Saiyan Saga
We will begin this particular tale with Vegeta having lost his own and to his shock, discovering another. Having just recovered from being Spirit Bombed by Goku, he notices that this little Gohan also has a tail. Not wanting to take any chances, Vegeta blasts the boy, killing him.
Oh, Goku's gonna blow his stack right? Well, no. Goku is currently laying somewhere on the ground, unable to move. Barely conscious. So, I'm sorry, but there will be no early Super Saiyan happening here.
As the prince stands there congratulating himself on a job well down, he feels a slight pinch. Looking down he sees the gleaming, blood streaked tip of Yajirobe's sword sticking out of his chest. Instead of blindly slashing at him, Yajirobe took the chance to run him through. All praise the hero, Yajirobe!
Arriving in Other-world, Gohan is greeted by Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, Piccolo, and Kami. At King Yemma's direction, everyone, but Kami starts toward Snake-Way. Gohan, however, pauses to ask Mister Piccolo why that older looking Piccolo isn't coming too.
Kami says that he is much too old and weak, so he'd just hold them all back. And besides, he wants to be here at the check-in station so he can get back to Earth as soon as they are all revived. This way he will be able to collect the Earth Dragonballs without unneeded delay. All that drama with Goku getting back, was not forgotten.
Gohan thinks for a second, then asks, can't he just be wished back to the same place he died at? Smiling, Piccolo agrees, and tells Kami to shut up, and come along now.
With the help of Kami's magic, providing a boosted flight speed, they arrive at King Kai's world in only 3 weeks. That's less than half the time it took them originally.
And, I know it was meant as filler, but seriously, what the hell Goku? It took you 7 and a half months to get there.
Other World
Anyway, on arrival, the dead fighters all manage to pass their trials, and start training under King Kai. Having seen and felt it's power first hand, Gohan is determined to learn that Kaioken thing. He excitedly drags Piccolo along for the ride. Because of this, all, but the elderly Kami start to pick it up to varying degrees.
Piccolo actually succeeds learning it the fastest. Within the few weeks he has there, he is pushing past the base, times2 and is scratching at times 3. On the other hand, Yamcha and Chiaotzu are still only scratching at times 2, even after the months they will have to practice.
Gohan, and Tien are able to learn it successfully within their time there. But this means that Gohan does not even start to learn the spirit bomb though as his focus is squarely on learning this fascinating Ki manipulation technique.
Being around all these younger, more capable fighters, Kami talks to this vastly different Piccolo about wanting to be able to do more. When they get revived, maybe he should wish for youth as well, so the Earth will stay protected.
Piccolo scoffs at wasting the wish on something so trivial. He suggests that Kami should just make an egg, like the late Piccolo Daimao did. Just, not a Warrior type. Assuming Kami didn't put too much of his life force into the egg, there'd then be 3 Namekians on Earth. Maybe even 2 sets of Dragonballs? Kami is a bit skeptical.
Namek Saga
While Goku, and Krillin recover in hospital, Mister Popo shows Bulma around the ancient ship, that the Nameless Namekian arrived in. She spends the week fixing it, and then learning the Namekian language, since Mister Popo doesn't want to leave the lookout.
After traveling for 5 weeks, Bulma, Krillin, and Chi-chi arrive on Namek.
Wait, why drag her into this? Besides, aren't there already several different What-Ifs out there where Chi-chi becomes a Z-Fighters? Yeah, ok, but, well, I mean, her son died.
She had raised that boy for years without incident. Then she lets Goku look after him for just 1 day. Not only does he get kidnapped, for a year, but he also gets murdered, by Goku's space cousins? Chi-chi is as pissed at Goku as she is at herself. She is certainly motivated enough to personally try to get her hands on those Dragonballs.
Knowing that she's well behind everyone else skill and power-wise, Chi-chi bites a particularly sour bullet. She asks Krillin to train her as best he can on their trip. Providing a useful distraction from Bulma's choices in clothing, the training is fairly successful.
Krillin is pretty chuffed when he succeeds in teaching Chi-chi how to draw out her Ki. She also quickly learns the solar flare, and then they work on how to fly. She can certainly do it, but kind of awkwardly. Think Videl pre 25th World Martial Arts Tournament. Maybe she even ends up saving them, from one of their many filler-related encounters.
Back on Earth, Korin arrives with a pouch of Senzu. A now healed Goku heads to Capsule Corp. where Doctor Briefs has finished the upgraded ship. Once in space, the guilty feeling Goku dives headfirst into gravity training. After recovering from 100 G's, he pushes even higher. On the plus side he is stronger on arrival. Downside, however, is that he's munched on a few extra Senzu.
