Krillin was exhausted. Not only was he training in forty times gravity, but having picked the small straw, he had been paired up with the brute Sayian Nappa as his sparring partner. While it certainly kept him on his toes, Nappa was very unsportsman like. While his sparring with Tien or Goku would end with a grin and one helping the other up, matches with Nappa usually ended with Krillin laying on the ground and Nappa walking away in disgust. Krillin was determined to change things around this time, however.

As usual, Nappa opened up with a charging punch. Krillin shook his head. He may be strong, but man, is he predictable. Krillin leapt over the incoming Sayian's head and charged up a Kamehameha. Nappa turned around just in time to get the blast directly in the face.

"Ah! You little runt! You're gonna wish you never did that!" Nappa dashed forward a little quicker than Krillin had anticipated, and landed a right cross on Krillin's jaw. The little monk managed to recover quickly enough and landed on his feet. He smiled as he pulled his hands back behind his hips and began building his ki. Nappa rolled his eyes. "What kind of trick are you pulling this time, midget? Whatever it is, it won't work!" Krillin smirked and threw both of his hands forward, releasing two large but slow energy blasts. Nappa shook his head and jumped over them. "I hope you were joking. There was no way you were gonna get me with..." Krillin had silently directed both blasts to spin around, having one smash into the back of Nappa's knee, bringing the larger fighter to his knees. The other blast slammed into the base of Nappa's neck. His face met the ground swiftly, and it took him several seconds to get up. When he stood up, his face no longer had a smile on it. Before Krillin could realize what was happening, Nappa had clotheslined him, putting him into the floor. The large Sayian brought his boot down onto Krillin's abdomen, crushing the breath out of him.

"You give up? Do ya, ya damn shrimp?"

Krillin couldn't even squeeze out a reply as the boot pushed further into his stomach. He put his hands on the boot and began trying to lift his opponent off of him. Nappa laughed.

"You must be delusional! There's no way you can..."

Nappa was cut off as Krillin screamed out, his aura flaring as he lifted the Sayian into the air. Nappa recovered his senses just in time to land a kick with his other foot into Krillin's head. Nappa laughed as Krillin crashed into the floor.

"You've gotten good. But you're no match for me!"

Krillin stood up shakily, bruises forming on his head and arms. It would be so easy just to nail him with a Kienzan... but I can't... Wouldn't be right. Besides, I bet Vegeta would just love that. Krillin gritted his teeth and dashed forward. Nappa swung a punch, but as his fist should have hit the small monk, he vanished. Nappa turned around just in time to meet a kick to his face. Krillin flipped backwards and landed neatly. Now Nappa was getting angry.

"I've had enough of this fight! Time to finish you off, punk!"

Nappa flipped up two of his fingers in a quick gesture, and Krillin felt the air around him heat up. Nappa's signature attack somehow caused all of the air surrounding an opponent to combust. Krillin smiled. If he's using this technique on me, that means I'm really giving him trouble.

The explosion propelled Krillin, smashing him into the side of the floor. Nappa advanced on the smaller fighter, a big grin on his face.

"So, you survived that too, huh, earthling? I'm actually impressed. But let's see how you handle my attacks now! You're way too weak to dodge anything!"

Right as Nappa got close enough, Krillin threw his hands to his face and screamed out, "Taiyoken!" A fierce light flooded the room, and Nappa began to clutch at his eyes. "I can't see! What did you do!"

The only sounds he heard, however, was a brief scuffle, and the sound of a door slamming. As he regained his eyesight, he saw that his opponent had escaped the gravity chamber. "You little coward! When I get out there, I'm gonna..."

Nappa stopped as he felt something in the pit of his stomach. Krillin had a big grin on his face and waved. Suddenly, the gravity doubled, pinning Nappa to the ground.

"I... I can't move!"

Krillin laughed from outside of the chamber. "Do you give up?"

"To... to you?... Never!"

Krillin shrugged. "Okay... I'll come ask again in an hour."

"W...wait!" Nappa yelled at Krillin's retreating form.

Krillin chuckled as he walked off. I might catch a bad beating later, but seeing his face all pissed like that was worth it.

During their training, the Saiyans had realized that the earth's heroes could tell a person's power level and location without the aid of a scouter. Raditz had picked up the skill rather quickly, and once Vegeta had caught wind of it, he had stayed up for a week until he had mastered it. Nappa still hadn't figured out the skill yet. Vegeta constantly berated his second in command, but Nappa didn't have the patience to grasp the ability.


Elsewhere in the universe, the small tyrant known as Frieza sat upon his throne, reading a sheet of paper. Vegeta had been unusually absent for almost a year. Naturally becoming a little suspicious, Frieza had enlisted a spy to check up on his little pet. The results didn't anger him as much as he thought they would. Instead, he found himself slightly amused. Perhaps Vegeta will give me the entertainment that his father failed to deliver...

Frieza turned as one of his top aides burst into the throne room. Frieza turned his head to one side and looked at his kneeling aide.

"What is the meaning of this outburst?"

There was a tremble in the aides voice as he spoke. "If you recall, sire, I had been dispatched to the planet Namek..."

"Yes, what of it?"

"We were doing fine, and suddenly a Namek appeared that was much more powerful than any of us! He defeated us all, and only I managed to escape."

Frieza gave his subordinate a disapproving frown. "And this warrants coming in my chamber unannounced? You were probably better off with the Namek."

"But that's not all, sire." At this point, the aide pulled out a large golden orb with two stars inside of it. "This is a dragonball, sire. The Nameks say that if you gather all seven, you can have any wish you desire."

