Chapter Thirty-two - The Tyrant Arrives

Vegeta's eyes snapped open as the liquid of the tank drained away. It took a few seconds for him to remember what happened to him. As the tank opened he stood and looked around him. He saw two nearly identical people in other tanks and a suit of armor laid out beside his tank already. Climbing out he quickly changed from his damaged armor and into the fresh one. A moment later he emerged from the recovery room and made his way down the hall and into the ship's control room.

There were several new faces in the room. The Namek he vaguely remembered as the one who brought him back to the ship was floating cross legged in a far corner meditating. Sitting beside him was a young boy in armor and in a similar position. Near them was a young Namek and Bulma was at the controls talking to a silver haired girl in armor and a short bald man also in armor. It took a moment for them to register but he realized they were the ones from Earth. /Which means the two in the tanks were Bardock and Kakkarotto. But what happened to Ginyu?/ "What happened?" he demanded.

"Oh, Vegeta, you're awake!" Bulma said surprised turning around.

"Yes, yes, woman, I'm awake. Now what happened to Ginyu?"

"Goku and Bardock took care of him." Krillin said grinning. "Didn't see them fight that Ginyu guy but they pounded the others without even trying. Beat them easier than they beat Zarbon!"

/They beat Ginyu!? But... how!/ He didn't have time to think about it as the computer suddenly began beeping madly. One of the monitors flared to life as a list of numbers appeared. After a few moments only one remained labeled Frieza. "What!? Frieza's here already!" Vegeta turned from the room and ran out of the ship followed quickly by Hotaru, Krillin, Gohan, and Piccolo. The warriors all felt the coming power and launched to where it would touch down, powering up along the way.

******

Planet Vegeta:

King Vegeta sat in his throne with Vadora on his right and Pug on his left. Only the three of them, the Sai-jins on Earth, and a handful of technicians knew about the battles on Namek. The two groups were watching their scouter computers, the only means they had to view the battle. "It's amazing..." Vadora said at last. "Bardock and Goku have gained so much power since the battle against Zarbon..."

Yang shook his head. "This has never happened before. The only Sai-jins to ever have this kind of power before were members of the royal family..."

King Vegeta nodded. "Indeed, these two have shown amazing power..." Suddenly the computer system sounded several sharp beeps. The numbers shifted and the three of them stared in shock at the handful of new readings. Krillin: 85,451. Vegeta: 993,164. Namek: 4,612,367. Gohan: 139,267. Hotaru: 68,164. Frieza: 4,336,530. King Vegeta stared at the screen for a moment before speaking up. "I'm inclined to go to Namek myself now."

"Sir?" Pug asked in surprise.

"Frieza has been an annoying thorn in our sides for long enough."

"But sir..." Vadora began. "Even with their help... there's no way you could win against Frieza, they'd be lucky if he's at half his power. Plus it would draw King Cold's attention as well..."

King Vegeta smirked. "You underestimate the power of those already on Namek. This Namekian that just appeared a few hours ago, he maybe the strongest now, but I can assure you, Bardock and his son will be far beyond his power when they recover." He was silent a moment. "I've made a decision, I will remain here. For now at least. However, there is no reason to keep this conflict secret. Pug, I want you to make a public announcement throughout the empire about what is happening on Namek and patch the scouter data through the entire network."

"Yes sir."

******

Earth:

"It's amazing isn't it?" Toma asked watching the screen. "They've come so far... it's unbelievable!"

Raditz nodded slowly. He was still having trouble comprehending the 1.5 million readings his father and brother had put out a few hours before. They were stronger than the Prince now... then there was the Namek that Chi-Chi said could have only been Piccolo. Such power... And his nephew was stronger than him too... "I've got some training to do later.

The other Sai-jins simply. Capsule Corp. had been playing home to the Sai-jins during their stay while the Sai-jin Embassy was being built. A small contingent of soldiers from the Star Gazer base had been stationed there as well, including General Tag who was still trying to learn as much as he could about the other races out there.

"You mean those numbers, that's the power they all have?" Tag asked. "Unbelievable..."

******

Planet Namek:

Gohan looked skyward as their group landed... "He's here!" he cried. Everyone looked up and saw the large saucer ship descend quickly and land several yards away. They walked to the edge of the cliff and watched as a person floated out of the top of the ship. "Dende, you stay back here. If we need you're help we'll come here." The young Namek nodded. With that they lifted into the air and flew over to Frieza's ship where they land across from the tyrant and the small army of soldiers around him. The only one's not nervous about the coming battle were Piccolo and Vegeta.

Frieza glared at them. "So which one of you weaklings defeated my Ginyu Force!" he demanded looking them over. "The only one of you who could possibly have that kind of power is Vegeta. So Vegeta, are you ready to die?"

"You're the one who's going to die Frieza!" Vegeta called. There was a brilliant flash of purple around him and he surged in at Frieza leaving the others behind. He tore past the scared soldiers and swung madly at Frieza but the tyrant simply dodged around his attempted blows with ease.

