Yamcha floated in the air, his long hair flowing through the breeze. He had just received a substantial power up from the Namekian Guru, and had flow off to face down two of the most feared group of the galaxy, the Ginyu squad. He now stood in front of Guldo and Recoome, both sided wondering who would make the first strike.

Yamcha grinned and played the card of surprise as he dashed at the gigantic Recoome. Recoome tried to dodge to the side, but Yamcha was too fast, bringing a fist up into Recoome's stomach. Recoome's eyes seemed to bulge out of his skull, and all the air was pressed out of his lungs. Yamcha spun around, sending a foot into the side of Recoome's head. The large Ginyu member smashed into the ground, sending up a cloud of dust.

Yamcha turned to the small Guldo, his grin practically plastered to his face. So this is how Goku feels all the time… no wonder he's so happy all the time! This is great! Guldo pulled back, trying to find a route of escape. Yamcha laughed. "Not so tough without Frieza, are you?"

Behind him, Recoome flew up into the air, bringing his fist into the back of Yamcha's head. Yamcha fell to the side, flipping in midair and landing on his feet. As he touched ground, Recoome's fist came down, making a huge hole in the ground where Yamcha had been. The earthling was floating in their air, charging a Kamehameha into his hands.

"Hey ugly! Catch!" Yamcha felt his new power building into his cupped hands. This power inside me… it's huge! Before he realized what was happening, he felt his hands expanding. There was too much energy. The power had gotten too strong. The Kamehameha had built up too quickly, and the attack backfired, all the energy detonating far too close to him. "Ahhh!" he screamed as he dropped out of the sky, smashing into the ground.

"Huh! This long haired guy is just about as dumb as you are, Recoome!" The large Ginyu member growled as he smacked Guldo in the side of the head.

Yamcha sat up on his elbows, craning his neck up to look at the two Ginyus laughing at him. He sighed and looked down at his orange ki, which was now disintegrated on the side where the Kamehameha had backfired. Where there was cloth, it was now a singed black. Most of his long hair had also been burned, leaving him with a lopsided haircut that merely came up to his neck. He dropped from his elbows back to the ground and sighed. Man… it took years to grow my hair out that long…

He took the momentarily lull in battle to gather his wits. He remembered an old mantra that the Muten Roshi had taught him when they were training years ago. He felt like he could still hear the old master's voice in his head, as clear as when he had first been told the secret.


"Now remember, Yamcha. The Kamehameha attack doesn't drain your energy. It merely focuses it. You must have a clear head in order to use the technique correctly." Yamcha answered the invincible old master with a simple nod. Roshi's eyes gleamed behind his oversized sunglasses as he continued.

"In order to concentrate, you must find something to bring all of your focus to. Something to make you feel comfortable. Now, come with me and I will teach you a mantra. If you ever lose your concentration, recite the lines I show you, and your focus will be renewed."

Yamcha smiled as he followed Roshi around the side of the Kame house. For all the silly stunts, and all the harsh training, sometimes the old turtle hermit can really come through… He really sounds wise and helpful…

Yamcha snapped back into reality as he rounded the corner. Sitting on the beach was Bulma, sunning in a small blue bikini. His face went red as he turned to the master, who had a devilish grin on his face. "I tend to stick with what works, for me personally. Now, repeat after me. The bikini is blue. The bikini is blue."

Yamcha gave him an estranged look. Roshi hit him in the back of the head with his cane. "Do you want to master the attack or not?" Yamcha sighed and nodded reluctantly. "The bikini is blue. The bikini is blue.", he joined in reluctantly.

Bulma's ears pricked up, and she turned, noticing the two staring at her. "What are you two pervs gawking at!"

Roshi jumped behind Yamcha, almost too fast for the eye to see. "And now, for your next lesson… insane women!"


