Surprise! Two chapters in two days! Enjoy!
Chapter 7
Tien ran along the endless white stone of Snake Way, like he had for the past five months. Everyday he traveled across the bland white stone, all the while hoping that one day he would see the end of this god forsaken road. Every day the sight was the same, just the never ending road that stretched out before him and the golden clouds that surrounded the path. Tien was hardly even able to keep track of how long he had been traveling and he never knew if it was night or day since his surroundings never changed. He just kept running forward, hoping that one day he would finally arrive at the mythical King Kai's.
He finally stopped running and began to pant as he bent over trying to get some air into his exhausted body. It might be time for another mediation day, he thought as he straightened himself. He had been running ever since his fight with Raditz since he didn't have any energy left after the fight to fly. Now he was finally running out of steam again. Tien looked down the path and saw that there was a large hill in the path directly in front of him.
"Might as well get to the top of the hill before I stop," he said too himself as he began to walk up the hill. He saw no reason to run since he didn't want to waste any energy and since it wasn't very far. Even though he was walking, he made it up the hill in no time at hill and from his high vantage point he could see several miles down the path. As he prepared to sit down at the top of the hill, his third eye spotted something.
"No way, I must be seeing things," muttered Tien as he turned all three of eyes down the path. Several miles away, there looked to be some sort of tail like thing and, the road seemed to end there! Tien shook his head and looked again, but the tail and the end of Snake Way was still there. "It's the end!" he shouted.
All thoughts of being too tired to run evaporated and in a matter of seconds Tien was at the end of the long path. He jumped for joy, his usual stoicism forgotten as he celebrated the completion of his monumental task. He had made it to the end of Snake Way! He had really done it, he had traveled the entire long seemingly never ending trail and now he was here to receive King Kai's training.
But where was King Kai? Tien looked around from the end of the trail, but all he saw was the gold clouds that had surrounded Snake Way his entire trip. "Where is he?" Tien asked out loud as he continued to frantically look around for any sign of a legendary martial arts master. Of course Tien hadn't expected the kai to just be standing at the end with open arms, but he had thought there would be some sort of sign of his existence.
"What is this, some kind of bad joke?" asked Tien angrily. Of course he traveled all this way, five months of constant flying or running, just to find nothing at the end. "Just my luck," he muttered as he lay on his back. He closed his eyes while he fumed about being sent on this wild goose chase. Kami and that King Yemma fellow were probably having a good life right about now. The next thing they'll tell him is that saiyans aren't actually coming to Earth, to destroy it and everyone on it.
Tien finally opened his eyes to stare up into the pink sky of Otherworld, but he saw something that was out of place. High in the sky was a sphere that looked like a small planet. Tien stood up and then looked again at the small sphere and saw that it indeed was a planet and it looked like there was a house there as well. Maybe he hadn't been lied to after all.
With some new inspiration, Tien fly up to hover at the same height as the planet. "Huh this must be where King Kai lives," remarked Tien as he looked over the tiny little planet. The planet was so small that Tien could see both the top and bottom of the planet at the same time. The planet was completely covered in green grass except where a paved road traveled around the entire planet. There were also several trees that looked similar to trees back on Earth that were spread out across the surface of the planet. There was a small yellow domed structure that Tien figured must be the kai's house and a shed that was built near the house. On the paved road, was an old red car that was kept in good condition, but Tien didn't know why. It wasn't like the owner could drive anywhere but 20 feet around the planet.
As he floated above the planet, he suddenly felt a strong force pulling him towards the tiny planet. It was the gravitational pull of the planet that was beginning to pull on the three eyed earthling. Tien's body began to shake and then he was quickly pulled down onto the surface of the planet. Tien was face planted into the ground and then when he tried to stand he found he could not because of the intense gravity.
