Chapter 1: Arrival

Piccolo threw another blast at himself, then dodged to the side to avoid the one his counterpart had thrown at him. Realizing that wouldn't work, he leaped into the air and pounded himself on the chest with a kick, taking an identical blow in the process. They both ignored the pain and went into a barrage of kicks and punches at each other, neither landing many blows though it hurt to even block a blow.

Suddenly, the other Piccolo shot its eye lasers at him. They scorched into his own eyes and then everything went black. Piccolo closed his eyes used his Chakra to see instead. He could only see auras this way, but he wasn't ready to quit yet. He saw a bright red aura come for him and on instinct he phased behind it and fired a blast of raw ki.

"Ungh, I can't believe I fell for that." He heard himself say.

"Yeah, that must be because I'm the one with the brains."

"Ha. Please stop telling those witty one-liners, I might bust my side open." He replied sarcastically.

"Really, I could of sworn I already did?"

"Enough chat. Sooner we merge, sooner we heal, the-"

"Sooner we can train again. Yeah, I know."

Piccolo let his body go, flaring up his ki until it filled every part of his being, then seemed to melt into his other half. His eyesight came back and a few of his wounds healed in the process, but there wasn't enough energy in the two to heal everything. Too bad, he would have to rest for awhile.

"Sgraka Sa Chatobantum." He muttered and in response a door appeared on the craft that led to real space, not the blown up counterpart he'd made in his training room. The air stopped pulling on his skin and he felt his breathing return to normal, not the forced pants he'd had to use in there. The ship still hadn't generated quite enough air to fill it.

"Krillin, the room is yours for about an hour while I heal myself. Do you remember how to set it?"

"Yeah, I think. Ta makes it go down, Ya raises it."

"Good."

Piccolo walked over to the water tank and stuck a tube into his mouth. He drank a full two gulps then put it away. He felt the hydrogen and oxygen separate, flowing into his body. The energy in the hydrogen as it burned silently knitted together his muscles and mended his bones. The process took about twenty minutes and used up nearly all his energy, but he still had training to do. He would just rest to catch his breath for a minute.

As Piccolo fell down, he barely remembered to yell "Juka" and make the floor soft as air.

***

"P-Piccolo? Could you, um, wake up?" Krillin said, nudging Piccolo with his boot. A green hand snatched his ankle and before he knew it, he was hanging upside down and staring into the demon's face.

"Why did you wake me?"

"Uh, the ship stopped." Piccolo let go of Krillin and rushed off into a different room in the ship, barely pausing briefly to bark out a word of Namek. Krillin crawled up to his feet, racing forward before the door slammed in his face. He slammed headfirst into what was once again a wall. What had Piccolo said? Yo something...

"Yoyo?" He tried. Nothing.

"Boyo?" Still nothing.

"Coyo?" Nada

"Noyo?" Nuttin.

"Voyo?" Finally, the door opened to the maneuvering room. Piccolo was already there, staring into a green screen that seemed to hang on nothing with letters running across that seemed to make no sense except for what looked like a planet with certain parts enlarged with text all over them. To the right of the planet, a constant flow of text ran down to fast for Krillin to read even if he did know Namek.

"Is Vegeta there?" Krillin asked.

"I don't know yet. Be quiet!" Piccolo said, not even bothering to look in Krillin's direction.

Krillin waited. After what seemed an eternity of waiting, he waited some more. Finally, Piccolo looked at him and turned off the screen with a brief, "Gata"

"He isn't here. There are some traces of his DNA, but other than that nothing. I'm going down there to see if I can find out where he was heading."

"I'm coming with you."

"...Fine."

Piccolo barked out commands in Namek to fast for Krillin to follow and like a stock car the ship lurched forward to the planet. Krillin nearly went to all fours he felt so many g's, but he had been training as well and was able to stand, though not with the statue-stillness Piccolo had.

The ship stopped twenty feet above the ground and slowly floated to the ground. Piccolo went to and window and turned to Krillin.

"Take a deep breath and follow me."

***

"Vert" Piccolo said and instantly the window disappeared. The air rushed out with Piccolo and Krillin as the flew out the window, both their auras flaring with white flame as they raced to a building. Piccolo looked back for a second and noticed with a hint of pleasure the window had sealed itself properly, then seared a opening in the dome shaped building they flew into with his eyes.

They entered quietly enough, but then the sound of rusty metal sliding together to close the hole became a dead giveaway. /So much for stealth. /Piccolo thought.

Piccolo searched the complex for ki's and found that though all of them were above normal, the top was only about 300 and the average here was around 50, though Piccolo felt a few that were as low as 5-10. Odd, he had adapted the powerleval system those saijya-jin's used more easily than he thought would.