Yamcha couldn't help but smile as he came out of the memory. Such good times we had, back when things were simple…It's all gotten too big… Yamcha closed his eyes, and began to murmur to himself. "The bikini is blue… the bikini is blue…" Despite it being ridiculous, Yamcha had found that the mantra truly did calm him down. Sometimes he found himself wondering if Roshi really was as goofy as he acted. Everything he said turned out to be right, and all of his training bred some of the strongest fighters in the world… He shook his head and brought himself back to the here and now. "The bikini is blue…" His energy leveled off, and he felt like he was in control. He got out of the ground and smiled softly. "The bikini is blue…" Guldo and Recoome gave each other a puzzled stare.

"What's he talking about?…" Recoome asked. Guldo simply shrugged. Before they could react, Yamcha dashed in, bringing an elbow into Recoome's head. The large fighter fell to the ground, and Yamcha began to charge energy into his cupped hands again.

"No screw ups this time! Kamehameha!"

The blast erupted, sending a large beam of blue down towards the hulk of a fighter. Recoome looked up just as the attack washed over him, creating a giant explosion. Yamcha shook his head. He had a small sensation, like his entire body just decided to skip a beat. He felt two powers to the side, and turned, finding Guldo holding Recoome, the small Ginyu breathing heavily. "How the hell..?"

In confusion, Yamcha flew towards the new targets. Guldo tried to regain his breath, and then shouted, "Recoome, attack formation B!"

Once again, Yamcha felt the sensation of missing a moment. Almost as if he had blinked, Guldo and Recoome had disappeared, and energy attacks were coming in from either side. He didn't have the time to orient himself, and the blasts connected cleanly.

Smoking and slightly pained, Yamcha dropped to the ground, trying to gain his bearings.

"What the hell is going on here?" he mumbled to himself. "One second they're there, the next they disappear. They can't be that fast…"

Recoome overheard Yamcha's disoriented comments. He pulled back and began to laugh heartily. "Hah! You dumb human! Guldo has special powers! Why else do you think he got onto the team with his power rating?"

Yamcha scratched his head. "Hidden powers?…"

Recoome smiled. "Yep. He can stop time! But only as long as he can hold his brea…"

"Shut up!" Guldo's whiney voice cut off the mammoth's rambling. "You idiot! Don't tell him what's going on! Confusion is half of the technique's power!"

Recoome's forehead screwed up in the effort of thought. "So… I shouldn't tell him that you can only stop time for as long as you hold your breath?"

Guldo hung his head and sighed. Why couldn't I be teamed up with Jeice? "Well, now that you ruined the surprise, we better finish this guy off! C'mon!"

Yamcha had the time to process the information just as time stopped for him again. Guldo held in his breath and floated over to where Recoome was. The big oaf was frozen as well, but they had spent hours drilling attack formations, so that they could both get the jump on opponents. Even though Recoome was frozen, he knew exactly where he was going to appear. Guldo set them up, and let out an exhale of breath just as he launched his strongest blast of ki. Recoome shook his head, taking less than a second to reorient himself, and did likewise.

This time, Yamcha was a little more ready, but he still had no margin of error. He managed to dodge Guldo's blast out of sheer instinct, but Recoome's blast caught him in the back. The big Ginyu didn't have enough ki to really hurt him, but the damage was starting to build up. Time to pull out all the stops…

Yamcha closed his eyes, and began to repeat, "The bikini is blue" softly. There was a sharp increase in his ki, and there seemed to be a glow around him. All of his charged energy seemed to flow out at once, but instead of shooting out, it floated in the air and took the shape of a wolf. "Wolf fang soul!" He preformed a series of blindingly fast motions with his hands, and the ethereal wolf seemed to come to life. It's body was extremely staticy, flashing between a light yellow and white. It began to move forward, and as it leapt, it's eyes began to glow a deep red. The wolf let out a guttural howl and began to rush towards Recoome.

Recoome tried to dodge to the side, but the wolf turned on it's ankle and renewed it's chase. "I can't shake this thing!" he screamed as he flew away, using all of his power. He gained no ground, however, and the wolf got closer, biting at his ankles. Suddenly, Yamcha felt the sensation he had associated with Guldo's time stopping powers. As he expected, when he came back into reality, Recoome was much further away, being held by the out of breath Guldo.

