypoint, but in the last way he wanted - with his body tumbling down the hill until he landed face-first into one of the many discarded scouters.
Everybody was gone. They'd all long started the obstacle course. All that remained were Salza, Dore, and of course, Neiz. And they were all smirking at Gohan.
"You're late," Salza said.
With all the strength he had, Gohan pulled himself up - only for Salza to form a blade of Ki and slash his chest, cutting through both his armor and the heavy padding to slice open a wound. Too far gone to worry about his pride and appearing strong, Gohan screamed and clutched his chest while he fell back down. The three officers laughed as he coughed and writhed in the snow.
"Don't waste time suffering, brat!" Dore yelled. "The clock's tickin' and you're damn near an hour behind."
An hour?! Determined not to let the soldiers break him, Gohan sat back up and ignored his nerves screaming out at him. "A-An hour behind, huh…?" He asked, coughing blood as he did. "No...no problem…!"
The trio laughed as Gohan limped away. "Runt's not short in spirit, that's for sure," Dore said.
It didn't matter if his muscles were spasming with every movement, or that his head was aching worse than it ever had in his life, or that blood was dampening his chest padding. It didn't matter that the padding still bore an excruciating weight on his body. Gohan was going to make it through the course just as he'd done the day before. Cui would regret his deception some way or another.
He crawled under the fiery barbed wire. He swam down the river of ice. The vines that Vegeta cut the day before were wrapped haphazardly around a tree stump on the other distant cliff. Though his tingly fingers nearly sent him to the lava down below on a few occasions, he made it across.
Somehow, he powered through every remaining obstacle.
But by the time he skidded down the cliff and collapsed, the rest of the soldiers were already gathered. All he could think about before he collapsed to the ground was his Last Place status.
"And the runt returns…" Salza said, though he was impressed Gohan even survived.
Among the soldiers gathered were Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz, who seethed as they sat atop a log and saw their youngest ally lay on the snow. The worst-case scenario happened: only Cui, Stroh, and Arepa made it through the obstacle course in six hours. Oh, the first two used every dirty trick in the book, but they did it. And that meant the Saiyans were left to starve while their insufferable rivals enjoyed a feast. Although Arepa refused to eat, instead sitting with her arms folded and scowling nastily.
"Ha, I'm surprised that little chimp is alive!" Cui yelled with a mouthful, balefully, of bear meat.
Just the sound of his voice made Gohan whip his head up and ignore the indomitable soreness wreaking havoc on his body. He popped right back up with teeth bared, his steely eyes chained to the purple fish.
"You took my scouter, didn't you?!" Gohan yelled, pointing his finger.
While Arepa's head sank, Cui just laughed and kept gorging on his meal. "Hey, don't blame me for your lack of discipline, kid!"
However, Salza had no horse in the race and just wanted to get to the bottom of it. "You think so, huh? Well, let's see." He pressed a button on his scouter and pulled up a directory listing the serial numbers of every scouter distributed to the planet. "Scouter! Scan," he commanded.
Cui stopped chewing so boldly when Salza floated up to the sky and flew towards the rest facility. He stopped to glare at Arepa, whose eyes were averted from him. When Salza returned from behind the building with a blue scouter coated with snow in his hand, Cui shot up.
"Well, it would appear that a scouter was left behind the premises," Salza said with a smug smile. "Now, let's check the video to see what happened."
Cui prepared to speak, but Arepa beat him to the punch.
"Don't bother. I took it."
All eyes turned to the boiling little girl. More pertinently, Gohan's bewildered eyes darted to her. It...it couldn't have been true, could it? Before he could ask her after reconfiguring his scrambled mind, Arepa stood up and snarled at her boss.
"Stop actin' all shocked, Cui! You made me do it!" Arepa yelled.
"I...have no idea what you're talking about!" Cui laughed nervously, his eyes darting back and forth between Arepa scowl and Vegeta's bloodthirsty gaze.
Gohan's mental grip had checked out long before Arepa and Cui's argument. His thoughts only harkened back to Vegeta's advice the day before:
"Don't think for one second that girl is your 'friend.'"
The sharp knife of betrayal twisted through Gohan's irrational head. Vegeta had been right all along, huh?
"Well, regardless of who ordered whom, I think there's only one appropriate punishment for this," Salza said with a twisted smirk that made Arepa's heart pound. However, he craned his head to Gohan's. "And since you suffered, boy, I'll let you dish it out. Just try not kill her, yes?"