"Man this gravity is intense," grunted Tien as he tried to push himself up off of the ground. After struggling with the gravity for a few seconds, Tien finally was able to lift the top half of his body but his torso was sent back to the ground after his body gave out from the strain of the heavy gravity. "This is nuts! You have to be super strong just to stand up here." After fighting against the gravity for another minute, Tien was finally able to stand up, but there was a constant strain on his body while he looked around.
Tien looked over to the yellow domed house and began to walk in that direction. "That house must be where King Kai must live, so he's probably in there." Tien began to walk towards the house at a painfully slow pace. Every step was a battle as it took him swinging his entire body just to get his legs move across the planet. With every step though, it seemed to get a little easier for Tien to walk as his body slowly became accustomed to the high gravity.
After several minutes of the toughest steps Tien had ever taken in his live, Tien finally reached the doorway of the house. Tien was breathing heavily after traveling over the most difficult twenty feet in his life. With a deep breath, Tien walked through the doorway and entered the house of King Kai.
The first thing he noticed about the home of the legendary King Kai was how small it was. Unlike the homes of the other deities Tien had encountered so far, this home was a one room house with a stove for cooking, a table, and a bed by one of the two windows. This humble home was a sharp contrast to the large extravagant palaces that housed Kami, King Yemma, and Princess Snake. Tien could appreciate a man that enjoyed the simpler things in life rather than fancy and expensive things.
While Tien looked around the small house a voice from behind him surprised him. "Well it seems that just barraging into someone's home is acceptable now of day aye." Tien tried to spin around to face the mysterious voice, but because of the high gravity Tien was only able to get his body partially turned around until it was whipped back. Tien lost his balance and fell onto the floor of the house.
The mysterious voice began to laugh and Tien looked up to see the man behind the laughter. Standing above Tien, was a short, plump blue man that wore a black coat that bore a symbol Tien had never seen before and a red long sleeve undershirt. The blue man wore sunglasses that covered his small eyes and on the top of his head he wore a black hat with two antennas coming out of the top of it.
"Are you King Kai?" asked Tien as he struggled to stand back up. It took him only a few seconds but it was still quite a task.
"Yes I am." responded the short blue man as he examined his unexpected guest. "And you must be some poor sap that needs my amazing training so that you can become a great hero right."
"No sir. My name is Tien Shinhan and I am from the planet Earth. I am here to receive your training so that I will be able to defend my planet from two evil saiyans that are arriving there in less than I year. The guardian of my planet, Kami, brought me to King Yemma so that I could get his permission to travel down Snake Way to get here and receive your training so that I will be able to beat these saiyans that are threatening my home. Now that I am here, I humbly ask you to teach me."
"Hum," said King Kai as he brought his hand to his chin and began to think. "I have been watching what has been going down on Earth and I am aware of the saiyans that are heading towards your planet. Very well I agree that I will train you, if you can pass my test."
Tien looked at King Kai and gave him a confident nod. "Sure I'm ready for anything now."
King Kai's glasses seemed to gleam as some light reflected across the lens as he turned around to head back outside. Tien followed the martial arts master outside of the house and decided to start up a conversation before they began this test King Kai had for him.
"So, King Kai how long have you been here on this planet?"
"Oh, I'd say about a thousand years now."
Tien looked at the short blue man with some surprise as King Kai turned back around to face Tien once they were back outside. The plump master had a small smile on his face as he looked over his newest student. "Well I guess that makes you pretty old," said Tien as he began to do shoulder rolls trying to release some of the tension that had built up in them from walking around in the intense gravity. It was getting easier for Tien to move on the tiny planet, but it still took a lot of effort just stand in the high gravity.
"Better to be pretty old than ugly old, get it." King Kai began to laugh at his own joke while Tien just looked at the martial arts master dumbfounded. "Ha-ha, not too bad if I do say so myself. I'm to be in the zone today, I can feel it. You can laugh you know."
Tien shook his head. "Uh no thanks."
