Tien was far stronger than the average Kladeshian.
Korlos didn't count on that.
Tien learned from the best warriors available in any galaxy. He had subconsciously patterned his life around those he admired. Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, and even Vegeta were his instructors. His training had been almost nonstop for decades other than to eat, and sleep. Tien had pushed himself far beyond Kladeshian abilities.
This is why it would have been no surprise to anyone that knew him that he came out of the drug Korlos injected him with hours before Korlos expected.
Tien kept his eyes shut and his ki low, and faked unconsciousness and listened.
"Take him to the lab! I will be there momentarily to set up the mind controller." Korlos said.
"R-Right away sir." One of the Kladeshians said.
Like Kardeem, the other Kladeshians in their party was appalled by what Korlos had done. But they were afraid of him too.
Tien felt his self being trundled along and peeped open an eye. They were headed down a corridor of an unfamiliar place. There were windows facing a setting sun that was just a bit too red. Tien also noticed that he felt a bit heavy, like the gravity wasn't quite right. "We're not on Earth." Tien concluded to himself. "I don't know what this "mind controller" is, but something tells me I'd better not hand around to find out."
Tien phased out of sight, then phased in, standing in front of the guardsmen.
1.36 seconds later, all five of the Guardsmen were laying on the floor, out cold.
"I must be getting old, that took too long." Tien smirked to himself.
"Well, no need to be subtle at the moment." Tien turned and blasted a hole through the side of the building.
He flew down towards the street and started running, too fast to be seen. He lowered his ki as low as he could.
"I've got to find a place to hide until I can come up with a plan." Tien said. "I can't beat a whole planet of people up!
Tien knew from experience that someone would come to save him. Goku, at the very least, would have a hard time turning down the opportunity to save someone. After running for about 50 miles, Tien stopped and looked around. The nice, immaculate city gave way to bombed out ruins. There were people, his own kind, thin and sickly looking, picking their way across the rubble. There was a family huddled in a corner, a man, woman, and two frail looking children. Tien approached them, but they caught site of him and shrunk back into the darkness.
"Wait! I won't hurt you! Please, won't you talk to me?" Tien asked.
The man poked his head around the corner. "What is it you want now? We have no more dignity to give! Please leave us alone!"
"I am not here to harm you, or take your dignity! I just want to know what happened here!" Tien said.
The man bravely left the relative feeling of safety his wall gave him, and stepped out a few paces. "Who are you?"
"My name is Tien, I'm from the planet Earth." Tien said.
"But you are Kladeshian, are you not?" The man said.
"Yes, but I have no memory of it." Tien answered.
"This place was once a beautiful city. It was a major science and technology center. Korlos destroyed it because we refused to cooperate with him and turn over our research." The man explained. "Now, it is just rubble."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Tien said sadly.
The man grew curious. This Kladeshian was unlike no other Kladeshian from the outside he had ever met before. He started to walk towards Tien.
"Are you really sorry?" The man asked.
"Yes. This isn't right. This is... horrible." Tien searched for the right word to describe the devastation he was witnessing.
Slowly the man came even closer.
Suddenly the man's eyes shot wide open as he gasped and fell back on his rear end. He pointed at Tien.
"Y-You're K-King Sarmen! You're King Sarmen!" The man managed in a raised whisper. "I saw your father's picture when I was a small boy! You're the legend! You've back finally to free us all!"
Tears were streaming down the man's face. Tears of utter joy.
"But I'm not that man. Perhaps I once would have been, but my life did not follow that path. I cannot be your king, but I will help you. I have a bit of a score to settle with Korlos any way." Tien smiled.
"Maybe you will be our king later then!" The man jumped up with a big war whoop. "Everyone! King Sarmen has returned! It's the legend! It's the legend!"
From around corners and through bombed out windows and doorways people cautiously poked their heads out to look at this supposed savior. Many of the older ones showed recognition in their eyes and returned the war whoop as they ran towards Tien. The children and women cautiously followed.
Tien suddenly found himself in the center of people that idolized him. They shook his hand and seemed to want to touch him. Tien was not comfortable with this at all.
"Get back! Get back!" the original man said placing himself between Tien and the crowd. "Don't you see you are angering the King!"
"Thank you..." Tien started.
"Ga'bin is my name. I am your servant!" Ga'bin said.