Over on Namek, the Krillin and Chi-chi arrive at Dende's Village so see Frieza and his troops demanding their ball. Chi-chi struggles to watch the warriors getting slaughtered by Dodoria, right in front of those children. Despite her meager power, Krillin can tell she's about to do something foolish. Before she can fly off, Krillin says to keep her power down and fly up toward the sun. When he gives the signal, use the Solar flare.
"Remember, just like I showed you, ok?"
Krillin flies around to the side, then dives in, catching Dodoria off guard as she's about to kill the 2nd of the 3 warrior Namekians. Landing next to Moori, Krillin says to look away. While surprised at the new arrivals, the Namekians are not about to refuse help. All but the 2 remaining warrior turn away slightly as Krillin raises his hands.
At this signal, Chi-chi also raises her hands to her face and they produce a double solar flare.
Krillian says that we need to leave, now! Anyone who can fly pick up whoever can't and they all leave. The partially blinded warriors are probably guided by their ability to sense their friends.
Once a safe distance away, Krillin starts talking to Moori about those Soldiers and mentions their scouters being a huge problem. They can sense energies, and possibly the Dragonballs as well! Flying low, and slow, they all keep their powers suppressed as they are lead to Guru's tower.
Outside they meet Piccolo? Oh, uhh Nail. He greets them and takes the 2 other warrior aside to chat. Moori takes Krillin, Chi-chi and Dende in to speak to Guru. After hearing their story, and sensing their good intentions, Guru bestows upon them their much needed potential unlocks. Afterward, an also unlocked Dende, says that he will go with them to help talk to Villagers and heal people when needed.
Chi-chi's low starting point should be much less of a problem now, since hopefully the potential unlock would look at what is possible, not where they are now. However, having very little control, her Ki skyrockets.
Afraid that Frieza has been alerted to their presence, Guru gives them the Dragonball, and tells them to flee. They make their escape with the Dragonball and Dende, while desperately pushing their Ki, down.
Having first dropped their loot off at the ship, Frieza and co head towards those energy spikes at Guru's tower
Frieza Saga
Noticing that the radar shows those 4 Dragonballs not moving, while the 3 large powers move away from them, Krillin tells Chi-chi and Dende to head back to Bulma while he'll scout out those 4. He discovers Frieza's ship, surrounded by soldiers. After watching for a while, he sees his opening and manages to sneak in. There in Frieza's chamber are 4 balls, sitting all alone.
Frieza arrives at Guru's tower and tells Dodoria to deal with these insects. Nail fairly easily slaps Dodoria and the few other fodder soldiers down, permanently. Knowing he can't win against Frieza, Nail draws the little tyrant off to fight elsewhere. When they're far enough away, the 3 Namekians face Frieza. Before they attack though, the two weaker ones instead turn on Nail and place his hands on their chests. With a flash, they both vanish.
Things still go badly for Nail. What? Surely, with their powers combined, they are Captain Namek! Right? By himself, Nail was hilariously outmatched by Frieza's 1st form. Also they just fused. There's no way for him to have acclimated to this. So for this early fusion, we'll put Nail at around 2/3rds as strong as the little emperor. If you really want a number, use 350k.
As Chi-chi and Dende head toward Bulma, Dende can sense a village under attack. At his urging, they change course. On arrival they find a certain yellow-skinned Alien themed Frieza soldier shooting up the villages, demanding their ball. Yup, this is the village that Vegeta never got to destroy. A powered up Chi-chi handles herself surprisingly well and quickly dispatching the lone soldier. This saves quite a few villagers. Seeing her rescue them, and then meeting Dende, the villagers hand over their Dragonball without complaint.
When the pair gets back to Bulma they find Krillin, surrounded by Dragonballs, not sure if he should be rather pleased with himself or worried that Chi-chi and Dende hadn't made it back yet. Dende tells Krillin about the village they saved. His congratulations to Chi-chi on her good performance are cut short when Zarbon lands. He had followed Chi-chi and Dende from that village.
Despite their still increasing power, Zarbon is currently still more than able to overpower both Krillin, and Chi-chi. He collects their 6 Dragonballs, and, feeling pretty smug, and quite pretty in general, he takes a moment to flirt with these two equally pretty woman. He tells Chi-chi he is impressed that she managed do defeat that soldier. She has skills, if not an abundance of power. Bulma is initially quite taken with him but a sour look from Chi-chi sets her straight pretty quickly.
There was no Vegeta here to be rescued from.
As Zarbon takes offence at Chi-chi's unwillingness to join him, he failed to notice that Krillin had been a busy, busy boy.
Zarbon moves in to teach this silly woman a lesson, when his scouter suddenly screams at him. A Destructo Disc comes slicing through. A visibly shocked Chi-chi retrieves one the one ball still in the clutches of Zarbon's now headless torso. They gather up all 6 balls and Bulma gingerly takes Zarbon's scouter. She turns off the radio and offers it to Chi-chi to help her track energy and the last ball.
