Early upload since I shan't be home when the chapters usually go up

I actually got to just pull some dialogue from the show for this one. I promise not to rely on that often.

thewittywhy: Thanks lol. As much as I adore the standard Reincarnation Fic format, I've really grown to prefer the form of the SI taking the place of a canon character and having to deal with that.

Darkjaden: Dudes

AnosDT95: Lol thanks, starting next week the updates should have caught up on ao3
I had to go double check the power levels and wow I didn't realize Piccolo was that close to Nappa, which feels odd considering he so overpowered.
However I must correct one piece of information, Dende didn't actually fix the issue of characters only being able to be brought back once, hence why Goku wasn't immediately brought back when they asked for everyone Cell killed to be brought back. It was after the group discussed going to Namek for their Dragon Balls without that issue did Goku ask not to be brought back at all.
Also it's fine, if I get too annoyed I'll just ignore them. Though I will go ahead and confirm it will be at least that long, if not longer for any potential love interests. Dating pool isn't exactly expansive for adults shaped as children. When I was first answering this question I had an idea for a love interest, now I'm pretty much settled on it.

I didn't have to be an expert as sensing Ki to feel the Sayains landing. Or them blowing up a city. For fun, I assume.

And of course they started heading directly towards us. Joy. If they felt that strong from so far away…

"Gohan, do not be afraid. Your preparation has been excellent."

"Sure…" I raised my tone, "'course you'd say that, since you trained me and all."

Piccolo smirked down at me as he took off his weighted cloak, before turning back to the incoming threat.

Before they got here though, we sensed another Ki coming from the opposite direction. Well, Piccolo did, he then pointed it out to me.

For a moment Piccolo was almost concerned, since it was stronger than last he knew of any of the others, but as soon as the figure came into sight-

"Oh, Krillin." Piccolo glanced down at me then back at the figure, who was in fact, Krillin.

To be honest, I mentioned it before I actually saw him, but I assumed as much based on scattered memories and the fact that he was shorter than everyone else in the group. Besides me, that is.

Now that I had a reference point I could tell there were differences between the two Ki's, but I think I'll need more examples before I could accurately describe them still.

"Hey! Gohan!" The monk smiled at me, then turned to Piccolo, "Piccolo…" I smiled at him, Piccolo didn't respond, but nodded to appease him.

"How 'bout some help." Krillin's eyes kept darting off to where the Sayains were coming from but stood firm regardless.

"Sure, why not," Piccolo chuckled, "but things are going to get intense, you might just slow us down, Krillin."

"I doubt that. I've been doing some training of my own you know." Which was certainly true, Krillin was still a lot stronger than I was, but not as strong as Piccolo.

"Goku sure is running late huh? Guess we'll just have to somehow hold out until he gets here," Krillin commented, eyes darting back to where the Sayains were coming from, but held firm his confident expression.

"So you wished him back then? How long do you think 'til he gets here?" I placed myself in the conversation.

"I don't know, it was Master Roshi and Bulma who wished him back. We can only hope he gets here soon." Krillin faced me,

"Yeah.."

"Hey Gohan! You really have gotten a lot stronger since I saw you last! How'd training with Piccolo go?" He lowered his voice, "are you alright? No one's really trained with Piccolo before…" Talking with Krillin was a lot like talking with Goku, he didn't bother with talking down to me like I was a kid, which technically I was. He still did to some extent, but compared to Chichi it was an even conversation.

"Who, Mr. sunshine over here? About what you'd expect really," I shrugged, letting Krillin come to his own conclusions. Either I lie, or it looks like child abuse. Which, wasn't entirely inaccurate, but not a productive way to look at it for the current situation.

"That's enough of your small talk." Piccolo cut off any further conversation, "they're here"

Krillin's head shot up to the sky, I was slower in turning my head to the two men floating in mid air, too far away to clearly see and certainly to far to hear.

"So this is it, they're here. this is really happening. Can you feel those power levels? What are we gonna do guys?" Krillin's calm demeanor cracked. Which, was fair. They were both much stronger than anything I've felt from Piccolo, who's currently the strongest of us. The one I planned on ignoring as long as possible was several times stronger.

"It's…it's fine. We don't have to fight to win really, we just have to stall them out until Dad gets here. He should be way stronger training in the after life."

"Right…right!" Krillin held firm, "just gotta stall them out. That's doable. Probably"

The two landed. A tall, overly muscular man, and a shorter one with a widow's peak to end all widow's peaks.

Nappa and Vegeta.

Nappa was just as described. Overly muscular and towered over even Piccolo. He smirked and stood at the right hand and slightly ahead of the other. He was bald and had a mustache, his armor looking nearly identical to Raditz's.

And…Vegeta. If you couldn't sense Ki he'd seem like the less threatening of the two. But that, is an exponentially big if. Because being able to sense Ki, it was all I could do to stand in place. Piccolo probably would have commented on my fidgeting in different company.

