The man called Wami

Piccolo raised Gohan to bring him face to face. "WAKE UP!" he shouted.

Gohan half opened his eyes and an angry green face focused into his view. Gohan's mouth dropped open and he began to tremble.

"Good." Piccolo smiled and dropped the boy on to the ground.

Gohan slowly stood up, trembling. He looked around but there was no one to be seen except for Piccolo. "W-where am I?"

Piccolo snickered. "You are in the wastelands, boy, with no body to care for you and no body to protect you..."

"Where's my dad?" Gohan asked, sobbing.

"Hehehe," Piccolo chuckled.

"Noooo!" Gohan wailed. "Who are youuuu? Where's my dad?" With that Gohan began to cry loudly, tears streaming down his face.

"SHUT UP!" Piccolo shouted but it did nothing to stop the boy. Piccolo growled.

"Waahaha- OUCH!" Gohan fell to his side as he was backhanded to his cheek by Piccolo.

"SHUT UP!" Piccolo repeated. "One more sound and I will give you something to cry about."

Gohan forcefully silenced himself, tears still rolling down his face.

"That's better," said Piccolo, relieved. "Listen boy, you remember that uncle of yours?"

Gohan nodded, sobbing.

"Well me and your father barely managed to kill him," said Piccolo. "But the bad news is there are some friends of his coming. We had so much difficulty dealing with him alone. Now we will have to fight more of these Saiyans. We neither know their strengths nor do we know how many of them are coming. And... they will be here in one year. That's why we need to train."

Gohan looked at Piccolo confusedly. "But why do I have to train?" he whined. "I am just a five year old boy."

Piccolo crossed his arms. "You may not be aware of it right now but you have a great power hidden deep within you. That's how you were able to hurt your uncle earlier in our fight."

Gohan got tensed. "But why do I have to train with you? Why can't I train with my father?" he asked.

Piccolo snickered. "Goku would be too easy on you."

Korin's tower

Yajirobe sat eating a bag of potato chips, listening to Krillin's story.

"And so..." said Krillin, finishing. "We have to be ready for anything..."

Yajirobe grumbled. "Like you guys could do anything against someone stronger than Goku. Don't make me laugh," he said dismissively.

Chiaotzu looked agitated. "But we have to try!" he wailed.

Korin nodded. The cat than began to look towards Yajirobe with interest. "Hmm..."

Yajirobe looked worried. "I-I don't like the way you are looking at me.." he said, suddenly sweating.

Yamcha grinned. "I think Korin wants you to train as well, Yajirobe."

Yajirobe looked like he had seen a ghost. "S-seriously? Wouldn't it be a bit overdoing it," he asked, sweating. "You won't want to have to deal with the Saiyans and a toned up Yajirobe at the same time... You never know when my ambitions of world conquest may reawaken. It's too dangerous. I tell ya."

Krillin grinned evilly. "Oh come on, Yajirobe. We would need all the help we can get. After all you alone may be able to do something against someone stronger than Goku."

Yajirobe was speechless.

Tien looked towards Korin. "So, shall we leave now?" he asked.

Korin nodded. "Say my greetings to Wami."

"Sure," replied Tien before walking to the edge of the tower and jumping upwards into the air.

Yajirobe let out a sigh of relief. "Yeah, just leave alright." The fat man began to turn back but was startled as someone grabbed his leg.

Chiaotzu grinned up at Yajirobe as Krillin and Yamcha grabbed Yajirobe's one arm each.

"No," cried Yajirobe as the bag of potato chips dropped from his hand. The fat man spat out a flurry of colourful words at the three as he struggled to break free.

Krillin and Yamcha grinned wickedly, dragging Yajirobe to the edge of the tower.

Korin was rolling on the floor with laughter, tears streaming down his face. "Bwahahaha! Have fun, Yajirobe!"

Chiaotzu waved at Korin, holding on to Yajirobe's leg. "So long, Mr Korin."

And with that Krillin and Yamcha jumped upwards, carrying Yajirobe with them.

Gohan stood shivering in front of Piccolo. A cold breeze blew in the air.

"So," Gohan said pathetically. The boy wondered how on Earth he had gotten into this. Just the previous day he sat at his home, studying. "What do we do first, Mr Piccolo?"

Piccolo smirked. "We don't do anything. You do."

"Huh?"

Piccolo turned his back to Gohan. "If you can survive alone in the wilderness for six months I will deem you fit for my training." Piccolo began to walk away. "Have fun."

Gohan looked in disbelief. "No. What am I supposed to eat? Where am I supposed to take shelter in the night? You can't leave me all alone. It's cruel."

Piccolo walked on. "Well you won't be all alone," he said. "There will be plenty of lions and tigers to keep you company." With that Piccolo jumped up and began to fly away.

"No, wait," Gohan yelled, running after him. Gohan kept running before Piccolo could not be seen anymore. The poor boy dropped to his knees, panting.

At Wami's place

Goku landed onto the white floor of Wami's place. He could hear a sound coming from the prayer room. Goku approached the prayer room and entered it.

...

Tien, Krillin, Yamcha and Chiaotzu landed onto Wami's place with a reluctant Yajirobe.

