Reformed Saiyans
Chapter Eight: Countdown to Arrival
The next morning, Gohan and Tien flew low to Vegeta's palace. Where about half a mile away, in the bushes, they slipped on the camouflage coats that made them invisible.
"Hey wait. How come I can see you?" Gohan asked. "I thought we were supposed to be invisible?"
Tien shrugged in response, how was he supposed to know everything, perhaps Bulma designed some sort of way for them to see each other? Or maybe it didn't work? Hopefully it wasn't the latter.
Gohan followed along behind Tien, going past the gate and the guards, and inside the palace. Hiding behind one of the large columns, their invisibility wore off. Tien threw several sign language signals, which he'd taught Gohan, recently.
There were two guards beside the entrance of the left hall, on the right hall it was empty. If they ran real fast, they wouldn't be noticed, but then again the scouters might pick up their energy levels. At the same time, if they were quick enough, perhaps it wouldn't matter, Tien waited a second, to see if the Guards would eventually move.
Luckily, they did, turning back in the left hall, Tien and Gohan took their chance, quickly, but silently running towards the right hall, then to the right again they went past the kitchen and down the stairs.
The walls down below were stone cold, it was a narrow but not too narrow hallway, with lit torches along the path.
"Okay we should be good, most of these walls are thick so they block out a lot of the sound." Tien pointed out. "We should try to stay quiet but whispering shouldn't be a problem."
Gohan nodded, and continued following Tien as they walked down the halls, eventually it became darker, and darker, then there was an iron door. Tien pressed the large red button and the door opened.
"We'll have to be quick, it won't be long before Vegeta realizes someone's been down here." Tien said. He grabbed a strange little plastic cylinder out of his hand looking somewhat like a capsule, but with a small hole at the top. Tien threw it, and when it landed on the ground, a mist erupted from it.
The mist fogged up the rest of the hall, where when it dissipated, infer-red beams were now displayed, clear as day. Floating, climbing, and maneuvering around the beams, both had to be extremely careful not to touch the bright beams.
Once past it, there was another door, made out of a dark steel, and a keypad on it.
"It's locked." Gohan said, pointing the obvious out. "What're we gonna do?"
Tien pulled some round thing out of his pocket. "Already prepared for this." Tien said. He placed the round thing on the keypad, and it attached itself to the keypad. On the display of the keypad, a bunch of random letters and numbers, and unknown symbols rapidly appeared, changing every split second. A short moment later, a large green text saying "ACCEPTED" appeared.
"Okay, no more time to be stealthy, let's go!" Tien said. Gohan nodded in response.
The two ran fast, entering a large circular room. "Where's my Uncle?" Gohan asked.
Tien rubbed his chin in thought. "Hm…" Searching for Raditz's energy, which turned out to be quite faint, nearly unrecognizable, but it had been him, at least from what he'd remembered. Tien motioned for Gohan to follow him, they flew up the Circular room, which as it turned out, was really tall, and the ceiling was about 40ft above the ground of the room.
There were several different doors on the walls, some with ledges, a few with stairs, and so on. One door in particular had a large crack in, with a special marking on it. Tien opened the door, it was a very dark room, and somebody was there, but the man hid.
Tien walked closer, and he spoke. "N-No! D-Don't! Vegeta Pl-..." He paused. When Tien turned the lights on, revealing him and Gohan, the man was speechless, the man who was revealed to have been Gohan's Uncle.
Raditz had shown scars before but…this was different, his body looked frail, muscles looked depleted, there were long deep scars, with obvious missing flesh from his back, and his right eye missing. Among that were other various scars, but most were miniscule in comparison to his back.
"N-no! I must be hallucinating again." Raditz said, shaking his head. He refused to believe it. "There is no way…" Yet there they stood. It wasn't Tien being there that shocked him most, rather Gohan, but not the current Gohan, it was…this Gohan. The little Gohan. "How…"
Raditz thought he must've been dreaming, it must be a dream, and yet again, it felt all so real.
"Long story, no time to talk. Vegeta will notice something is up if we don't go now." Tien said, motioning for Raditz to come out, but he didn't take another step forward. Tien looked back. "Are you coming or what?"
"No." Raditz replied.
"C'mon Uncle!" Gohan said. "We gotta go."
Raditz shook his head. "I don't know what is going on or how any of this is happening, but Vegeta will find us again and it'll start all over again." Raditz pointed out. "I refuse to end back up at square one!"
"Square one? Raditz, if we leave you here, Vegeta will torture you, and we need your help!" Tien replied.
Raditz grunted. "Forget it." He answered. "I've already suffered enough, go on without me, I'd rather stay here." He looked over to Gohan. "Is it really…you? How…"
"Miss Bulma's simulation machine sent me here…" Gohan explained.
"The machine malfunctioned and Gohan was sent here to this.. Well to him, it's an alternate reality." Tien finished. "We can't send him back because there are things needed from the laboratory, and I can't do it alone."
"And Kakarot?" Raditz asked.
"Gone…" Tien answered.
Gohan averted his gaze, biting his lips, seeing his father like that was practically traumatizing and not something he wanted to see again.
Again he looked shocked, his mouth slightly hanging open. "You mean dead?"
Tien shook his head. "No like gone as in, no longer himself. He's…" Tien sighed to himself. "Vegeta broke him, Goku's been stuck in like this trance, so he's been trying to fix his house, thinking that it'll fix everything, but…Vegeta just comes and wrecks it before Goku can finish it anyways."
Raditz looked stunned, Goku, his brother, that guy who had such an unwavering spirit, broke like that? How is that remotely possible? He couldn't believe it, it didn't sound right, not like his brother.
"That's not possible…" Raditz said, he shook his head again, placing his hand on his forehead. "Kakarot…He'd never do that! Never!" He knew Vegeta was evil, but…this…was worse than Frieza! How could that even be possible?
"It's true though." Gohan confirmed.
Raditz looked back at Gohan, seeing him here, it was…like a fever dream. Raditz sighed deeply to himself. "Fine. I'll help you send the runt back, but that IS IT!" Raditz said. "After I return to my cell."
Gohan's face lit up. "Alright!" He replied cheerfully.
"Good now help me with these shackles." Raditz stood up and shook the chains around him. Tien snapped each chain, the two around Raditz's wrists, and the two around his ankles. "Okay. No time to waste. I know this palace in and out, so follow me, I can take you through a shortcut."
The other two nodded in response, following Raditz halfway down the circular torture room. Where he led to another door, that was yellow-ish, and kinda brick looking, a lot like the walls inside the room when fully lit.
Raditz pressed several buttons on the keypad next to it, and the door opened. The three flew threw it, and the door closed behind them.
"Vegeta thinks I don't pay attention to what goes around here, fortunately for us, I do." Raditz said. "Through this path, we'll be able to find a more secretive approach to the laboratory, we'll attract less attention this way."
"And security measures?" Tien asked.
Raditz shrugged. "It's safe to say that if we enter through here, they won't go off."
The three continued flying, til they reached the end of this metal hall, to where a hidden wall had opened through the laboratory. Raditz put his finger up to his lip to signal for them to be quiet, and he peaked past the wall.