After an exhausting and fruitless search for Guru's ball, and then the one from a destroyed and deserted village that Zarbon had flown off to, Frieza returns to the ship to find his chamber completely empty! Honestly, what's the point in handing out the last of the precious, not to mention expensive scouters, if nobody actually uses the damned things! He orders the ship's guards to call the Ginyu force, then sets a few examples.
Needing to relocate away from Zarbon's corpse, the gang then head off toward the last Dragonball. After dropping Bulma off somewhere relatively safe, they head in to find the village deserted. The scouter and radar both show the ball moving away, randomly. After a few days chasing the blip down, they manage to locate a villager hiding with it in a cave.
Finally able to summon Porunga, with that suggestion from Gohan, via King Kai, Dende wishes for Piccolo to be brought back to life ON Namek and then for Kami to be moved to the lookout. They start to wish for Piccolo to be brought to them, however, having noticed the sky, and then the massive Dragon, looming over the horizon, an enraged Frieza interrupts, and demands his wish.
As Dende starts speak, Guru decides that it is as good a time as any, to have his heart attack.
Piccolo arrives somewhere on Namek and flies off toward the power levels. Conveniently, he comes across the dying Nail, and they still fuse. Ahh, so who hosts the fusion now? In the original series, Piccolo was somehow around as strong as Goku was when he originally landed on Namek. Here though, I think he'll be quite a bit stronger than that. Just like Goku will be. Hmm, power creep strikes again.
Lets say Piccolo is at 124k on arrival, to match Goku. WOAH, WHAT?
So, in the series, Piccolo was with King Kai for just 6 days. In that time he went from 3k5 to just below Goku at 85k, suppressed. This time around, he's had a solid 3 weeks. Also, instead of sitting on his duff, napping, this has included actual training with both his eager student and the other 3. Not to mention some interesting, deeply telepathic Meditation sessions with Kami.
Because Gohan was there to draw him out of his shell, Tien, Yamcha, and yes, even Chiaotzu got in on some of that action. Piccolo also has the best grasp of Kaioken of the bunch. Was Piccolo an absolute beast before meeting Nail? Why yes, I think he was. Nail can sense the latent, Kaioken sourced, power inside of Piccolo. So he lets Piccolo host the party. This should put big green on par with 3rd form Frieza. A number? Ok, lets say it starts at 4M and increases a bit as he acclimates to the fusion. Capping at, oh, 7? Yeah 7M is nice. Not double, but pretty close.
Anyway, Kami Also appears on the Lookout, reactivating Earth's Dragonballs. He and Mister Popo immediately head off to collect them.
Ok, so, another slight sidetrack here. Piccolo, and by extension Kami, both died the day after they wished for Goku to be resurrected. They then spent slightly less than 2 months dead in the Other-world, before being resurrected by Porunga. And now the Earth's balls are active again? Well, that's a gaping plot hole if ever there was one. Oh, maybe being resurrected instantly re-primes the balls? Yup. Sure, lets go with that.
Ahem, so, an increasingly unlocked Chi-chi, and Krillin manage to dodge and then, once again, blind Frieza again with another double Solar Flare. After some time recovering, Frieza taps the scouter he retrieved from the head guard's body, and, huh, almost all of his soldiers are dead. Oh well, he can easily track those pesky humans down now.
He quickly overtakes and stomps Krillin into the ground. He then tail grabs Chi-chi, slowly crushing her as he walks over and picks up the unconscious Krillin. After blasting a hole through the poor fellow's chest, Frieza turns his attention to the helpless, gasping, Chi-chi.
A Nail infused Piccolo bursts onto the scene as Chi-chi is about to pass out. He proceeds to absolutely wreck Frieza's already disappointing day, causing him to drop the barely conscious woman. While a very confident Piccolo beats on an impotently raging Frieza, Dende creeps in to heal Krillin, and Chi-chi. Feeling a bit cocky, as most recently powered up characters in this series tend to, Piccolo allows Frieza to transform into his larger, 2nd form.
Except this time, Piccolo's confidence is not without merit, as he continues to relentlessly stomp on 2nd form Frieza. Soon finding himself buried under a mountain, Frieza checks his scouter and sees, a slightly suppressed 4M! 4, no 4.2 MILLION? NOw it's 4.3 Million? What in the 7 hells is going on? Frieza had no idea there were Namekians this strong. Maybe that lead guard had used his scouter but these sneaky people were hiding their power somehow? Maybe he shouldn't have killed him so callously? Nah.
In a rage Frieza transforms into his 3rd form.
On that note, Piccolo decides that now is the time to break out Kaioken. At times 2 he is easily able to outmatch Frieza's 3rd form.
When it's Piccolo's turn to dig himself out of a mountain, a truly frustrated Frieza takes the moment to slip into something a bit more comfortable.