Gohan wakes up to a feeling of weightlessness and warmth. For a second he thinks he's back at home, bathing with his father, but as soon as he opens his eyes that dream is smashed. He sees a room filled with white domed tanks and a gurney in the middle of the room. He starts to panic when he realizes he is supended in one of those tanks and he sees no way to get out himself. As soon as he starts to thrash the liquid in the tank starts to drain.
Gohan tries to get his feet under himself as the water drains, but isn't quick enough and ends up on the bottom of the tank on his bum. He reaches up and pulls off the mask over his mouth and nose as the door opens. He desont recognize where he is and all he wants to do is go home. So he closes his eyes and curls up into a ball. He's about to fall into a good cry when he hears a voice.
"Come on out now, you can't stay in there forever" Says somone, but Gohan can't quite see them from where he is at the bottom of the tank. He reaches up to the opening and pulls himself up, but when he goes to touch down his limbs are tingly like when he lays on them too long and he falls down ont his bum again.
The woman that called to him before laughs but not meanly. "Yeah that can happen, theres a sedative in the water to keep you under while you heal." At her words Gohan realizes that his ribs aren't hurting anymore. He jumps up and feels himself all over.
'Wow, I'm all better!." he excalims then laughs and spins around.
"Never been in a healing tank huh?" The yellow woman asks as she runs a hand through her short green hair. "I know they said you weren't from around here but you must really be from the boonies if you haven't at least heard of one." A small smile plays across her face.
Gohan smiles back and proudly proclaims "I'm from Earth."
Her Green eyes widen as she repeats. "Earth!" Why thats all the way out in the southern quadrant".
"Is that far away?" Gohan asks tenatively. If it's far away geting home will be really hard.
"Yeah kid, it's far away. Now take this and dry off." She says as she hands him a towel.
Gohan undresses and obediantly dries off. "My name is Gohan."
"I'm Marisol, and I've been asigned to be your minder for the forseeable future." She replies taking back the towl from Gohan when he's done with it.
When he goes to put on his old clothes Marisol stops him. "Here put these on. Those clothes are basicaly ruined."
"But I want these clothes." Gohan whines. HIs mother made these clothes and she will be really mad if he comes home without them.
"Look kid, you'll get in toruble if you're seen in those. We're warriors, we need to wear armor."
"My Daddy didn't wear armor and he's a warrior." Gohan argues, his lower lip sticking out.
Marisol sighs "Look kid think of it this way. We have a unifrom and we need to wear it, now give me those old clothes." Gohan pulls the clothes closer to him and Marisol's eyes narrow. "Gohan I said give them to me. I'm in charge and you need to listen to me. If you don't you'll be punished."
Gohan thinks of what Mr. Freiza did to him just for talking back and he loosens his grip on the clothes. "Can I keep them for when I go home?" Gohan asks.
Marisol sighs again and says "Sure kid." Gohan hands her the clothes and starts working on pulling the new clothes on. The uniform is weird, the under suit is a dark navy blue and it stretches. Marisol Helps him step in through the neck hole and pull it on correctly. The armor that goes over it is white and yellow and has big shoulder pads that Gohan secretly thinks make him look pretty cool. Marisol helps him pull it over his head. It stretches too.
"You're going to have to do that yourself next time okay? I Know you're just a kid but your going to have to start doing things for yourself?" Marisol says.
Gohan nods obediently. He's four, he's big enough to dress himself, these clothes are just weird. But now that he knows how they work he can do it himself.
"Now follow me, I'm going to show you around. This is the med bay, if you're lucky you won't see much of it." She says this like she doesn't think that Gohan will be lucky and it makes Gohan nervous so he reaches out and slides his hand into Marisol's. She sends him a bewildered look but allwallows it.
She walks out of the room and keeps her pace slow enough that Gohan can keep up with her. Just like with Raditz this part of the space ship is also endless hallways and doors that look the same. Gohan doesnt think he's going to be able to find his way around here. When he voices that to Marisol she turns to him and says, "I'll be around to help you for the first week, and after that your scouter should be able to help you navigate."
She brings him to what she calls a mess hall. It's a huge room filled with tables and along the wall is a counter filled with food. His stomach growls at the sight and he looks at her hopefully. "Saiyan right, I dont know how I forgot. I guess it's time for food, you did just use the healing tank and that uses a lot of energy." Gohan cheers and follows Marisol to the line of people waiting to get food.
