Movie 5

Age 763

Planet Earth

The scene around the Son family house had finally moved inside, yet here, in the middle of a conversation between Gomana and Chi-Chi about the single mother's work growing turnips, Gohan suddenly stopped in the middle of the room, turning his eyes towards one of the walls.

"On my homeworld, we just used hydroponic farms to supply all the cities with food, so I never got to try-" Gomana was in the middle of explaining to Chi-Chi when she suddenly noticed the half-Saiyan child's odd behaviour. "Huh, Gohan? What's going on?"

"The battle on the other side of the planet is growing intense... and-" Gohan answered. "It's Chiaotzu, he's coming here!"

"Wait, who? Where?" She couldn't see anyone around them – from her point of view, nothing had changed for Gohan to declare this. After a few seconds of confusion, Gomana got the bright idea of investigating her scouter – as soon as she activated it with the press of a button, it beeped and informed her that a moderately large power level was approaching their location. That must have been what Gohan was referring to.

But... he doesn't have a scouter on his ear, how did he- actually, how does he know what's happening with Articho and the rest, too?

She didn't get an answer.

Chiaotzu was flying across the skies as fast as he could, keeping an eye for any lone houses with Gohan's energy signature inside, and slowed down once it finally came to view. The half-Saiyan ran out first, yelling out and waving his hand, then Gomana followed – which immediately got Chiaotzu to stop to a screeching halt in the air, floating fifty meters above the house, and shout:

"Gohan, look out! There's someone behind you!"

"What-" the half-Saiyan muttered, then glanced over his shoulder. "Oh, don't worry about her, she's our friend!"

"Well, not exactly friend, we only met-" Gomana already began correcting Gohan, yet he did not even wait for her to finish, continuing to explain to the baffled Chiaotzu:

"She came with the other aliens, but she doesn't wanna fight for them or hurt us, so we're over here thinking how to keep her safe!"

"Oh, huh... that's not what I expected when I came here..." the diminutive martial artists mumbled out, floating down to Gohan's eye level. Chi-Chi finally followed after the commotion and stepped out to the field, witnessing Chiaotzu herself as well. "But anyway, that's not what I came here for... Gohan, why aren't you out there, fighting with Piccolo and the others?! There's a Saiyan there, he's stronger than any of us, and we don't know how long we're going to hold back if we don't have everyone helping out!"

"That's Articho..." Gomana confirmed, briefly getting Gohan's attention. The half-Saiyan answered:

"I-well, I wanted to, but..." Right as he turned to Chi-Chi, she instantly made a step back and raised her hands. She could immediately tell that the pressure for keeping Gohan away from the fight was going to be on her – so, after a sigh, she said:

"Fine, fine, if it's so crucial that my child needs to go there, fighting..." Right then, however, she shot an intimidating glare to Gohan. "Don't even dare to get hurt. Again."

"I'll... I'll try..." the child answered, and was already about to jump to the air to take off, when Gomana suddenly called out:

"Gohan, wait! You're... actually going to fight?"

"If I fought Frieza, I'm not going to back out against one of his soldiers, either!" the half-Saiyan called out, then turned directly to Gomana, with a puzzled expression. "Actually, are you... going to come with us?"

"N-no, I'll stay here," she quickly answered, with her hands displayed. "I'd... rather not show myself to my team right now. Good... good luck."

"Alright, well-"

"-Oh, but, make sure to keep them all alive! Please..."

Gohan briefly stared at Gomana, then, understanding, flashed a faint smile and nodded. There was no more time left for standing around – he and Chiaotzu leapt to the air and flew off. In a matter of seconds, all was left of them were two streaks of energy, vanishing towards the horizon, and the setting sun that adorned it.

"You... still believe that you can convince your "friends" to change their ways, right?" Chi-Chi asked, besides the soldier. The scouter on Gomana's ear briefly rang, informing her that one of her teammates was calling her, but, instead of answering, she turned the earpiece and took it off, holding the device in her hand.

"I... hope so," she answered, then turned her eyes to Chi-Chi. "You... believe most people are redeemable, right?"

Put on the spotlight, the single mother paused for a few seconds, blinking, then answered:

"Well, I've seen as much... Even my father turned from a bandit to a lovely grandfather, so I'm sure it is possible."

"Yeah... If-if your son and the others defeat Articho, and let them go, it'll... help convince them to change their ways... They'll see that there's more than just violence, bloodshed and power games in the Galaxy, and..."

