"Krillin!"
Krillin looked up and his face split into a wide grin. "Yamcha, hey! Haven't seen you since we left to Lookout," Krillin said, slowing a bit so that Yamcha could catch up.
"I know, right? Good to see you, man," Yamcha said as he fell into pace with Krillin. "God, am I glad it's you. Think Tien's gonna show? I haven't felt his or Chiaotzu's power so far."
Krillin could only shrug. "He isn't the flakey type. Actually…" Krillin turned his eyes toward the horizon, squinting a bit in the morning sun. "Well, if you ask me, it kinda seems like he's here already. Or I think he is. There's a power up ahead that seems strong enough to be Tien, anyway."
Yamcha followed Krillin's gaze, himself frowning as he focused on the ki in that direction. "One of those is definitely Piccolo," Yamcha said. "I'd recognize it anywhere."
"Mm-hm," nodded Krillin. "And I'm positive the smaller one is Gohan. But the third…"
"Why would Tien go anywhere without Chiaotzu, though?" Yamcha wondered.
"I wouldn't. What are you guys talking about?"
Both Krillin and Yamcha yelped, jerking around mid-air to face Tien. They'd been so focused on the power up ahead, they hadn't noticed Tien - and Chiaotzu's - approach. Chiaotzu chuckled at them, but Krillin quickly recovered.
"Hey, you're here already," Krillin said. "So that's all of us… You don't think it's Yajirobe, do you?"
The resounding snorts were all the answer Krillin needed. "Dumb question, I know," he sighed. "It seems kind of familiar, but I just can't place it…"
"There's one surefire way to find out," Tien said. "Let's not waste any more time - the Saiyans could be here any moment."
The S-word immediately sobered the group, and they all took off for Piccolo and Gohan's power as fast as they could.
With any luck, there'd be time for catching up later.
Chi-Chi stood with her arms over her chest, checking off her list of 'Goku's brainless martial arts friends' as their energy came into focus. Krillin, Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Chiaotzu…
No Goku.
The sky had darkened just after dawn, the same inky, all-encompassing dark sky Piccolo swore was unique to the dragon being summoned. He surmised that meant Goku had finally been wished back to life. But if that were true, where was he?
Chi-Chi decided it was a question for later. For now, she had to make sure everyone was ready to face the Saiyans without him.
Krillin touched down first.
"Gohan, Piccolo - Chi-Chi?" he said.
Chi-Chi rolled her eyes. "Is the question mark really necessary, Krillin?" she asked.
Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu all followed Krillin, each smiling at Gohan, leering at Piccolo, and raising their brows at Chi-Chi. She supposed the three of them were an odd trio - a five-year-old, his mother, and the self-anointed Demon King and scourge of the Earth.
"What - no, that's not what I mean," Krillin stammered, as he was want to do in Chi-Chi's presence. "It's just - we thought - uh, it's good to see you again."
Before Krillin could say or do anything to earn a spot on Chi-Chi's shit list, Piccolo cut in. "If you're done exchanging pleasantries, we've got more important things to discuss," he said, businesslike.
Yamcha rolled his eyes, hands on his hips. "Drop the 'tude, Piccolo. No one put you in charge," he said.
Chi-Chi sighed through gritted teeth. "Yamcha, if you want to die before the Saiyans even get here, I'll accommodate you, but everyone else here would generally prefer to live. So if it won't give you an aneurysm to listen to someone smarter than you for a few minutes, save your sass for the Saiyans," Chi-Chi said. Her eyes flashed dangerously, making Yamcha squirm just a bit, and he didn't immediately argue.
Piccolo took that as his que to continue. "They could land any minute now. I'm sure you knuckle-heads have felt them approaching, otherwise you would have stayed put and continued whatever worthless training regimen you've concocted," he said. Any objections about to be heard were cut short by the look on Chi-Chi's face. "I'm also sure you've noticed that Goku isn't here."
"I saw the sky go black, same as it does whenever anyone summons the dragon," Krillin piped up. "I haven't been in contact with Master Roshi or Bulma in a while, but I'm pretty sure they wished Goku back already."
"S-so where is he?" asked Gohan.
