Things are moving, things are moving

Let's keep them moving

frankieu: Thanks ^.^ and eh, it's Vegeta

thewittywhy: Man, I wanted to, but there was only so much I could justify.
And yeah, that mind reading deal would be a real issue if it was literally ever utilized

Shadowj6480: Hey as far as I'm concerned, Krillin's the bravest guy in the show. Oh sure, the stronger dudes alway's end up doing more, but man Krillin is weaker than almost anyone he fights but he stands up to them anyway
Yeah, it's honestly impressive how useless Guldo is.
And I think Vegeta was counting on the buildup of Zenkai boosts, but it certainly is not a good short term plan

EgyLynx: 'course

Kitsune-Queen91: interesting indeed

xXSelenaXx: I do quite adore that cover. Credit Kitsune_Queen on instagram (two underscores)
And thanks ^.^ and don't worry, Piccolo should be getting back reletively soon. it'll probably be a few chapters though

"Vegeta. Just to be clear, I will retrieve the Dragon Ball," I stated as we flew, in no world was I letting him anywhere near Ocari.

"Whatever, we're running out of time, hurry up!" At which he picked up the pace which I had to force myself to keep up with.

All too soon we landed.

"You! Stay there!" I pointed at Vegeta as he all but growled in impatience.

"Just get the damned ball!"

I rolled my eyes as I turned and walked over to the core is, where Ocari was now alert and glancing between Vegeta and me in confusion.

Cargo and Bulma just seemed to notice something was up as I approached.

"What-" Ocari started, but I had to cut him off.

"Sorry, there's not much time to explain. But I need the Dragon Ball," I held out my hands to him.

Ocari glanced at Vegeta before looking back at me, then down to the ball.

"Ok," he frowned as he handed it to me.

"Thanks, I'll explain later, ok?"

He looked at me and nodded, nodding back I turned to leave.

"Gohan?" I turned back as he spoke up.

"Is it safe?" He asked.

I glance back at Vegeta who looked like he was about to storm over and snatch the ball. Krillin looked conflicted between wanting to placate him and wanting to keep all his limbs attached.

"As safe as anything has been lately."

He glanced away, hands clenching at his sides. His mouth opened and closed a few times as he tried to find something to say.

"Hey, just look after Cargo and Bulma for me, would you? Between you and me I think you're probably the most responsible of the bunch," I joked as I held my hand up to my mouth as if to block the two from hearing what I said.

"Alright. I will." He nodded with complete seriousness.

Any further response was cut off by Krillin tapping my shoulder.

"Hey, I hate to cut this short, but we should probably get going before Vegeta blows a blood vessel." He pointed his thumb at the said man who, as described, was fuming.

"Fine fine," I shrugged as I walked back over, carrying the Ball with both hands.

"Great let's go!" Surprisingly I got no spiteful jab as Vegeta just turned and sped off, so fast it was an active struggle to keep up with him.

Almost disappointing really. The lack of spite, that is.

We landed with Vegeta's declaration, and he smiled, running up to the five remaining Dragon Balls, stashed away between some rocks.

Krillin hesitated in following. I did too, but for a different reason. Krillin obviously didn't trust the Veggie. As for me, well-

"What are you waiting for!" It was more of a demand than a question.

Krillin opened his mouth to speak, but I did instead, "I think it's too late."

Vegeta stomped his way over as he began a tirade of anger and demands.

"Hey Vegeta."

"Hi Ginyu-"

Vegeta paused. Processed. Then turned around slowly.

His string of curses was impressive.

Though it was understandable, as standing between us and the other five Dragon Balls was a team of five. A short green guy with four eyes, the time guy. a tall, bulky man with orange hair, the walking tank. A blue reptilian guy, the fast one, I think. A red guy with long white hair, the, uh, did he do anything? Besides being from space Australia?

And of course, standing front and center, a purple guy with horns on either side of his head and man, those veins were even more disturbing in person. Ginyu himself.

"We've come to collect you and the Dragon Balls, Vegeta," Ginyu announced.

The orange-haired guy looked behind them and noted that the other five balls were there, and, at the risk of sounding mean, he sounded like he's probably hit his head a few too many times.