Yet, even to herself, she wasn't convincing. A million different questions flooded through her mind, all at once. What if this doesn't go as I expect? What if Gohan is not able to convince his friends to keep my teammates alive? What if they fail, and the rest of the Force comes after me, here? What if...

What if I am wrong?

An aura suddenly burst to life around Gomana. Dropping the scouter to the grass, she leapt to the air and flew off after Gohan and Chiaotzu's energy trails.

Something is changing... He should not be this confident.

Silently, Articho watched Piccolo slowly rise up from the rocks, standing up and brushing off a bit of dust off his shoulder. The power level which the Saiyan's scouter scanned was not in accordance with his opponent's new demeanour. It was still a little over a million, about equal to him.

Piccolo suddenly vanished, moving faster than Articho could even track. A hand grabbed his shoulder from behind him, clutching tightly. The scouter on his ear immediately beeped and chirped loudly, displaying numbers that went off the scale.

"I can tell what your limits are now. How you fight."

"What-"

Piccolo suddenly pulled Articho by the shoulder, turning him around, then swung his fists across the Saiyan's face, sending him flying across the sky. That wasn't all – right after, the Namekian flew after his opponent, ramming his knee into his gut and stopping him mid-air. Articho quickly pulled back and moved to a defensive posture, yet, though he was able to block and deflect Piccolo's punches with this stance before, it was no longer sufficient. Trying to parry the Namekian's attack, he merely ended up throwing himself forward, as Piccolo stepped to the side without clashing with his fist and struck his foot into the Saiyan's chest instead.

Piccolo's arm stretched forward again – this time, with his guard broken, Articho could not take any advantage of the move, and so it grabbed him by the neck. With a grip secured, the Namekian drove them both into the ground, smashing the Saiyan into the surface, throwing around dozens of tons of earth from the impact.

Of... of course... Thoughts and failed plans were running through Articho's mind. Of course he was simply holding back his power to study my fighting style...

He'd be lying if he said that he was not utterly frustrated.

And he wasn't even the only one angry at Piccolo's actions, either. Lying on his stomach after being thrown on the ground by Margar, Tien watched the sudden turnaround in the battle between Piccolo and Articho and immediately clenched onto the dirt with his hand, gushing out:

"Really? You just had to stall the battle for so long, didn't you? While all of us were getting bodied? Real thanks, Piccolo..."

The Namekian heard his comrade's lament from inside the crater, and leapt off Articho, instead moving towards Margar faster than he or anyone else could track. The blue alien, who was shocked by Piccolo's revealed power, had no chance to block or dodge the strike and was easily tossed to the distance. Immediately as he kicked Margar away, Piccolo raised his hand, charging an orb of golden energy in front of the palm and firing it off a twin energy beam. Both of them aimed for the Saibabrutes, getting them to start to flee, but by then, it was too late – first one, then the other was impaled by the beams and collapsed to the floor as piles of limbs.

"No!" Caesa screamed out. "That wasn't a part of the experiment! You ruined the test conditions!" Yet, Piccolo did not answer his dissatisfaction. Instead, he looked down to Tien, speaking:

"It doesn't matter now. You're all fine. Get up, the fight's not over yet."

"Gotta say, I'm on Tien's side here," Krillin mumbled after rising back to his feet and briefly rubbing his neck. "But whatever! Better now than never..."

"You're next, blondie!" Yamcha yelled right after him, jumping towards Caesa. The Brenchian was having none of it, however – without even turning his eyes at the charging Earthling, he raised his hand and put his opponent in a psionic grip, with which he easily flicked him away to the side.

Down in the crater left behind by Piccolo's smash, Articho was laying on his back, sighing, and pressing on his scouter. Why isn't she responding? The calls sent to Gomana's scouter were not immediately shutting down, so the scouter must still be intact, yet, no one was answering on the other side. Pushing past a tinge of worry, Articho pulled himself back on his arms and legs and crawled his way up to the edge of the crater – at that point, his scouter was the one to receive a call.

"What's the plan now, Captain?" It was Margar. Though he was still alive, the deep breaths in between his words made it clear that a singular blow from Piccolo had been enough to knock the wind out of him.

"I..."

If Gomana were here, they could figure out a situation to grant him another Zenkai boost – but even then, it was too risky, since Caesa surely did not have another healing injection at hand and would need to bring one from the ship. They could not afford the time for all the travelling back and to the battlefield. ...Would hypnosis work on the Namekian? It... only lasted on Trombone for a few seconds, so presumably not for much longer. Psionic restraints would hardly be more effective. But... perhaps just a few seconds are enough. Unlike Trombone, this one is also not immortal, so... we can try an old trick.