The wolf didn't seem to be fazed by the shift in time, and instantly refocused on Recoome. Not even a second was wasted as the energy wolf launched right back into it's pursuit. Yamcha laughed. "That won't work! It'll catch up with you sooner or later! It doesn't think! There's no disorientation! It'll hunt you until it catches you!… Just like a wolf should." The last bit came out a bit quieter, and was directed mostly to himself.

He seemed to make a decision, and launched himself into the air after the pair of Ginyus. Yamcha came from one side, the wolf on the other. Guldo took in his breath, and grabbed Recoome, dropping down, the only way out available to him. His lungs were getting tired, and he knew he wasn't going to be able to keep this up much longer. He looked at Recoome, and shook his head. They were far out of the range of their training drills, and he knew he couldn't expect much help from him. He tried to gather ki, but his breath was running low. Hopefully it would be enough to stun him.

Yamcha snapped back into real time, and immediately pulled down, knowing that was the only place the small timestopper could run to. He was met with a blast to the face, but it barely fazed him as he came down on Guldo, putting a fist into his head, knocking him out. The wolf caught up with Recoome and flowed over him. The goofy fighter felt a wave of pain unlike any he had experienced before. The wolf disappeared, and it seemed as if all the energy was inside of his body. And boy did it hurt. It felt as if the wolf was ripping apart all of his insides. Recoome's eyes crossed, and he let out a small burp of black smoke as he slowly fell forward.

No sooner had he landed, Yamcha's fist smashed into his head. He sat on top of the larger fighter and lost himself to the pleasure of victory. "How does it feel?" Recoome didn't answer. Was he alive? Had he died? None of that seemed to even register in Yamcha's brain as he began to smash his fists into the unmoving alien. "Did you enjoy laughing at me? I am not the weakest! How does it feel!" his screams were becoming incoherent as he lost his battle with his own feelings. Blinded by a rage that had nothing to do with Recoome, but had a lot to do with being the weak link, and with being laughed at, and a fear of dying, he continued to pound away, unaware of the blood flying up and staining his face. His ki aura began to build up, and the rest of his gi top burned away just from his sheer power. All the while, he continued to murmur, "I will not die", over and over again as he desecrated Recoome's corpse.

This continued on for what seemed to the wolf bandit as hours, his vision stained red not only from the blood all over his face, but also the blind animalistic survival rage that had taken over. Suddenly his body stopped following his commands, and he felt himself rising away from his carnage.

From behind him, he heard a disgusted intake of air, and he managed to look down at what he had done. Did I do that?… what happened to me?…Out loud, he managed to struggle out the words, "W…what's going on…?"

Guldo stepped in front of him, his hands outstretched. "My time stopping ability wasn't enough to stop you, obviously. So now I've used my telekinesis. You are frozen until my discretion says otherwise." He glanced over at Recoome's lifeless (and also headless) body. He looked as if he were about to vomit for a moment, but then he regained his composure. "And I doubt that will happen anytime soon."

With one hand, he punched a button on his scouter. "Captain?" he said. Yamcha realized they must also use the scouters as communicators. "I need some help. Recoome is dead…" There was a silence in which Yamcha could only assume there was a response from the other side. He couldn't hear anything, however. "Don't worry, I have the guy trapped in telekinesis. You'll send Burta and Jeice? Fine." Guldo turned back to Yamcha with an evil grin. "Now you're in for it. Just sit tight, my friends will be here soon." Yamcha tried to gulp, but found he lacked the freedom to even do that. His mind began to race, and he tried to find a way out of this mess.


Guru shook his head. He had felt everything that had happened. In the privacy of his head, he mourned. That poor boy… If only we did not need to rely on these humans…The trials that they will face will be harsh. Their entire lives shall be tragic… the curse of the strongest…Guru redirected his attention to Tien. "There, my child. Your inner power has been awakened."

