"Lord Slug, we have a report from Commander Wings. It appears the Nameks have caught on. The last village was already deserted upon his arrival, dragon ball and all." a slug-jin kneels before his master.
Lord Slug pays him no mind. He sits with heavy breathing on his newly discovered throne. His hand clutches the wound on his chest.
"Lord Slug?" The slug-jin looks up.
"It's too bright…"
"My Lord?"
"I said it's too bright." He raises his hand to shield his brow. "This damned planet is too bright." He stares directly at the star conveniently aligned with the entrance.
"Yes, of course my lord. It does have three suns afterall."
"I want to release the pod. Freeze the hell out of this blasted rock."
"But, my lord. That would certainly make it more difficult to find the dragon balls."
"I don't care. This planet is too damn bright." Sweat drips from his face.
"Ehh… If that is what you wish, my lord. I'll notify Commander Angila right away!" the slug-jin slips away with haste.
"Damned idiots arguing with me! I tell you to freeze the damn place, you freeze the damn place!" He erupts into a fit of coughs. "Piccolo, come over here."
"Yes Mr. Lord Slug." Piccolo drops the various objects he'd been playing with and reenters the main chamber.
"Oh quit that."
"I'm sorry, what should I call you then?"
"Hm?" Slug finds himself in an unexpected situation, having not thought of an answer before. "...Uncle Slug?"
Piccolo blushes uncomfortably.
"I mean, uh." The embarrassment catches Slug as well. "Mr. Slug is fine."
Happy to move on, Piccolo continues the conversation."I uh… So how's it feel being home?"
"Hmmm... " Slug's brow drops and his eyes squint, his frustration directed at the decor. "I sit on the throne of my own father, so why do I feel like a stranger?"
"I'd say it's pretty natural to feel like a stranger when you've never been somewhere before." Piccolo refuses to critically think.
"That's not what I mean. It's as if this place is rejecting me with it's silence. Why is it so hollow?"
Piccolo scratches his head, unsure and unable to comprehend his fellow's philosophy.
Slug lets out a surrendering sigh. "Yeah, you're right. I'm just a little underwhelmed is all. My father didn't exactly leave me much. I never understood that cowardly, weak, loser."
"How long did you know him?" Piccolo asks, only half invested.
"I actually only recall one single moment of that man. I was only a baby, but I do remember his face. Even being only minutes old, I was still man enough to be disgusted by what I saw. That sniveling, the way he smiled at me, crying like a brat as he did. That sight of humility still haunts me to this day." He crosses his arms and growls in his seat.
"Is that all you remember?"
"Hmm…" Slug contemplates for several seconds. Fire. His brow flickers as if recalling something for the first time, though his answer does not reflect as much. "Yes." A deep anger slowly manifests as he clutches the burn on his body.
Not wanting to further burden Slug, Piccolo steers the conversation away. "So what was that you were talking about earlier? Something about freezing?"
"Yeah. You see, the slug-jin hate the light, hate the heat, much like myself. As you might expect, you come across a lot of it as a world conquer. I had a solution designed to fix that issue. See, when that pod gets into position, it fills the sky with sweet sweet darkness."
Piccolo gasps. "What about the Namekians!"
"What about them?" He catches himself quickly. " I mean, don't you worry kiddo, we're a pretty resilient bunch."
Piccolo contemplates the reasoning. "I guess." He walks out the doorway to observe.
Out by the ship, dozens of slug-jin prepare a device. After some stumbling, a tipping, and a lifting, they manage to get it into position. With a rough start, they fire it off. While they cough in the dust cloud, it shoots into the sky. It soars up above Piccolo until it stops at the edge of the sky. Then, pouring out from all sides, a dark thick gas. It grows and grows, until it envelops all within his vision.
The landscape instantly darkens. The roaring wind sparks with the cloud layer. Soon after, lightning begins to strike. Piccolo steps back. It wasn't just the thunder that met his ears, but a faint deep groaning. It was like something horrible had begun to stir from its slumber.
Even Slug's eyes widen. He gets up from his seat and walks over to Piccolo's side. "You felt that too, didn't you."
Piccolo nods. The two leap from the tower and join with the troops.
"Angila, what's the status? How many dragon balls do we have?"
"Sir, Wings has visited four villages, but only discovered two balls between them. Cui has recovered one dragon ball, and one empty village." The commander removes his helmet and shakes his luscious orange locks free, so that they may better frame his beautiful face.
Piccolo moves between them. "What about Videl, is she alright?"
Angila eyes Piccolo with a nervous glare.
"Answer the question Angila!" Slug demands.
Angila turns to the slug-jin soldier beside him. "The girl."
"Already on it sir." The slug-jin listens intently, his ear pressed against a communication device. "She's dead sir."
"Dead!" Piccolo jolts back. "No! That can't be right!"
