It's amazing how whenever I go to my parents' house, I get such a great motivation to write. Such a writing-conducive place, I swear. But that just means more chapters to read for ya'll so worship the grounds those old people built their house on. Otherwise...you'd probably wouldn't have this latest chapter so soon.

It had to happen. Things had been going way too smoothly so something bad just had to happen.

Standing on rocky ground, Gohan glared at the smoking engines. Just as they were halfway to their destination, one of rockets had overheated. Fortunately, the ship's computer went into shutdown mode when it detected it.

Unfortunately, it shut off every single rocket engine just as they were passing a nearby planet, a place called Karan. The gravitational force from the planet pulled their ship towards it, forcing them to make an emergency landing.

At the moment, they were grounded on a cliff, one that allowed them to look out across the planet. Though they were currently in a rugged terrain, about a half mile away a forest started.

Finally losing patience, Gohan shouted towards the thrusters "What's the damage Sixteen?!"

A moment passed before the android drifted out of the openings. "The damage isn't too great but it will take a day or two to repair it."

That caused the saiyan to growl. Well, he had been expecting something to happen sooner or later. Their luck wasn't so great as to let them have a perfectly done trip, no hitches whatsoever.

That would've taken Kami himself to give them that.

Soon, Goten stood next to him, looking up at the ship's thrusters. "So we're stuck here for a little bit?"

"Unfortunately. I would love to know what deity is behind this whole thing. Is it too much to ask for us to get from one side of the galaxy to the other without any problems?"

"I guess it is," the younger Son commented. "But maybe this was our fault."

Gohan slowly turned his head to look at his brother. "And pray tell, how is this any of our fault?"

"Well, we have been traveling this whole time. We haven't really stopped to do any sort of maintenance on it. It was only a matter of time until this happened."

Gohan kept looking at Goten. "Goten, sometimes I hate it when you're right."

"Well, I can't be wrong all the time."

"This time around, I wish you were."

It was then that Videl came walking over to the two Sons and completely passed them, eyes narrowed so she could see something in the distance. Both saiyans noticing this odd behavior turned around and saw exactly what she was looking at: a rising cloud of smoke out towards the horizon.

"What do you think that is?" Goten spoke up.

"Forest fire?" Gohan suggested.

Before Goten could reply, the Satan girl stuck her finger out, pointing towards the tree line. "Right there, I see people."

Looking by the tree line, both saiyans saw what appeared to be two kids running. From the distance they were at, the kids appeared to be humanoid wearing nothing but light brown sacks over their bodies. Most likely the Karanese that lived here.

Suddenly, three figures exploded from the forest, cackling manically. Though the saiyans and Satan girl were a ways away, they could plainly see the battle armor they wore.

"Those kids are in trouble!" Videl exclaimed.

"And they're about to be road kill," Goten added, watching the sight.

"We've got to do something!"

"I don't know; I think it'd be better if we stayed out of this. It could be a domestic problem."

Videl stared at the younger Son. "How can you be so cold blooded about this?"

"Easy, I'll just watch."

That caused the girl to growl. "Well if you're not gonna do anything about it, than I am." Flaring her aura around her, Videl launched herself off the cliff, flying straight for the fleeing children.

"Videl, come back!" Gohan shouted before growling himself. What did she want to prove anyways?

"Keep running Kail!" a brown headed girl shouted, running as fast as she could on her small legs.

"I'm trying Mai!" a smaller boy of similar hair color cried back. Unfortunately, he wasn't as fast as the girl as he was slowly lagging behind her.

"You can't escape runts!" one of the men chasing them, a boar like creature, shouted, flying after the two with his comrades hanging back a bit behind him.

That was when the little boy tripped, falling to the ground roughly. Hearing the sound, the little girl turned around and ran back to him, trying to help him up.

A heavy boot landed barely a foot away from them, causing both children to look up in fear. Baring down on them, the boar held an arm cocked back, his hand balled into a fist. A gleeful looking leer covered his face as he began to throw his punch.

Then out of nowhere, a green covered foot slammed into the side of his head, sending him flying away, crashing to the ground on his head. He didn't get up.

Both children turned their attention to look at their surprise savior, finding a dark headed girl in a white shirt and black shorts. She held herself like a warrior from what they could see. Perhaps she could save them.

The other two pursuers came to a stop, landing on the ground. From what Videl could see, one was a human like guy though he had a helmet on his head, the glass visor open. The other was a lizard-like guy, though he had a strange device on his arm. Probably one of those energy guns the Cold Empire used.

Actually, now that she looked at them clearly, they were definitely wearing the armor issued to the Cold Army foot soldiers. Just what were they doing here?

"You're gonna pay for that little girl!" the humanoid shouted. "Nobody messes with the Cold Army!"

Well that confirmed it, they were foot soldiers.

However, before anything could happen between her and the men, a large blast of ki rammed into the two, incinerating them before they knew what exactly happened.

Jerking her head around, Videl found Gohan standing behind the children, holding a hand out and a not too happy look on his face. "What in the world do you think you were doing Videl?!"

"In case you hadn't noticed, I was saving these kids," the Satan girl replied tartly. "Something you and your brother didn't seem to want to do."

"And what exactly were you gonna prove by saving them? It's not like we can take them with us."

"Well I had to do something," Videl said, turning her back on the saiyan as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Please, don't argue because of us," the little girl said then. "We didn't mean to cause you any trouble."

The arguing couple turned to look at the little girl. "Don't worry about that," Videl responded. "Are you two okay?"

The little girl helped the boy up, patting his back as he dusted his front. "We are now," she replied. "Thank you for your help."

"I don't want to sound noisy or anything," the Satan girl said, "but could you tell me why those guys were chasing you?"