Then Raditz showed four fingers to them, this meant there were four others there. Tien motioned for Gohan to sit still, and both Raditz and Tien vanished, before anyone could tell, the four others that were there, were knocked out.
"Hurry up now, what did Bulma need?" Raditz asked.
Tien showed the small piece of paper with the list. "These few things." Tien pointed to it. Raditz grabbed the paper and examined it, he swore he'd seen that black sphere somewhere.
"Wait…I think I've seen that black sphere before." Raditz said. He rubbed his hand against his hair, trying to remember. "I know I have."
"The flux core?" Gohan said.
Raditz nodded. "Right right. If I recall correctly, it wasn't in here." He answered. It was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn't figure it out.
"Well until you remember, let's get the rest of the stuff at least." Tien started rummaging through multiple jours, and cupboards, the two followed along. After a few minutes they'd found what they needed all but one. "Let's get out of here."
"Wait. I remember now!" Raditz said. "The flux core is in Vegeta's room! I dunno why he keeps it there, it just i-..." Raditz paused. He felt a familiar power, yet inexperienced, turning around, there was...a girl, but not any, it was Vegeta's daughter. She looked so much like Bulma but was very young and had saturated lavender colored hair.
Her jaw had dropped. "What're you doing out of your cell Raditz!" She hissed. "I'm gonna tell my daddy!"
Raditz scoffed. "Go ahead." He said, turning around and shrugging. "He won't believe you. You're just a nuisance to him."
The girl crossed arms, frowning angrily. "No I'm not! And he will believe me!" She growled. However the three ignored her, beginning to walk off. She floated up and grabbed the tape from the security camera. "Hah! What do you think of this?! I got the security tape-.."
And like that, the tapes were destroyed, Raditz had quickly used his kiai to cause them to implode.
"Run along brat." Raditz said, waving her away. He continued to walk away, opening the hidden door.
She clenched her fists tightly, and growled viciously. "Get back here!" She demanded, but no one responded. The three walked into the hidden path, and the secret door closed behind. Refusing to tear up, instead she became violently angry, and charged through the door, breaking it.
The three turned around, looking shocked, Raditz immediately shifting into his defensive stance. Without a second to spare, the young girl, blinded by rage, gathered a powerful amount of energy into one sphere, and unleashed it.
Aimed at the three, Raditz immediately shielded them, with Tien helping, the energy turned into a torrent as it crashed into the shield. Quickly as it crashed, it caused a massive rapid explosion that went berserk everywhere, to the point where Vegeta's daughter had to shield herself as well before she got hurt by her own energy.
Since there was nearly no control, the blast had obliterated everything within a fifty feet radius, including a good chunk of the palace. When the dust and smoke settled, and they dropped the shields, several loud alarms went off, with a few broken ones being blocked out by the properly working ones.
"Well…." Tien said. "I guess this means we should run right?" He looked at Raditz who had an extremely worried look on his face while he nodded. Following Raditz to Vegeta's room, the three rushed, digging through it to find the flux core, ignoring any alarms, and quickly taking care of guards.
"It's gotta be somewhere around here!" Raditz shouted, rummaging through Vegeta's jours.
Tien swept through Vegeta's closet. "Damn it, I can feel his energy approaching! Not good!"
Raditz paused for a second, something donned on him. "Wait…Hide!"
Tien shot a confused look. "Hide?! What the hell do you mea-."
"I mean hide! Vegeta is still bad at energy sensing, he'll pin the blame on his daughter, thinking this was some outburst she had, and we'll be safe." Raditz explained quickly.
"But won't he realize you're gone?" Gohan asked.
Raditz shook his head. "Nah he'll probably believe…" Raditz stopped, he found it! The flux core, it was a lot smaller than he'd expected but this was it. "Nevermind! Let's go! GO! I FOUND IT!"
Without further questions, the three exited, but then they could sense Vegeta's energy nearby, so they hid, masking their energies completely. A quarter of the right side of the palace was gone, luckily they were on the left. Raditz figured Vegeta would have to go turn off what's left of the security system, and he knew where that was.
So he knew what to avoid, and found an area on the left side of the palace, a small dark closet, a bit cramped, but it was dusty and old, so chances are Vegeta wouldn't bother going in here. Raditz lifted a finger to his mouth, signaling for quietness. Not a moment later and Vegeta had arrived, Raditz was right, Vegeta came as soon as possible, and he was pissed.
Vegeta stayed silent, not speaking, angrily staring at his offspring, his fists tightened, waiting for her to say something.
"R-R-Raditz g-got out o-of his c-cell and I-.." She paused, gulping. Her father lowered his gaze, with a visible pissed look, his power had begun to boil, and his fist tightened.
"Brat!" Vegeta yelled. His daughter flinched in response. "What did I tell you about meddling with my prisoners!" He was pissed, there was only one person who'd be stupid enough and powerful enough to cause this much destruction around his place, and that was her.
"B-But D-Da-."
"No! You do not get into a business that isn't yours! Regardless of the situation!" Vegeta shouted. He took a step forward, and his daughter began to shake. "You should know your place, nosey runt!" Vegeta picked her up by the collar of her shirt. "The next time I catch you doing that, I will end your life." He threw her to the side, causing her to land against the ground harshly.
The girl bit his lips, watching her angry father walk away, tears urged to fall but she ignored it, resisted it. She had to tell him what happened though, and couldn't not saying anything.
"R-Raditz got out of his cell and stole stuff from your lab!" She shouted, covering her mouth with her hand immediately.
Vegeta turned around. "What?" He said, his tone changed again, now he seemed willing to listen.
"I saw Raditz with two others out of his cell. He was stealing stuff from y-your lab." The girl answered, slightly flinching.
"What did he steal?" Vegeta asked.
She shrugged. "I-I dunno…I saw a bunch of jars and stuff." She tried to get to her feet. "So I tried to s-stop them.."
"You mean you destroyed half of our home." Vegeta said, his tone became angry again.
"I-It was an a-accident..I was just try-." The girl was kicked by Vegeta, causing her to bounce once against the ground, before rolling a bit. She tried to get up, but something in her made her want to stay down.
Vegeta walked over to her as she turned over, narrowing his eyes. "Brat! When you see something like that, there are two things you do. One. You come to me and tell me. That is. You do not ask questions." He clenched his fist, and picked her up by the collar of her shirt. "Two! You don't ever take action! Because every damn time you take action, you make a mess that I have to clean up!"
Vegeta released his grip, letting her fall back on the cold ground, then he took off in a fit of rage, his aura flared around him as he vanished from the scene. Bulla, his daughter, kept her gaze lowered, almost pitying herself but she refused to, instead she blamed the other three angrily, violently cursing them under her breath before quietly crying to herself.
"I think he's gone." Raditz whispered. Gohan and Tien nodded in agreement. "It seems his energy is long gone." The three left the closet, running back down the halls towards the doorway, however they heard something, and through some of the holes, they saw something.
"Uh…should we do something?" Gohan asked.
Tien shook his head. "Don't have time to, we need to leave before Vegeta realizes we never even left." He answered. "Besides. She'll just try to call her father, we can't really help her."
