Dragon Ball: New Days
Prologue: A New Journey
The battle against Vegeta and Nappa had been a difficult one, and the resulting effects of the battle were nothing short of immense loss, despite their victory in the end. Many of the Z-Fighters had been slaughtered in their efforts to defend the Earth from the Saiyan threat, and those who had managed to survive the arduous battle found themselves hospitalized in the aftermath.
While Gohan and Krillin were able to get out of the fight mostly intact, and Yajirobe was only a little banged up, Goku had suffered severe damage, and with no Senzu ready for the time, it seemed that he would be stuck that way.
The immense strain he had put his body under with his excessive use of the Kaio-Ken, combined with the bone-crushing blows of Vegeta in his Oozaru form, left Goku in a full-body cast. To be truthful, it was a miracle that he had survived at all, let alone been stabilized and left with the chance of recovery.
Beyond this, though, the heaviest of the deaths in their battle was known amongst the survivors: Piccolo was dead, and with him both Kami and the Dragon balls were gone. Not only could they not bring back Chiaotzu, but even Yamcha and Tien were lost, seemingly forever. After all, without the Dragon Balls, how could they hope to wish anyone back?
Only one of those present had a possible answer to this problem, the bald fighter sitting quietly in his hospital bed. The quiet conversation of the others was nothing but a dull echo at the edge of Krillin's mind, as he meditated on the battle and tried to recall what it was that Nappa had off-handedly referred to Piccolo as.
'What was it…' His eyes were shut, brows furrowing in mild frustration. 'Come on, Krillin, it's right there, what did he call Piccolo again?' It had been at the initial arrival of the two Saiyans to the battlefield, when Piccolo was identified as Raditz's killer...
'A Namekian!'
"Hey, uh, guys?" Krillin spoke up, his interruption silencing the already-slow discussion amongst the others. "On the ship, when I mentioned there might be a way that we could get everyone back… that Nappa guy called Piccolo a 'Namekian', and that got me to thinking. Isn't it possible that there's a whole planet of Namekians out there, with their own Dragon Balls?"
The revelation lingered in the silence as those in the room processed his words. If there were another set of Dragon Balls, then it was still entirely possible to bring back not only Yamcha and Tien, but even Chiaotzu and Piccolo, maybe!
"That's good thinking, Krillin!" Bulma smile, but it faltered a moment later. "But… there's just one problem. Even if there is a planet of these Namekians, we have no idea where to start looking to find it. It could take years for us to figure out where it is, and by then we might not be able to revive any of them, if this hypothetical set of Dragon Balls has the same restrictions as ours.
"Well hey! It just so happens that you've got an in with the guy who can get you that kind of information!" A nasally voice rang out in the hospital room, turning Roshi, Bulma, Krillin, Gohan, and Chi-Chi's gazes skyward.
"Oh, hey King Kai!" Goku weakly spoke up in his bed, trying and failing to prop himself up into a sitting position. "We would really appreciate you lending us a hand here…"
"Of course, of course. Now, let me see... " The blue Kai hummed to himself, his antennae twitching as he worked to suss out the location of this possible Namekian planet. With a little rush of energy, he was able to pinpoint the location exactly!
"Ah, yes, there it is! But I must warn you, it seems that some sort of cataclysm has caused hundreds, if not thousands, of casualties. There only seems to be maybe a hundred remaining Namekians." Though, a hundred was still more than nothing, and surely at least one of them would know about the Dragon Balls.
"Planet Namek's coordinates are Bearing SU83, 9045YX." King Kai finished his relaying of data, giving a pensive hum at the state of Namek. 'Hopefully they will find what they're looking for.'
"Wait a minute, those coordinates sound pretty far out... " Bulma pulled out her calculator, jotting the given numbers in. "Well, the good news is that we know exactly where Namek is, but the bad news is that - even with the fastest spaceship on the planet - it's still over a four thousand year trip, one way!" It was a severe blow, and with that revelation it seemed that all might be lost.