Being forced to do the "honors" brought Gohan's mind back to reality - Arepa had just followed orders. She didn't do it to hurt him, and so he couldn't bring himself to strike her for her misdeed. The same girl that stole his scouter was the same girl that saved his life on Planet Linden. The same one that always managed to lift his spirits when he was around her.
Seeing Gohan's hesitation, however, Salza decided to shake things up. "Well, little one, if you're reluctant to do it then how about this: we'll make it a fight. The winner takes the loser's team's points."
"What?!" Gohan shouted. He looked back at Arepa, who withdrew her eyes to the snow.
With that ruling, Vegeta had no patience for his protege's compassion. He stood up with his eyes narrowed. "Well?! You heard the man."
Sweat trickled down Gohan's head. There was a clear threat resting beneath Vegeta's tone.
Cooler's men and the other soldiers stepped back to form a circle and watch the fight ensue. Only Vegeta, Cui, and the two reluctant children stood in the center. Arepa hadn't moved, feeling like she deserved whatever was going to come to her. Cui slapped her in the back of the head.
"Don't look like that, you tattle-tailing brat!" Cui scolded. "You better beat that little monkey or you'll have hell in store for you!"
Vegeta was far more subdued, however, and folded his arms. "Look at yourself, boy. All that bullshit you've endured today because of her. Because of them. Do not let them win, do you hear me?"
Faintly nodding, Gohan turned to face Arepa, who had warily assumed a fighting stance. Despite all of his growth, Gohan found himself mentally back on Planet Trident, where he, like now, was forced to go against himself to appease Vegeta.
When he killed Mentos. When he was just following orders.
When he was just following orders.
Gohan following orders got Mentos killed. Arepa following orders left Gohan a mess, still barely even able to stand. As he watched her strained stance, he focused on her colors; or rather, his old colors. She looked just as he did back then - when he was weak, whining, and whimpering.
Maybe it was the electric shock scrambling his brain chemistry, but Gohan no longer saw Arepa standing across from himself. He saw what he didn't want to be anymore - his former self, the kid his father expected to see zapped to him when he summoned Shenron.
Gohan's brows furrowed. His fists squeezed so hard the fabric of his gloves tore. That kid was so weak, letting himself be pushed around like a doll. No more of that. Blue ice submerged the body across from him, cracks forming.
With a reserve of power locked deep inside, Gohan burst forward and punched Arepa in the face, sending her straight ahead into a tree. Feeling her face meet his fist brought Gohan back to the normal world; he just hoped that was enough to finish it.
On the other hand, feeling Gohan's fist crack her jaw ignited Arepa's fire. Free of her pensiveness, Arepa leaped from the tree and swung her tiny leg at Gohan's face hoping to pay him back; but even with his body in unimaginable pain, Gohan swung out of the way and batted her into the snow.
"Just stay down, dammit!" Gohan shouted. His pleading tone made Vegeta studiously tilt his head.
"You better get up, Arepa!" Cui shouted.
"SHUT UP!" Arepa wasn't alone. She, Vegeta, and Gohan had all shouted it to him at once.
Brushing her face off, Arepa jumped right back at Gohan and tried to punch him in the face, but only met the palms of his hands. Gohan wrapped them around her wrists and flung her into a mound of snow.
"You're not strong enough," he said through his teeth. He hadn't just been talking to her.
Whatever Gohan was doing, he didn't realize just how much it infuriated Arepa. He was patronizing her, treating her like a charity case that didn't deserve his time. She hadn't willingly made herself a soldier to be treated that way even by a friend.
"Don't say that again," Arepa warned, her voice low. The pair of icicles that were her pupils sparkled with fury and made Gohan buckle. She ran at Gohan but instead of attacking, she nimbly slid between his legs, popped up behind his back, and grabbed his perpetually-uncoiled tail
"Oh, come on!" Napp yelled from the crowd as Gohan sank to the ground.
"Excellent work," Cui said with a grin. "You'll be a good soldier, yet!"
While she was glad to exploit Gohan's glaring weakness, hearing that slimy fish sing her praises for it made Arepa freeze. Cui's cowardly footsteps were the last thing she wanted to follow. And above all else, she didn't truly want to beat Gohan this way.
So, she let go.