Gohan pitied her, that was harsh, he may have not seen it, but he sure as hell could sense Vegeta's movements and hear him. He'd never seen anyone so…violent, at all. Even the stories he was told about the Demon King Piccolo when he was younger wasn't that violent, whether it was sugar coated or not.
Gohan followed the two, as they stealthily made it past the guards, and took off, heading back to Bulma's lab.
On the way, Raditz spoke up. "I've tried getting her to do the right thing, and away from her Father, but that runt is too attached to her father, always trying to please him." He explained. "Can't help someone that doesn't want to be helped nor thinks they're on the wrong path."
"Yeah. For now, our focus is getting you home." Tien said, his gaze moved from Gohan back to the skies ahead immediately after finished speaking. "You made sure you got it, right?" He looked at Raditz.
Raditz nodded, and showed the flux core. "Yup." Raditz replied. "The only thing that sucks now, is I can't go back to my cell without Vegeta obliterating me. So I guess I'm stuck with you guys." The three hurried back to the lab with the items, in hopes of sending Gohan back.
However on return, Bulma was nowhere to be seen, and something…was lurking. A presence could be felt within the area yet its own energy signature was…nearly non-existent, or perhaps, masked?
Searching quickly through the entire CC building, even checking for other possible secret rooms, through closets even, Bulma could not be found, not even the small or faintest lifeforce she'd given off like the average human.
"Damn it! Where is that Woman!" Raditz yelled. He shifted his head swiftly from left to right, as he panickedly tried looking for her.
"This isn't good! Vegeta is looking for us right now, we nee-..." Tien cut himself off in realization. Resisting the urge to slap his forehead, Tien clenched his fist. "He has Bulma!" The other two looked at Tien.
It took a second but it'd donned on Raditz too. He slammed his fist against the wall. "Damn it! Damn IT ALL!" He snarled. "He beat us here! He was one step ahead of us!" Raditz steamed with frustration, they did all of this and for what? Nothing? He sighed to himself. "Of course. He's always been one step ahead of us, what am I thinking? It's not any different now."
"You're not giving up though, are you Uncle?" Gohan asked.
Raditz let a short chuckle escape him. "Giving up? I gave up a long time ago." He answered. Raditz took a few steps towards the doorway. "I never said I wasn't going to stop helping you though." He cracked his knuckles and his neck, then turned to the two. "Triclops, do you have any Senzus?"
Tien dug through his pocket and found a single senzu bean. "Yea, I have one left that is it. Why?" Tien gave a questioning look.
"I have a plan. It's a risky one, but all I got." Raditz said, continuing vaguely. "I haven't been able to stretch my muscles much, so something to give me a little energy boost would be nice." Grabbing the Senzu from Tien, Raditz ate the bean, for a moment his chest had puffed then reverted to normal, his muscles looked less frail, a little more normal, and less tired.
Raditz, with the two following him, returned outside, flying northwest.
"Where are we going?" Tien raised an eyebrow. "This direction is back to where we had just left."
"Yeah. We're going back to Vegeta's palace." Raditz replied. Tien stopped immediately, with the other two stopping shortly after.
"Are you mad!?" Tien shouted. "We barely escaped there earlier! And now you want us to go back?!"
"No! Obviously Vegeta's captured the blue-haired woman!" Raditz pointed out. "And he is waiting for us to come rescue her!"
Tien looked shocked. "So you're making us run into a trap?"
Raditz shook his head. "No! I'm gonna make a distraction and you two are gonna grab her and go! I told you I had a plan!" Raditz said. "I figured since you were quiet, you would roll with what I was doing!"
Tien sighed. "Alright then what? How are we going to get you out?" He asked.
Raditz turned, slightly facing forward. "Don't worry about it, I got it covered." He said, beginning to fly off. "Just save the woman, and get the runt home."
That was a suicide mission, there was no way Raditz would survive, or even buy time…and it was all to obvious, Tien knew what he was doing, and didn't question it. However, the second he knew Gohan and Bulma were safe, he was going back. This world didn't have many fighters left to it, most were gone, and then there was Goku.
He may have not been physically gone, but the rest of him? It was empty, a hollow shell of his former self. Soon they'd arrive near the gate, where they had begun planning.
"I haven't a clue if he's holding Bulma somewhere, or perhaps if he straight up has her nearby." Raditz said. The three were standing behind an old wall of a destroyed building, and Raditz peaked over, seeing several guards. "I'm going to go in, confront Vegeta. I'll give you a signal if Bulma is with him."
"And what exactly would that be?" Tien asked.
Raditz rubbed his chin, lifting his index finger when an idea formed. "I'll flicker my powerlevel up three times, and wait 30 seconds, to do it again in case you couldn't notice." He answered. "Once you have the woman, just hurry and bring her back to the lab, so she can send him back home." He pointed at Gohan.
"And if Bulma isn't there?" Tien asked.
"Look for her. Find her as fast as you can." Raditz replied
The two nodded in response, staying behind the rock, as Raditz entered through the gate.
"Let me in, I have some business with Vegeta." Raditz said, floating in front of the two guards.
One of the guards scoffed. "We know exactly why you're here, Raditz." He rolled his eyes, glancing to his buddy, nodding for him to open the gate. The other one nodded, and pressed a button on a keypad on the wall next to him.
The gates opened, and Raditz walked forward, stepping inside to Vegeta's palace. He could still see the missing quarter of the Palace, in front of him was Vegeta, who sat on his throne, pissed but calm at the same time. Next to him was his daughter, standing quietly, and obediently.
Bulma however wasn't anywhere to be found, Raditz glanced around the room, and searched for faint ki signatures nearby but now.
"Well…." Vegeta spoke. "I was wondering when you'd crawl back…." He paused for a second, and as Raditz opened his mouth, he cut him off. "Actually. I was wondering if you would even come back, I figured you'd be too afraid to. I'm surprised you even thought of defying me after all these years."
Raditz remained stoic, and continued forward. "Let's cut the chit chat Vegeta." Raditz said. "Where's the blue haired Woman?"
Vegeta chuckled. "Blue Haired Woman? You mean the wretched hag?" Vegeta asked. Raditz rolled his eyes and nodded. "Well you see…after a long time of being such a thorn in my side, trying to poison me, trying to make me join you pathetic weaklings."
Vegeta stood up and paused, Raditz didn't like where this was going. "With her tricks, and deceit. Even trying to have a child with me and make that child go against me? Well I did away with her."
His daughter averted her gaze, trying to disbelieve what she'd heard, biting her lips in silence. Raditz on the other hand, had his eyes gone wide in shock, his mouth nearly opening.
"Did…away?! You mean you killed her!?" Raditz gasped.
Vegeta laughed, amused to Raditz's response. "Of course! You're shocked as if this is something new." He said.
Raditz closed his eyes for a split second, clenching his fist, then opened them back up, looking calmer. "No, I'm not shocked. I'm just a little pissed!" His aura and powerlevel rose a little.
Vegeta raised an eyebrow. "Pissed? Go on." He became more interested.
"You see, I would've never come back in the first place if I'd known that." Raditz explained. "I only came back for her because I needed her to send the runt back to his time."
Vegeta looked puzzled, what did he mean by runt? He couldn't have meant Gohan, Vegeta well knew where Gohan was and well Gohan was busy, out of town. Time? What had he also meant by that?