Slug grows irritated seeing his number one pupil so upset. "That better not be true Angila."
Cold sweats pool over the slug-jin commander's face. He turns back to the solider. "Slug-jin!"
"Yes sir. One moment please. The details are still being relayed." He continues to listen. "Uhuh, uhuh. Gotcha. Alright. They have absolutely no idea, but she is presumed dead."
"How does that even happen? How did they get separated?" Piccolo's panic becomes uncontrollable.
"They uh. Well the report is that she got the daylights beaten out of her, and her body was left at the scene."
"That's terrible! She must have suffered all alone!" Piccolo begins to weep profusely. "Oh the misery!"
Slug grips the slug-jin reporter by the head. He lifts him into the air and squeezes until his eyes burst from their sockets. His skull caves in like a cracker. Slug then gives Angila a face of rage. "If my boy's pet human isn't breathing, then you know what's coming to you."
"Y-Yes sir! I'll search for her, right away!"
"I'm going too!" Piccolo bolts off before Slug's hand can stop him.
"Piccolo, wait!" Slug's words come too late. The bombastic green boy disappears into the quickly darkening sky. "Damnit!" Slug hesitates for a moment, contemplating his course of action. "Guard the ship, I'm going after him!" His choice is made. He soon follows after the boy.
Out across the planet, Videl sits against the outside wall of Guru's. She'd had enough of being handled by green slug men. She fumbles with the photograph in her boot, seemingly to make sure it's still there. After being satisfied, she withdraws her hand and leans back. Even as she sighs in relief, the bellowing winds make it too difficult for her to relax.
"So how do you feel?" Cargo pokes his head out from the entryway.
"Huh? I'm not sure yet. Weird I guess." Her body had become somewhat alien to her after having her potential released. She knew she was stronger, much stronger, but she didn't know if she could handle it yet.
Cargo comes to sit by her. He remains quiet, but stares at her softly. His hands fumble impatiently.
She pretends not to notice at first, but grows increasingly uncomfortable. "You want something?"
"Huh?" Cargo blushes, being taken off guard. "No I, uh. Well, could I ask your name?"
Videl pauses for a moment, staring back at him with a side glance. "It's Videl, you're the one who carried me right?"
"Videl huh… Oh, yes, that was me." He nods with his words.
"Thanks." She ends the exchange by looking straight ahead.
"Uh, yeah…" He darts his eyes away. "Videl, you're pretty cool. Can we be friends?"
Videl's jolts in embarrassing surprise. "Gh!"
In response, Cargo buries himself in his shoulders.
Before their combined embarrassment grows, the thunder meets their ears. Their attention is drawn to the horizon. The two slowly come to their feet in utter silence. Anxiety captures them, keeping their bodies still as the dead.
The dark clouds expand across the sky at impossible speed. Within a minute it covers more than half of their field of view. More lightning emerges from the darkness, but it does little to brighten the swarm of shadows.
"Get inside you two!" Nail frees them from their trance. They scramble in, as if fleeing a disaster.
"Grand Elder!"
"Yes, I have seen it, Nail. It is most concerning."
"Do you know what it is?"
"No. I have never known such a horrible technology."
Nail looks down in concentration. "So what does this mean?"
Guru doesn't answer, but the trouble in his eyes informs Nail regardless.
"Nail!" Dende bolts into the elder's chamber. "Do you feel that? Something's coming!"
Nail concentrates. It's subtle at first, but the rattle grows. He exits the chamber and heads to the bottom floor. Videl is already peering out of the window when he arrives. In the darkness they can see nothing, but the ground beneath them quakes.
They focus as hard as they can, but to no avail. Suddenly the shakes come to a stop. Dead silence puts them on edge. Their eyes widen in anticipation. Then, a single strike of lightning illuminates the scene outside.
Hundreds of gastly slug-jin faces along the ridge return their stare from dozens of meters away. Chief among them is the monstrous Wings. The skinned hides of Namekians form a belt around his waist. Blood stains his fists and mouth, and Namekian skulls adorn his shoulders. His horrible toothy grin remains imprinted on them even after the light disappears.
The two retreat from the window in shock.
Elsewhere, a party of fifty slug-jin led by Commander Angila run to Moori's village. Angila raises his hand to signal a stop.
"It's too dark, and this wind is too harsh. Even as a demon, I can barely make out what's in front of me. Something must be wrong with the terra freezing probe."
"Commander, I think I heard something move." the slug-jin separates from the unit to investigate. The others watch on.
This time they all hear the sound of rocks roll about.
"I think I see him!" He blasts away into the darkness. "I got him!" the slug-jin moves in to inspect. "W-What the! What the hell is this!" He pulls up a mangled and twisted slug-jin corpse tied to a wooden shaft. As he does, a wire is pulled. Before he can react, he's engulfed in an explosion.