"No Ga'bin. You will never be anyone's servant ever again if I have anything to say about it." Tien noticed for the first time that many of these people had injuries. One man was missing his third eye; another man was missing a leg. A small child approached him with only one arm.
"Will you free us then?" The boy asked.
Tien reached down and picked the boy up in his arms. "I will do my best." Tien smiled.
Tien suddenly looked back the way he had run and smiled.
"What is it my liege?" Ga'bin asked.
"My friends have come." Tien said. "I knew they would."
"What shall we do? We will follow you into battle!" Ga'bin exclaimed, followed by a raucous cheer from everyone in the crowd.
"No my friends. Let us handle this, it will be okay. You have suffered enough." Tien smiled as he placed the boy back down on the ground. Tien lifted himself off the ground and flew as fast as he could towards his friends.
"Good luck, milord!" Ga'bin called after him.
+++++++++++++++++++++
"I feel Tien's ki. He's flying this way." Jessica said.
Vegeta looked thoughtful. "Chi-Chi, would you and Abigail go find Korlos and arrest him? Say he's under arrest by the authority of King Vegeta, or some such, make it up as you go along." Vegeta smirked. "That's your mission."
"You mean by ourselves?" Abigail asked.
"Of course by yourselves. That's what a mission is!" Vegeta scowled.
Chi-Chi and Abigail exchanged glances. "There's bound to be fighting!" Chi-Chi said.
"Yeah!" Abigail said.
"Maybe some danger!" Chi-Chi said.
"Yeah!" Abigail answered.
"Let's go!" Chi-Chi said and flew off.
"Yeah!" Abigail said and followed her.
Vegeta looked after them and smirked. "Women!"
Roger and Jessica smiled.
Gerald didn't quite understand.
"What do we do?" Jessica asked.
"Nothing. I think the people I've sent are quite sufficient for this job. We will stay here and wait for their return. If they run into trouble, then we can get involved. Those two have been dying for a scrap ever since we left Vegetasei. So let them have it." Vegeta smiled.
Abigail and Chi-Chi flew for a bit.
"Where do we find Korlos?" Chi-Chi finally asked.
"Can't you feel his ki?" Abigail answered.
"No, too much interference in a city like this. Look! Down there! That building has a huge hole blasted in the side of it. I bet we can find Korlos down there! I bet Tien escaped from them and that's why we feel him flying this way!" Chi-Chi said.
"Let's check it out." Abigail turned to fly down to the building when several dozen Kladeshians left the ground towards them.
"This is where the fun starts!" Chi-Chi said.
Abigail smiled. "Well, here's where all that training will come in handy!"
Chi-Chi and Abigail got into classic defensive postures.
The Kladeshians flew up to within twenty feet of them and stopped.
There was a long moment of silence.
"Well? What is it you want?" Chi-Chi finally said.
"You're women!" One of the Kladeshians fairly cringed when he said it. "We can't touch women!"
"What? How do you people procreate with an attitude like that?" Abigail said.
"It's done a lab." Was the answer.
"Well, that's mighty romantic." Chi-Chi said wryly. Look, I don't have the time or the ambition to solve your social problems at the moment. We are under orders given by King Vegeta to arrest Korlos for crimes against the Planet Earth, which is under our protection. (That sounded good, right?) You either step aside, or we are coming through you. Understand?"
"We cannot let you pass, woman." The man who seemed to be acting as the leader snarled.
"Well, I guess you will have to touch a woman then." Chi-Chi smiled. "Or rather, be touched by a woman."
Chi-Chi and Abigail exchanged a glance, then disappeared simultaneously.
In an eye blink, the Kladeshians were lying on the ground under their feet.
"Darn! I hope we get more of a challenge! That was way too easy!" Chi-Chi complained.
Abigail was looking at her fist. "Wow! Did I do that?"
Chi-Chi chuckled. "I forgot this was your first real fight!"
"Yeah, I've just been training before." Abigail said.
"Well this is disappointing! I hoped that we would at least get to go Super Saiyan!" Chi-Chi complained again. "Oh well, let's go and see if there's anyone else to fight."
Chi-Chi and Abigail flew down into the hole created by Tien when he escaped. One of the Kladeshians that Chi-Chi recognized from planet Earth was just regaining consciousness from Tien's attack.
Chi-Chi picked him up by the front of his tunic. "All right buster! Tell me where Korlos is!"
