As Vegeta and Nappa were seemingly flying around aimlessly, Vegeta sensed a rather large cluster of energy not too far away. "It's our lucky day, Nappa! I sense about 20 beings in that direction!" He started making his way in that direction, with Nappa close behind.
"You don't mind if I deal with them myself, do you? Dodoria left me in a bad mood and I need to vent." requested Nappa.
"Do as you wish. Just don't blow the whole village up. Last thing we need is you destroying the dragon ball and broadcasting our location." ordered Vegeta.
The saiyans came to a stop after about a minute of travel and looked down, seeing a small village occupied by namekians. Both of them land and gain the attention of the populace of the village.
"Is the village elder here? We've come to take the dragon ball." said Vegeta, causing the namekians to stare at the aliens in disbelief.
A rather large and old looking namekian walks past the crowd and into view of the saiyans. "I am the elder of this village. I take it you mean the wish orb. What do you want with it?"
"That's none of your business. Just give it to us, and fast." ordered Vegeta, getting rather impatient.
"I cannot give the orb to someone with such evil in their heart such as the 2 of you. Leave our village." demanded the namekian elder.
"We gave you a chance. Nappa, go ahead and vent." said Vegeta, crossing his arms.
Nappa chuckled and started to make the ground quake with his overwhelming power. "With pleasure."
At the cave, the gang were eating boxed lunches. Krillin, Gohan and Tien had just finished explaining everything that happened while they were out.
"So that's what happened huh?" asked Bulma.
"Explains why you guys were changing your power so much." said Yamcha with a mouthful of food.
"Yeah, I honestly thought were goners." said Krillin as he ate his lunch.
"If even one of those guys we ran from could sense energy, we wouldn't have gotten back here." said Tien, already finished with his meal.
Krillin noticed that the namekian kid hadn't even touched the boxed lunch that they offered him. "Hey, I know it probably doesn't look that good, but you're free to eat some food."
"Can you blame him? His entire village just got killed in front of his eyes. I wouldn't have much of an appetite either." Bulma leaned back in her seat, staring at the namekian child.
"Oh, no. That isn't it." the namekian child finally spoke, fidgeting in his seat a little bit. "We namekians only survive off water. We don't really eat these kinds of things."
"Really? Weren't your people growing some kind of vegetable in those fields around your village?" asked Tien.
The namekian shook his head. "I don't really know what a vegetable is, but what you saw growing were ajisa saplings. A long time ago, Namek was thriving with namekians and ajisa trees, but a terrible storm wiped out most of my people and the trees. Our people are working hard to restore Namek's beauty once more."
While listening, a thought occurred to Gohan and decided to ask a question that probably should have been asked a while ago. "Do you mind if we ask you for your name?"
The namekian turned to look at the other child in the room, a little nervous around him after how Gohan had acted at the village. "My name is Dende. Now can I ask you who you all are?"
Before Dende could be given a proper answer, Krillin nearly choked on his drink as he, Gohan, Tien and Yamcha all stiffened up and ran out of the house and out of the cave.
Bulma ran out behind them, not sure what's gotten into them. "Hey, what's the matter with you? Is someone coming this way?"
Krillin shook his head. "No, but I'd say it's worse than that. I'm sensing a lot of energy disappearing."
"Another village is being slaughtered! And the ones doing it are way too familiar." said Yamcha, clenching his fist as he felt useless.
"Y-You don't mean..?" asked Bulma.
Tien nodded. "It's the saiyans. Specifically the larger saiyan. That destructiveness is unmistakable."
"This just proves it. They're able to sense energy now. Which means we'll need to be careful with how we move until Goku and Piccolo show up." said Krillin, gritting his teeth as couldn't do a thing.
"If we could just get our hands on even one of the dragon balls and hide it, they wouldn't be able to make their wish." said Bulma.
"But if we do that, they'll just hunt down the rest of the namekians on the planet." Gohan responded, remembering some of the information Piccolo told him during their training. "The dragon balls will become useless if they kill the one who made them, then nobody will get their wish."
Dende just stood at the cave entrance, both horrified and amazed that they knew so much about the wish orbs, or 'dragon balls' as they keep calling them.
"Either way, we're in trouble, no matter what we do." Tien thought aloud.
"I'm starting to think even Goku won't be able to beat them, even with that intense training." said Krillin. Remembering back to Goku and Piccolo fighting Raditz, he feared that even worse might happen. "I should have killed Vegeta before he could escape."
Dende ran up to the earthlings. "Please, tell me where you come from! I want to know how you know about our 'dragon balls'. Help me save my people!"
Meanwhile, Nappa had finished killing everyone in the village. Well, all except the elder, as per request by Vegeta. "Hmph, they couldn't even provide a decent warm-up."