Raditz took a stance slowly, powering up and his power increased dramatically, enough to even surprise Vegeta, and shake the area around them for miles. Vegeta was going to question him on his previous statement, but he'd taken too long to say something, so instead Vegeta got ready to fight as well.
Vegeta took his stance, and let his power surge through him, after a few seconds both fighters charged simultaneously at each other, throwing their fists. Raditz threw his fist up to Vegeta's chin, but Vegeta inched his head out of the way, hurling a fist back at Raditz's right cheek.
Raditz had narrowly dodged, and being this close to his opponent, he tried to throw a calf kick, but Vegeta had thrown a punch faster, forcing Raditz to throw his right arm in front of himself, to block the fist.
When the fist collided against Raditz's arm, Raditz was sent flying out the palace, break threw the gates and a nearby boulder, crashing into the ground. Several shards of glass and metal had cut him in various places.
Raditz knew he was no match for Vegeta, not even close…but…this isn't what he remembered. He figured he could stall for at least a minute or two, however, this was tremendously stronger than before. Raditz knew Vegeta was hiding a lot more strength, but he had no idea it'd come this far!
This was far worse than Frieza's power! And Raditz couldn't believe it. Having landing near the other two, although heavily breathing, Raditz spoke. "Run…" He muttered. The other two looked confused. "RUN!"
Before they could even consider heeding or questioning Raditz's words, Vegeta had already come, picking Raditz up by the collar of his tattered clothing. In the corner of his eye, he'd noticed Tien, and something more surprising.
Vegeta tossed Raditz aside, and faced the other two. "Well well well….Now I know what he meant." Vegeta said. "I don't know how or why, the younger version of the runt is here, but I'll be sure that he stays here."
Tien charged first, flaring his aura, which went from white to red, leaping to Vegeta and hurling his fist, colliding against Vegeta's arms, as the Prince had blocked the attack. A small shockwave was generated from the attack. Vegeta slammed his foot against Tien's chest harshly, causing Tien to be sent past Gohan, and land on the ground fifteen feet away.
Gohan looked back in horror, he wanted to help but something kept him from moving, he froze, and he didn't know why. Was it fear? No it couldn't have been, he fought the guy in the simulation…and yet…this was different, this was real. He could feel Vegeta's towering energy, his powerful presence, and the fighter from the simulation had no realism to it, it was clearly generated.
So in full fright, Gohan had instinctively froze, not just physically but also mentally, after all he was merely a child. This amused Vegeta, a wide grin formed on his face as he chuckled.
"Even after all these years I still got it." Vegeta muttered. He picked Gohan up by the collar of his shirt, and although the halfbreed tried to keep a straight face, the fear was clear. Before Vegeta could even think about attacking Vegeta however, something knocked him away and his grip was released from Gohan.
Gohan had fallen to the ground, and stood back up a second later, dusting himself off, confused as Vegeta was, he turned to the right, noticing his Uncle. His Uncle had saved him luckily, but Gohan couldn't even thank him, his Uncle had already rushed in to attack Vegeta.
A short moment later, Tien had woken back up, getting on his feet, he walked to Gohan. "We need to leave now!" He said. Gohan looked confused. "If we don't leave, we'll lose the chance to send you back, so let's hurry and go."
"B-But what about Uncle? We can't just leave him here!" Gohan whined. "He'll die! And what about Bulma."
Tien gazed at the battle for a second. "We don't have a choice, he's trying to buy us time." Tien replied. He couldn't feel Bulma's faint energy signature anywhere, and assumed the worst, there was no signal.
"W-What? What do you mean?" Gohan asked.
Tien looked back to the battle, and grabbed Gohan. "No time to explain! Let's go!" Tien answered. Gohan looked hesitant, but Tien forced him to move. "NOW!"
Gohan snapped himself into reality and followed Tien although confused. Once they were far away from the field, they slowed down, masking themselves, taking a different turn so that they wouldn't be found.
Several minutes later, they arrived in the secret lab beneath Capsule Corp.
"Why did we leave my Uncle?" Gohan asked. "He's going to die!"
Tien sighed. "We didn't have much of a choice." Tien explained. "Vegeta…his power is so much stronger than we'd thought. And Raditz…he was trying to buy us time to get out of here."
Gohan still looked confused. "But what about Bulma? We were supposed to get her from Vegeta!" Gohan pointed out.
Tien didn't know what to say, this Gohan was still four, still innocent, was he supposed to tell him that she was…dead? "I don't know. But perhaps she left something here for us to find." Tien lied. He rummaged through everything but couldn't find a single thing.
Again Tien took another sigh, there was nothing here. Meanwhile….
"I think It's time I finally put you down like the dog you are." Vegeta said, placing his boot on top of Raditz's head. Raditz could barely open his eyes, on the ground he laid, this would become his final resting place, beaten like the low class warrior was, only this time, he'd finally given up, knowing that everything he had tried was done long ago.
Raditz was ready to rest, he was exhausted and tired. Vegeta raised his hand gathering yellow energy into his hand, but then stopped, and a better idea formed in his head.
"Girl get over here." Vegeta shouted, turning behind him. His daughter looked a bit surprised. "Kill him for me. You want to make up for what you've done, kill him." Strangely, she looked hesitant, which annoyed Vegeta. "What're you doing standing around?! Do it!"
She gulped and nodded, walking forward to Raditz with an evil smirk. Lifting her hand, gathering purple energy in her hand, she positioned her hand at Raditz, and yet….she hesitated again. She couldn't do it.
Her thoughts, and memories still resided from earlier..seeing her own mother, brutally killed like that…even if she told herself she hated her mother, that wasn't true at all.
"What're you doing brat?! Kill him!" Vegeta yelled.
She snapped back into reality, re-aiming her hand, concentrating her energy, then…she stopped again. Again it repeated and repeated in her mind, not knowing why or how, but it did make her feel something…was it grief? No, perhaps it was anger? No, it couldn't be anger…was it guilt? Or perhaps it was everything.
Not that a kid could truly understand what any of that fully meant, but something did come out that was something she could understand enough, and it was regret. Regret that she'd let her own Mother who'd done nothing but try to love her, be killed.
That regret changed into anger, at father, and even though she hadn't known it, but herself as well. Vegeta walked up to his daughter and pushed her aside.
"If you're not going to do it then stand aside!" Vegeta yelled. His daughter fell back, and looked at her father. For a short moment, she looked frozen before bursting into rage, and kicked her own Father in the head.
Vegeta fell back, sliding across the ground a couple feet away. His anger rose, and his vein in his forehead bulged. "What the hell brat!" Vegeta snarled. He stood back up, and stared at her in anger, and her face shrunk in fear. "Either you kill him, and maybe I'll forgive you, or stand aside and I'll do the job!"
She lowered her gaze and frowned, contemplating. Was this the right choice? Maybe she shouldn't have kicked him…"No!" She snapped. Vegeta widened his eyes, did she just defy him? "I…I won't!"
She did defy him, and now Vegeta was royally pissed. "Fine, consider yourself dead like that banshee of a mother!" Vegeta yelled, he raised his hand and gathered energy into it.