"Damnit! The place is boobytrapped!" Angila's nerves begin to rattle him. "We're heading back!" He doesn't need to send the order, the troops have already begun sprinting in the direction they'd come.
"Hwahhhh! Gyah!" the gurgled screams of multiple soldiers ring out, but Angila is unable to make out their distance.
He finds out soon enough when he himself tumbles into the ditch. His arms and legs grip the edges, just barely managing to avoid being impaled on the crude stakes. The slug-jin he faces wasn't so lucky. After he crawls out he meets up with his terrified unit. They form a circle, shaking in their boots.
"Over there! Hurry!" He points his men to a narrow ravine. As they scramble, several soldiers drop. Adrenaline keeps them moving. Angila nearly pukes when the slug-jin in front is sliced and diced into several chunks of meat by a sharp wire trap. Eventually they make it, having lost nearly a third their number.
Frantic panting fills the narrow walls. The pounding wind on the other side of the barrier makes hearing a challenge. It's Angila who first notices the dampness of the ground. He lifts his boot to inspect it.
"What's that smell?" a slug-jin mutters.
"It's too dark, I need a light." another contributes.
"Wait, no!" Angila's warning is too late. The slug-jin has already ignited a fire in his hands.
The chasm instantly ignites in a sea of flame. Countless cries of agony call out, but their misery goes unanswered. Angila has entered full panic. He slaps the flames on his body in vain until a slug-jin grabs him by the shoulders. The two lock eyes as the soldier's burn out of their sockets. Their simultaneous screams battle each other until the slug-jin's face no longer has the jaw to do so.
Angila finally has enough, he leaps out from the ravine and onto the elevated cliffside. A few flaming slug-jin manage to crawl out as well.
"C-C-C-C-Commander!" One stutters out.
Angila is frozen in place. Among the sounds of the wind is another howl. The image of a wolf enters his mind. As the slug-jin approaches, an immense burst of air hits them. Angila is knocked to his butt with a spray of blood. Not his, but of the slug-jin. He looks up to see the soldier missing a head and an arm. The corpse drops to the ground, continuing to spray blood like a geyser. The wounds appear rough, as if torn from the body by the jaws of a mighty wolf.
Having lost his mind, Angila begins to burst blasts of energy in every direction. He screams his head off as he does. Soon everything goes silent. Only his heavy breathing remains.
The sounds of the bursts travel far on the wind. "Lieutenant Cui! That sounded like Commander Angila! He must be in trouble."
Cui looks up from the campfire. "You're right."
"Do you think it was the monster? The one that's been killing off the scouting parties?"
Cui shudders. The images of the massacre re-enter his mind. "If that's the case, we best not get involved."
"Uh, right! You are so right Lieutenant Cui! Shall we continue searching for the Namekians?"
"It's so damn dark. I can barely see two feet in front of me. We'll just wait until morning."
"Lieutenant Cui, it is still morning. Namek has no night."
"What?" Cui's brow lowers. "I know you guys are stupid, but come on! Take a look at the sky!"
"Yes Lieutenant Cui! That is the result of the terra freezing pod."
"Then you guys did this? Why the hell would you do this while the dragon balls are still out there!"
"I do not know Lieutenant Cui! It was an order by the honorable Lord Slug!" Bombastic energy fills his voice.
Cui snarls. He turns his attention elsewhere to avoid catching the soldier's stupid. He then notices a familiar sound buried within the wind. He stands up and takes a few steps away from the camp.
A faint light pierces the darkness in a streak. When it collides with the planet a flash of light emits, followed by the thunder of an impact. Soon after, several more identical streaks follow and repeat the pattern. A dozen, two dozen. Cui carefully listens to the sound of running feet approaching. Seeing the nervousness of their commander, the slug-jin ready themselves.
A moment passes, then another. Eventually the running turns to a walk. Figures begin to take shape in the distance, illuminated by the campfire.
"Lord Cui!" The men run in.
Cui nearly stumbles off his feet. "W-What!"
"Lord Cui! You're really still alive! We knew it!" Two dozen Frieza Force soldiers rush to their master's side. "We've been following your signal ever since you were taken prisoner!"
"I see. If you're here, then you must have resolved the conflict on that planet. I assume the rest of the unit is still based there."
"Yes it is resolved. We lost the planet!"
"You what! Where's everyone else! There should be at least a hundred of you!" Cui's relief quickly turns to anger.
"This is all of us sir! All twenty four survivors, come to your rescue!" The men casually laugh the disaster off.
"You idiots! If Lord Frieza finds out about this he'll kill us all!"
"Oh?" The men begin to scratch their heads. "Thing is Lord Cui, Frieza's on his way here now. We've given him a full report."
Cui becomes as stiff as a statue. "F-Frieza. Is coming here. Right now."
"That is correct, my lord."