The village elder gulped down in fright when Piccolo and Chayote lowered to the busted-up village and approached the elder. Despite the fact that the female Saiyan looked quite nonchalant and uninterested in this entire affair, Piccolo had a scowl that was tough to stomach without confidence in one's own strength. The remaining warriors that valiantly stood before the enemy before still brimmed with the will to protect the village but were too beaten to attack Piccolo immediately.
"You," Piccolo pointed at the elder. "You know what's going on here, right? You're the chief of this village or something, right?"
"That's right…" the village elder nodded. "And you… You look like a Namekian but… You don't feel or act like you're from around here."
"Heh, you could say I'm somewhat of an involuntary prodigal son, of sorts…" Piccolo made a malicious smirk. Chayote's stare fell onto the Namekian children cowering in fear behind the elder's body and gripping into his cloth as if it was the blanket protecting them from nocturnal monsters stalking in the night.
"Hey, you guys, don't you be scared of Piccolo, he's here to help. Don't even worry about that grumpy mug of his, it's stuck that way," Chayote chuckled. Her face shifted from cheer to apologetic joy when Piccolo gave her a mean look but settled on brawling with the Saiyan not worth the effort when he turned his attention back to the village elder.
"She's right, I've returned home. I see that Planet Namek is in trouble and I want to help you guys out. Over my days as the demon plaguing Planet Earth, I got pretty good at roughing people up so it's gonna be what I'm good at," Piccolo cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck out, pulling at the puffy collar of his turban to make some more space for his neck to wriggle in. "What happened here, who are those guys?"
"We will answer your questions, Piccolo, but first there is something I need to know. You mentioned the Dragon Balls, didn't you? Why? What do you know about them?" the Namekian elder asked Piccolo for a sign of trust, a sort of quid pro quo before they entrusted the fate of their planet to him.
"Hmph… There is a set of them on Earth. They're artifacts of Namekian magic, you get a wish of yours granted when you collect all seven," Piccolo shrugged.
"Multiple sets, actually," Chayote pointed out, recalling her time working to collect all seven of the Ultimate Dragon Balls. "Kami was pretty busy perfecting his formula,"
"I see… So, there is a capable Dragon Clan member on Planet Earth, is there?" the elder scratched his chin with hope returning to his eyes.
"Actually, there isn't," for the first time ever, Piccolo didn't look at all excited in extinguishing hope from someone's eyes. "Kami was a split-part of one greater being, a Nameless Namekian. My predecessor, Demon King Piccolo fused with him again and now that he reincarnated into me, our fusion is irreversible and Kami can no longer exist as a separate entity."
"Oh no!" the Namekian elder whimpered. "This is terrible! Our planet is doomed then?"
"What's wrong? I thought that you guys could snap the Dragon Balls into existence, or something…" Chayote wondered. "Also, how why would you need the Dragon Balls to save the planet? I mean… We've already told you we're going to kick the asses of all the bad guys for you, you need to listen to people more when they're talking to you."
"You don't understand…" the Namekian elder replied with a gloomy expression. "Though I suppose, to understand better, you need to know what happened. A few days ago, these aliens have landed on our planet. From what they've let their victims know, they're space pirates, plundering the vastness of the entire universe while evading justice or tyranny from catching up to them. Recently they've got their hands on something called the Divinity Tree, despite what its name suggests, it comes of nothing that's divine. It is a foul parasite that seeps its roots into the planet and drains it into a husk."
"So, those space pirates have chosen Planet Namek to plant their tree in? It doesn't seem like this Divinity Tree is evil though. It sounds more like something that's not meant for mortal soil but to be planted in a divine garden…" Piccolo turned around toward the darkening skies and the spreading corruption and dry rot that came from the direction of the growing Divinity Tree.
"How would you know that?" Chayote wondered. "Oh, wait, right… Kami's essence. Anyway, I guess it makes sense that they'd choose this planet. Planet Namek is famed for its fertility and splendor. It wouldn't be guarded by any powerful Namekians either, since the cataclysm so it's basically free real estate to suck the planet dry. Just what the budding, suckling parasite needs, I guess…"
Both Piccolo and the Namekians turned to Chayote, Piccolo donned his usual grumpy face while the Namekians looked at the Saiyan with horror, as if it was the female Saiyan herself that had planted the tree on their home soil or something.
"I mean… That's how I'd think if I was working with them, anyway." Chayote shrugged.
"Normally, we'd just join our forces together with the other villages and gather the Dragon Balls, ask the Divine Dragon Porunga to destroy the Tree of Divinity, to heal our planet and bring someone that died fighting the aliens back to life even. However, almost a year ago, the greatest disaster struck, the Oldest Elder died of old age and now the Dragon Balls are forever inert." The elder lamented. It appeared to be quite a tear-jerking subject as most of the present Namekians, except for Piccolo appeared to be crushed by the mention of the event as if the news were just broken down to them.