Vegeta stepped up to the elder of the village, who was holding one of his slain kin. "You're not gonna give us the dragon ball, are you?"
"Heartless monsters! How could you kill our people without a thought?" The elder gripped his kin tightly and glared at the saiyans. "As if I would give our sacred treasure to such fiends!"
Vegeta held his hand up and aimed it at the elder. "Such a stubborn fool. I gave you a chance, but if you'd rather join your people in the afterlife, then I'll look for the ball myself." He fired an energy blast at the elder, creating a large explosion and completely incinerating the namekian.
"Wow, not often you get yourself involved in such unnecessary grunt work." said Nappa as he started walking through the village checking inside the buildings. "Dodoria is one thing, but I could have handled these weaklings just fine."
Vegeta also started moving through the village, doubling the area in which they look for the dragon ball. "You might be right, but Zarbon's still out there. I'd like to be ready for when I crush him."
"Being cautious? That's a new one." said Nappa, looking inside a namekian house and seeing something that catches his eye, going in to get it.
"Hmph, I underestimated the earthlings when we fought them. Even Kakarot and Raditz were something we didn't expect. I won't let myself be humiliated like that again." After his little monologue, he noticed Nappa wasn't even in sight to hear it. "Nappa? Where did you go?!" Took him only a moment to remember he can sense energy and sensed Nappa's energy.
Nappa came out of the namekian hut, carrying a rather large orange sphere in his hand. "Sorry, I just thought you'd like to know what I found."
Vegeta went wide-eyed as he stared at the object his partner had found. "So this must be a dragon ball. Where'd you find it?"
Nappa laughed as he was asked the question. "You'd never believe it, they just had it up on display! Didn't even bother to hide it." Nappa finished his laughing and stared into the ball. "If they're all this easy to find, you'd wonder why Freeza even goes through the trouble of asking the namekians for them."
Vegeta scoffed and took the ball from his partner. "We both know Freeza is as sadistic as they come. He'd destroy every nerve in a person's body before killing them just for a few laughs."
"Right, I forget that sometimes. So, where to next?" asked Nappa.
Vegeta tossed the dragon ball into the water, glad to see it sink down. "With the ball underwater, nobody but us will know how to find it. Since Freeza has 5 of the dragon balls, we may as well go find the last one."
"Sounds like a plan." Nappa flew into the air with Vegeta following behind and then taking the lead. "I can't wait to see the look on Freeza's face when we become immortal."
While all that had gone down, the earthlings had explained everything to Dende: Kami, how they know about the dragon balls and their reason for being on Namek.
"So that's it. I think I understand. Please, one of you, come with me to meet the grand elder!" shouted Dende, his tone of voice having a sense of urgency.
Everyone looked rather puzzled and it was Bulma who decided to ask. "Who's this grand elder guy?"
"He is the eldest namekian and the sole survivor of the calamity that befell our world." said Dende. "He is the one who gave life to all those who live on Namek now. I am his 108th child."
"Why do you want us to meet the grand elder? Because we know a guy related to a namekian that survived that storm?" asked Yamcha.
"No, not that. The people who attacked my village had already taken 4 other dragon balls, not including the one in my village." Dende pointed in the direction that the earthlings were looking when they sensed the saiyans attacking a village. "You said my people were being attacked in that direction, right?"
"Yeah, by some saiyans who go by Nappa and Vegeta." said Krillin, unable to sense any of the namekians anymore.
"Though I don't sense them anymore." said Gohan, using the scouter on his face to double check. "There's not a single person left in the village, the saiyans aren't there anymore."
Dende stared at the ground, understanding what this means. "That means there aren't many more namekians left."
"If the saiyans aren't there anymore, that means they must have found the dragon ball. Add that with the 5 that Freeza has, that leaves us with one to get ourselves." said Krillin, noticing the others starting to get a bit nervous. "Dende, does this grand elder guy have the last dragon ball by any chance?"
"Damn, that means we have no time to lose. If Vegeta can sense energy, it's only a matter of time before he finds the grand elder and takes the last dragon ball." says Tien.
"Yeah, and to make things worse, if this grand elder guy is the creator of the dragon balls, then it's likely that the saiyans might kill him, rendering the dragon balls useless." said Bulma, causing Dende to go into a panic.
"Oh no! Then we have to go save the grand elder right away!" shouted Dende.
"Alright, we don't have much time. Show me the way." Before anyone could say they're going, Krillin spoke up. "There's no point in all of us going. Grouping up just makes a bigger target." Everyone nodded in agreement. Krillin then turned back to Dende. "How long would it take to get the grand elder by foot from here?"