The Kladeshian, still not quite recovered yet, looked up at Chi-Chi, then down at his shirt collar, then weakly pointed down the hall.
Chi-Chi released her grip on the man's tunic.
"Chi-Chi? Don't take this the wrong way, but when we get back to Vegetasei, I think you should really look in to an anger management course of some kind. You're getting scary." Abigail said.
"Are you kidding? I've been dealing with powerful, pig-headed men all my life! These guys are just lucky I left my big frying pan on Earth!" Chi-Chi responded. "That's the only language these types understand!"
Abigail suddenly found herself feeling sorry for Goku, Gohan, and Goten.
Chi-Chi pulled up short and landed on the hall floor, Abigail followed suit.
A lone man stood in front of them. "Funny, I never figured the Saiyan men were such cowards to send their women in to battle." Korlos said.
"Well, we women are used to taking care of the men's light work." Abigail returned. "On Vegetasei, even little girls are more powerful than you."
Korlos's face grew red with anger. "Well, you won't find me as easy as the one's you encountered outside. I've made a few improvements."
Korlos suddenly ripped his tunic off and through it to the side revealing that he was mostly metal.
"He's some sort of android!" Abigail said.
"More precisely, I'm a cyborg. Man and machine in one." Korlos said.
"I don't sense any more ki in him than in any other Kladeshian." Abigail said.
"Don't trust that! Goku said that they couldn't sense any ki in the androids they fought on Earth either. This guy could be far more powerful than his ki indicates." Chi-Chi answered.
Korlos suddenly disappeared and punched Chi-Chi hard in the jaw. The blow sent her flying back down the hall, and out the back wall.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
On New Namek, Goku stopped. "CHI-CHI!" He cried. He started to put his fingers to his forehead, then stopped himself.
"No, it's her fight, I promised." Goku said with great reluctance. Buu and Uub were trying to figure out what Goku was on about.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Abigail flashed to Super Saiyan as soon as she seen Korlos had attacked. This seemed to surprise Korlos.
"Well, well! You are quite powerful for a woman. But you're still no match for me.
Korlos attacked with a vicious kick that Abigail barely managed to block with her arm. The blow left her hand tingling.
Korlos turned and backhanded her through the wall.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
"Vegeta, maybe we should help them...." Roger said as he was about to teleport.
"No!" Vegeta said grabbing Roger's hand. "Not yet. Just relax until I say so."
"Okay." Roger said a bit reluctantly.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Chi-Chi ended up in a fountain on the other side of the building. She was mad, wet, and her hair was messed up. Her lip was bleeding, and beginning to swell. She wiped her lip with the back of her hand.
"Oh yeah! You are going to pay for that one baldy!" Chi-Chi powered up to Super Saiyan Two and took off after her assailant.
Korlos fired a ki blast that brought the entire wall down on Abigail as she tried to recover. Much of the wall collapsed burying her under tons of rubble. Korlos was admiring his handy work when an irate Chi-Chi hit him full in the face. Korlos slide back several yards and counter attacked. They were matching blow for blow.
"How is this guy keeping up with me?" Chi-Chi said. "He's as powerful as a Super Saiyan Two!"
Korlos chuckled. "This is were we separate the men from the women." Korlos reached and pushed a button on one of his arms. His speed and strength seemed to increase tenfold. Chi-Chi was getting pummeled.
Suddenly, the rubble that Abigail was buried beneath started glowing gold, then, with a scream, it exploded outwards.
Abigail stood there in her Super Saiyan Two form.
Korlos was distracted just long enough for Chi-Chi to hit him hard in the face.
Chi-Chi flew over to her friend.
Korlos shook off Chi-Chi's attack. "You know you're going to lose, right? This is still not my highest power level."
"That's okay, you'd better turn up the juice mister." Abigail said. "We weak and helpless women have one more trick to show you today. Something we saved just for this sort of occasion. We think you'll like it."
Abigail and Chi-Chi smiled.
Korlos couldn't explain his feeling of unease. He was stronger than either of them, wasn't he?
"Well, let's see what you got!" Korlos smirked regaining his confidence.
Korlos watched as the women's arms shot out at funny angles, as well as their leg.
"Fuuuusion... Ha!" Came the twin cries as they performed a rather ineloquent dance.
Tien had just arrived on the scene. "What? That's Chi-Chi, and Abigail? They are doing the fusion dance!"
That is when a very bright light caused Tien to cover his eyes.