"This is going to be even easier than I expected. I should thank you, Vegeta, for having all seven Dragon Balls paced fed up so neatly for us, but you'll understand if I don't."

Without another word, Vegeta turned and threw the ball behind us as hard as he could.

I didn't even have time to glance back, before the blue guy was back in front of us, now holding the One Star Ball.

Yep, the fast one.

"Now, the other one please," Ginyu pointed his head at me.

"We're all going to die anyway so...Destroy it!" Vegeta snapped, and I hesitated. This Ball was the ticket for solving this mess. Not to mention, could you even destroy a Dragon Ball?

"Punch the damned thing!"

It didn't seem to matter 'cause the second I lifted my hand to comply, the ball disappeared from my hand.

Four eyes stood in his place, holding the Four-Star Ball, trying desperately to disguise his heavy breathing behind a smug persona.

"So then it's true what they say," Vegeta growled.

"Well…you gonna tell us what they say…?" Krillin managed.

"Apparently, Guldo has the ability to Freeza an instant in time."

"No way! Impossible!"

"Is there a weakness to it? Or a limitation?" I asked, knowing already he needed to hold his breath for it, if we could establish that-

"Not that I'm aware of."

Well never mind that.

Well, aside from that, Guldo is obviously the weakest of them, and since they're too stupid to utilize the time freeze effectively, it shouldn't be too hard. Comparatively speaking.

"Alright, we have what we came for. Now for these three, make sure you treat them nicely boys." Ginyu stated as he counted and recounted the Dragon Balls before poking at the buttons on his scouter.

"Come on we can still make a run for it," Krillin grabbed my arm as he took a step back.

"There's no use, we can't run from this. We have no choice we have to stand and fight. If we combine our efforts, we might be able to hold out long enough to find some kind of weakness to exploit."

"Maybe if we leave Vegeta to act as a buffer…" I glanced at the Ginyu's. I mean, odds are they only really care about Vegeta…but the blue guy is way too fast to deal with, he doesn't have to care to catch us if we tried to run.

"I will kill you both personally!"

Oh yeah, also Veggie dearest would probably kill us for it.

Assuming he didn't die here anyway.

Oh, I guess he is still kinda needed for plot purposes, oh well. Stand and fight it is.

The group argued about who gets to fight who, until Ginyu decided that he'd just bring the Dragon Balls back to Frieza as the rest of them played Rock/Paper/Scissors over who gets to fight us.

Glad they're taking this so seriously.

By which I mean, glad that they are not, at all.

"Hey, is the entire group being idiots an exploitable weakness?" I half muttered.

"With how strong they are? Hardly."

"Shame."

Wow, they sure did tie a lot.

It's honestly kinda absurd.

Regardless, orange hair fights Vegeta. Goodie for him.

And without another word, Ginyu levitated the balls up and flew away with them. Was he doing that with his Ki? I wanna levitate stuff.

Adding that to the things to learn list.

"You two, come over here."

Reluctantly, Krillin and I got closer to Vegeta so we could speak without being overheard.

"It looks like you two will be fighting Guldo. You'll have to use your heads, a direct assault won't work, do you understand?"

"Yeah sure, don't fight the guy who can stop time head-on, do you have any actual advice though? Any limitations at all? Any additional abilities?"

"He does have above adverse telekinetic abilities, but that shouldn't be as much of an issue," Vegeta added as an afterthought, as though that being a surprise in battle wouldn't have been bad.

"Anything else we should do?"

"Throw dog treats at him."

"...how, how would that possibly help?"

"I'll find it hilarious."

Fair enough then.

"Didn't you say earlier that Kakarot was on his way here to save everybody?"

"Don't know about you, but I know he's coming to save Gohan and me." I coughed to hide a laugh at Krillin's retort.

"I'm not trying to win a popularity contest here, all I'm saying is we could use his help right now."

"Wow. Pride goeth before the fall. I'm surprised you managed to say that without throwing up."

Vegeta growled down at me but restrained himself from snapping back. Or hitting me. I'm pretty sure he wanted to hit me.

Guldo stepped up alone, indicating that Krillin and I will be fighting first. Technically there wasn't anything stopping Vegeta from helping us…but I guess he was playing by their rules.