"Eh? By foot?" Dende looked off in the distance, trying to figure that out. "By foot, it would take us roughly 30 days."
"What?! We don't have time for 30 days! Guess we have no choice but to fly." said Krillin, quite nervous.
"Be careful guys! Don't go dying on us!" shouted Yamcha as he watched both Dende and Krillin fly off into the distance.
"Think they'll be okay?" asked Tien, contemplating whether he should go anyway.
"We don't really have a choice but to hope so, do we?" Bulma sighed in went back inside. Gohan stared off in the direction Krillin left before turning around and following Bulma.
Deep in space, Goku and Piccolo were training quite vigorously, having quickly adjusted to 15 times earth's gravity in just the span of half a day. Once they decided to take a break, Goku walked over to the control panel. "Alright, looks like we've gotten the hang of this level of gravity. Hey Piccolo, think we can make the jump to 30 times gravity?"
"Doubling the workload already, huh? Very well, I should be able to handle that level." Piccolo stared at his weighted clothing, lifting it up and grunting at how heavy it is.
"Hello, Goku and Piccolo. Can you hear me?"
Both Goku and Piccolo nearly jumped when they heard a familiar voice ring in their heads. "King Kai, is that you?"
"Great, I have to listen to him too?" muttered Piccolo, not sure if speaking in his head is safe from King Kai.
"Yeah, it's me alright. Took me a while to find you guys. When the heck did you guys make it all the way into space?" asked King Kai, finding it a little hard to concentrate when he could hear Raditz training on the other side of the planet.
"Better question is why are you bothering us when we're in the middle of training to take on the saiyans again." said Piccolo.
"Hey, come on Piccolo, King Kai's been a big help to me." said Goku, watching as Piccolo's only response was to grumble and get a drink of water. "It's a long story. Our friends are stuck on Namek and need my help."
"Oh my, sounds like a real predicament down there. I'll have you fill me in on the details later. I'd have talked with you sooner, though I've had a guest training here." said King Kai.
"You do? Tell me, what's he like? Is he strong?" asked Goku, clearly excited at the idea of someone good enough to train with King Kai.
"Well, you would know. You see-" Before he could finish his sentence, King Kai stumbled as his planet shook like crazy, causing the kai to fall. "Hey Raditz! What did I tell you about beating up my planet?!"
Goku gasped in surprise as King Kai had just said the name of his brother. "Raditz is there?! No way, I thought he went to Hell."
"You mean Kami didn't tell you? He pleaded with King Yemma to let that brother of yours train here. Got here in record time too." King Kai grunted as he walked over to see what the saiyan was doing to cause a quake this crazy. "Took him a whole day to come up with a joke worthy enough for me to train him though."
"Yeah, he doesn't seem like the joking type." said Goku, turning his head to see Piccolo clearly listening with curiosity.
"You would think, but the joke he told me was one of the funniest I've heard. He said-" He was interrupted once more by a quake even worse than the last one. King Kai then ran over to see what was going on and his jaw dropped to see the ground completely scorched and cracked. He also noticed that Raditz's right hand looked broken. "What the hell did you do?!"
"Hey King Kai, mind if I speak to him?" asked Goku, really excited to know what his brother could be doing to put King Kai in a panic.
"What?! Oh, right. He says he doesn't quite want to talk to you yet. He'd rather have a proper conversation face to face." King Kai continued his conversation while patching up Raditz's hand, the saiyan just listening to King Kai talk in silence.
"Oh, I guess that makes sense. Would be nice to hear how his training is though." Goku sighed and crossed his arms.
"Well, I'll just say it's unlike the training you did while you were here. Wait, back up a bit. You said you and Piccolo were going to Namek to fight the saiyans?" asked King Kai, sweat starting to drip from his forehead.
"Yeah, what about it? We also heard there's someone stronger than Vegeta. Once we're done with the saiyans, we'll be taking care of him next." said Piccolo, finally rejoining the conversation.
"What?! No, absolutely not! Goku, this is an order, you are to not go anywhere near Freeza! He is in a league all his own, you don't stand a chance against someone like him!" shouted King Kai, hurting Raditz's ears.
"Hmph, and what are you gonna do about it? Besides, with how powerful Goku became training in 10 times gravity, there's no chance in hell that this Freeza guy will stand a chance against the both of us." said Piccolo, grinning at his own assumption, unaware what Freeza is really like.
Raditz grit his teeth and grabbed hold of King Kai so that he could speak directly to Piccolo. "Now listen to me, Piccolo! You have absolutely no idea what you're up against!"
Piccolo growled as he heard Raditz's voice scream inside his head. "Raditz? I thought you weren't gonna talk to us until you were brought back."