"Not here," Piccolo said, deadpan. "Which means that for the time being, we're on our own. We have numbers on our side, it being eight against two, but we shouldn't underestimate them." He gave Yamcha a pointed look, making the warrior huff indignantly.
A tingling sensation sprouted on the back of Chi-Chi's neck, and her gaze snapped up towards the western sky. The others felt it, too, Krillin even going so far as to stumble.
"They're here," Krillin said, his voice barely above a whisper.
It was Yamcha who broke the following silence. "We should go meet them head-on!" he said, as sure of himself as ever. "I bet they're expecting us to cower and hide, they won't expect a full-on assault. Let's show 'em that Earth means business!"
"Don't be so foolish," Tien sighed, rubbing the side of his head as though Yamcha's very presence had summoned a headache.
Yamcha looked confused. "What?"
Chi-Chi stepped in to spell it out for him. "Didn't you feel them land? They're in the thick of civilization," she said. "If we go to them to fight, innocent people will be caught in the crossfire. We're better off waiting for them here, where there's no one around to-"
Her words died in her throat. They all felt the swell of energy, so many hundreds of miles away. They all knew what it meant, too.
"M-mom," Gohan squeaked, his face ghostly white, "does it feel like there's suddenly way fewer people in that direction?"
Chi-Chi swallowed her horror and spoke in level tones. "Yes, Gohan. It feels that way."
"We'll wish back everyone killed by the Saiyans after this is over," Piccolo said, his voice suddenly breaking the tension.
"Whoa there, since when did you get a conscience?" laughed Yamcha. "The Big Bad King Piccolo suddenly cares about the good of the Earth? Well, I'll be-"
"If you don't can it now, the Saiyans will never have the pleasure of killing you themselves," Piccolo snapped.
Tien, Chiaotzu, and Krillin laughed uneasily, shortly joined by Gohan, who never once let go of his mother's pantleg. It was forced, but they all had a feeling it was going to be their last chance to laugh for a while - still, they soon fell into prolonged silence, waiting for the Saiyans to arrive. Before long, Krillin began making halfhearted attempts at conversation ("So, Piccolo, how's Chi-Chi treatin' you?" "Gosh, Gohan, have you gotten tall or what!" "How are things with you and Bulma, by the way...?") though they did little to ease the tension in the air.
"They're coming," Piccolo said, hopping off of his perch of mossy boulders.
Sure enough, Chi-Chi felt her spine buzz and the air thicken as two enormous powers closed in on them. They saw their shadows first, and they turned to the sky to see them.
The first one to land was massive, easily pushing seven feet in height and as wide as a three normal men standing shoulder-to-shoulder. The second was positively diminutive by comparison, hardly taller than Krillin. Chi-Chi knew better than to let their appearances fool her, though: one gander at their respective energies, and it was obvious who the bigger threat was.
"Took you long enough!" Yamcha shouted across the clearing, unable to help himself.
Chi-Chi rolled her eyes openly, even as the Saiyans laughed.
"Well, this is Earth's best, is it?" drawled the smaller one. "How disappointing."
"You'd think a planet capable of besting even the most pathetic Saiyans could come up with more of a challenge than this, given a year to prepare," the larger one commented.
Yamcha flushed, and was only held back from attacking the Saiyans then and there by Tien's warning glare.
The shorter one nodded. "Indeed. Let's see here, five miserable Earthlings, the half-breed runt, and a Namek…" With each item on the list, he pressed the button on the side of his scouter, his grin growing wider and more cruel each time. "And none with a power level above two thousand, how terribly disappointing."
"I'll show you disappointing!" shouted Yamcha.
The short one smirked. "Yes, I'm positive you will. Nappa?"
The big one, Nappa, looked down at him. "Yes?"
"Go ahead and take care of them. Leave the Namek alive though, we might need him later."
"You got it, Vegeta," Nappa said, stretching from side to side and popping several joints in his neck and back. "Won't take more than a few minutes!"
Nappa took a menacing step towards the group, and Krillin's composure broke. In a moment, he was sputtering a mumbling in an attempt to postpone the imminent carnage. "N-n-now wait a minute," Krillin started, "let's not be too hasty about this - I mean, eight against one is hardly fair, r-right? And besides - we've all spent so long training, it would be a shame for everyone's e-expertise to be lost in a group fight, right? Right?"