Unnoticed by Gohan, whispers follow them around the hall, people staring at the small boy holding Marisol's hand. The older woman slides her hand out of Gohans and takes a tray, hands another to Gohan and says "Pay attention now okay. I'm going to show you what's safe to eat for saiyans. I know you guys have tough stomachs but you don't want to eat something that will send you to the med bay."
"I can't see." Gohan complains and Marisol points him to a long step that runs along the side of the counter.
"We have some people here who are just as small as you. Although none quite as young as you." Marisol says and a hairy bipedal wolf behind them guwaffs and says. "Yeah Marisol what did you do to get put on daycare duty?"
"Shut up Grofers, This was a task that Lord Freiza himself set for me." Marisol snaps and that shuts up the wolf immediately. As soon as he quiets She turns back to the food and shows Gohan what's safe. She fills both trays, and when they reach the end of the line guides them both to a table where Gohan digs in.
When Gohan notices that Marisol doenst have any food herself he asks, "Aren't you hungry?" and offers her a fruit that looks something like an apple.
"No, I don't eat like you do, I live off of sunlight." She responds smiling a bit at the young boy's kindness.
"Like a plant! Wow tha's so cool!" Gohan exclaims and forgets his food for a moment while he asks Marisol more questions.
After a few moments Marisol says "I have more to show you, so hurry up and finish your food." And Gohan does.
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PIccolo had thought that Chi-Chi would throw a fit when he announced that the she would be doing survival training for two months before the training, but to his eternal surprise she had calmly accepted it with a determined glint in her eye. He turned her cheongsam into a purple gi and created a sword for her and went to leave, but she stopped him and said "I'm going to need a mending kit." The namekian turned to look at her incruduously and her brow furrowed in irritation, but her voice stayed level. "Not everyone can magic clothes out of thin air. With everyday living clothes wear out, not to mention living rough. I don't want to end up running around naked, so I need a mending kit.
Piccolo blushed embarrassed to admit that he didn't know what all a mending kit would have in it, but before he could even ask Chi-Chi continued "it has various sized needles in it, thread, small scissors and usually a thimble." Piccolo could do everything but a thimble he had no idea what that was. As if sensing his thoughts Chi-Chi explained herself "A thimble is a little metal thing shaped like a bucket with a rounded bottom that sits over your middle finger."
Piccolo nodded and materialized a small pouch with everything in it and handed it to her and said "I'll see you in two months. Don't die." And flew off to Chi-Chi screeching something about "If you think roughing it is ging to kill me you're seriously delusional you damn demon." and snorted.
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Piccolo spent a lot of his time training by himself, but when he wasn't doing that he was watching over Goku's wife. He remembered her fighting at the word's martial arts championship, and while she was strong for a human, he didn't think she could stand up to some of the dinosaurs in the area. Despite what he had said earlier, he didnt actually want her to die. Gohan's surprising bursts of power had to come from somewhere and Picollo was putting his money on it coming from his mother's side.
In the time after his defeat at Goku's hands he had done his research on the man and his friends. His wife was the daughter of the Ox King, one of master Roshi's students and while not a particularly skilled fighter, his raw strength was nothing to laugh at. That strength must be running through his daughter as well.
Chi-Chi was doing remarkably well considering she grew up a princess. She was adept at gathering fruits and root vegetables and while the first time she had gutted an animal she was squeamish she mastered it after wasting only two beasts. She also, to his shock, had starting finding herbs in the wild to spice her meals and "bring a little bit of civilization out to this blasted wasteland." As she had said. She had an unnerving tendency to talk to herself while working.
He watches her this night while the sun was setting. she practices her Kata's and she was decent. There are certainly things to work on though when he deemed her survival training over, which shockingly, might happen before the two months were up.
He watches the woman make a wrong move and fall to the ground. She goes to get up again and curses as her ankle gives out under her. She sit's silently for a moment before she starts to cry. 'This is it'. Piccolo thinks. 'She's had enough and she's throwing in the towel.' She had survived through three weeks which was certainly much longer that he though she would but this was the inevitable conclusion.
But as he watched her cries got softer until her tears stopped and she laid back and looked at the stars as they started to appear in the sky. "I hope your training just as hard as me Goku." She says as she runs a hand through her hair. "Who am I kidding, of course your training hard, that's almost all you do no matter how much I nag you to get a proper job. But you'll be surprised that for once I'm training too. I would rather be training with you, but beggars can't be choosers."
Chi-chi sits up and unwinds her hair, letting it cascade down her back. "The saiyans are coming soon and they plan to destroy this planet. We need to stop them and beat them so soundly that they'll tell us-" She cuts off with a choked sound. Her hands dig into the earth below her and her head drops from looking at the sky to the grass between her legs.
