Chapter V: The Training Begins

Boxer tripped over his own two feet again and remained floating in the air for a short time before falling face first onto the grass again. "Ouch!" he exclaimed. Piccolo grabbed him by the shirt collar and hoisted him into the air.

"What's this with the cries of pain?" Piccolo yelled in his face. "You're supposed to be a brave Saiyan warrior, not a six-year-old who scraped his knee!"

"My eyes hurt, Piccolo!" Boxer complained. "I shouldn't be training the day after I got laser surgery!"

"You shouldn't be training, my foot!" Piccolo threw him down. "My dreams get clearer every night; they are getting to the point where I can almost see the expressions on their faces. Meanwhile, you whine and complain and try to learn how to fly! If they were to attack tomorrow, you'd be of no use to us at all."

Boxer turned his head to look at the space pod where 18 was training. The last time he checked, she was up to 1200 times Earth's normal gravity. "See how 18 is training?" Piccolo asked him. "Your body would be easily crushed in that gravity. You probably couldn't even stand in ten times Earth's normal gravity! You weakling!"

"I'm working on it, Piccolo but…"

"But nothing!" he snarled. "You're going to train harder or you're going to die!"

"Shut… up!!!" yelled Boxer at the top of his lungs, and with an angry look in his eyes, he began to power up.

"Interesting," Piccolo though. "He powers up only when he is angry. If I don't anger him sufficiently, he can barely even fly, but…" His thought was cut short as Boxer lunged towards him with a flying kick, similar to the one that had knocked Piccolo in the first place.

As a reflex, Piccolo grabbed his foot and threw him to the ground, but Boxer got right back up and came at Piccolo with a flurry of punches. "I AM NOT WEAK!!!" he growled, and Piccolo could've sworn that he sounded exactly like Vegeta.

A surprised expression came over Piccolo's face as he found himself barely able to keep up with Boxer's furious never-ending punches. Finally, he was able to knee Boxer in the stomach, sending him flying backwards, but that was hardly enough to stop the warrior from dashing right back at Piccolo.

This time, Piccolo was prepared. As Boxer threw a mighty punch, Piccolo ducked. As Boxer tried to calculate his next move, Piccolo came back up and smashed Boxer in the face with all of his might.

Boxer stared at Piccolo for a second, and then fell to his knees, clutching his nose.

"What's the matter, weakling?" Piccolo taunted. "Did I make you bleed?"

Boxer took his bloody hand away from his nose, letting a steady stream of blood down his face and onto his shirt, but he didn't seem to care. He leapt high into the air, and hovered as he shouted mightily and swooped down at Piccolo, his fists flying.

Right before he landed a punch, Piccolo put his entire body in a locked position. Unable to move and having had his rage depleted, Boxer stood there in Piccolo's stronghold, bleeding profusely from the nose and breathing heavily.

Finally, Piccolo let him go, and he fell to the ground, exhausted, taking his handkerchief and clamping his nose with it. Piccolo watched as Boxer stood up to face him once more. The more Piccolo looked at him, the more he looked like a stockier version of Trunks with much bluer hair and a rounder face. And, he knew that Boxer would become stronger than Trunks could have ever dreamed of being.

His handkerchief now stained bright red, Boxer took it away from his nose. The bleeding had stopped, but his face was a bloody mess. "Maybe you shouldn't have punched me so hard," he said to Piccolo, without the slightest bit of contempt in his voice.

Piccolo shrugged. "You survived. And, it seems that you're able to fly."

Boxer reflected for a moment. "You're right! I can fly!" Boxer leapt into the air again, and this time stayed aloft. He laughed a very content laugh as he flew in circles around the Capsule Corporation complex.

"Hey!" Piccolo called to him as he stopped flying. "This is no time for rejoicing! My work is done. You must now learn the ways of the Kame-Sennin and train at 100 times Earth's normal gravity. After that, you should be strong enough to be of some use to us… barely." Piccolo turned away as Boxer landed behind him.

"Where will you go?" asked the young owner of Capsule Corporation.

"I am going to Kami's Lookout; a mystical place high above the Earth where the Guardian of the Earth watches over all life here," he replied. "There I will meditate, spar with my multi-forms, and train using the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and the Pendulum Room."

"Kami's Lookout?" asked Boxer. "Guardian of the Earth? Hyperbolic Whatnot? Pendulum Room? What is all that stuff?"

"It is for another day," said Piccolo, still turned away from Boxer. "But I hope that you never have to go there to train. The Hyperbolic Time Chamber can shave valuable years off of the lives of mortals. As for now, Boxer, I bid you farewell. Tell 18 that I say goodbye."