"That's for a proper conversation to Kakarot! Don't go anywhere near Freeza!" screamed Raditz, his aggressive voice causing King Kai to tremble. "Remember when both of you faced off against me and you were completely powerless unless you grabbed my tail? Well this is the same thing only a million times worse and without that weakness to take advantage of!"
Piccolo stiffened a bit and remembered how one-sided the fight against Raditz was. "So what do you expect us to do? Just cower and pray that this Freeza guy will give us mercy?"
"Freeza can't sense energy like all of you can. If you're smart enough, you can make your way around Namek without him even knowing you're there." said Raditz, calming down a bit and letting go of King Kai.
"Y-Yes. Raditz is right. You're free to take on the saiyans, but avoid Freeza at all costs. No exceptions. That means you too Goku." said King Kai before cutting off the communication. He then sighs and looks Raditz in the eyes. "You're quite worried about them, aren't you?"
Raditz growled and turned his head away. "Of course I am! I may not have any attachment to Kakarot yet, but I've grown quite close to his son. Those 2 are considered family, something I thought nothing of till I spent time with the little runt."
King Kai chucked at how soft the saiyan was being. "Well, I won't fault you for growing a heart. Now then, what the hell did you do to my planet and your hand?!"
After King Kai had cut off the communication, Goku had gotten a little giggly. "Oh man, Raditz training with King Kai, and even harder than I did. It's gotten me so excited!"
"Let's not forget what they said. As much as it pains me to say it, those 2 are right, we should avoid this Freeza guy." said Piccolo, showing a calm facade as he was still a little shaken by what Raditz had said.
"Yeah, but just because we were told not to try and fight Freeza doesn't mean we can't keep getting stronger." He went over to the gravity controls. "We've got a lot of ground to cover, so let's pump it up right to 50 times gravity."
Piccolo nodded as he had no objections to this, though regretted his decision as he nearly collapsed on the ground when Goku turned up the gravity. 6 and a half more days. Hopefully we have enough senzu beans for this.
Back on Namek, Krillin and Dende continued their journey to the grand elder. The whole time, Krillin was nervous and kept his sense sharp to watch out for Vegeta or any of Freeza's goons. "Hey, how long do you think it'll take at this speed?"
"I think we'll reach there within 5 or 6 hours." shouted Dende.
Krillin muttered as he tried thinking. "5 hours huh? Maybe I should just grab him and book it as fast as I can."
Vegeta and Nappa were flying around as well, but without a set destination. "What the hell's going on. I don't sense anymore clusters of energy but Freeza's grunts. Shouldn't there be at least one more village?"
"You don't think Freeza could have found it by luck, do you?" asked Nappa, blindly following Vegeta's word since he hasn't quite grasped this energy sensing nonsense.
Vegeta stopped suddenly without warning. Nappa stopped too, though a little too close, nearly running into Vegeta. "Odd, there are 2 powers on the move. One of them feels like a namekian, the other one doesn't but also doesn't feel like one of Freeza's men. We need to investigate."
"If you say so." said Nappa, following Vegeta as he bolted towards the energies.
Krillin sensed the saiyan's direction change and come right for them. "Dende, stop! The saiyans know where we are, they're coming right for us!" He grabbed Dende and flew down, trying to get to some cliffs to hide like last time. After he successfully hid, he noticed the saiyans suddenly change direction before he could even lower his energy. "There's another large energy out there. They're going after it."
Nappa was rather confused why Vegeta just up and changed direction so drastically, nowhere near the direction they were going before. "Vegeta, what's going on? Did you find another village?"
"Even better! Zarbon's all alone. This is our chance to take care of him once and for all!" shouted Vegeta as a silhouette was visible in the distance.
The figure in the distance stopped when they saw the saiyans come towards him, the figure indeed being Zarbon. The saiyans stopped in front of Freeza's henchmen, grinning.
"Well well well, if it isn't Freeza's right hand man. It's been a long time. But I'm afraid I'll have to cut this reunion short. You're about to die next." said Vegeta, staring at Zarbon with such confidence, leaving the alien a bit frightened.
"N-Next? You mean you killed Dodoria?!" shouted Zarbon, a little panicked at his current situation.
And once again, another chapter done. Hope you guys liked what you read. I quite like writing the parts with King Kai and Raditz. In his current state, Raditz is like a lump of clay that I can carefully mold into a character that'll fit in well with the rest of the story while building up some of the things I have planned for future events. I mean, that's just me, you guys might not be a fan of it. To each their own. I don't have a lot to say this time so that'll be it for me. Tune in next time for the next chapter of Dragon Ball Z: A Saiyan's Tail.