Piccolo thinks she is done talking and turns to fly away before she speaks up again, this time her voice choked off "You're watching over Gohan right Goku? I know your busy training, but surely you have time to check up on him too right? You must know that he was taken. If something bad is going to happen your master King Kai will intervene right?" She's looking up at the sky again the moonlight reflecting off of the unshed tears in her eyes. Piccolo feels his heart pang at her words. He's not sure what the emotion is, but he knows that he doen't like it. This woman has made him feel many emotions over the past three weeks, surprise, approval, exasperation, and now this. He wants to say that this feeling is pity, but he knows it isn't.
She sniffes and uses the back of her arm to wipe the tears away. "He better intervene, because when I go out and get my Gohan back if there's a scratch on him, he's going to pay." Then she pulls out her gi top and rips a strip of fabric off of it and uses it to wrap her ankle. She gingerly stands up and finds it supports her weight. She looks at the sky one last time and says "Train hard Goku, I'll be doing the same." Then she walks off to the cave she has made her home base.
When PIccolo is sure the woman is asleep he materializes a new gi and leaves it at the mouth of the cave.
That night his meditation is more restless than usual and he blames it on the stupid unkown emotions that harpy of a woman had brought out in him. He decides then that as soon as her ankle heals he would formally start her training.
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Far above them in the lookout Kami watches over his evil half and marvels at the fact that someone has managed to make Piccolo feel sympathy. He wonders what the next year of exposure to this remarkable women will bring about in Piccolo. For the first time he considers the fact that Piccolo might not be completely evil like his predecessor was. He vows to keep a closer watch on the other namekian as the year progresses.
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"Gohan." A light shaking wakes Gohan from his sleep. He yawns and slowly opens his eyes to see Marisol. "Lord Freiza requests your presence."
He snaps to wakefulness at the mention of the alien overlord who had hurt him so badly he had to be sent to the healing tank. He had been sent to the medical bay a few times in the month that he had been away from Earth. Gohan had learned that some members of the Planet Trade organization would take any opportunity to hurt anyone weaker then themselves and unfortunately Gohan fell under that category with the majority of Freiza's underlings. But despite the beatings he had taken he had only used the healing tanks twice. He's worried that if he sees Freiza again that he will be hurt so badly that he'll end up in one again.
"I-I don't want to go." Gohan says voice quavering. Marisol hasn't been with him all the time, she has her own duties in the PTO and she can't be there for Gohan all the time, but when she is there the bullies keep their distance. Maybe she will protect him from Freiza too.
Marisol frown and pulls him out of bed. "What you want doesnt really matter, Freiza called and you will come."
"I said I don't want to go!" Gohan wails in fear and anger and pushes Marisol away. When the older woman falls backward Gohan is shocked out of his temper. "I'm sorry Marisol! I didn't mean to hurt you!" Gohan cries running up to her side and wringin his hands together.
"Shit I guess they weren't lying about your power fluctuations were they." Marisol mutters under her breath. Louder she says "I'm fine Gohan, Just a bit bruised. But if I was anyone else you would be in deep shit."
"Mom says that's a bad word." Gohan intturupts.
Marisol laughs "Well you better get used to it, You're going to hear much worse around here. But that's besides the point. If you start a fight here you better be willing to finish it, because if you don't someone else will."
"But it's bad to hurt other people." Gohan says. He knows that there are people here who hurt him, but surely not everyone will do that right?
Marisol smiles sadly at him "Not everyone thinks that way Gohan, so keep your head down or get stronger." Marisol's scouter beeps and she curses. "C'mon Gohan we have to go, we can't keep Freiza waiting."
Gohan scowls and sets his feet. "I'm not going." He insists.
Marisol scowls angrily and Gohan hesitates for a moment before doubling down. "Gohan, either you'll walk by yourself or I'll carry you there. The ride won't be pleasant and you can bet Freiza will be angry about you being difficult."
Gohan wilts under her gaze and whispers "Okay, I'll go." and reaches his hand out to take Marisol's. They walk out into the hallway and pass people going about ther business doing whatever it is that the PTO does. Gohan's not exactly sure what that is yet, and Marisol won't tell him. She just says 'It doesnt concern you.' and distracts him with something else.