Tien stood up and smiled. "This power is amazing. It is even greater than that which Yamcha possesses!"

Guru frowned slightly. "And it is he who needs your help. There is no time for dawdling. You must go to him."

Tien nodded, his back already towards them as he wasted no more words and set off to help Yamcha. Guru turned to Krillin. "And lastly, we have you. I wonder how you will fare?"

Krillin bowed his head. "I won't be that much help." Suddenly he remembered the Namekian who had saved his life. "Hey! Can't you unlock Nail's powers? He's much stronger than I am!"

Guru smiled. "I am afraid not. Nail is only so strong because I have already opened up his inner strength. It cannot be done twice."

Dejected, Krillin slowly stepped forward. "Oh…" was all he could manage to get out. Guru gave a small chuckle as he placed his hand on Krillin's head. "You must be more confident in yourself. I sense great powers in you. Much greater than anything the world has ever seen." Krillin didn't answer. "What I have unlocked now is only a fraction of what you warriors are capable of. Through perseverance and training, you will one day be much stronger than you are now."

It was a compliment, and Krillin knew it was a compliment, but he still couldn't find himself to take it. He sighed softly and prepared himself for the increase in power.


AN- Well, I think things are flowing along smoothly. I looked back at a few of the previous chapters, and I've seen one or two mistakes. (Mostly simple stuff, such as a missing page break.) but one or two things are really bad (I completely forgot to add or even finish an entire scene last chapter.) It wasn't too important, and it didn't take away from the story, which I suppose is why I overlooked it. Finals are going on this week, and work has been a pain, and graduation, and mother's day, and a lot of other stuff. But I promised myself I wouldn't let it stop me from updating, but I also haven't slept more than a few hours every four or five days. Literally. I finished typing up this chapter at 4:00 in the morning. I just can't sleep until I run out of steam, and then I pass out for a few hours. Most of the time I don't even know what time it is anymore, and I find myself looking outside to see if it is day or night. Dreams and reality have become an intermingled mesh. So please forgive one or two ridiculous mistakes. If there is anything in this chapter significantly wrong, feel free to politely let me know, and I'll change it when I have a free moment.

To get to the last batch of reviews, one or two of you have voiced concerns involving Piccolo. Don't worry, he will not be written out of the story. I'm glad some of you have taken to the idea of the humans keeping up. I am quite a fan of the humans myself, and I have been enjoying writing fight scenes that involve them. As for the Sayians, remember, Goku doesn't even HAVE a tail anymore. And I never mentioned Vegeta in the tail restraints. Don't worry, I wouldn't forget a detail like that. As for how they will receive power ups, think about the original Namek saga. Vegeta had a power level of about 23,000 (before Zarbon). Took a small beating, went up to 40,000 (after Zarbon), got beat up again, (courtesy of Recoome) and then was up to about 400,000 (because he was able to fight Frieza's first from, which was at 550,000). Then he took a hit from Krillin and was boosted to about 2,000,000 (when he tried to stand up to Frieza's final form, which I would put at about 3,000,000.) So if I follow that, it really won't take much to boost up the Sayians back to where the humans are. Remember, the Sayians took a pretty nasty beating in previous chapters. I may have to stretch it a bit, but they will receive the standard Sayian boost in power once recovered. I will let you know their power levels when they are on their feet again.

One little thing I have to ask, what does everyone have against Yamcha? What the hell did he do to you guys? I have never received so many requests for the death of any one character, save Nappa, whom I purposefully made as a hateable character. Just wondering.

Oh, and Moonraker, I have heard your requests, so don't think I am ignoring you. I agree it would be good to sit down and rewrite previous chapters, but at the moment, I don't know about it. I was thinking maybe once I finished everything, I could redo it. But that's way in the future, and we will have to see how I feel about it at that point.

Anyhow, I basically know how I want the next chapter to go, so it shouldn't be that long before I have the next one out. See you soon, and as always, how's my driving?