Episode 49
Friendly Guests?
Five days had passed.
The Saiyan pod in which Vegeta rested inside continued to travel many distances in space, yet it was very close now in reaching its destination. Vegeta's wounds were not getting any better, which came as a terrible sign to the prince, his overall being, he knew, now at critical state. He was using a life supporter to somehow keep himself living. His injuries were too great and agonizing, but the anger and pride inside his heart burnt. He swore he will seek revenge very soon for he will never accept defeat especially against an ordinary fighter who can outclass a royal elite.
After traveling for days enduring injuries, Vegeta opened an eye to look outside and realized he had finally arrived to his destination, a planet much unknown to others. His Saiyan pod entered the atmosphere, prepared to take landing.
Upon entering the planet, it was clearly night outside and many buildings were distributed and built amongst the land. The structure of these buildings appeared to be like a military base or an armory squad. Vegeta's spaceship shot out like a meteor and landed at the launching station area.
From the inside of one of those buildings, two alien soldiers dressed in futuristic armors were playing chess to pass time until the computer beside them indicated about a Saiyan pod.
"Huh? Someone just landed and he looks very familiar to me," one soldier observed.
"Could it be Prince Vegeta? Along with Nappa and Raditz?" the other asked.
A third soldier examined closer who was on the computer. "It could be. Let's go meet them."
They headed out from their base and proceeded outside. With Vegeta holding the title as the Prince of all Saiyans, they must stand firm and straight. As stiff as they can be, they were intimidated by Vegeta since he came from a regal bloodline; thus, he had every right to wipe them out like tiny insects if he wanted to.
The soldiers were anticipating two more Saiyan pods to land alongside Vegeta's, but those ships did not come.
"Where's Nappa and Raditz?" the first soldier panicked a little.
"Why they're not with Prince Vegeta?" the other asked.
The startled, confused soldiers waited for Vegeta to come out from his ship, but he did not, which worried them more. One of the soldiers came up to the Saiyan pod and realized Vegeta had an oxygen mask on his mouth. He was shocked and quickly informed his corrodes that the prince was using a life supporter. They were forced to open the door of the Saiyan pod and had to bring Vegeta into the Isolation Chambers where his wounds can be treated immediately. Inside the treatment room, Vegeta was placed inside a tank filled with medicinal water.
The anxious solders assumed that he went through heavy combat as well as Nappa and Raditz. They still wondered where the two were though.
"It doesn't really matter," the third soldier shook his head while he was monitoring Vegeta's vital signals. "Let's treat the prince's wounds as soon as possible before he's the next one to fall."
They did not know though that Nappa was betrayed and had been killed by the hands of Vegeta while Raditz had completely changed at heart.
At another location of the universe, the Z-fighters' spacecraft continued to head to the direction of K5162. Krillin was busying himself having to clean up Bulma's mess again. Raditz was helping his nephew with his studies while Bardock was in the washroom, freshening himself up by cleaning his face. Bulma was still in her bed, taking a nap.
"So what do I have to do on this problem? I'm kinda lost," asked Gohan who had his math workbook opened.
"Break the question piece by piece. They have different numbers in each of the denominator, so what do you have to do in order to get them to the same denominator?" Raditz gave him a hint.
"Oh!" Gohan realized. "Get the least common multiple, of course!"
"Right, and don't forget. This is a mixed fraction so you need to first convert this to…?" he asked.
"Uh…an improper fraction, right? Do mixed fractions always lead to improper fractions?" Gohan asked.
"Yeah, no matter what. Do the math and you'll see," Raditz answered.
In the bathroom, Bardock was drying his face with a towel. When he looked at his own reflection in the mirror, he saw his scar on the left side of his cheek. At that point, many memories lingered in his mind. That name of the power-hungry sovereign echoed in the depths of his conscious.
He had a very serious look until he gasped in fright again when another vision passed in his head. He saw their own ship landing to Namek and Bardock could see himself in that vision, appearing to be frightened and anxious as he was hearing this nasty laughter echoing from a distance, and this malevolent mirth belonged to a being he knew too well.
He placed his right hand against his forehead as that vision brought him an unnecessary headache while his left hand gripped on the side of the sink.
He then shook his head and tried to calm himself down. Why was he hearing that bloodcurdling laughter in his vision? Perhaps the image that he had was simply trying to over-exaggerate. The constant worry, this unforgettable rage, and his deep-rooted fear about Frieza he had for so long sometimes manifested itself in his visions.
He must not let it get him distracted from his training though.
His mind was soon at ease. He put the cloth back on the towel stand. He turned off the lights and closed the door behind him, but the moment he stepped out, the ship suddenly made a heavy shake.