Closing his Chakra, he searched the room he was in visually. It had row upon row of seats with platforms between each two. What could kind of place was this? He didn't see any raised platform so it couldn't be used for holding meetings, and it was to cluttered to be a training room.

"Wow, Saijya-jin's use cafeterias too." Krillin said.

"What?"

"Y'know, it's a place where people eat."

"Eating? Oh, that." So, Saijya-jin's shared with humans that disgusting habit. Gohan had eaten at least three times a day when they had trained together, scarfing down food and chewing it, then actually swallowing it. Piccolo had learned to be away training during Gohan's meals it was so revolting. The idea of so many people doing that would have made him puke. Of course, you actually need to eat to be able to puke.

About thirty men piled into the room, all of them looking nothing like a Saijya-jin, though they wore roughly the same armor. Some held what Piccolo thought were guns leveled at the two of them. Many were taking reading on their scouters. Oddly, none looked scared.

"State yer name and business." One said, a race that looked like an orange crocodile on two legs. He seemed to be their leader, though his power was only at 120.

"I am De--Namek Piccolo. I have come to kill Vegeta."

The crocodile man turned to what appeared to be his second in command, a human shaped alien with purple skin and hair with green dots, "Hmm, maybe it's a Ginyu. Freeza was pretty peeved at Vegeta."

"Nah, I don't think so, Sir. Ginyu's are at least 35,000. The Namek and the...I don't know what that is, but maybe a tail-less Saijya-jin mutant; anyway, they clock in at 6000 and 2000 respectively."

"Hmm, whatever. So let me see...Should we kill them or should we let 'em live to be a thorn in the side of the 'Great Saijya-jin Prince'" The captain said with a chuckle.

The purple man laughed a bit too, "Yeah, I bet he'd really like that!:

Piccolo felt a bit confused. From the way that prince had carried on, you would of thought he was revered by his people. Then again, there were no Saijya-jins here and they thought of him a delusional apparently.

"All right, then. Vegeta went after Lord Freeza to Namek. You must of just missed him black-eyes." The crocodile man said, "Just don't bang in through the wall on the way out. Haven't ya ever heard of a dock?"

Pcenter***/center

Gohan landed on the narrow road then leaped into the air again. He was starting to get tired and he had been hungry for what he thought was days. He hadn't gotten any sleep because the others didn't need to stop and he didn't want to get left behind. His legs felt like they should break off at any moment from the constant jumping. He really had to learn how to fly.

"Hey!" He called out, pulling the others to a halt. Gohan was relieved to see they were tired also and that they were glad to stop for any reason, "I was wondering; could any of you guys teach me how to fly?"

"Sure," Tein said, and with one quick burst of speed was standing right beside Gohan, "You just have to throw your ki's energy the opposite hemisphere of where you want to go. The more energy you use, the faster you go." To demonstrate, he hovered in the air for a moment the flew back to the others, "You try."

Gohan did, and was instantly thrown face first into the ground.

"No, your releasing your energy from your feet! Release it from your whole body!" Tein shouted to Gohan.

He tried again, and this time it worked. He was flying! He looked down on the others who were taking off and then creating a V formation around him. /This sure is a lot easier than jumping./ Gohan thought as accelerated so much he could feel his aura flaring and he was leaving everyone else behind, /Faster too!/

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"Man, that was weird" Krillin said, breathing in the air in deep gasps as they boarded the ship, "I thought we'd have to fight for sure!"

"Yeah," Piccolo said as he went to start the ship. Krillin felt the lurch of the ship as it took off through the planets thin atmosphere.

"He offers about as much company as a wet sock on a hike." Krillin grumbled. He nearly jumped out of his shoes when the wall opened up and Piccolo entered.

"Krillin, your going to train with me from now on. Follow me." Krillin complied.

When Piccolo opened the door to the training room, Krillin saw two other Piccolo's already engaged in a fierce battle. That would mean that this Piccolo had the same amount of power as him! Suddenly, this training session didn't seem so dreadful.

"Noyaya" Piccolo shouted and suddenly Krillin found he could barely stand up. The other Piccolo's also looked a bit strained. They no longer flew, but their backs were straight. Krillin forced his up to.

"How many g's is this?!" Krillin asked.

"Twenty."

"Twenty!"

"Yes. Guess you aren't ready to train with me yet. Start running laps."

Krillin was about to protest, but then thought better of it and forced his legs to go around the wall's edge. The third Piccolo seemed to turn burn completely blue then split and absorb itself into the other Piccolos.

"Why am I always the one holding back the others?" He grumbled under his breath. Piccolo heard him, but decided not to comment. /Let him wallow in his despair, he isn't at fault for someone's death./