They make their way back to the same room he saw Freiza in the last time and the same purple alien that had been there when he came in with Radtiz is there again. He openly snickers at Marisol and Gohan and says "I see the rumors of you playing daycare are true." he looks to where Gohan is holding Marisols hand derisively. "I didn't know you were so into it. Maybe they should take you off missions and make you a full time caretaker, we all know you're weak enough it wouldnt make a big - ARHG!" Gohan had heard enough of this guy badmouthing his friend so he pulls his arm back and punches him in the leg.
"Why you little-" The alien hisses and reaches out to retaliate but Gohan shuffles back behind Marisol suddenly remembering what she said a few minutes ago.
Luckily Marisol steps in eyes narrowed "Keep your hands off Shirtaro, Freiza wanted him unharmed."
Shirtaro scowls and hisses "You better watch your back brat. Mommy won't always be there for you." Gohan shakily scowls back at him and scoots more fully behind Marisol. At that moment the door whooshes open and Marisol ushers Gohan in.
Just like last time Freiza is sitting in the throne at the back of the room. Gohan looks around nervously and sees a few other aliens standing at the sides of the room and a blue woman with beautiful purple hair kneeling in front of freiza's throne.
Marisol ushers him up next to the woman and up close Gohan notices that she is bruised and has dry blood crusted around a few fresh cuts. When he spends too much time staring Marisol hisses and pushes him down into a kneeling position. Gohan looks up from under his bowed head to see Freiza considering them. After a long moment he says "You may rise." and they all do.
"You were three minutes late Marisol. When I call for you I expect for you to be here promptly." Freiza says.
"I'm sory, I will do better in the future." Marisol says, not even mentioning that Gohan was the reason that she was late.
"Make sure you do, but for now your punishment." Freiza says and waves over a man with yellow skin and a bald head at the side of the room. Freiza says "This is Goltar, He's a teratarum an interesting race that stores large amounts of electricity in their body." He nods to Goltar and he places a hand on Marisol's shoulder and then she screams.
Gohan whimpers as electricity runs through her body and it tenses until it looks like she is going to break, until he can't take it anymore. "It was my fault!" He says tears running down his face. "Please stop it, It was my fault we were late."
Freiza nods and Goltar steps back and Marisol falls to her knees panting, her body twitching spasmodically. "Gohan, how noble of you to tell the truth." Freiza says.
"M- mom says it's bad to lie." Gohan says trying to fight back his tears.
"Yes, that is what people say isn't it." Freiza says. "Noble your confession may be, but Marisol is in charge of you, so it is she who will receive the punishment." Freiza says pacing closer to Gohan.
"T-That's not fair! It was my fault!" Gohan says outraged, clenching his hands at his fists. He doesnt hear the beeping of scouters going off in the room, but he doesn notice Freiza's eyes widening, although he quickly schools his features.
"Would you rather be punished yourself?" Freiza asks raising an inquisitive brow.
"N-no, but I-I would take it, b-because it was my fault." Gohan stutters frozen in place dreading the punishment he will surely recieve.
"Do you hear that Marisol?" Freiza says, voice full of amusement "The monkey would take your punishment for you." Marisol is still too busy gathering her strength to answer. "I'll keep that in mind for the next time." Freiza turns suddenly to face the woman to the right of Gohan. "But that is not the reason I called you here today Gohan."
"They w-why did you ask me to come here?" Gohan asks curiosity coloring his voice, although his body is still quaking with fear.
"I wanted your opinion on a delicate matter. You are a smart boy are you not young Gohan?" Aks Frieza, looking back over his shoulder to meet Gohan's gaze.
"My Mom's taught me a lot of things." Gohan says hesitantly.
"Is that so. Then maybe you can help me with my problem. There is a soldier under beta command who disobayed a direct order, and as a result of that, beta squadron failed their mission and many people died." Freiza says mournfully. "What should be done to that soldier?"
Gohan thinks for a moment before saying "The soldier should be taught a lesson so they don't disobey again." Gohan says confidently.
Freiza turns to Gohan and sends him a sharp smile that makes Gohan feel like he said the wrong thing. Then he turns to face the woman kneeling next to Gohan. "You heard him Cerasu, you need to be taught a lesson." The woman winces and sends Gohan a dark look, but before she can even speak two soldiers come over to the woman one grabs her hand and holds it still on the floor.
"I think the punishment should be something be she can see and look back on and be reminded of her failure, don't you Gohan?" Freiza asks and Gohan's voice is frozen inside of him with fear. The purple haired woman stays stubbornly silent but she is shaking. "I think two finger should be sufficient don't you Cerasu?" Freiza says addressing the woman on the floor."
"Yes." She replies and her voice wavers.