With that, he took off like a flash of lightning as Boxer went inside to rinse the blood off his handkerchief and begin his studies.

***

Sweat poured down 18's brow in what must have been gallons. Breathing heavily, she grabbed one of many water bottles and drank it all in one gulp. She crushed the bottle in her hand and read the computer screen. "1200," she said to herself. "It's too little. I have to train harder so that I can get up to 2000!"

"Computer!" she commanded. "Initiate training program, level 20!"

"Warning," the computer replied. "Maximum level training program is fatal to humans. Continue?"

"Yes!" she shouted. "Continue. Maximum level training program!"

"Level 20 drones confirmed," the computer established. "Initiating."

Five spherical robots about the size of a human hand appeared and began to orbit around 18. Five more mirrors appeared in some sort of predetermined fashion all around the capsule.

She glanced around and noticed the alignment of each sphere versus the alignment of each mirror and quickly thought up a plan of action while the spheres began to fire lasers. Every split second, there were lasers coming at 18 from every direction thinkable, but she dodged with great lithe.

Despite her being able to dodge all of the lasers blasts, she would eventually need to retaliate. Noticing a slight pause in a laser blast, she immediately shot a fingertip energy blast and destroyed a mirror. This caused a laser blast to reflect off of the wrong mirror and into a sphere.

In the short pause this caused, she flew outside of the mirror areas, and in the split second delay of the targeting change, she fired an enormous energy blast, turning all of the training devices into dust.

Unfortunately, due to the spherical shape of the space pod, her energy blast was coming right back at her from behind! 18 turned around and immediately braced herself. There was a huge explosion that was contained within the space pod. When the dust cleared, 18 realized that she was just fine.

Panting and sweating like there was no tomorrow, she could still only urge herself on. "There's no time for rest," she said, limping over to the gravity modifier, and changing the number to "1300."

Immediately, she fell flat on her face, exhausted and barely able to stand. Her body felt well over 20 tons, but she still managed to crawl her way to computer screen to initiate another round of training robots.

Propping herself up on the keyboard, her legs wobbling, she somehow managed to stand up and remain standing. Each step feeling like her last, she went back to the center of the floor and gave a command.

"Computer," she gasped. "Initiate level 10 training sequence."

"Initiating," replied the computer. "Warning: at this gravity, your body will be crushed into oblivion while training. Proceed?"

"Yes; proceed," she said, her eyes as focused as ever. "Let me show those training robots what a little bit of human blood can do."

***

Boxer stood staring at the target he had painted on the gym wall. Focusing his energy into his hands and almost letting the rest of his body go limp, he began to chant.

"Kah…meh…" he said, his eyes focused ever on the bull's-eye of the target "Hah…me…" He continued, focusing all of his bodily energy into his hands, breathing heavily. "HA!!!"

There was a tiny burst of energy, but enough force so that Boxer went flying and hit the other end of the gym wall. After rubbing his back and getting back up, he sprinted back across the gym to the target. Nothing was there! He hadn't been able to fire the Kamehameha Wave!

"Darn it!" he cursed himself. "I need to get better… I have to study more. I can't let Piccolo and 18 down."

With that, he left the gym and went back to the library complex. He picked up the old transcribed martial arts books and continued reading.

Since he was the only one around, he decided to read aloud. "The Kame-Sennin is unlike any other martial arts style in existence. Granted, other styles like Kung-Fu or Tai-Chi may be excellent arts of self-defense, but they do not promote true harmony between mind, body, and nature. Yes, a fancy Karate move or two might be quite nice to show off when in a tight spot, but to truly achieve the title of a 'Martial Artist,' one cannot simply study the art to defend himself.

One must study attack as well as defense. One must study physical blows, and releasing the chi within. To use your inner energy as a holy bolt into the outer world is something that no self-defense art could teach you. That is why I, Master Roshi, have written this book; to educate those who wish to achieve a higher level of consciousness as they study the sacred art of the Kame-Sennin.

I know what some of you are thinking. 'Skip all of this and teach me the Kamehameha Wave,' right? It took me fifty years to perfect the Kamehameha Wave, and it may well take you the same, so listen up and learn this now:

You cannot possibly hope to learn the Kamehameha until you master the other techniques that the Kame-Sennin has to offer. A martial artist cannot base his entire strategy upon one attack! You must learn to achieve harmony through balance of mind, body, and the outer world. Then, and only then, can you pick up advanced techniques like the Kamehameha.

"Interesting," Boxer remarked out loud. "I thought that the Kamehameha was basic! This might be harder than I thought." He flipped the page and continued to read about the mystic art of Kame-Sennin, knowing that someday soon, it would be vital to his very survival.