Bulla on the other hand, clenched her fist tightly, and growled. "Do not insult my Mother!" She screamed. Bulla darted to Vegeta, hurled her fist against his cheek, which to Vegeta's shock was a lot faster than he'd expected, powerful too. The strike caused him to be sent flying, crashing through a massive boulder.
The boulder shattered into a million pieces, falling onto Vegeta, who for a moment seemed puzzled. Taking in the shocking realization, his own daughter had betrayed him, and not to mention was even strong enough to land a blow on him. He wiped his lips, not realizing there was a spec of blood onto it, until after he looked at his gloves.
His eyes widened, then a wrathful flame of anger bursted in his eyes. "That brat has made me spill blood!?" He stood up, clenched his right fist, lifting it up and narrowed his eyes on her. "She will pay dearly.."
Vegeta rushed after his daughter, who took a daring stance, scarcely dodging to the right as Vegeta had thrown his foot at her. When Vegeta had missed, he swung his fist against her chin quickly after, which lifted her up in the air a few feet, then as she fell back down, Vegeta lifted his knee.
However, she vanished, reappearing behind Vegeta, striking him on his neck with a double-axe handle. Which caused Vegeta to fall towards the ground, but Vegeta stopped himself, regaining his balance, and rotating around, slamming his fist aimed at her face, but she ducked!
Vegeta didn't get it, he knew his daughter was strong but? To be close to his level! This was absurd, and Vegeta wouldn't stand for it! She may have had power but he has experience and technique!
Vegeta hurled his fist towards her gut, but she caught his fist, and pulled his arm behind his back, rapidly causing Vegeta to flip over, stopping him mid way to send him flying. As Vegeta crashed through several trees and destroyed buildings, Bulla unleashed a powerful energy wave, then she clenched her fist as her memories bubbled again, so she fired another one, and another one.
Then furiously, she chased Vegeta down before the energy waves could reach him, kneeing him in the gut. She flew up immediately after, letting the three blasts collide into Vegeta, and for one final blast, Bulla lifted her two hands above her, gathering a purple energy, and used the very attack Vegeta had created to put him in his own defeat.
"Take this you jerk!" She yelled, tears flowed down her eyes. "Galick Gun!" Aiming her hands at Vegeta, a purple blast erupted and crashed into the ground, it continued to consume and consume until there was a massive crater in the ground, but Vegeta? He was nowhere to be found.
Vegeta had made the biggest mistake of his life, and underestimated his opponent, the one very thing his own daughter had kept to heart in the many things he'd taught her. To never let your guard down, and that's what Vegeta did, he'd let it down enough for Bulla to take advantage, which was yet another thing he'd taught her.
Bulla tried to keep her eyes open but instead collapsed as so did she.
"I'm sorry Gohan, but I've looked everywhere…and…I can't find any way to send you back." Tien said.
Gohan frowned. "What am I supposed to do now?" He asked.
Tien shrugged. "I don't know, I guess you'll have to wait. We'll have to find someone else here, there has to be someone who's smart enough." He answered.
Gohan bit his lips, so he wasn't going home? And what about his Mom or Dad? Or his Uncle? Gohan was on the verge of crying but refused to. He couldn't, and yet it was so hard to resist.
"Listen. We'll find someone, I promise." Tien tried to cheer, not that he knew much about children, but he had to do something. "I don't know how I will, especially since V-..." Wait a second…Vegeta's energy disappeared…like a while ago. It'd had donned on him that, well his energy had suddenly gone.
Not to mention he swore he felt another powerful energy, in fact he was sure it was a stronger energy than Vegeta that appeared, and it was gone too? What was going on? Gohan looked at Tien with confusion.
"M-Mister Tien?" Gohan asked, Tien's attention had been averted to the doorway, which only raised more questions. Gohan turned to see something a bit shocking…
"C-Could I get some help?" Raditz said. He was limping into the doorway, with an unconscious Bulla on his back.
"I don't get it. Why would you even bring her here?" Tien said, his voice rose. "I mean forget Vegeta trying to kill us! She'll kill us first!"
Raditz shrugged, and scratched the back of his head. "Well…She didn't kill me earlier…" Raditz answered. He sat up from the bench he was laying on, with his right arm and left leg in a cast of their own, and a cotton bandage on his left cheek. "I don't exactly know, but I kinda blacked out for most of it, but I swore I saw her attack Vegeta."
Tien raised an eyebrow and gave a questioning look. "What?" He shook his head. "What do you mean?!"
Raditz exhaled deeply, he didn't really know himself, it was mostly a blurr. "Uhh…I think she killed him?" He shrugged again, really unsure of it. "I don't know, I'm just telling you what I saw before I blacked out! After that, I only was conscious enough to catch glimpses, and I'm telling you I felt their energies battling!"
Tien took a seat, and rubbed his hand against his forehead. "Okay..maybe you're right but…that doesn't explain everything." He said. "Where did Vegeta go? Did he leave? There's no way she was strong enough to beat her own father, so we're missing something here."
"Or maybe she did?" Raditz suggested. "I know it's crazy to believe, because it just seems too easy, but I don't sense his energy at all! Not a single trace! As if it was erased from existence!"
"Yeah I also sensed Vegeta's energy disappear." Gohan added. "I think I even felt something stronger than Vegeta's energy."
Tien looked with disbelief. "No that's not possible, even if her power was close to her father's or even stronger, Vegeta would never let his guard down enough for her to get a strong enough attack in. Besides, she's too inexperienced!"
"I'm not saying she did, I'm just pointing the obvious out." Raditz replied. "I of all people know that. I'm just returning the favor cause she didn't kill me, and instead went against her father, maybe she can help us?"
Tien walked up to Bulla. "Fine then we better play it safe." He said. He grabbed her wrists and created energy cuffs around them. "This way her ki will be restricted, and she won't be able to go berserk on us."
"Anyways, were you able to find anything that could help us send him home?" Raditz asked, pointing to Gohan.
Tien shook his head, frowning. "No, not a single thing, no notes, no clues, nothing."
"What about her computer?" Raditz said.
Tien let his mouth hang open for a second then slapped his forehead. "Of course!" He said. He quickly turned to Bulma's computer. "I can't believe I didn't think of that already." He powered the computer on, and then logged in, strange no password? Maybe she intended it to be this way.
"There's…nothing here…" Tien said.
Raditz widened his eyes. "What?! No come on there's gotta be somethin!" He said, coming up close to the screen. "Move aside, Earthling! I'll handle this!" Raditz pushed Tien off the chair, who quickly caught himself before falling to the ground, then rolled his eyes at Raditz. Raditz pressed several random buttons in an attempt to look like he knew what he was doing.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Tien asked.
Raditz narrowed his eyes. "Of course I do! I know exactly what I'm doing!" Raditz answered. He then pressed several random buttons with his hand at once, which made the computer began to shake then turn off. Raditz cleared his throat, as sweat dripped his face..
"Great now you destroyed it. Real nice." Tien replied sarcastically.
Then the computer popped a strange capsule out of the top of it, and it landed in Raditz's hand. "Uh. I meant to do that!"
Tien rolled his eyes again and decided to go with. "What do you think that is?" He asked.