The other man kneels down on the floor and a yellow glow extends from his finger. Gohan thinks it looks sort of pretty, but when he brings it down on Cerasu's index finger it severs it and the woman screams.
Gohan cries out with her "Stop it! Don't hurt her!" When the man goes to sever the second finger Gohan wails and pushes him out of the way.
"Tst tsk, what a disappointment." Freiza says looking at Gohan and his eyes freeze him in place. "It looks like someone else needs to learn a lesson as well." Gohan feels fear festering inside of him and he starts to cry so hard his vision of the room blurs.
Suddenly someone grabs his tail and he screams in pain and his whole body sags to the floor. He looks up to see Freiza infront of him. "Little monkey, you don't get to go against anything I say." Freiza drawls. "In fact you don't get a say over anyone here." He kicks him harshly and Gohan hears something snap. "You are the bottom of the food chain and you need to learn your place. You are nothing but Saiyan filth, and you are lower than the dirt beneath my feet." Another kick and Gohan screams again and everything gets hazy.
"Really is this all you can take, you are hardly any fun. Put him in the healing tank before he dies on me. It would be terrible if my new toy broke so soon." Is the last thing Gohan hears before he blacks out."
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When PIccolo comes to her and tells her that he is gong to start her training after only one month Chi-Chi is pleased. She knows the demon has been watching over her, sometimes she had caught glimpses of him. The namekian really isn't as sneaky as he seems to think he is. You would have to be a child not to notice him hovering. So obviously he has seen how competent she is in the wilds. She may be a princess, but that didn't mean that she didn't help out with daily chores in the Ox Kingdom just like the rest of it's citizens. She had also been camping with Goku a number of times and her husband preferred to sleep in nature rather than bring a tent. So she knows a thing or two about that as well.
"The first thing we'll need to do is train you to use ki." Piccolo said his voice gruff and that seemingly permanent scowl on his face.
"Okay, I know what ki is, but how do I use it?" Chi-Chi asks.
The man smirks and Chi-Chi has a bad feeling bubbling in her gut.
"Practical test." He said and grabs her around the waist and throws her off of the cliff they are standing on.
Chi-Chi screams, her heart beating so hard it feels like it is going to burst from her chest as the wind whistles past her ears and the ground grows closer and closer. 'This is it. This is how I die.' She thinks as she is seconds form impacting with the ground. But before she can strong arms wrap around her and she stops just short of the ground.
She hangs there in Piccolo's arms chest heaving as the panic in her slowly dies. As soon as her body catches up with the fact that she isn't going to die, a burning anger boils in her gut. "YOU BRUTE! HOW WAS THIS SUPPOSED TO TEACH ME ANYTHING!" She screeches and uses her fists to hit Piccolo in the chest repeatedly. The man flinches and Chi-Chi smirks, maybe she wasn't the weakling he says she is.
After the third hit, Piccolo drops her and grabs her wrists in a steel grip and growls. Chi-Chi tries to wrench her hands free and pales when she can't. Piccolo smirks at her and squeezes her wrists so tightly it hurts. For a second Chi-Chi thinks that he is going to break them, but after a moment he releases her and she takes a few quick steps backwards.
When Piccolo doesn't speak Chi-Chi takes it upon herself to be the bigger person. "What the hell was that. That is not how you teach someone anything." She growls.
When Piccolo stays silent she throws her hands up in the air and says "How did your Master teach you how to use ki?" She asks in frustration.
A small frown finds it's way onto Piccolo's face. "I never had a master."
"Y-You didn't?" Chi-Chi says as she is thrown for a loop. "Then how did you learn?"
"I had the knowledge of how to do it when I was hatched." He answers, some annoyance coloring his words. Hatched? Chi-Chi had heard that he was an alien, but this? This was too much.
They sit in silence for a moment while Chi-Chi composes herself. "Well then why dont we start at the beginning. I know what ki is, it's life energy right?" Chi-Chi asks.
"Yes," Piccolo nods "It's life energy harnessed into a psychical force."
"Then how do I access it?" She asks.
Piccolo is silent as he thinks. Then he says "You reach inside yourself and feel for a hum and pull it out."
"A hum? Iside myself? How am I supposed to find that!" Chi-Chi yells.
Piccolo flinches and covers his ears then growls. "You figure it out." Then he launches into the sky and flies away.
"SOME TEACHER YOU ARE! I SHOULD HAVE GONE WITH KRILLIN!" Chi-Chi yells after him before falling to the ground in a huff. She has no idea how she is going to find this hum, but she is going to do her damndest to do it.