After the press of a few buttons on the side of his scouter, to add Caesa into the shared call, Articho spoke:

"Caesa, can Namekians regenerate from their head alone?"

"They... no, I don't think they can."

"Then I've got something. Restrain, keep the weaklings at bay, let me cut him up while he's immobilised."

"Really? Do you really think he'll fall for something like that?" Margar's voice called out. He could immediately tell that he was being assigned at the duty of holding off the other Earthlings while Piccolo was being cut down – and while that was fine to him, the simplistic plan did not excite him.

"...It's better this than nothing, really."

Well, there was something... but Articho did not want to think about it right now.

The Saiyan floated up, hovering above the blasted and battered landscape. In the distance, Caesa hopped into the air as well, staring down Piccolo from the side. Articho clenched his fists and yelled across the wastelands:

"Hey, Namekian! Our fight's not over yet!"

Hearing the call to battle, Piccolo turned his face in the Saiyan's direction, and leapt into the sky as well. A distance of fifty meters or so separated the two warriors during their stare down.

"Yet, this is your limit, isn't it? What are you plotting now?"

For a second, Articho did not answer. Then, he briefly flashed a smile once more. "We both know there's a bit more to fighting than just battle power."

"You- wait, huh?!"

Sensing an unexpected burst of aura, Piccolo turned to the side, and, witnessing Caesa's arm movements from the side, immediately aimed his hand forward to blast the soldier away – yet, it was too late. An advanced psionic technique suddenly struck him – six pillars of intangible psionic energy stabbed into him from different sides, forming a circle with crackling bolts of electricity in between them. It froze Piccolo's body in place – not only that, but, upon investigation, it was not a mere restraint, it even slowed down time within the psionic prison. Piccolo's movements, already held back by the restraints, also became sluggish and painfully slow.

The struggle got Caesa to let out a loud, enthused laugh.

"Piccolo!" Krillin yelled and leaped to the air, yet, before he could reach Caesa, he was suddenly intercepted.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Margar shouted right as he flew to meet the bald martial artist, then smashed a painful elbow blow into his gut. Though it forced him back, it wasn't enough to knock him out, and so, he entered a melee with the tall blue alien. Yamcha suddenly leapt at him from behind, with his hands cupped and gathering a bright blue orb of ki, but right as he was about to fire it forth as a Kamehameha, Margar reached behind his back and grabbed both of the martial artist's wrists, swinging his opponent straight into his short bald ally. Both of them crashed into the rocks below.

Keeping his eyes on Piccolo, Articho raised his hand up and began gathering ki above it – it immediately began forming a disk of purple energy.

"Wait, that's-" Yamcha called out, about to point out that Piccolo was completely unguarded against the preparing disk, but before he could finish, he was interrupted by Tien suddenly leaping off the ground and flying towards the stalemate in the sky. Having assumed the three-eyed warrior to be down on the ground for good, Margar had not been paying much attention to him, and only realised what was going on when he was already approaching Articho.

"Hey, get back here!" he yelled, flying after Tien. Staring at the chase, Yamcha immediately moved to act. He raised his hand right in front of his eyes, summoning a ball of crackling golden energy above it. It floated as if tethered to the martial artist's hand, following its every move and twitch.

"Catch this!" he yelled! Margar's scouter beeped, getting him to turn – and then immediately move aside to dodge the flying ki attack. Although the alien soldier smiled to himself after the smooth dodge, he quickly realized that he was too quick to celebrate. Pointing two fingers forward, Yamcha shifted his hand across the air, the Spirit Ball following its movements. From one side, then from another and yet another, it aimed towards Margar, forcing him to slow down and eventually stop in order to block the technique.

It wasn't enough to do more than scratch him, but it gave Tien the gap he needed to slip away and fly straight at Articho. Both his hands were placed on his forehead, aiming towards a single point in between his eyes. Then, he yelled:

"Solar Flare!"

An overwhelming burst of light, brighter than the Sun, rolled across the entire battlefield, blinding everyone who directly looked at it. Articho and Caesa, both caught unaware, were both taken by it, and had to drop everything in order to clutch onto their eyes.

"Argh... What the..." the Saiyan gushed out under his breath. The energy he had gathered above his palm had faded.