"Humph, tough crowd. Okay so you want some more do ya. Let's see, my uncle is so large that when he sits around the house he REALLY sits around the house." Again the joke was met by a blank stare from the stoic Tien who was wondering when this test would be given.
King Kai however had already moved onto his next joke and he was pretending to answer a phone after it had rung several times. "Hello, yes, you don't say. Ah, you don't say, oh my gosh." King Kai covered his mouth as a fit of giggles took over him after he had completed his joke.
"Who are you talking to?" asked Tien who was slightly concerned that King Kai may in fact be insane.
"He didn't say!" yelled King Kai and he covered his mouth again as he continued to giggle. "Thank you very much, well I just flew in from Snake Way and boy are my arms tired! Ha now that's comedy!" King Kai was almost doubled over from laughing so hard by this point, but Tien still didn't understand what his new master was doing.
"Are you alright?" he asked the man he was sure was insane.
King Kai immediately stopped laughing and looked up solemnly at his new student. "Okay I guess you didn't enjoy my act did ya."
"Well King Kai, I thought we were going to train, but…"
"Train! My foot! How could you train? You wouldn't recognize a good joke if it came up and bit you!" Tien was slightly alarmed by the short blue kai's outburst and moved back a few steps from the fuming kai. "Forget it! I won't train anyone with no sense of humor."
Tien quickly bowed before King Kai, who had now turned his back on the three eyed fighter. "Please King Kai, I'm sorry if I some how offended you. I admit, I'm not very good with jokes, but I need your training to save the Earth."
King Kai turned back around with a gleam in his eye as he looked at his bowing student. "Well I guess I could train you, on one condition."
Tien leaned forward full of anticipation, "Anything King Kai, you name it."
"You have to make me laugh." Tien nearly fell over again, from King Kai's request. This was ridiculous! He was trying to get strong enough so he could save his planet, not trying to start a comedy tour! Plus, if there was one thing he wasn't good at, it was being funny. "As I said before, I won't train anyone who doesn't have a sense of humor. So you have to prove to me that you do have one before I train you, but it has to be a funny one or it doesn't count."
"But King Kai I can't do that!"
King Kai chuckled and then said, "Well then I guess you don't want to be trained then. Come on, I'm sure you have a good joke or two hidden somewhere in that brain of yours."
"Okay fine I'll do it, just hold on for a minute."
"Oh good, remember don't get all pent up. Staying loose is the key; you can ruin a good joke if your delivery is off."
Tien searched through his mind trying to find any thing that might pass as a joke. He came up with nothing. He had never had time for jokes before he was always training and he didn't find very many funny anyway. The only type of humor he enjoyed was situational humor and that was hard to come by. Then, as he was searching through his mind again, he vaguely remembered a joke that Yamacha had told one time at one of Bulma's reunion parties. He concentrated trying to remember the joke but he was interrupted by a certain short blue kai.
"Well having trouble are we? Just give up and go then!"
"No wait, I'm ready," answered Tien as he finally remembered the joke. He slowly walked towards King Kai and then stopped a few feet away from the short blue master. "Alright let's do this."
"Give it your best shot."
Tien began to sweat as he thought about actually having to say one of Yamacha's terrible jokes. He blushed as he said, "You can tune, wait what was next."
"Oh better luck next time," mocked King Kai as he looked at the three eyed fighter slightly disappointed.
Tien closed his eyes and began to mediate. I've never felt such pressure! I have to focus and tell this joke right or King Kai won't train me. The fate of the world rest on me just telling one joke!
"Wait." King Kai turned around to see that Tien was now slightly glowing as he began to power up.
"Oh my, he's taking this seriously!" said King Kai as he watched Tien literally power up to tell a joke.
Tien's eyes snapped open and then he yelled, "You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish!" King Kai yelled as he was literally blown back from the power of Tien's voice yelling the joke. Suddenly there were four Tien's that faced King Kai on all sides. The short blue master looked around and slightly cringed when the four Tien's yelled, "Did you call all that King Kai? You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish!"