"Only one way to find out." Raditz replied
After walking outside, Raditz threw the capsule, and from it came a console similar to the old simulation, with several notes attached on the top of it. Raditz read through them all, and luckily it was instructions on how to replicate what caused Gohan to come here in the first place.
"What does it say?" Tien asked.
Raditz smirked. "Exactly what we needed."
Moments later, after doing as the instructions said, such as adjusting a few screws, typing in whatever it said, and so on, it was time to start the machine. It was pretty obvious that Bulma had left this in case of an emergency or what if, so the instructions were explicit, and had shown exactly what needed to be done.
"Are you ready, Gohan?" Raditz asked.
Gohan nodded. "Yeah but what exactly do I do?"
"According to the notes, the woman left, once we start it, a reddish rift should activate." Raditz explained. "So basically when you see a weird giant red sphere, walk through it."
Gohan, although happy to return, looked sad. "What about you guys though?"
"Hey Kid, we'll be fine." Raditz answered. "I dunno if Vegeta is still out there, or what, maybe he is gone. But we'll figure something out. We got one shot at this, so no time to think about these things."
Gohan sighed. "Okay. I'm ready." He said.
After Raditz pressed the button, the machine started to rumble, the three took some steps back, keeping their distance. Then the machine had imploded, and a few seconds later a reddish rift formed.
Gohan walked through the rift, a bit hesitant, before he knew it, he'd return to his…world? Or Timeline? Whatever it may have been, he'd finally returned to his home, there was his father, his Uncle, with strange white bracelets.
Countdown to Arrival: HFIL
"I guess we should check this hideout huh?" Tien asked, walking away from where the King was, and the others had been following him. He looked back to check with their answer.
"I was thinking we should split up, this way we could cover more ground." Yamcha suggested.
Krillin shook his head, facing Yamcha. "No, if we split up, we'll weaken ourselves. If these troublemakers are as powerful as the rest of these guys, we could end up getting killed!" He pointed out.
"I agree with Krillin. Sticking together is the better option." Tien added.
"What if they come making trouble here then? We'll need someone to stay behind and call for the others?" Yamcha said.
Tien lowered his gaze and rubbed his chin in thought, then a few seconds later, shook his head. "No. I don't think they'll be stupid enough to do that. The King didn't really say why or what they were doing that was considered troublemaking, but I do think that it'd be stupid of them to come here. Everyone here would rather pick a bone with them."
Krillin nodded. "Agreed."
"I second it!" Chiaotzu smiled.
"Then it's settled. We'll go looking for them." Tien said. Yamcha shrugged and followed along with the others. They flew over hfil, below them were the same grey, dangerous protruding spikes, so sharp, and if one weren't careful, they could get seriously hurt, or worse!
Krillin shook his head to snap himself into reality as he looked at, then turned his head, to look forward rather than below.
"What exactly are the clues, by the way Tien?" Krillin asked.
Tien showed the back of the Wanted Poster. "Actually, it just has a pic of the hideout itself, but this is kinda vague you know." It showed a little campsite in a circle, covered by these mountainous spikes, with also a minimap of all nearby territories. There was a red line that showed the border of the Saiyans' territory.
"Yup." Yamcha said. "That's pretty vague." He looked down, everywhere there were campsites or circle areas throughout these spikes. By now the troublemakers could've been easily gone or have moved, or even set traps!
"I guess we're gonna have to check every spot til we do?" Krillin said.
"Wait, maybe we can check the ones with only nearby energy signatures, that should narrow it down." Chiaotzu suggested.
Tien sighed. "I guess we'll have to split up, but the second someone sees something, signal the others."
The others nodded in agreement, and went four different directions. Tien went north, Yamcha went east, Krillin went south, and Chiaotzu went west. However, after several hours of searching, none, not one of them could find or even a clue to them.
That was until a loud blast could be heard by the center of the Saiyan territory. That about figures, this whole time they could've waited, but sometimes its better to cease the criminals before they can cause ruckus.
Oh well, better late than never, the group moved quickly, regrouping up near the sound of the powerful blast.
"You guys saw that too, right?" Yamcha asked.
The three nodded. "Yeah it's gotta be them!" Krillin added.
As if it couldn't have gotten more convenient, the two made themselves known, a scrawny frail looking Saiyan, missing a few teeth, in some kind of barbaric looking clothing, next to his partner in crime, an overweight bulky, full of hair, Saiyan wearing a similar but grey colored clothing.
This seemed almost too easy, were they straight up stupid? Or was there something more? The four had no time to investigate, strangely enough, none of the other Saiyans fought back, they ran and ignored them.
This wasn't what they'd expected, especially of what they were told of, however, the four had more pressing matters to attend to. Tien took the lead, with the other three following behind, as he approached the two.
"Hey!" He shouted. The two Saiyans looked at Tien, and cracked some wicked smiles. "You two are coming with us!"
The scrawny frail one, put on a bit of a crazy face, observing the four, noticing no tails, assuming these were students of the North Kai.
He laughed loudly. "Hah! You ain't even Saiyan, what makes ya think we are gon dun listen ta you!" He nudged his pal to get his attention. "Hey, Brussel, check out these clowns!"
Brussel, the bulkier one, looked at them, then laughed as well. "You fools think you can mess with us!?" He spoke, his voice sounding deep and stout. "C'mon Legume, let's kick their asses!"
Brussel charged first, with Legume following behind. Brussel took Tien seeing as he was the one who'd provoked them, or at least what they considered provoking. Brussel hurled his fist against Tien, who quickly put his two arms in front of himself to block the fist.
The powerful strike pushed Tien back a few feet, and left a large bruise on both his arms. "Not good, he's only hit me once, and that hurt way more than it should've." Tien thought to himself. He turned to his comrades. "You three take care of the other guy, I'll handle this one."
Krillin widened his eyes. "A-Are you sure?" He stuttered. "That guy is crazy powerful!"
"I agree! Instead we should split evenly!" Yamcha added.
Tien shook his head. "No. It'd be easier if you three can take that guy down first, then you can help me after." The other three nodded in response.
"Are you punks done chit chattin?!" Brussel shouted. Brussel rushed forward at Tien, attempting to shoulder bash him, this time Tien was ready and he avoided the attack, moving off to the side. Tien cupped his hands, reeled back, and slammed his fist against Brussel's neck after.
However, Brussel didn't budge and chuckled. "Ya gotta try harder than that!" He said in a quieter voice. Before Tien could react, Brussel swung around and kneed him in the gut, then as payback, he did the same as Tien before, using a double axe handle and striking in the neck.
Tien crashed off towards the mountainous spike but stopped himself before he approached it.
Meanwhile, Legume was having a bit of a hard time fighting with the three others. Yamcha launched first, hurling his fist, aimed high at Legume's head but blocked the attack with his right and threw his foot at Yamcha.
Yamcha blocked the attack but was pushed a few feet away, immediately after Krillin had already been diving in, trying to throw an uppercut at Legume, but Legume moved his head back, and the attack missed.
Legume rammed his fist against Krillin's chest, a hit that landed scarcely, Krillin then distanced himself, as Chiaotzu fired an energy ray at Legume.
"Dodon Ray!" Chiaotzu shouted.
