Part5: Crystalline Lies

"Piccolo! You here?!" Gohan yelled into the cave. A familiar ki landed behind him. "Piccolo!" The teen turned and grinned. "Where were you?"
"Up on the Lookout," my stoic reply.
"Oh, then you must know what's going on already."
I feigned surprise, "What do you mean "what's going on'?"
"My dad got a really strange letter today at Trunk's party. We don't know who sent it, but whoever it was, is going to attack Earth in three months."
"Oh, no, I didn't know about that."
"Well, I came here to get you so we could start training. So come on, let's go!"
I refused to move. "Why did you bother Gohan? You know I'm practically a no count now!" I paused. An Emotion. I thought I got rid of all of those.
"How can you say that?! You should know by now that you matter to me! I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."
"Feh. Now you care," Piccolo said under his breath. "Fine, fine. But your training starts now!" He snapped his fist square on the side of Gohan's jaw. "Heh, you've gotten slow." He sprang up into the air while Gohan was still recovering. "I know you can do better than this!"
Gohan growled low in his throat as he glared up at his mentor. "I'll show you better. Yaaaah!" He vaulted himself into the air, ki flaring and arm outstretched.
As he neared, Piccolo grabbed Gohan's fist, pulled and crashed his knee into Gohan's head. Gohan shook it off and sent his heel straight into Piccolo's chin.
"You've gotten careless too," he smirked.

Several hours we were sitting by a stream.
"Good spar," he said to me.
"Yeah you too kid."
"I didn't realize how out of practice I was." He noticed the setting sun. "Oh man! Dad's going to wonder what happened to us! Let's go!"
We flew around until we spotted Goku and Vegeta just outside Satan City. More specifically, the area that was wasted by the fire. "Hey Dad!" Gohan yelled. We landed next to the two Saiyans.
"Hi, Gohan, Piccolo."
"What happened here," Gohan asked.
"That's the thing, no one knows. There was a fire last night and the Fire Department has no idea how it started," Goku replied.
"No signs of arson, no storm, so no lightning, not even a lousy leftover ember of a campfire," Vegeta added.
"So you think whoever sent the note was also responsible for this?"
"It's possible. I can feel a faint energy signal, but it's not one I've felt before," Goku answered. "Well we should probably get Bulma to look into this, at least to confirm there wasn't any natural cause. And Piccolo, you should ask Dende if he felt any suspicious over in this area. In the meantime we should get to training."
"There's no need for me to go to the Lookout."
"Why do you say that?"

Piccolo left Satan City and headed towards the Lookout, masking his ki the entire way. As he neared, he felt his body being pushed back by its holy aura. He pushed himself to its surface. He hovered a few inches above the tiles and came up behind the young Guardian Dende.
"This isn't good," the young Namek said to himself. "There's a demon loose."
"You're right," Piccolo said menacingly. A ball of ki began to grow in his hand. "There is..."
'STOP!' said a voice in his head.
'What the hell is this?'
'Please don't. Please don't kill him.'
'It's that weakling Nail,' Piccolo thought. His hand began to simply glow. Piccolo put two fingers to Dende's forehead. "Sleep in peace." Dende fell asleep as his body became encased in crystal. "Damn pity emotion. Well, now to see if my messenger boy did his work."

"I was just there not too long ago. He didn't notice anything about this."
"Oh, well we best start training."

AN: Yes, I know I keep switching between 1st and 3rd person, but there is a method to my madness! A cookie to whomever figures it out.