There was a flash of light, and Tien was panting after having brought himself back into one body. He waited anxiously to see if King Kai had laughed at his joke. He looked and saw that King Kai was trembling and Tien thought that he would never get his training now. But then, King Kai burst into laughter and actually flew on the ground and began rolling around. Tien breathed a sigh of relief and then he waited for the short blue kai to stand back up.
"Oh my, that was a good one," he said as he wiped the tears of joy off his face. "Alright kid you're in. Now since that I know you're from Earth I know you're having trouble with the gravity, correct."
"Yeah, I just can't seem to get use to this gravity."
"Not surprising, since it's ten times stronger than Earth's gravity. Go ahead and jump as high as you can." Tien nodded and then jumped as high as he could, he got about thirty feet into the air and then he was sent crashing back down to the tiny planet. He was able to land on his feet, but the impact jarred his legs severely and seconds after he landed he fell on his butt.
"Wow, this is really embarrassing. I could only jump that high, that's not good. I must be really struggling with this gravity."
While Tien was ridiculing himself, King Kai was thinking about how high the three eyed earthling had been able to jump. Amazing, if he can jump that high in ten times his own gravity, than their may be hope for him yet.
"Okay Tien, let's begin the training. But first, how long do you plan on staying here?"
"Well I was thinking as long as I can until I have to go back to fight against the saiyans."
"Ah yes the saiyans, we need to find out for sure what day the saiyans will be arriving on Earth so we know how much time you have for training." King Kai focused all of his mental powers onto tracking the saiyans and it did not take him long to locate the two saiyan space pods. "Ah yes there they are, two of them. I'm afraid though they don't come any stronger than these two. Oh boy, you sure are in a pickle. Let's see if the continue on their current speed they'll arrive on Earth in approximately 173 days."
Tien looked at his new master with amazement. He was quite impressed that the short blue kai had been able to determine exactly when the saiyans would arrive by just using his mind. "Wow, you can tell all that, that's amazing King Kai!"
"No your amazing sweet heart. Now that's good!" responded King Kai in his imitation of a 1960's male movie star. King Kai brought his hands back to his mouth and he began to laugh again until he noticed that Tien hadn't joined in. King Kai stopped laughing and then stood up straight and became serious again.
"I see you still don't have an appreciation for good comedy but I'll let it slide this one time."
"No King Kai I thought it was a great joke," lied Tien so that he would stay on his new master's good side. "It's just that that means I only have 173 days left to train for the saiyans and that's not great if you know what I mean. I lost half of the time I could have been training just to get here."
"Oh nonsense," said King Kai with a wave of his hand. "173 days is plenty of time. Training under me, on this planet, with this intense gravity non-stop for 173 days is equivalent to training on Earth for several years. You will be far ahead of your friends back on Earth."
"Wow that's great King Kai!"
"There is one thing though. Even with all this training, it still doesn't guarantee you victory. The two saiyans that are on their way too Earth rank among some of the greatest fighters in the entire universe. Those particular two, well they're even stronger than me."
"What!" said Tien with alarm. "Stronger, but that means…"
"Yes that means that you will have to become even stronger than me. Hope that doesn't scare you too bad. Okay now that's out of the way, how about we go ahead and start the training. Bubbles well you come here."
Tien who was still trying to process that too beat the saiyans; he would have to become stronger than the legendary martial arts master himself. He knew he was going to have to do some serious training for the next 173 days if he was going to have any chance of beating these saiyans. When he looked up, he saw something he had never expected to see for the beginning of his intense training. There was a brown monkey waddling over to stand next to King Kai, and the blue martial arts master laughed when he saw the expression on Tien's face.
"You should see your face, it's priceless! Anyway, Bubbles here is use to the intense gravity here, so I want you too try and catch him. Until you can move around that easily in this gravity, you won't be ready for the next step in the training."