"Rrrgh!" Bardock cannot believe he was caught almost off-guarded, he nearly tripped. While he was adjusting himself to this unexpected turbulence, he heard Krillin yelling, "Woah, what's that?!"
"Huh?" Bardock walked quickly to the main interior of the ship. "What's going on?"
"Look, Grandpa Bardock!" Gohan pointed out of the window anxiously while holding onto his study desk.
Bardock glanced outside and noticed interstellar gases of different colors with thunderbolts and lightning as if they were passing a thunderstorm. The only difference was they were in space instead. To him, this was all too familiar, merely a déjà vu for him. "Not again…"
Raditz was trying to maintain his balance while he asked with confusion, "What do you mean 'not again'?"
"Hey, we need to get Bulma!" Krillin brought up. "We might be going in the wrong direction!"
Bardock shook his head. "No, it's nothing really to worry about unless you're training in the gravity room now. It's just a recent Nebula that just exploded."
"It looks pretty dangerous though!" Gohan remarked.
"If you have stuff that can hit you or might trip over, of course," Bardock said.
The ship kept vigorously moving from side-to-side and up and down. Everyone tried to maintain their stability to the best they can, but they cannot prevent their stuff and belongings from cluttering all over the place.
"Hey, is Bulma okay?!" Gohan asked.
"I'll have to go to her," Krillin ran to her bedroom and opened the door. To his surprise, he found her all sound asleep despite this disturbing turbulence. "What the…? Hey, Bulma!" he tried to wake her up. "We're going through a recent Nebula storm! You need to get up so you won't hurt yourself."
Bulma had her sleeping mask on. She quietly pulled the blankets over her face. She may be awake, but she can still fall right back to sleep despite this commotion. "Yeah, I know that. Don't worry about it though. It won't hurt us. Just do what you need to do," she immediately fell right back to sleep.
"What?" Krillin scratched his head in confusion.
Gohan was still trying to hold onto his desk, but he accidentally spread his math work all over the floor. "Aww!" he said with disappointment.
Raditz kept his back against the wall. "Don't tell me we have to clean all this mess again!"
Suddenly, the ship suddenly went upside-down, which caught everyone off-guarded and they all crashed up and down. Once, the ship took a full 360-degree turn and they all fell to the floor and bumped themselves in the ceiling.
Raditz accidentally fell on top of his father and he growled in response.
"Rrrgh!" Bardock felt slight pain from his fall. "Man, Raditz, you've gotten heavy. Did you gain some pounds or something?"
"What?!" Raditz seemed irritated about it. "I haven't eaten anything yet!"
"Heh, heh, just joking," Bardock chuckled lightly. Even in situations like these, he liked to make a few small jokes if he was in the mood for them.
Krillin was hitting his head too many times against the ceiling and walls. He noticed Bulma continuing to sleep in her room, not noticing she was flying everywhere.
"I mean, really! How could Bulma still sleep from all of this?!" Krillin wondered.
Bardock thought that this Nebula storm was just taking too long to finish, he stood up and sat on the pilot seat. "Okay, that's it!" he piloted the ship himself, trying to keep it in place while it was going through this Nebula explosion, but it was clearly difficult to do so.
In minutes' time though, the ship had finally escaped from the Nebula storm without experiencing any damages or technical difficulties to its engine.
Gohan blinked his eyes. "That's finally over!"
Bardock heaved a sigh, leaning against the seat.
Lo and behold, Bulma woke up and suddenly found herself on the floor. She stretched out her arms and yawned. "Ooh! Did I fall from my bed? I must've had a dream…"
Krillin really had no idea how could she simply believe that she just fell from her bed whereas she was actually floating and bumping into things in her room. How could she not notice all this clutter?
"I'm gonna go and get a snack," Bulma said, going out of her room. She then found Krillin lying on the floor with a bunch of things on his head. "Huh? What were you trying to do, Krillin? Sit-ups?" she giggled.
Krillin just simply shook his head, remaining on the floor. "I still couldn't understand how she did it."
When Bulma went to the main interior of the ship, practically ignoring the mess everywhere once again, she noticed Bardock sitting on the pilot seat, her seat. "Hey, what are you trying to do, Bardock? I'm in charge of the ship!" she was a little annoyed.
Bardock folded his arms and kept to where he was. He raised an eyebrow. "I assume you know what happened during your restful slumber?"
"Yeah, there was a Nebula storm, but I won't let that ruin my beauty sleep. Now hand me over the wheel. I'll see where we are now," Bulma walked over to him and she was about to take charge until up ahead, she saw a mint-green planet with fog surrounding it.
"Huh? Wait, already?" she exclaimed with surprise and now, she was feeling excited. "Guys, guys! Look! I can see Namek up ahead!"