Meanwhile Gohan, Krillin, Hotaru, and Piccolo began to fight with the soldiers. It didn't take long until Frieza was the only one left. He and Vegeta had lifted into the air where the Sai-jin Prince was still trying to hit Frieza. The tyrant backhanded Vegeta away suddenly and the prince slammed into the ground hard. Frieza charged an energy blast in his hand and grinned. "This, Vegeta, will be your demise!" he cried. Vegeta stared up at Frieza in shock... /His power's still too much for me! How much power does he or my father have!? I... What!?/

Frieza's head was jammed to the side as a silver foot slammed into his head. He whirled around and glared at Hotaru but while he was distracted another foot slammed into the back of his head that hurt far worse than Hotaru's kick had. Frieza spun around again and glared at Piccolo who floated with a smug look on his face. "Get lost Namek, before I kill you too!"

"Doubt that." Piccolo said tilting his head to one side as the breeze flapped his cape out behind him. "Or can't you tell? I'm stronger than you."

"You, stronger than me? Oh that's a laugh Namek. None of your race holds any real power." he chuckled.

"We'll see about that." Piccolo's fist suddenly lanced out and cracked across his jaw snapping his head to the side. He then brought his knee up into Frieza's stomach while elbowing him in the back of the neck. He then pulled back and kicked Frieza in the back sending him into the ground only a few yards from where Vegeta had landed. "This planet does not belong to you Frieza!" Piccolo called pulling his arms back as orange purple energy sparked to life in his hands. He began throwing one blast of energy after another down at the prone and shocked Frieza.

The strength of the explosions shook the entire planet as they pounded down on Frieza. After a few seconds Piccolo pulled his arms up over his head and charged another stronger attack. "Masenko!" he shouted blasting the stream of energy down at Frieza. It impacted and the energy began to bulge. The others quickly got out of the way as it exploded violently. When the dust and glare finally subsided it revealed a massive crater inside of which lay Frieza, arms held across his body as defense.

The tyrant laid motionless for a moment before suddenly leaping to his feet. "Damn you!" he roared. "How'd a lizard get so powerful! Even Cooler isn't that strong!"

Piccolo just smiled. "I'm only just getting warmed up." Piccolo dropped quickly and slammed into the ground only a few feet from Frieza leaving a small crater under his feet. There was another resounding crack as Piccolo's first slammed into Frieza's face. In a flash the Namek was pounding on the tyrant not giving him time to recover. Frieza was steadily losing his temper as he was unable to gain control of the fight. Then, suddenly, he thrust his arms out and screamed sending a red and black shockwave of energy out in all directions and shoving Piccolo away long enough for him to catch his breath.

"Damn you!"

"We've covered that." Piccolo smirked cracking his neck.

Another loud crack rang out as Vegeta charged down into the crater and landed a resounding kick to Frieza's head knocking him over. The Sai-jin prince didn't waste a second and began to pound on Frieza while Piccolo took a few steps back. Krillin and Gohan were both fine with staying back but Hotaru was looking for an opening, her silver aura still flashing about her.

She got her opening when Frieza jammed his open palms into Vegeta's chest and fired a massive KI blast point blank flinging the Sai-jin prince into the air. The tyrant chased after him and landed a roundhouse to his back knocking him into the distance. He was about to fire an energy blast after him when Hotaru suddenly flew into his view, her knee slamming into his jaw.

He recoiled back and glared at her. "And who the hell are you!" he demanded.

"Hotaru, Princess of new Tanaria." she said.

"Tanaria? You're a Tanarian? Ginyu said you were all dead."

"There's still a few thousand of us left, and we've gotten stronger."

"You're still no match for me!" he cried firing an energy blast at her. She dodged to the side and braced herself for a power boost. /Time to try out the next stage of the Kinryoku... It's my only choice, I need more power. I just hope this dosen't kill me.../ "Itsutsu Kinryoku!" Her muscles bulged to unnatural sizes as the silver aura about her grew extremely thick and bright. She winced from the sudden pain that lanced through her body but still she charged in and landed a hard right hook to the tyrant's face. However, he barely noticed it now that she wasn't catching him off guard. /Damn, still not enough!/

She pulled back quickly and glanced at Piccolo. The Namek nodded in understanding and charged in at Frieza again. As the two traded blows once more Hotaru began to charge the attack she'd learned from Yamcha and Krillin. A blue orb of energy appeared between her cupped palms and she began to focus as much of her energy as possible into the attack. As she did she noticed to forms step up beside her. Gohan and Krillin. They too assumed the stance and began to charge their own blue balls of energy.

******

Planet Vegeta:

"Im...impossible!" Vadora cried in shock. The energy reading for Hotaru had spiked up several times already and she knew that was the Kinryoku. Now her power reading had split into two separate readings. One was still labeled Hotaru, the other was merely listed as attack. Hotaru's power was at 340,820 and yet her attack, after a few minutes of charging, was over a million and climbing. Krillin and Gohan's powers had split as well. The Human's attack was over two hundred thousand while Gohan's had just passed five hundred thousand.