"That's my training? Okay no problem, I can catch a monkey." Tien smirked as he prepared to lunge out and grab the monkey. He lunged forward to grab the monkey, but as soon as he jumped the intense gravity brought him down sooner than expected and Bubbles merely walked out of the three eyed fighter's reach.
Tien forced himself back up and began to chase after the monkey at a relatively slow pace. He was now able to walk in the gravity decently enough, but he could still not move very fast. At first Bubbles merely walked around the planet with Tien following as close behind him as he could. After several hours though, Tien grew accustomed to the gravity enough that he was able to start running after the primate.
The three eyed earthling laughed when he realized he was gaining ground on the monkey. "Better watch Bubbles, I'm gaining on you!" he said as he prepared to leap onto the monkey. As soon as Tien jumped over, Bubbles feet began moving at superhuman speed and he moved half way down the planet in a single second. Tien landed face first onto the hard ground and then looked up to see the monkey doing a victory dance about twenty yards away.
"Great, he's got an overdrive," moaned Tien as he forced himself back up to his feet and continued to chase the little brown monkey. "This is going to be harder than I thought."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Piccolo blocked several flying kicks that Gohan had sent his way and then went on the offense. He threw several rapid fire punches at the kid and watched with some pride as Gohan managed to block all of his blows. Gohan suddenly was surrounded by a golden aura and he flew at Piccolo. With no time to react, Piccolo took a hard punch to the face from his small student.
Piccolo wiped some purple blood from his face and then smiled down at his young pupil. It had been the first time the kid had actually hit during the whole month he had been training the kid how to fight. "Nice punch there kid, but DON'T STOP!" yelled Piccolo as he punched Gohan down to the river below.
In a flash Piccolo was standing on a rock in the middle of the swift river. He looked down when he saw Gohan being swept by the currents in the river. The kid managed to grab hold of the rock Piccolo was standing on and then he looked up at his green mentor.
"Hey Piccolo, can you help me out here please?" Gohan reached his hand up to grab hold of Piccolo's giant extended hand. As soon as Gohan had grabbed hold of one of his fingers, Piccolo lifted the small boy up so that he was at eye level.
"There will be no help!" yelled Piccolo as he began to attack the kid once again. The kid tried to go on the defensive after Piccolo let go of him and attacked him with both arms, but Piccolo was too fast for his small student and he knocked Gohan back into the river. The small boy gasped for air as he was dragged down the river and out of Piccolo's sight.
"I've got to keep pushing Gohan because I know he can reach a new level before the saiyans arrive," Piccolo told himself. He was feeling a little guilty for deceiving his pupil but he told himself it was for the best and he began to float back up too were they had been sparring before. Piccolo looked around and noticed that the sun was beginning to drop so he decided that once Gohan managed to get back too where he was they would call it a day.
It took about ten minutes for Gohan to make his way back to where his master was standing in wait for him. The young half-saiyan was covered in bruises and one of eyes was swollen shut. Gohan, despite his multiple injuries, got into his fighting stance and prepared to go for another round with his mentor. Piccolo swelled with pride at the sight of the kid's determination and will to fight.
"We are done for today kid, come on let's go back to camp." Without waiting to see if his pupil was following him, Piccolo took off towards the mountain where he and the kid had set up a small campsite on the side of the mountain. By the time the mentor and his pupil arrived back at their campsite, the sun had set and Gohan immediately collapsed at the spot he had been sleeping at for the past month.
Piccolo grabbed some of the food the kid had gathered earlier and handed it to the half-saiyan. He crossed his legs and watch Gohan quickly scarf down all of the food in a few seconds. Like father like son thought Piccolo as Gohan burped after finishing his dinner. The kid then laid his back against the side of the mountain and looked up to admire the stars that had already come out.
"It's not too bad out here once you get use to it huh Gohan," said Piccolo as he watched Gohan look up at the sky with fascination.