The one who wasn't blinded by the technique was Piccolo – and now that Caesa was stunned by the Solar Flare, he broke the pillar paralysis technique without much difficulty. Psionic constructs broke apart, shattering like glass and disintegrating into nothingness. With a frustrated grunt, Piccolo spread his arms wide – and, seeing his main target right in front of him, blinded and helpless, he briefly showed a toothy grin.

"Clear the way. This will get... large."

Tien merely nodded his head – and suddenly lunged at Caesa, smashing him away with his elbow and throwing him to a nearby boulder. Piccolo, meanwhile, clasped his hands in front of him and began gathering energy in between them with a loud roar. The sheer density of the ki built up before his chest began sending trembles across the surroundings and sent destructive sparks rolling through the ground like thunder.

Articho's blindness slowly cleared out, his eye receptors getting back into working order – yet, once he raised his eyes after a few blinks, he was overwhelmed with light yet again.

"LIGHT GRENADE!"

An utterly enormous blast of ki consumed the Saiyan and almost a mile of land in front of Piccolo, rolling through like a tidal wave and easily breaking down everything in its path. All of the fighters who remained standing in the fight turned their attention to the technique, awed and shocked by its overwhelming power. Margar finally managed to swat the Spirit Ball away and, staring at the Light Grenade, gritted his teeth in concern.

That's... not good.

Seconds later, the technique ceased and its burst faded, allowing Piccolo to slowly lower his arms, with laboured breaths. Articho was no longer visible. His body slowly peeled off the scorched side of a mountain, almost two kilometres away, crashing downwards. It was a miracle that the Battle Armor survived the attack – partially, at least. The left side of the armoured jacket was completely broken down, leaving a tattered black jumpsuit underneath, while the scouter was shattered to pieces. Falling to one rock, then the next, the Saiyan slid down almost lifeless, before he finally landed on solid ground and weakly pulled himself onto his knees.

Not... enough. Not... enough variables accounted for.

He knew that their team attack on Piccolo was a gamble, and so they suffered the price. What was left for them, now? In this state, he's too weak to challenge the Namekian, and even if he was... Those damn Earthlings keep on interfering, each one pulling off new techniques from their sleeves...

It was reminiscent of their first fight with Trombone – when they, too, jumped to a fight with too little information, and so paid the price. All they could do was stall and escape. Was such a strategy available to them now? Articho wasn't sure. Certainly, if they had a way to safely retreat from Earth, it'd have been a whole lot easier before he was wasted like this. And if all four of them were here.

Was this it, then? Was it over?

Articho looked down at his wounded palm. There's... one option. The other, left hand moved to his waist, sensing fur that was warm to the touch. Almost on instinct, it recoiled.

How could I... have gone so low... as to consider that disgusting transformation?

It was diametrically opposed to everything Articho stood for. He saw himself as a strategist, whose wit and planning are his strongest ability, who fights by necessity and not because he is fuelled by some mistaken desire for battle – whereas the Oozaru was the embodiment of primitive Saiyan fury.

Releasing a sigh, Articho closed his eyes, and spoke to himself with oozing bitterness.

"One time. One time. This means no victory for you, don't be overjoyed."

Having stopped when the massive burst of the Light Grenade lit up just under the horizon, Gohan and Chiaotzu watched the dispersing energy, shocked.

"That... that feels like Piccolo's energy..." the half-Saiyan confirmed. Yet, he wasn't sure what that told him. The amount of ki released was far greater than anyone else in the battle, so that must be good – yet, Piccolo pulling out such a last resort technique was concerning...

"We should go check on them," Chiaotzu asserted. Gohan nodded and answered:

"Yeah!"

None of the energies of the other defenders of Earth had vanished, so the Articho Force must have not managed to kill anyone thus far. Perhaps this'll make it easier to convince Mr. Piccolo and the others that-

"Huh?" Gohan called out, stopping in the air yet again. A small ball of energy fired off into the sky, barely visible from so high up, and then stopped, hovering and expanding.

"Gohan, what's wrong?"

"That's... that's no ki attack..."

Suddenly, a deep, powerful roar rolled across the entire wasteland, getting the attention of everyone. Piccolo, his allies on the ground, the two remaining members of the Force, Gohan and Chiaotzu coming as reinforcements...

Rocks and boulders broke, pushed aside by a rapidly growing biomass. A gigantic furry creature arose from the lands scorched by the Light Grenade and swiftly developed monkey-like features – a long toothy jaw, a massive tail whipping across the air...

A level of power many, many times above what the Saiyan had shown – well past everyone on Earth, at once.