I removed my cloak and backpack, carefully placing the cloak to make sure it wouldn't get too visibly dirty.

"Do you even use that sword? Get rid of it!" Vegeta snapped at me, and I barely bothered to glare up at him.

"It could be useful…"

Vegeta scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Alright, it's time to see what you two are made of," was all he said in terms of encouragement, which, by his standards, was high praise.

Krillin whispered a quick plan and we stepped forward.

With a shout, Krillin spiked his Ki, and I did the same, though by closing my eyes and concentrating on it instead.

It wasn't effective during a fight, but before one it was easier to concentrate it like that than yelling was, at least for me.

During a fight, there wasn't exactly the time for options.

We darted into the air and at Krillin's indication we both fired Ki beams at him, and as he had devised, we quickly flew away from where we fired from.

I took a second to marvel at the power that had come from my hands, it had left my arms feeling tingly and the beam was too bright to look at comfortably.

Looking down I saw as four eyes suddenly blinked out of existence.

Ok, that's weird looking. There wasn't any glowing, or distortion, or glitch, just, one instant he was there, the next there was nothing.

Regardless, the two beams hit where he used to be and left a crater in their wake. A very large crater actually.

We quickly spotted Guldo where he had run off to a fair distance away and, after making sure we both saw him, started charging towards him.

We separated, and used our speed to dart around him faster than he could keep up with, as his eyes had difficulty keeping up, we started directly towards him-

Only for him to disappear from existence again.

Krillin and I stumbled in midair.

Ok, that's annoying.

He didn't get nearly as far this time as he did last time though. He seemed to have tripped or something which broke the spell.

Krillin charged a beam and I followed suit, Guldo ran from them like a normal person and barely managed to stumble out of the way.

I glanced back to make sure none of the other three were doing anything, and as expected, they were just floating around watching, and making witty commentary.

I'm half surprised they didn't have cameras and microphones, but who knows what those Scouters can really do.

"Hey Gohan, looks like all this time stopping has started to wear him down," Krillin indicated at Guldo who was breathing heavily, despite barely doing anything.

"Let's end this before he can get his strength back."

"Right, hey we should split up. That telekinesis thing Vegeta mentioned has been bugging me," I can't quite remember what, but something definitely happens with that.

"Alright," he nodded, and we split off in opposite directions.

This next time he blinked out of existence, it was harder to find him. We had to sense out his Ki to find him, hiding behind a rock.

Honestly, I have no idea how this guy maintains his spot on the Ginyu Force. He can't even use his ability well.

Krillin indicated for me to stay back as he charged forwards.

A bit of chasing and blasts led Guldo back in my direction, but turned away again as he dodged about.

Suddenly, Guldo took a pose and Krillin stopped moving.

He struggled in midair, but couldn't budge.

Guldo started bragging about his special attack. I couldn't hear any of it. I could only see how vulnerable Krillin was to an attack from any angle at this moment.

I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe. I just drew my sword and-

"And you! Don't even think abou-" he turned his head towards me-

And then his head wasn't connected to his body anymore.

I blinked.

I remembered how to breathe.

My gaze fell down the length of my sword to see dark purple, almost black blood coating it.

I dropped the sword, falling as I stumbled backwards, only to notice that more of the blood had spattered over my hands, and probably my clothes if I bothered to check.

I didn't even feel it.

I didn't feel any resistance, any force needed at all to cut through.

That, that was a good thing, right? We needed to win. They were all going to die here anyway.

"-ey, Gohan?" I felt something touch my shoulder and looked up to see Krillin kneeling at my side.

I blinked.

"Hey, are you ok?" His voice was soft, like he was trying to comfort someone. His thumb ran over my cheek, wiping something away. His fingers came away purple.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm, I'm fine."

"Gohan, thank you for saving me, but if you need to talk…" he trailed away, leaving the statement open.

"What? No, I'm fine. I said I'm fine," I stood up, rubbing the blood on my hands until it flaked away.

"…ok," he accepted, reluctantly.

I picked my sword back up, walking to the edge of the island to rinse it off best I could, before sheathing it on my back, still dripping a watery purple.