"It's beautiful," responded Gohan without taking his eyes of the sky. After a second of silence, Gohan turned his gaze to his mentor and then asked, "Mr. Piccolo, how come you and my dad fight each other some times?"
Piccolo looked away from his young student and thought about the kid's dad. Piccolo had been asking himself that very question ever since he had begun training with Goku several months ago. In truth, he himself had nothing against Goku. The heroic fighter had never done anything to him specifically, but the only reason he had even been born was so he could get revenge on Goku for his father's death and so he could conquer the world. However, all motivation for either of those seemed to have dissipated over the last few months. It just seemed that most of the evil in his heart was now gone after spending the last six months with Goku and his son.
"Ah forget about it kid, it's a long story. Besides, I don't think your dad and I are going to be doing too much more fighting anyhow."
"Wow that sounds really great. See I want to invite you too my birthday party, but my mom won't allow any fighting." Piccolo growled and glared at his pupil, but Gohan continued talking. "Ah come on, it will be fun! Besides I know deep down you're a really great guy."
Piccolo felt the sting of embarrassment and then snapped at his pupil. "I am great at the art of fighting, and so will you once I'm done with you. Now stop bothering me with your sentimental rubbish and go to sleep." Gohan nodded and then laid his head down. By the time Piccolo had put out the fire, the young half-saiyan was sound asleep.
Piccolo checked to make sure his student was asleep and then took off into the sky. He flew towards the training area that he and Goku had been sparring at for the past six months. Ever since he had begun to train Gohan, they had been sparring together at night while Gohan was asleep since Piccolo didn't need to sleep.
While Piccolo flew though, his mind was not on the spar he was about to have with Goku but back at camp with his young pupil. "I've never had real feelings for anyone before in my life," said Piccolo as he neared the training area. "Humph, I don't like the feeling either." Piccolo landed in the training area where Goku was already waiting for him.
"Hey Piccolo," greeted Goku with his usual cheer. He finished his stretch and then leaped over to Piccolo. "So how was training with Gohan?"
Piccolo shrugged, "He's getting better, and he actually got a good hit on me today."
Goku laughed. "It won't be too long before he surpasses both of us with the way he's improving. He is way stronger than I was at his age. I can't wait to see how strong he becomes when he's all grown up!"
"Yeah he'll be something alright," responded Piccolo. He began to rotate his shoulders and then said, "Guess what Gohan asked me today."
"Did he ask you if you were a Yoshi? Because I've wondered that myself sometimes," joked Goku. He of course knew that Piccolo was a demon, but the similarities between Piccolo's birth and a Yoshi's were remarkably similar.
"Do you have a death wish?"
"Okay, Okay. So what did he ask you?"
"He wanted to know why you and I fought each other."
"Oh really. So what did you tell him?"
"I didn't tell him, I just told him it didn't matter because you and I aren't going to be fighting each other anymore."
"Piccolo, why would you lie to Gohan like that? We are about too fight each other right now."
"No you idiot! I meant like when we fought at the World Martial Arts Tournament."
"Oh. Oh yeah I already knew that. I mean you've become a pretty good guy Piccolo." Piccolo was startled by the similarity between Goku and Gohan's comments about his morality. Was it so obvious that he was going soft? Well he was going to have to go super hard on Gohan during training tomorrow and he sure as hell wasn't going easy on Goku during their spar.
"Well if I'm such a nice guy, then why when I come to Gohan's birthday party am I going to take away all the cake so you can't have any?"
Goku's face turned bleak and he asked Piccolo in a shocked voice, "You wouldn't, would you."
"Of course I would."
"You monster!"
"That's more like it," said Piccolo as he charged his rival and began their spar.
Well there it is your second chapter in two days. The next couple of chapters will all be about Tien's training at King Kai's planet and Piccolo training Gohan so there will be no appearances for the humans on Kami's lookout for awhile. Now since I posted two chapters so quickly, I expected to get several reviews. So if you have any questions, suggestions, or just your thoughts on the story please let me know.