"So?" Piccolo cut back, shocking the Namekians with his crudeness. "What's the big deal? Make some new ones. All it takes is a Namekian of the Dragon Clan, right? Isn't that the only thing those weaklings are good for?"
"I'm afraid things are much direr than that…" the elder replied with an expression that spelled out doom. "Even when the Oldest Elder was still alive, the seven largest and most important villages each held in their safekeeping one of our Dragon Balls. They rarely, if ever would come together. They were, after all, the gift from our Oldest Elder from time immemorial, once used they would scatter and our warriors would need to embark on a quest to collect them once more and share them amongst the village elders. Once the Oldest Elder died, we never got to create another set, it was something sacred enough only for the Oldest Elder to do."
"Okay, so I guess things really aren't that bad," Chayote shrugged. "I mean, if they were, you'd move past that sacral bullshit and just make new Dragon Balls anyway, right?"
"I'm afraid we're far past that point already, Saiyan," the Namekian elder closed his eyes in submission to the creeping end. "We've already tried it, once those aliens landed and planted their tree. Sadly, with our planet as corrupted as it is, with the darkness of grief as prevalent in all of our hearts, our Dragon Clan members are incapable of creating new Dragon Balls anymore. While we might get over the grief eventually, nothing can fix our planet anymore, not as long as that tree is rooted in our planet."
"You're wrong, elder!" a Namekian warrior stepped out from the bunch of the beaten fighters. "There is still hope! Dende told me about it!"
"Dende?" the elder turned around. "The runaway boy we've taken in from the decimated village?"
"That's right! Dende told me that there is still hope! That the guardian of the Oldest Elder is still alive, that he is in a pilgrimage and that once we need him the most, he will return to us. Nail will once again return to us and defeat the invaders!" the warrior spoke with hope in his voice. He didn't look nearly as intelligent as Piccolo or the elder but perhaps there was more to his story than just mere tales for children.
"Perhaps, Nail was indeed our mightiest warrior, I have no doubt that he would be capable of standing up to these foul space bandits but… Where is he then? The need for Nail's return has never been greater, our people are suffering daily with more and more villages being destroyed for no better reason than the fact that the space pirates are bored. Where is he? Where is Nail now!?"
"Hmmm… If he's that strong, we can look for him," Chayote pointed out. "I doubt he's stronger than us though. We could really just kick the pirates' asses and be done with it…"
"Really!?" a higher-pitched voice came from a nearby building with a smoking hole in it. A ragged and dirty Namekian child walked out through the gap in the building and rushed up to Chayote and Piccolo, showing none of the terror that the other Namekians did when looking at this new pair of aliens to appear on their planet. "You could find Nail?"
"Didn't you hear what we said, kid?" Chayote groaned. "We'll just beat up those pirates for you, it'll be way faster since the tree is actively draining the life out of your planet."
"Okay, we'll do it," Piccolo smirked. Chayote turned to the reincarnated Demon King but she couldn't find one. All she saw was a Namekian bringing hope and tearful glee into a child's face while becoming infected with some of that childish naivete himself. "I mean, that Nail has to be pretty strong, aren't you at all intrigued, as a Saiyan and a martial artist?"
"Not really…" Chayote squinted. "I'd rather just beat the crap out of the space pirates and rip their stupid God-Tree out by its roots and fling it into space to wither away and die."
"Where are you rushing off to, exactly?" Piccolo wondered. "You said it yourself, you're not ready to settle down in your paradise on Earth just yet. That Nail sounds like someone that these Namekians are counting on, someone you should look up to, don't you want to meet him?"
"We can still meet him after we save the planet though, it's not like we need to leave the moment we kick Turles and his crew out…" Chayote sighed. It was a signature of her submission to the quest to uncover the location of one Nail, the famed guardian of the Namekian people as well as their most esteemed elder – the Oldest Elder.
"Hey, what the fuck gives!?" a punk-rock bruiser dressed in Saiyan armor ran out in front of Turles' face once the group landed nearby the pulsing root of the Divinity Tree, located in the heart of the drying our rot that absorbed all of the vitality, all of the water and very life essence from the planet and left nothing but sponge-like, dried out dirt in its wake. "Power levels over 50 000!? That's the level of one of Frieza's elites, we don't have the power to tangle with that sort of power!"
"Calm down, Daiz. If I were to look at you now, I wouldn't take you as the fierce warrior of the Pukinpa Dynasty that was single-handedly responsible for making our sack of Planet Kabocha memorable. You're whining like one of the royals we've slaughtered back then…" Turles let out a husky response that made Daiz back away from the way of his captain and get back into formation. That might have ended up saving his life at that moment.
"Be that as it may, the loss of the Beenz twins is regrettable." The sludge-like humanoid clad in cybernetic armor of a shiny, silver-colored alloy spoke his mind. "They were the ones that improved our spaceship and constantly kept upgrading my armor. Without their wisdom, it will take much longer for me to improve myself. I will require connection to the public network for my updates, we might be exposed to the Frieza Army or the Galactic Patrol that way."