I walked back over to Vegeta.

"Well, that was almost impressive. Too bad you ruined it by collapsing at the end," Vegeta gave what was as close as he came to a compliment.

I rolled my eyes.

Come to think of it, was he supposed to have been the one who killed him? Guess I jumped the gun a bit.

Oh well, the same result at the end, I guess.

Glancing over at the Ginyus, they seemed to be struggling.

Their precious choreography and formation was off balance.

…and they're doing more Rock Paper Scissors….

I sighed.

"Maybe we'll be lucky, and they'll just keep tying until Dad gets here."

"Well, it doesn't hurt to have hope."

"No. Hope is a luxury none of us can afford." Debby downer Veggie just had to add.

"No one asked you."

Eventually, I don't care who won, but they stopped, and it was finally Orange hair's turn to fight Vegeta.

Was it wrong of me to be kinda excited?

"Hey, it's your turn," I pointed helpfully over to the oaf as I looked up at Vegeta.

He glared.

(The name's! Recoom! It rhymes! With Doom!)

"Alright kids, this fight's between me and Vegeta, but if you want to try and jump in to help him out, go ahead and try it. I'll take you all on at once!"

He's kinda like an even stupider Nappa come to think of it.

A lot stupider, to be fair.

"Not so fast Recoom! That wasn't the deal, we're not gonna just stand here and let you have all the fun," Space Australia protested.

"Save the little ones for us, just like we agreed," the blue one, added.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Orange waved them off.

"Hear that? Guess you can't help him after all."

"Yeah, gonna be honest; you lost me at the get-go at "Help Vegeta"."

Space Australia laughed, "Hey, little guy's got some sprite to 'em, don't ya? But then, bein allied with Vegeta would probably do that to anybody, wouldn't it?"

"This coming from the lot whose main concern was their dance when their teammate died?" I glanced off to the side as I muttered and shoved my hands in my pockets. My comment was quite enough to not be heard by anyone other than Krillin, and maybe Vegeta but he didn't seem to care either way.

"And now! Feel the power! Of Recoom!" The oaf cycled through various poses, all absurd, as he spoke.

Yep. This is how I die.

Well, not really since Goku's gonna show up soon, but how I would have died otherwise.

Vegeta's Ki sparked, vibrating the ground as he powered up, but no longer feeling overwhelming with my most recent power-up, however, the number must have been at least somewhat impressive since the three remaining Ginyus seemed surprised.

Vegeta charged forward, attacking with none of the arrogant bravado he'd be known for in the events to come, just brutal efficiency.

He knocked the oaf back and immediately pursued, a series of attacks that were visibly brutal and should have had anybody dead in the dirt.

With a final Ki blast, Krillin knocked me over and covered my head with a shout as it blew up half the island, sending rubble and debris everywhere.

"He did it!" Krillin's voice broke the eventual silence.

And it was a nice sentiment. Honestly, it would have been for the best if this was where Recoom fell.

But knowing better, I scanned the area for Ki and as expected, found the oaf's power burning just as oppressive as ever.

"No. He didn't."

And as the smoke cleared, a figure began to show in dramatic pose.

Granted, what little remained of his clothes were in tatters and he did have a few surface scratches, it wasn't exactly a win for Vegeta.

"Hi~"

With a declaration of "my turn," and a cleverly named "Recoom Kick" the oaf darted forward faster than I could see, let alone Vegeta react.

Vegeta was shot backwards, but managed to catch himself, and sprung himself forward. He set into a volley of punches, but each one was blocked effortlessly.

An elbow sent Vegeta crashing to the ground, but once again he managed to dodge the follow-up attack, darting into the air.

As Recoom followed suit, Vegeta shot a Ki blast at him, to no avail as it was dodged. In the next instant, Recoom was behind Vegeta, hurling him into the water.

He didn't emerge for several seconds.

"I don't think he's coming up Gohan," Krillin said, shakily.

I glanced over, it does look bad but, "it's Vegeta. If only it would be that easy."

I sensed for his Ki, and sure enough, while a fair bit weaker than before, it was still very present beneath the surface.

As Recoom flew over, gloating, didn't react in time to catch Vegeta dart up and directly into him, seeming to catch him by surprise and maybe injure the oaf, taking advantage and striking him in the same spot repeatedly.