Legume evaded the attack, moving to the side. "Ha! Is that what you call an energy beam?!" He shouted. He raised his hand and formed a claw. "I'll show you what a REAL beam looks like!" Around his hand energy swirled with a crimson red glow, then sending his fist down, midway an red energy beam was released, aimed at Chiaotzu, only it looked like a bladed spiral. "Kidney Slicer!"
Chiaotzu froze in terror, it had moved so fast there wasn't much he could do but scream. Not so surprisingly however, he was saved by one of his friends, Krillin had fired the Kamehameha wave and it collided with the red beam, causing both blasts to explode.
"Are you okay Chiaotzu?" Krillin asked, coming close to his friend.
Chiaotzu nodded. "Thanks Krillin!" He smiled.
"No problem." Krillin replied. He turned to Legume, and gave a serious look. "Now let's show this guy what we're capable of!" Chiaotzu nodded in agreement, using his telekinesis to break apart the tip of one of the spikes, he made it break into hundreds of pieces and made those shards shoot at Legume.
Legume looked surprised, but not quite shocked, he formed a thin barrier, outlining his body, and shielded himself from the attack. The hundreds of shards broke and shattered upon impact but did nothing to Legume thanks to his shield, however, to his surprise, Yamcha had managed to knee him in the face, then slam his lower leg into Legume's gut as he fell down.
As Legume crashed against the harsh ground, Yamcha quickly rose back in the air, and fired an energy blast towards Legume's spot, and Krillin did as well immediately after, however Legume vanished into thin air.
Reappearing, behind the two, Legume took a karate chop against Krillin's left ribs, and a kick against Yamcha's back. Before Legume could continue, a blast had struck the back of him, as he turned around, and the smoke settled, he saw Chiaotzu firing another blast.
This time he dodged, again and again, Chiaotzu then used his telekinesis to make some of the nearby spikes split into tiny pieces and aim at Legume. Several had cut Legume before he could be quick enough to create a shield. This time he'd balled up, making his shield somewhat more powerful but at the cost of being able to see within the field.
Thousands upon thousands had come, up until all nearby spikes were dulled out. After a moment, Legume lowered his shield, unballing to see if it was done, sighing with relief when it was, however, from behind, came another strike by Krillin and Yamcha.
Yamcha kicked him in the back, sending him upwards, and as Legume approached Krillin, Krillin cupped his hands and slammed against his upper back, sending him down.
Meanwhile, Tien was beginning to struggle with Brussel. In an attempt to gain some sort of advantage, Tien used his four witches technique to gain two extra arms, instead this only wasted more of his energy.
Tien had used his first two original arms, to land an uppercut then to keep ahold of Brussel's arms, then used the other two new arms to slam against his face, as he released Brussel's grip, however Brussel, despite being sent to the ground, was fine, and only toying with Tien.
On the ground, catching himself, having his feet stand firmly, he turned to Tien with a smirk. "Is that the best ya got?!" He shouted. Tien growled furiously in response. "Let me show you how it's done!" Brussel fired a green energy blast to Tien, who scarcely dodged, then in an instant, Brussel darted to Tien, slamming his fists against Tien's right cheek.
Tien crashed into the ground harshly and immediately, standing back up a short moment later, his extra arms now gone, Brussel floated slowly just above him with a smug grin.
"Damn it, my four witches technique was no use!" Tien thought. "I'll have to try something else, he's already dead, so he can't technically die again, so something fatal, but I'll need something to buy me time."
Brussel charged at Tien, and rammed his knee against Tien's gut, causing Tien to be sent several feet in the opposite direction, and to cough a small amount of blood after. As Tien wiped the blood off of his face, and pushed himself back on his feet, when he turned around, Brussel threw another fist into Tien's gut.
Then another fist against Tien's chin, then a kick against the side of his chest. Tien flew into the ground backwards again, once more he got up, he needed time to think, time to find someth-! That's it! There he saw it, a sharp but long piece of spike, it must've been a remnant of Chiaotzu's earlier and first telekinetic attack.
As Brussel hurled another fist, Tien clashed back, hurling a fist of his own surrounded in energy that collided with Brussel's. "Crack!" Tien's knuckles could be heard breaking, but Tien resisted the pain as much as he could, still groaning.
Amusement was all that showed on Brussel's face. "You sure are interestin one!" He mocked.
Tien jumped in the air, and then formed a triangle with his hands, he aimed at Brussel, then slowly energy formed in between his hands. "Take this! Trrrriiii! BEAM!" He yelled. A square shaped blast shot itself at Brussel who at first was confident, overconfident, but as it approached he'd realize his mistake.
Not only did the blast actually hurt, but the ground beneath him broke for several yards. Tien panted heavily as he floated down, waiting to see the result, he'd figure this wasn't enough, but maybe it damaged him at least.
A moment later, Brussel rose out of the ground, seething with rage. "You punk!" He yelled. "That hurt! I'm going to get you for that!" He charged at Tien, roaring with anger, exactly what Tien wanted so he wouldn't see what's coming.
However as Brussel got close, aiming his fist at Tien, he'd notice the sharp piece of stone in Tien's hand. Brussel made an evasive maneuver and flipped out of there, only feeling the sharp stone cut his front leg.
"Shit!" Brussel thought, looking at his leg. "I let my damn guard down and that bastard got me!" Brussel fired an energy blast furiously at Tien, who managed to dodge it, then slammed his fists rapidly at Tien. A flurry of punches and kicks later, Tien had fallen to the ground, and as much as he tried he had little strength to get up.
Brussel had thought he'd be able to go in for the kill…however…
"Now Chiaotzu!" Krillin yelled.
"Do it!" Yamcha added.
Once more with his telekinesis, Chiaotzu took a whole spike or at least what was remaining of it, cut it in half, and turned it into a large spear tip, aiming at Legume, who couldn't stop himself in time from falling.
"N-No! Brussel! Help!" Legume shouted.
Brussel turned from the side, noticing the other three's attack. With quick instincts, Brussel raised his hands and fired an energy blast at the spike, however, once again he'd let his guard down, he'd felt a sharp, intense pain near his right lower ribs.
He turned to look down, and noticed Tien below him, stabbing with a large and sharp stone piece, surrounded by ki.
"Hah. Checkmate." Tien said.
Brussel growled, showing his fangs. "You basta-!" He shouted. However, he was interrupted, suddenly vanishing away, which confused Tien, but there was also no sign of his energy. Tien looked around to be safe, was this King Kai's doing? Or something else.
Once he was assured that Brussel wasn't around, he decided to use what remaining energy he had to help his friends. Only as it turned out they didn't need it, despite the quick and unrelenting powerful attacks Legume had just unleashed short moments ago, Chiaotzu came through, firing one final Dodon Ray through Legume's gut.
"Yes!" Chiaotzu shouted, throwing his hands in the air as he laid on the ground. He let his breath escape him, knowing now he can breathe freely.
Once grouped up, and after congratulating each other, the four now needed to return but were badly injured.
"Well… There was no time limit on this, I don't wanna wait too long incase this was some kind of test…" Tien paused.
"I agree, one hour and then we should be good to return." Krillin spoke up.
The others nodded in agreement. After an hour, they returned to the King, and explained to him what happened.