"Looks like prayer is going on," said Tien. "I haven't performed the prayer yet. Have you?"

The others shook their heads as a 'no'.

Tien went inside the prayer room followed by Chiaotzu, Krillin and Yamcha.

Yajirobe sniffed his collar. "I gotta take a bath first." The fat man went inside the bathroom located on the other side of Wami's place.

...

The team of earth's fighters walked outside the prayer room accompanied by Wami and Mr Popo. Wami was a green skinned old wrinkled guy while Mr Popo was a dark short heighted man.

Wami surveyed the group of fighters. "So what brings you here, all of you?"

Goku stepped forward. "We have come here to train, respected Wami," he said.

Wami observed Goku silently before speaking. "I have trained you already, Goku. You have surpassed me in strength. There is no more to gain for you here," said the old man.

Goku looked taken aback. "With whom am I supposed to train then?" he asked in dismay.

Yamcha stepped forward. "What about us, Wami?" he asked.

Wami looked at the rest of the fighters. "You... you may train."

Tien smirked. "Haha! Alright!"

Krillin didn't look very pleased by this turn of events, even as his friends were celebrating. 'Goku's our best man,' he thought to himself. 'We need to have him stronger before the Saiyans arrive.'

Wami nodded towards Mr Popo. Mr Popo immediately understood. The two had been together for such a long time that they could judge by each other's expressions what one wanted.

"All of you come with me," said Mr Popo to the Earth's fighters. "Wami wants to have a word with Goku."

Mr Popo then led the group of fighters to a large store room of sorts and switched on the lights. "These are the weighted clothings Goku used to train," he said.

"Woah," said Yamcha. The shelves of the room were filled with multiple undershirts, wrist bands and boots of various sizes. There were columns of shelves, each column had a written board on top of it.

Mr Popo continued. "You will first put on the weighted clothings of column number one. As your training advances you will have to deal with progressively higher weights."

Krillin took a boot from a shelf and inserted his foot into it. "This stuff's heavy," he said, barely able to raise his leg.

Tien smiled. 'So that's how Goku trained to fight Piccolo.'

Krillin, Tien, Yamcha and Chiaotzu then began to search for weighted clothing which would match their size.

Mr Popo looked towards Yajirobe.

Yajirobe frowned. "Well if you think I am gonna put any of this stuff on, you are crazy."

Suddenly Goku's distant shout could be heard. "Everyone! Avoid getting on to Mr Popo's bad side, okay?"

Mr Popo looked at Yajirobe in the eye. "A good piece of advice," he said solemnly.

Yajirobe gulped.

Stars twinkled in the sky as the night began to set in.

Gohan sat leaning on a tree trunk, eating berries.

Having cried to his heart's content, things didn't look as bad now to Gohan. There was no school, no homework, only enjoying the nature was all he had to do for a whole six months. Suddenly it appeared too good to be true.

He sighed as his mother came to his mind. 'She would certainly be worried about me,' he thought glumly.

Suddenly he could feel a cold thing slide over his hand. Gohan looked down and found a snake. The boy shrieked and grabbed the snake's head, crushing it and killing the reptile in the process.

"That was close," he said, his heart thumping in his chest.

Few minutes later, it began to drizzle.

"Oh no," said Gohan, getting up. "Gotta look for a cave." The boy than began to run towards a mountain which was visible some distance from him.

Unknown to Gohan, Piccolo stood over a cliff, watching over him.

Wami listened carefully to Goku's story.

Goku clenched his fist. "I have to get stronger, Wami," he said. "There's no telling how strong my brother's friends would be."

"Hmm..." Wami looked worried. "There is perhaps a way you can get stronger, Goku."

Goku cheered up. "There is?"

"But I have to warn you, it's highly dangerous," said Wami. "Till now not a single person has returned from that place."

"No problem," replied Goku. "If I don't get stronger soon I will get killed by the Saiyans anyway."

Wami shook his head. "You can just train with your friends, Goku."

Goku looked in disbelief. "Oh come on, Wami," he said. "Why did you mention it when you didn't want me to train there?" Goku began to jog in his place. "I want to go, Wami. It just sounds too exciting."

Mr Popo had returned to Wami's side. He had ordered the fighters to complete ten rounds of Wami's place with their weighted clothing on. The dark man looked up at Wami. "I think if there's anyone who can survive that place, it's Goku, Wami," he said.

Wami remained silent.

Space

Two pods moved at high speeds.

"Hey Vegeta," Nappa said through his scouter.

Vegeta opened his eyes. "What is it, Nappa?"

"How long will it be before we get to Earth?"

"It should take little less than an year," Vegeta replied.

Nappa grunted. "Oh, man. I hate getting cramped up in this little pod."

"Well," said Vegeta. "Do yourselves a favour and go to sleep."

"You are right, Vegeta," said Nappa. "It will be much easier that way."

"And," Vegeta continued. "If I am in the mood than we may as well stop by a planet to have a cup of coffee."

Nappa chuckled. "Yeah. That sounds great."

The two pods continued forwards, nearing Earth with every passing second.

To be continued...