The children known as Mai and Kail were wolfing down the small offering of fruit and bread they had received, courtesy of the people around them.

Watching them all, the small group of saiyans and humans considered the words they had managed to say during bites of food. From what they understood, a small brigade of Cold foot soldiers had come to this world shortly after the fall of their tyrannical bosses. Convinced they were of elite warrior status, they conquered a local village and used it as a base of operations so they could take over the rest of the planet. So far they had taken a sizeable chunk.

All the while, they treated the native inhabitants as nothing more than slaves, forcing them to work the land and fulfill their every desire.

As children, Mai and Kail had been put to working the fields. However, due to their cultures forest lifestyle, they and the rest of their people had been ill equipped to commence farming. They had to learn very quickly or they'd be made "examples of" by their guards.

Obviously, they learned pretty quick.

However, a couple days ago, the two children, or siblings as they claimed, had taken a gamble and escaped, hoping to get to a village not yet attacked. It was only that morning that they had run into a small patrol and had to run.

"So now what?" Tien asked, watching the siblings finish their food.

"Well, it's obvious," Videl answered. "We help them."

"And why do we need to do that," Trunks asked. "We've got bigger problems."

"And how do you suppose we fix ours when our ship is grounded? We might as well lend our help while we're here."

"You know, she has a good point," Goten agreed.

"Sixteen, if you have help with the engines, how long will it take you?" Gohan suddenly asked.

"Approximately a day and a half," was the android's answer.

"Okay then, Trunks and Goten, help Sixteen out. Tien, Videl, and I will take care of this annoyance."

Videl stared at the saiyan with wide eyes. "You mean, you're gonna let me go with you? You're not gonna leave me behind?"

"Well, if you insist, you can always stay," Gohan offered.

"Oh no, nope, I'll go," the Satan girl said quickly.

"Are you gonna really help us?" Kail asked, looking up at the taller people with wide eyes.

Videl turned her gaze onto the little boy and bent over, placing her hands on her knees as she smiled at him. "We sure are. We'll even try to get rid of those bad guys."

"You can't!" Mai suddenly shouted. "They'll kill you! There's no way anyone is stronger than them!"

That caused Gohan to narrow his eyes as he began cracking his knuckles. "We'll see about that."

Three figures descended onto the ground, touching down on small bits of twigs and leaves. As soon as they landed, the two little kids they had carried dropped to the ground as well.

"So this is your home?" Videl asked as she looked around them. Currently, they were in a small wooden village surrounded by the green forest, the shacks forming several crooked streets that branched out in all different directions. Despite all the buildings being here though, there wasn't a sight of any of the native Karanese.

That wasn't a good thing.

"Yeah, this is the place," Mai confirmed.

"So where is everyone?" Tien asked.

"Probably being worked by the bad people," the girl answered.

"Well then, let's go pay them a visit," Gohan spoke as he began leading the group in a random direction.

"Umm, sir?" Mai said.

Turning to look at her, the saiyan replied "What?"

"Umm, the bad people usually take us the other way."

Gohan stared at the little girl for a little bit before switching directions and heading the way Mai had pointed out. "Not one word," the saiyan spoke as he walked passed his human companions.

However, none of them got very far when a sly voice came out of nowhere. "Well look what we have here boys."

Jerking their heads up, the group of five found themselves somewhat surrounded. On top of the wooden huts, men of humanoid or alien descent stood or crouched, looking down at the group with evil intentions.

"I didn't know we were a tourist spot," a wolf looking man said, the same sly voice coming from his mouth. "Wouldn't you guys say they chose a bad place to vacation?"

The other men began to laugh, sounding like a group of hyenas. "Punks," Gohan murmured. "I came here expecting a fight but all that showed up were punks."

"What was that boy? Did you say something?" the wolf mocked. "You're gonna have to speak up if you want to be heard. Didn't your momma ever tell you that?" At that point, he made a very obvious movement with his hand, his cronies either raising and aiming a hand or one of the energy guns on their arms.

"Videl, Tien, on my mark," was all the saiyan said, both humans taking on very serious expressions.

Within a second, all three warriors vanished from sight. The next thing any one knew, blurs were racing all over place, lashing out vicious hits that sent the cocky foot soldiers off their perches and crashing into trees or onto the ground. Regardless of landing spot, each soldier was knocked out or falling into a deep sleep that they wouldn't wake up from; the whites of their eyes visibly showing.

Suddenly, Videl and Tien were back in their spots, looking as if they hadn't moved at all. However, Gohan had yet to appear, signaling that he wasn't done just yet.

And that fact alone worried the sole survivor of the assault, the wolf-like fighter. Looking around frantically, he never spotted the saiyan until his legs were kicked out from underneath him. Although realizing that his opponent was crouched behind him, his back unguarded to the wolf; that didn't change anything as the saiyan spun himself around and slammed the same leg he had used to trip the alien into its back, sending him flying up into the air.

Straightening himself out, Gohan then raised a hand straight up into the air and gathered his ki, firing a ki blast soon after. The beam raced through the air and exploded on the helpless wolf fighter as he screamed, destroying his body in the process.

All the while, Mai and Kail watched with wide eyes. Never had they seen their oppressors dealt with in such a simple manner. It was almost like a gift from a favorable deity.

And as Gohan approached the group, Mai finally said "I…I think these people can do it. They can help free our village!"

Kail looked at his sister with wide eyes. "Do you really think they can? Really, really?"

"Didn't you see the way they got rid of those bad guys, Kail? Of course they can! They'll get rid of the bad guys and everything will be alright!"

At that moment, Kail jumped at his sister crying in joy as they started to dance in a circle.

"Well, we might as well," Tien said then.

"We're involved anyways," Gohan agreed, staring at the cheerful kids. "They'll just have to lead us to the boss around here and we'll take it from there."