And then catch him is exactly what Recoom did.

He grabbed Vegeta, and flipping him upside down, drove him headfirst into the rock and dirt of the island.

"Hey now, what do we have here? Looks like a Vegetable ready to be picked," Recoom laughed as he pulled the now heavily injured Vegeta from the ground by an ankle.

And I couldn't help it, I snickered.

Up to that point, I had done a decent job at keeping a serious face. I had seen the situation as bad and thus, objectively speaking, Vegeta winning would have been the ideal outcome.

But man, that stupid pun broke me.

Also, it's Vegeta. I think I should be allowed a little enjoyment from him being beaten into the dirt.

Krillin stared, incredulous, as my giggles died down.

Ok. No more of that.

Back to the objective fight.

…

Vegetable. Heh.

Anyway.

At some point in my distraction, Vegeta had managed to get to his feet, in pain and looking like he'd collapse at a particularly strong gust of wind.

Recoom sprung back to his feet with flair.

"Now that was low, even for a Sayain. You are ruthless Vegeta. No wonder you were one of Frieza's favorites. It's almost too and you had to go and turn traitor on us."

Should I be taking offense from the Sayain line? Because technically I was half.

"This guy's too much," Krillin lamented.

"Hasn't everyone been?"

Because at least for a while yet, just about anyone we have to fight will be overpowering.

"G-Gohan."

"Hm?" I turned up to Krillin, who was shaking as he glared forward.

"Look, it doesn't matter anymore. Whatever we do, we're still gonna die. We-we can't beat these guys, none of us. Not even Goku."

His hopeless words left me feeling, something, except-

"You're wrong. Dad's stronger, or will be when he gets here at least."

"Yeah, that's the best we can hope for, but look what's happened to Vegeta! We can't, we can't just stand around waiting for him to get here! There's nothing left to lose, I'm going in."

I glanced up, half surprised. True, Krillin did always step in when needed, especially early on in the series, but the odds seemed infinitely more hopeless standing here watch as Vegeta got battered around knowing how much stronger he was than us.

Not that it mattered either way.

"Yeah fine, I'll help."

I suppose, plot-wise, it'd be for the best if Vegeta didn't die yet.

Recoom readied an attack with several more poses.

"Alright Gohan, as soon as he fires his attack, you get Vegeta out of the way. I'll see if I can't blindside that big gorilla."

Objectively, it was a good plan. Still…"I'd rather trade."

"No! No. It'd be safer if you just focused on protecting Vegeta for now."

"Fine. I'll save Vegeta," any accusations of pouting will be ignored.

A blinding beam shot from the oaf's mouth, and I darted forward, grabbing Vegeta and getting him out of the way far too close for any sort of comfort.

An island far in the distance was obliterated by the blast.

I covered my ears and shut my eyes from the blast, still half on top of Vegeta.

"What are you doing?" Vegeta snapped as soon as the dust died down, "could you be any more stupid?!"

"Probably. Want to find out?" Letting him die out of spite probably would have been.

He only growled as he struggled to his feet, "instead of coming after me, you should have both used the opportunity to attack! Dammit, do you really think he's going to let his guard down again!"

"Yeah, right ok, so either say thanks or shut up because we do not have time for any of this stupid second-guessing. Regardless of what you think would be most advantageous, or how much I really don't like you, you're more useful alive than dead at the moment, so once again, shut up."

He glared, "my only solace, is that you will die with me."

"Wow~ real great use of spite there. Against the five-year-old." I rolled my eyes and the only thing keeping me from being hit at that moment was the already dire circumstance.

"Hey Jayce! Burter!" My attention was called over to the still cheerful, and now near toothless, Recoom, back on his feet and nearly unphased.

"How 'bout you let me kill this one too!" He indicated to Krillin, standing several feet in front of him, too scared to move as whatever his attack was, it did nothing of substance. Discounting the teeth.

Apparently, getting to kill an extra person was the equivalent of buying lunch, because that's all it took for Krillin to be added to the oaf's roster.

He crept forward, Krillin stepped back, his stance never breaking as he prepared for an attack.