"What?" they all asked, hardly believing that their trip had taken them this short to get there.
"Go on, move!" Bulma had to push Bardock aside so that she could sit on her seat. She began making calculations and collecting data about this planet.
"You cheeky little…," Bardock was getting more annoyed with her especially for pushing him like that.
Bulma completely ignored him, however. She could not sit still on her seat actually, her heart racing with more excitement. "Yes, it is Namek! Whoo hoo!" she cheered, knowing they were only moments away from reviving their lost friends with the DragonBalls.
Bardock, Krillin, Raditz, and Gohan had doubts in their minds.
Krillin tilted his head to the side. "Are you sure that's-"
"-Planet Namek?" Gohan asked, finishing his sentence.
"But it hasn't been ten days yet," Raditz mentioned.
"No, the info here doesn't lie," Bulma proudly said. "I'm very certain that's Planet Namek. Come on. Strap yourselves in, boys!"
Bardock immediately remembered what Zeshin had warned him before and so, he had to step in and stop her for a moment. "Listen, Bulma. That planet is not Namek. It's only meant to deceive you."
Bulma pointed at the screen while telling him, "But tell me what these coordinates say, Bardock? It says 'K5162'! We're already at Namek!"
"But it hasn't been ten days," Bardock reiterated what his eldest son said.
"Well, what the heck? Probably that Nebula storm made us time travel or something!" Bulma tried to reason out. She was clearly not convinced.
Raditz rolled his eyes and found her statement ridiculous.
"Ugh!" Bulma became more irritated. "Why don't you Saiyans trust my intellect for once? I'm the one who's the planet expert here, so hush!" she scolded them.
"Planet expert? You've got to be kidding me," Raditz now felt annoyed with her. "As if you traveled all around the universe your whole life more than we Saiyans had!"
Bulma continued to argue with him and Bardock, trying to convince them that she was right in everything. Gohan and Krillin simply stood to where they where while debating to themselves if they should find this amusing or not.
Both Bardock and Raditz almost had to take the wheel from her to make her move away from this planet, which they claimed to be a fake Namek, but Bulma was faster than she looked, she already pressed the landing button and they were too late. The ship took high speed, entered the planet immediately, and prepared for landing. While entering the planet, she had an evil, triumphant-like laughter to herself, wanting to do things her way. The background behind her was getting all cluttered and messy again, and Krillin and the others had to endure such quakes and turbulence.
Soon, Bulma made a perfect landing without making a scratch on their spaceship, but of course, the interior of the ship now looked like a waste landfill.
"Here we are!" she chirped.
Gohan shook his head. "She could've at least given us time to use our seat belts."
The mess that he was covered with, Bardock emerged from it. He could feel his temperature soaring above his head and if nothing can be done to calm him down now, he might literally explode this time. "For the last time…Bulma…," he kept his voice low, yet clearly frustrated, "this is not Namek…"
"Oh?" Bulma was not at all intimidated by him. "Then why not we take a look outside? Maybe you'll be persuaded this time."
He including Raditz could only face-palmed themselves. She was too stubborn; she would not listen to anybody.
The Z-warriors went out of their ship and observed their surroundings. They actually saw thousands of very tall trees implanted almost everywhere, the trees almost as high with fresh rivers and lakes. It was all a natural history without a single speck or dirt at sight.
"This is Namek?" asked Gohan.
"Wait a sec, but I thought Namek's still going through changes," Krillin thought, "according to what King Kai told us."
"I also thought of that," Raditz kept his eyes fixed at one angle.
"Hmm," Bulma began to think. She then pulled out her Dragon Rader from one of the pockets of her space suit and held the device in front of her, "well, probably King Kai made a mistake. Now, to look for those DragonBalls. If we get a signal here, then you're all be convinced that we've come to the right place!"
As she kept the Dragon Radar up high, towards the sun shining upon them, they heard two voices from a distance.
"Hello," those two greeted.
"Huh?" Bulma put down her device to the side. She and the rest of her friends saw two creatures standing in front of them. They actually looked like Piccolo and wore similar clothing as he did.
Bulma gasped in surprise and she said with a smile, "Wait, you look like Piccolo and Kami…you must be Namekians!"
The two creatures nodded to her, saying that she was correct.
Krillin slipped his hands inside his pocket. "Well…maybe this is Namek after all."
Gohan asked him, "You think?"
"Of course!" Bulma exclaimed. "And they must be nice, too!"
"Yes, you have nothing to fear. We are very peace-loving creatures. I'm Raiti," the one named Raiti introduced himself.
"And I am Zaacro," the other also introduced himself.
The two then spread their arms wide and welcomed them to Planet Namek. Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan felt they could trust them after all; however, Raditz and Bardock knew there was something too devious about this.