Their heads hung low at the realization, and once again the brief stint of happiness that had begun to well in them was fading.
"What're you guys getting so sad about?" Krillin grinned, letting out a little chuckle. "Let's just use the Saiyans' space ships!"
"What are you saying, Krillin? Vegeta escaped in their ship, didn't he?" Roshi crossed his arms. Had Krillin hit his head one too many times during that battle?
"Yeah, but he escaped in a small ship. It looked like it was made for one guy, at most! That means his dead buddy's ship is still probably out there somewhere!"
"That's true, and there was the ship that my brother came to Earth in too!" Goku paused. "...Though uh, I'm pretty sure Gohan broke that one."
Krillin pulled out a small device that was sitting in his folded, tattered up gi beside the bed, a remote of some sort. "I found this, thought there was a chance it could be useful, so I picked it up. I think Vegeta used one of these to summon his space pod, so it has to be the remote control they use for them, right?"
Bulma snagged the remote from Krillin with a joyful look on her face, bouncing in place. "Y-yeah! With this, we might actually be able to do it, there's still hope!"
Of course, as if perfectly timed, the news playing on the hospital room's television was playing a report on a mysterious spherical device that had been found in the crater where the Saiyans had come out of upon their arrival.
"Oh, I just can't wait to see the look on their faces when that pod goes flying out of there." Bulma punches in some directions that would make the pod float outside of the hospital window. "A blip here… a beep there…" SHe muttered to herself, about to push the red button she assumed would confirm the command. At the last second though, she hesitated, and instead pushed a more benign, black looking button right above it.
On the news, scientists in the crater began to panic as the pod was spurred to live, rumbling and beginning to hover over the ground, inch by inch.
"Something appears to be happening, the pod has lifted off of the ground on its own accord- oh my gosh, the pod has just shot off like a bullet, we've already lost visual on it!" The reporter spoke, startled at the sudden change of events. "Back to you at the studio, we'll update you on this story as soon as possible!"
A distant whirring noise came closer and closer, the pod stopping and floating right outside the window of the hospital room, more or less where Bulma had intended for it to be. The Z-fighters gave a cheer as the blue-haired genius hurried over to the window, the pod door opening and resting on the window frame itself.
"Alright!" Looking over her shoulder, she flashed a grin at her friends. "I think I'm gonna take this back to Capsule Corp. and run some tests, see if there's maybe some improvements to be made to it." The genius slowly stepped up onto the window sill, shaking a little as she realized she would have to step out into the open air to get into the pod.
Shaking a bit from fear, she lowered down into a squat, crawling onto the curved door of the pod and scurrying across the small gap into the safety of the surprisingly comfortable seat within. Adjusting herself to be sitting upright, she gave a small victorious fist pump, before turning her gaze back to the hospital room.
"I'll let you guys know as soon as it's ready!" Bulma waved, punching in some new commands into the remote and once again pushing the black button. The pod door shut with a gentle hiss, and as quickly as the pod had arrived at the hospital, it was gone.
The others were left in a bit of a stunned silence, until it was broken by the weak laugh of Goku. Once he started to laugh, one by one the rest were able to find it in themselves. Soon, everyone, even Gohan, was laughing!
With this, they would be able to get their friends back!
Well, it seems that the story is unfolding a little differently than we're familiar with already! Truth be told, in my original outline for the story I had the pod self-destruct as per usual, but I decided this might be a more interesting route to go down.
Instead of relying on Kami's ship to make the trip to Namek, now, Bulma has the space pod to tinker with, and with her working alongside her father from the get-go, I think it's clear as to where my intentions with this little change lie.
I'm hoping that this little introductory chapter will set the tone for the kinds of deviations that will be happening over time!
Please, feel free to leave some feedback in a review. If you have questions or suggestions I'd love to hear them! I have an outline drafted all the way to the end of the Namek saga, but given I just slashed out about ten lines from it with that last-second change, I don't see why I can't consider changing other stuff too!