"What are you doing?!" Cui screamed.
Moments later, Gohan stumbled back to his feet and turned around to face Arepa with a venom in his eyes that she couldn't recognize. She'd known Gohan to be the weird, gentle kid, not the feral boy scoping her like prey. Unconsciously, she stepped back.
"Don't ever touch my tail again." Amongst the snow and the windchill, Gohan's low growl of a voice was the coldest thing in the air.
In a split second, he leveled her abdomen with his knee. Not even the half-ton of padding weighing him down could impede his blistering speed. As she flew backwards, Gohan sped ahead of her with both of his fists curled back. When she met him, he viciously slammed both fists into the back of her neck, dropping her down like a stone. He met her at the ground and kicked her like discarded trash. His temper hadn't been satisfied, however, because when he stalked towards her he lifted his boot above her face.
Her unconscious face.
Seeing her mouth hung open and helplessly sucking air snapped Gohan out of his blind rage. Repulsed by his actions, he fell into the snow. It was the grip around his tail that did it - being on the receiving end of another trap had cracked his mental faculties. He struggled to catch his breath while he got a hold of himself.
"Aw, I hoped it was better than that," Dore said. "Whelp, so much for ya points, Cui!"
"Worthless little twerp," Cui spat as he dragged Arepa away and tried to hide himself from Vegeta, who he was sure was snickering at him.
He was wrong to assume such. Vegeta stared at Gohan with an unreadable expression. As the commotion died down and the fighters reconvened amongst themselves, he sat back down on a log. Gohan joined him.
"Talk, kid."
Gohan blinked. "Um, huh?"
"What the hell was that?"
"I guess, I just lost it on her, I-"
"Not that. That was what you should've done from the beginning. She caused you pain, and you made her pay," Vegeta dryly explained. "But not only did you clearly want no part of it, you clearly regret whatever trance snapped you into it."
Gohan frowned and looked at Arepa out of the corner of his eye. She was still out cold. Vegeta hadn't been wrong.
"Kiyomi told me about what happened with Zarbon a few weeks ago," Vegeta said.
"You and Kiyomi talk?"
"Yes, we meet over tea and chat about our days," Vegetea dismissed with a snort. "She's one of the few non-Saiyans that doesn't test my patience, so if she addresses me, I'll answer." With a lascivious grin, he added, "That, and I'd like to see how she looks with her armor off and her legs wrapped around me."
"Huh?"
"Anyway," Vegeta said, remembering he was talking to a five-year-old and not Nappa or Raditz, "She said you let Zarbon and Dodoria attack you over the pod tracker business to protect her and that other guy. What the hell were you thinking?"
With a tense stare, Gohan gave his answer some thought. "They're the only people who were nice to me. I don't rat out friends."
"'Friends.' How ridiculous. Do you know what friendship is, Gohan?" Vegeta turned so he was facing Gohan directly. "A tool that can be used against you. Zarbon couldn't have cared less about those pods, he just went after those two to screw with you. And then he put that girl on the side of my most hated rival hoping we'd be compromised."
Gohan didn't take his eyes off of Vegeta as he mulled over his words. They weren't wrong. It didn't matter if Arepa was just doing what she was told. Cui had the power and the authority, so he could get her to act against him whenever he pleased.
As if he read Gohan's mind, Vegeta stated, "As I keep trying to tell you, boy, power rules all. The only people you need are the ones that won't drag it down."
Gohan stopped to glance at Arepa, who had woken up to a harsh admonishment from Cui. Even after everything, he still couldn't stand to see her get pushed around; but Vegeta was right. His goal wasn't making friends - it was the defeat of Frieza.
In Gohan's vision, that icy blue in Arepa's spread through her body, freezing her in the middle of yelling at Cui. Gohan squeezed his shut to rid himself of the hallucination and turned away from her.
Maybe that was what his dream was all about. Growing too attached to people would not only freeze himself up, but get them hurt. He didn't reject Earth to free himself of that attachment just to grow attached to people in this twisted life, too.
With a chilly breeze blowing against his purple and gold uniform and bristling his hair, Gohan decided he was done with caring. Done with the half-ton of padding weighing him down.
Of course, given his musings from the day before, the deepest corner of Vegeta's mind wondered if he was making a mistake.
A wise man once told me that the things people hate the most are what remind them of what they hate about themselves. Just a thought.