"So, we meet at last." Vegeta broke the silence.

"The pleasure is mine." Piccolo's voice remained even. Standing firm and unwavering despite the objectively terrible odds.

"I'm only going to say this once. Leave this planet. This is your one and only chance to leave this planet alive." If I could just, syphon some of that confidence from Piccolo, that'd be great.

"That voice, I see, you were the one who killed Raditz one year ago."

"My voice?"

"Right, didn't Raditz tell you?" Vegeta tapped at the scouter over his left ear and eye, "our scouters also act as communicators."

Raditz almost certainly did share this but the longer we can go without the fighting starting the better.

Nappa paused, then turned to Vegeta, "hey, the green one's from Namek isn't he?"

"Yes. No wonder Raditz had such trouble dealing with him and Kakarot."

"Namek?" I looked up at Piccolo, an unreadable expression on his face. Not that he was a readable person generally…or that I was good at reading expressions, "I'm from Namek…"

"I didn't know you were from outer space," Krillin said to the green man with antenna, "guess that makes sense…"

Piccolo's face was quickly changing to clear anger.

"You didn't know? Well what a surprise. Surely you must have suspected something before now." Vegeta taunted, "the green skin and pointed ears are a dead giveaway I'd think."

"You're the one who told Raditz about the Dragon Balls. Now tell us. Where are they?"

"But, no one knows where they are! Not for a full year!" Krillin tried deflecting, only to deaf ears.

"That's enough. We know the balls are down here. Make no mistake, we will find them. With you alive or with you dead. It's your decision, tell us where they are or you will all be killed." Nappa stated.

"What he means is, after a wish is made, the Dragon Balls turn to stone for a year, and scatter across the world. They're untraceable in that time." I cut in, hoping to derail them.

Vegeta turned to me, assessing my statement, "and how do we know you're not lying?" And I, didn't have a response. Not really.

"There is no proof. It's just my word." I shrugged. And there goes my ignoring plan immediately since ignoring him when being directly spoken to was probably not the best idea.

"I see, so we're expected to wait a full Earth year based on the words of a child?"

"Doesn't matter if you believe me or not," I shrugged, "that's just how it is."

"Well I suppose if that really is the case, then we'll just have to spend the time killing of you, and then every other Earthling. Isn't that right?" Vegeta turned to Nappa, his arrogant voice running smoothly over the clearing despite how quite he seemed to talk.

"I…don't think that'd be very productive…" also I'm pretty sure Frieza would notice by then.

And we were once again left in a standoff.

"I want to thank you." I looked up at Piccolo, who was addressing the two, who had shifted so now Vegeta was slightly ahead. "thanks to you I now know I come from the planet Namek. But. This is my planet now. And no one is going to conquer it besides me. So back off, we're not here to bow down to your commands we're here to fight!"

Piccolo fell into a fighting stance, and once again, I'd really like to syphon off just a little of his confidence. I couldn't help but smile a bit at his world conquering comment.

Course it'd be nice if he stalled off the fighting as long as possible, but whatever. He was obviously having a existential crisis.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a few news helicopters. Unfortunately Nappa saw them too. With barely a thought he blasted one out of the sky. Vegeta didn't even turn his head.

I tossed my backpack far enough that I hoped it wouldn't get caught in any fighting and damaged. It held very important items, such as extra Gi's, my cloak, my water bottle, a certain pamphlet. My sword remained on my back, it probably wouldn't be of much use here, but better safe than sorry.

"Alright, let's see what we're dealing with." Nappa pushed a button on his scouter, "the kid's just under a thousand. The Namik's at fourteen hundred. And the Midget is at eleven hundred." I frowned. I'm sure Nappa was rounding the numbers either up or down for each of us, but that'd place my base strength about even with Canon Gohan wouldn't it? I guess that's good. Means I haven't fallen behind or anything. Of course that's not really an accurate reading considering how much I was suppressing my power, for all I know I'm suppressing either more or less than Gohan was.

"You fools, you think you can face us with those puny power levels?"

"Nappa. Take your scouter off." Vegeta intersected.

"What?"

"It seems they know how to concentrate energy and raise their fighting powers. These figures are most unreliable." Vegeta dropped off his scouter to the side.

"Hey now I remember. That pathetic loser Raditz let himself be fooled by all their power readings." Nappa said as though he hadn't just done the same thing. He also took off the scouter and dropped it on the ground. That wasn't a very nice thing to say. How much of it was genuine and how much was putting on a show to intimidate us, I couldn't be sure. Vegeta I was sure didn't care, because Vegeta, but Nappa was actually harder to read. I didn't have as much canon to reference from for him considering he doesn't make it through the arc.

I'd kinda want to go grab one of the discarded scouters if it wasn't literal suicide.

But alas, the plot must begin.