Chi-Chi ground her teeth together audibly. She pushed Gohan off her leg, towards Piccolo, and started across the clearing - brushing right passed Nappa, to his surprise.
"H-hey lady, where do you think you're going?" Nappa barked, peeved at being ignored.
Chi-Chi threw a filthy look over her shoulder. "I'm going to talk to talk to the strong one," she snapped.
Nappa seethed, but it quickly turned to a grin as Chi-Chi turned her back on him once more.
The spike of energy Chi-Chi felt was cut short by the smaller one, Vegeta, barking an order, "Nappa, cut it out."
Chi-Chi peered over her shoulder at Nappa's hulking form, his arms raised to strike at a moments notice. His muscles and face twitched in anticipation, itching to bring down the full force of his power on Chi-Chi. But it seemed taking a meager blow to his pride was a small price to pay for staying on Vegeta's good side.
Mouth pressed in a grim line, Chi-Chi continued her walk and didn't stop until she stood within an arm's length of Vegeta. She glared down at him, as that was the only way to make proper eye contact at that distance, and spoke curtly: "I know for a fact that this isn't how you want to do things."
Vegeta quirked an eyebrow at her. "Is that so? What, you think we'll suddenly develop bleeding hearts for you Earthlings once Nappa starts slaughtering you properly?" he asked, chuckling at the very notion.
"I'm not naive," Chi-Chi snapped. "You didn't honestly come to Earth hoping for an easy victory, did you?"
"What's to hope for? You're all still alive only because I decided to entertain your desire for conversation," Vegeta said.
Chi-Chi pressed on as if he hadn't spoken, which made Vegeta's face twitch. "Your man there could fight any of us one-on-one and win, we can all tell that much just by looking at him. But what would be the fun of that? Beating each of us one at a time just sounds like busywork, if you ask me."
"No one did. Get to your point," Vegeta said.
"My point is that there's one more of us still on his way here," Chi-Chi said. "Stronger than each of us, and as eager for a fight as he is for anything else. What do you call him again? Kaka- Kora-?"
"Kakarot?" snorted Vegeta. "That low-class good-for-nothing traitor? I don't know if you've noticed, but he's dead - along with his worthless brother, thank goodness."
Chi-Chi smirked, arms folded over her chest as she waited for the pieces to click together in his head. It took a second, but soon realization flashed in his eyes, and Chi-Chi nodded and said, "Dragon balls. That's right - he's back from the dead, and he's been training in the afterlife to fight you two all year. You wouldn't want to disappoint him, would you?"
A conflicted look overtook Vegeta's face. His eyes went dark as he considered, and Chi-Chi knew she had him.
He was a Saiyan, after all - he couldn't resist a challenge.
"If we're all dead anyway, why would he even bother coming here?" said Chi-Chi. "He could just get right to tracking down the dragon balls to wish us back, or at least so that your chances at a wish are ruined."
That made Vegeta's eyes flash. "Very well, Earthling - we'll accommodate you," he said.
"Vegeta!" came Nappa's worthless objection.
"We'll give Kakarot three hours to show up. If he doesn't show his face in that time, as I suspect he won't, then we'll proceed with our plan to kill the rest of you one by one," Vegeta said. For emphasis, he held up three fingers to Chi-Chi's face. "Three hours - make the most of it."
Unbidden, Chi-Chi's lips started to quirk into a smirk, but at the last second, her expression changed - to a wide, welcoming grin without a hint of malice or fear behind it. "I knew you'd see reason - see, that's why you're in charge," she said in her very best 'overbearing housewife' voice. With a girlish giggle, she flounced back across the clearing towards her friends and son, wishing she could turn around and see the look on the Saiyans' faces.
Judging by the horrified look on Krillin's face, the Saiyans' reactions were a sight to behold.
"Did you just - did you just condescend the strongest enemy we've ever faced?" Krillin managed as Chi-Chi settled back down.
"Who, me? I'd never," Chi-Chi huffed, pulling Gohan towards her and absently bushing the tangles out of his hair with her hands.
From across the clearing, she could have sworn she heard Vegeta muttering at Nappa, "Was I just condescended? Nappa, I want you to save her for me, no one disrespects the mighty Prince Vegeta..."
She had to grin.