"Damn Galactic Patrol!" the giant brute with Saiyan armor and scarlet, cloth decorations around his muscular limbs growled as he tossed his braid to his back. "I still didn't pay them back enough for arresting me! Their turn better come next, Captain Turles!"
"Calm down, boys." Turles snickered with a restrained tone of voice. "Once the Divinity Tree blooms and bears fruit, we can deal with those two interlopers, the Galactic Patrol, the Frieza Army, and possibly even Frieza himself. The entire universe will be under our heel, is that not what I promised you when I took you guys into my crew?"
"Yeah, and it's been a fun romp the whole way through, Captain Turles," the largest of the Turles crew smiled, something psychotic gleamed in his beady eyes as his twisted smile manifested, the man's muscles all twitched at once in the excitement of the possibility of his rampage throughout the galaxy being resumed once more but this time without the possibility of the Galactic Patrol getting in the way.
"It was more of a life or death sort of thing for me," Daiz admitted, running his hand through his punk hair before smirking himself with a shrug. "Though I haven't had a single boring day in my life since I've joined you, Cap. Even when I fought you and the crew back on Planet Kabocha, it was the most fun I've had in my entire life."
"I care not for existential problems. The denizens of Planet Ikonda have designed me to win their interstellar war which I have successfully accomplished. With my life's purpose fulfilled, I have no further objective or meaning. War is the only purpose I know. It does not matter who do I wage war with or against whom." The sludge-like cyborg in a metallic shell stated, looking at the green, Namekian skies in the horizon that were turning dirty grey from the corrupting influence of the Divinity Tree.
"Come on, Cacao, you don't truly believe that, do you?" Turles spread his arms out as if intending to hug the longing cyborg. "I've still got so much work for you, would you truly rather return to your days hunting marks as a lone bounty hunter in the galaxy?"
"What is my objective?" Cacao turned to Turles.
Turles chuckled. What began as a twitch of his facial muscles with a little cheer spilling out from his chest became a full-on laugh. "I need you to hunt down a mark for me, ironically enough. When Rasin and Lakasei beat on those Namekian warriors, one of them kept threatening us with a Nail. I'm not sure what that is, but I want to know who my enemies are and where they are at all times. The Saiyan broad and the turban-clad Namekian are enough to bother with, for now, find this Nail, and kill him."
"Alone? I can come with Cacao, with an enemy this strong, it might not be wise for us to move around by ourselves." Daiz suggested.
"Would you can it with being a little pansy already, Daiz," Turles turned to his crewman with a vexed face. "We outnumber those guys, it is in our best interests to split apart and have them waste time hunting each of us down. The more time they waste hunting us, the more time the Divinity Tree will have to bloom and give us its fruit."
"I will have you know, I have operated as a bounty hunter alone for hundreds of years and I have evaded any attention or being captured by the Galactic Patrol. I have executed royalty and members of the Frieza Army alike with a hundred-percent success rate. I am the best tool for the job, Captain Turles. Though I would fancy fixing the chinks in my armor and getting accustomed to the upgrades that Rasin and Lakasei added to my arsenal before their untimely passing." Cacao nodded his head in affirmation of his objective.
"Haven't I told you already," Turles shrugged, "That's the wonder of being a space pirate and not a member of some jerk-ass military force, do whatever the heck you want… As long as that Nail guy is confirmed dead in the end."
"And what will we do?" the largest, pink-skinned member of Turles crew turned to his captain with an apathetic inquiry.
"Why only what you do best, Amond, rampage throughout the entire planet and cause mayhem that made you so notorious to catch both my eye and the attention of the Galactic Patrol in the first place. Blow shit up, smash some heads, make our presence be known," Turles looked like he was getting a bit high of merely describing his orders to Amond himself. He was as quick to settle back down as Amond was to blast off, itching to start one of his notorious rampages again, even if it was contained to the scale of just one planet this time.
"I'm staying here and protecting the tree," Daiz stated. "It's the one obvious thing where the enemy can find us and attack us from, it's visible from outside the planet, for Pete's sake."
"Fine by me. That's what I'm doing too," Turles nodded. "You're best off protecting your "kingdom" anyway, aren't you? Let's just hope that this time it goes a bit better for you, huh, Daiz?"
"Whatever you say, Captain," Daiz shrugged with a smirk and settled onto a curly root that was several times thicker than his entire body, littering and skewering the surface of the once luscious and magnificent landscape of Planet Namek.
"Hey, Daiz, why don't you collect some seeds from the fruits once they bloom too?" Turles turned to Daiz who had settled down in a comfortable laying position on the root. "That way we can plant the tree on another planet, and another one, eat more and more fruits until our power knows no bounds. Then, not even the gods that Ginsegians we've plundered this from can come to reclaim that which was stolen from them."
"Gods, huh? That's just crazy enough to be a real blast, never a dull day with you, Captain!" Daiz laughed out, sitting up and looking at the fruitless branches of the tree, waiting for the fruit to finally manifest with deep anticipation.