Now Frieza's eyes lit up. "Any... wish?..."

"The other six balls are on Namek. I thought this news might please you, lord."

Frieza rubbed his chin and smiled. "Indeed it has. I believe I will take a trip to Namek myself..."

The aide stood up, relief flooding over his face. Frieza smiled and nonchalantly threw a small blast of energy at his aide. There was a small explosion, and the dragonball fell to the floor. Frieza smiled and floated over to the ball, admiring himself in the reflection. "Yes maybe this is the excitement I crave..."


Tien and Yamcha stepped out of the gravity chamber, having just completed their workout. Yamcha hung his head as they walked out. Try as he might, he couldn't seem to beat Tien. They both had broken through walls that they had never even conceived, but Yamcha was still behind.

"I'm starving. Wanna get something to eat?"

Yamcha snapped out of his thoughts. "Uh, yea... I guess we could do that..."

They walked into the kitchen chambers and found everyone gathered around. Tien lifted an eyebrow. "What's going on?"

Goku turned to them and motioned for them to sit.

"Frieza is on the move. We have to figure out what we're gonna do."

Tien sat down and frowned. "Why now?"

Raditz's face was grim. "We were just getting to that. He's on his way to Namek."

Piccolo snapped out of his meditation. "What? My home planet?"

Vegeta growled. "He must be after the dragonballs. That's the only explanation I could think of. He never goes to planets personally, unless there is a specific reason."

Krillin scratched the back of his neck. "If he basically owns the universe, what would he need the dragonballs for?"

There was a few seconds of silence, and then Vegeta quietly spoke up.

"Immortality."

"What?"

Vegeta shook his head. "He wants immortality. I must stop him..."

Yamcha laughed nervously. "Do you think we're ready?"

Nappa turned on his scouter.

"Well, I knew I had improved, but this is a bit much!"

Krillin rolled his eyes. "Well? What's your level?"

Nappa grinned. "I'm at 20,000."

Yamcha's jaw dropped. He went from 3000 to 20,000 in a year! Holy hell!

Tien stood up, both anxious and excited to see how his training had paid off.

Nappa hit a button and whistled. "Well, I suppose even humans can get decent. Three eyes is at 17,000."

Tien looked happy for a moment, but it was quickly was replaced with a look of self reproach. We all know that isn't good enough...

The rest of the fighters all measured up after that. Krillin had hit 18,000, Raditz and Piccolo were both at 19,000, and Yamcha was at 15,000. Vegeta took the scouter at that point and checked himself. He smirked as the number came up.

"Hmm. 25,000. More than you maggots can handle." His smirk faded away as he thought of his goal. "But, not enough to stop Frieza. Even together, we may be no match for him..."

"What about me?"

Vegeta turned to Goku. "What about you?"

"Well, you never checked my number. I wanna know how strong I am!"

Vegeta sighed. "What's the use? You aren't going to be stronger than me, and even if you were, Frieza is still in a much different league than us. The nerve, acting like you matter..." Vegeta's voice trailed off as a number came up. He clicked a button several times. "There must be something wrong with this thing..."

Nappa gave Vegeta a lopsided look. "What's wrong, Vegeta?..."

"Yea, c'mon, I wanna know what my power level is!..."

Vegeta finally stopped fiddling with his machine and gave Goku a wide eyed stare. "This infernal machine says you and I are the same level... but you were nothing more than an ant when you arrived. How could such a gross difference be crossed so quickly?"

Goku shrugged and sat back down. "So now what?"

Vegeta crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. "It's obvious, isn't it, Kakkarot?"

Goku gave Vegeta a blank stare. Vegeta growled. "Fool. We have no choice. While we don't have much of a chance now, once Frieza is immortal, it will be downright impossible to defeat him. Now is the only chance we have. I'm setting a course for Namek. And Kakkarot, you come with me. Superiority derives from more than just power, and I shall prove it to you!"

Goku got up, scratched the back of his neck and shrugged as he followed the angered prince. The remaining fighters all looked at each other, unsure as to what their fate would be...


Meanwhile, on earth, Goku's son was going through his own training. A year had passed, and it showed. Gohan was a bit taller, but his boyish frame was filling out, muscles having been built in most points of his body. His arms and legs were much thicker, for one thing. His face now had a trace of confidence in it. For a second, he thought he could feel his father, many worlds away... very faint, but very strong...

"Gohan! Where is your head? You can't afford to lose your concentration in battle!"

Yajirobe sighed. "Why do you have to ask him where his head is? Aren't you a psychic?"

Chaozu gave Yajirobe a stern glare. "Yes, I'm a psychic. But we have rules, you know. We don't just force our way in. We have to have permission to go into someone's head."

"Don't see the fun in that..." Yajirobe muttered as he sat down and pulled out an ear of corn.

Chaozu groaned. "Whatever. C'mon, Gohan. Let's go at it again."

Gohan and Chaozu both seemed to disappear, only visible for the split second where they clashed. While they were invisible to the naked eye, Yajirobe's eyes darted back and forth, keeping up with the spar. They both seemed to be about equal, when suddenly Gohan's eyes narrowed. He dodged Chaozu's kick, and spun around with a punch into his mentor's face. Chaozu fell to the ground, slamming into the floor, unconscious from the one blow. Gohan looked at his fist in wonder as Yajirobe ran towards the fallen emperor.

Chaozu was fed a senzu, and he sat up groggily. "Nice shot, Gohan. Now, let's work on the Dodonpa..."

While this went on, in outer space, two ships both raced for the planet Namek...