Steadily, Recoom cleared the distance, apparently in no real hurry.

Krillin took a few more steps back.

A single kick.

That's all it took for Krillin to be shot across the clearing and rendered useless.

In an instant I followed suit, kneeling by his side.

"Krillin! Are you ok?" I cringed at the useless question.

"He-hey. It's f-fine. I think th-th-that threw off my n-nervous system so I c-can't quite feel the pain," he coughed as his joke didn't land, "I-I'm sorry Gohan, I think that broke just about every bone in my body. We knew this was how this would end. They're just too strong. We never stood a chance…but at least I got in one good shot," he laughed painfully.

"Hey, hey. Dad's gonna be here with Senzu Beans real soon so just, hold on for a bit ok?"

"Hey, just, get out of here Gohan. When, when Goku gets here, just, find Bulma and those kids and get back to Earth. The Dragon Balls are gone, there's no way to get them back."

"No. That's not an option. If we do this'll all have been for nothing. So just stay here and hold on."

"N-no! Gohan! Just get away! Please…"

I glanced back, and as much as I wanted to just do as he said, that wasn't really an option.

It never would be.

I walked forwards.

"Hey! The baby wants to fight! C'mon Pintsize! Let's see what you can do!"

Any protests from the peanut gallery were dismissed by more promises of lunch.

I darted forward. My kick was ignored, and punch caught.

Spinning, he tossed me into the air, and disoriented, I struggled to catch myself midair, only to immediately scramble to dodge a small Ki blast.

He was taking pot shots through various poses like it was a game.

I fired a Masenko and immediately flew through the smoke, drawing my sword.

It landed home, and chipped on his shoulder.

I floated for a second, struggling to register as the sword that had previously sliced through a man's neck stood useless against this one.

And then I was being shot back, grinding through rock and earth. I couldn't even tell what type of attack it was that had me now on the ground writhing, just that it was definitely more than one.

I stumbled to my hands, almost immediately falling back over, but struggled to my feet instead.

It was useless. I knew that. But I couldn't, couldn't just leave.

He quite literally blew away my next Ki beam.

Once again, I was struck down into the dirt.

I struggled to my hands once again as I watched blood drip into the dirt.

My face was too numb at this point to even tell where it was coming from. I'm sure I had lost at least a few baby teeth.

Still, I forced myself to my feet. Positive at this point that my Sayain blood was influencing my decisions. No amount of normal human stubbornness could justify this.

Whatever. I don't, really care.

Whatever kept me moving forward.

"Aha! Back for more are we!"

I glared, not bothering to wipe the blood from my face as I swallowed.

He didn't move for a second, allowing me to catch my breath.

I sent Ki through my limbs to numb the pain and darted forward, managed to dodge a single strike and counter, using a Ki blast to both hit him and dodge backward. And then immediately got kneed in the stomach and bounced back.

It didn't matter. It didn't matter.

This repeated several more times.

I'd try to attack, he'd hit me just hard enough to volley me into the dirt and I'd struggle to stand again.

Still, I stood back up.

Still, I stumbled forward.

And then I fell.

I struggled up again.

This is stupid. I can't, do anything.

Still, I stumbled forward.

My vision blurred.

All I could taste was metallic blood in my mouth.

He spoke, said something, but it all blurred.

And then, nothing.

I felt a sharp pain in my neck. Then I felt no pain at all. Except for in my neck. I heard nothing but ringing in my ears. Saw nothing, not blinding white or darkness. Just nothing.

Nothing.

.

"…ah? Gohan? Hey, can you hear me?"

A voice broke through the nothing.

Barely.

"Hey, I need you to eat this for me, ok?"

Then, the bright taste of green broke through the nothing.

And then, like nothing had ever happened, I was fine.

Dirt and blood still covered me, and I still tasted the blood in my mouth, but with no evidence of the injuries they came from.

There was no pain, no soreness.

I blinked, pausing to reevaluate my surroundings.

I was being cradled by a pair of strong arms.

The person they belonged to was wearing a Gi so iconically orange it'd be recognized by anyone.

"Uh, huh?" Was all I managed; my apparent rescuer smiled brightly regardless.

"Hi son!"