"Good. Then that means they should be forced back into the Soul Cells." The King said.
"Soul Cells?" Krillin tilted his head. "What're those?"
"Since we're already technically dead, dying a second time shouldn't actually be possible, if we weren't here, in HFIL, our souls would be destroyed." The King explained. "But however that would be too easy, and not proper torture, so instead our bodies are restored and sent immediately to a powerful prison upon fatal occurances."
"That makes sense." Yamcha said. "What would be the point if you could just kill yourselves again, and release from this eternal torture, that would be counterproductive."
The King nodded in agreement, despite the pain it took for him to admit that.
"I had a question by the way." Tien said. The King raised an eyebrow. "From what we were told, explained, Saiyans are ruthless, cruel, battle-loving. Why did everyone run when these two…criminals came into town, instead of fighting?"
"The truth is, there is a way out of this hell and to something better." The King answered. "Most of us have been here for a couple of decades now, and would rather be free of this here. The problem is, every time we can be involved in some kind of destruction, unless under special circumstances, it causes the point system installed into this whole thing, to demerit all of us."
"Oh! That's why you have King Kai come and send help down instead!" Chiaotzu pointed out. "That way, none of you have to get involved, and the problem is taken care of without any misunderstandings."
"Exactly. For a bunch of Earthlings, you're really bright." The King complimented. "And I don't say something like that often. We simply wish to be free from here, whether that means going through the soul purger, or achieving some sort of heavenly afterlife rather than this."
"I just find a bit strange that you wouldn't want to stay here, if you stay here, there'd be never ending battling, wouldn't it?"
The King shook his head. "Alas, all we're here for is to either do dirty work such as "chores" or be tortured through various ways." He replied. "This is a great reason why we often have troublemakers such as those two. People get tired of having to wait, and can't take it anymore, our bloodthirst takes control. If we can get out of this hell, there'll be fighting waiting for us above."
"Like?" Yamcha asked.
"They hold a tournament every so often, I don't know how long, but even if we have to wait a millennia for such a tournament, we all yearn for it." The King looked up with a wide grin that looked hungry, hungry for fighting. "Anyways, before you leave, I thank you again for handling this matter."
The four nodded and bowed in response, before returning to where King Kai had left them.
"So…uh…did anyone think on how we'd call Kin-.." Yamcha said.
"About time you four are done!" King Kai interrupted. "Let's get you back to my planet and all fixed up!" Before anyone could say anything, they had returned to his planet, where yup, it was heavy as ever, but at the same time it felt somewhat lighter than before, and to top it off, they were healed?
"How'd you do that King Kai?" Yamcha asked.
"Ah! A Magician never reveals his secret!" King Kai smirked. "Now let's get started on that training, shall we?"
The four looked at King Kai with serious faces and nodded, while simultaneously saying "Right!".
"First things first, to get you used to the heavier gravity here, I'll have you chase Bubbles!" King Kai declared.
"That should be easy enough." Yamcha said, smirking smugly.
"Agreed." Krillin added, taking a stance. "We've gotten somewhat used to the gravity here, I think we can manage to do it in one week!"
"Yeah, especially now that we don't have our weighted clothing." Chiaotzu chimed in.
King Kai pushed his sunglasses up. "Oh speaking of which, please put your training gear back on."
The group looked stunned. "W-What?! We're still trying to adapt to the gravity, and you want us to put our training gear back on already?!" Tien said.
"Yeah, What's the big idea!" Yamcha added. "Are you trying to kill us or somethin?"
King Kai scoffed and shook his head. "Don't you know how to respect your Masters and obey without question!" He smacked the back of Yamcha's head, then walked back in front of them. "You'll progress much faster if you're wearing your weighted clothing, you've gotten used to the gravity enough that you can walk around. I thought you were here for intense training anyways, were you not?"
The group sighed, and Yamcha grumbled a bit as he and the others slipped their gear back on. Once again, they were back to square one, moving required an extraordinary amount of energy to do.
Tien raised a hand. "One question before we move on."
King Kai raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"
"How long did you say til the Saiyans arrived?" Tien asked.
King Kai took a quick thought, and checked once more. "Approximately one hundred and fifty-seven days. So that leaves about five point one months to train."
"Wait, what about the time it'll take us to get back? It took us three whole months to get here!" Krillin pointed out.
King Kai slightly widened his eyes. "Oh I completely forgot! That would've sucked!" King Kai replied. "If the training goes accordingly, it should take you no more than three days to return!" He held out three fingers.
"T-Three Days?! You're saying you can make us that much faster?!" Krillin gasped. The others as well dropped their jaws in awe.
King Kai nodded. "Yup, training here is equivalent to a thousand years worth of training on Earth." He smiled. "Trust me, you'll get plenty strong to beat those pesky Saiyans!"
"Then I guess we better get started!" Yamcha shouted. He raced after Bubbles, who began walking away casually, with the three others behind him doing the same.
As time went on, they'd gotten used to the gravity, despite it still being somewhat heavy, other than sleep and eating, they were always wearing the weighted clothing, after nearly two months, had they finally managed to catch Bubbles with ease.
After which, they'd be ready for the next task, which would be hitting a powerful durable cricket being known as Gregory with a large mallet. The mallet was heavy and hard to lift, it took a considerable amount of strength to do so, but after a month, they four had managed to complete it.
Next King Kai had taught them a special technique that took an immense amount of ki control to accomplish, he'd taught them how to take their energy and double it in short bursts. This was known as the Kaioken, however it came at great risk, and even a basic level for a short amount of time had burned out their bodies for days.
The Kaioken was such a vigorous technique that they couldn't put all their effort into mastering it. Mastering the principle of the technique was the most important part, the technique itself had to be delayed, and their focus was on getting stronger. Although practicing the technique helped make them greatly stronger, it was still too time consuming for now.
The next technique taught was more of a mental and spiritual struggle rather than physical, it was however a must have technique, something so mightily powerful, that it required a pure hearted state of mind. Which for the most part, not one of the four could manage.
The Spirit Bomb was its name, and it borrowed energy from every living being, including the plants, the animals, everything that breathed, everything that had some form of life. The problem was it needed a pure state of mind to contact these life forms, to ask and receive a bit of their energy.
What would be created out of the energy was a sphere made out of energy so pure and powerful that any evil, even the tiniest amount that came into contact, the attack would eliminate it.
Even if they were able to manage to create a poorly created Spirit Bomb, the chances are it could backfire on them if they were not keeping a pure hearted state of mind, or if they let it's intense power frightened them it would do the same.
Some of the regiments on training with the Kaioken would include breaking abnormally strong large stone blocks, whereas with the Spirit Bomb it was long meditation and concentration, sometimes with the use of image training. For when they were not training these two techniques, they'd be sparring or training in other various ways.
About 154 days passed, and finally the group had finished their training. Saying their goodbyes to King Kai after an incredible assessment, they led themselves on Snake Way and returned home.
To be continued…
A/N: I apologise for the inconvenience to new readers, it took me so long to write this, I will now be working on the next few chapters which should be much quicker to write since I'm not constantly trying to come up with new ideas. I've already had a lot of time to come up with ideas for the following.