Piccolo's kicks sent Chayote on the defensive. The Saiyan raised her arms to block the long and stiff strikes as the Namekian's anatomy allowed him to deliver kicks from a much farther distance than Chayote was used to. Pain resonated throughout her body as Piccolo's kick thrust into the center of Chayote's chest and sent the Saiyan soaring backward through pale, empty space.
An electric crackle signified the electric paralysis technique unleashed from Piccolo's antennae. Chayote screamed out in pain as every ounce of her sensory became overtaken with overwhelming electric impulses. The resonance and flaring up, golden aura around her blinded her eyes while the Saiyan's muscles contracted wildly. Piccolo's elongated arm reached in and pulled Chayote by her thick hair, driving his knee into her face while he transitioned from an electric stun into a more physical, flinching sensation.
Again came the relentless barrage of kicks, Piccolo noted the difference between the heights of the two and he was utilizing his long legs that surpassed any limb of Chayote's. The Saiyan was just barely faster than Piccolo but somehow Piccolo was demonstrating greater skill at martial arts despite barely being seven years old. Then again, he did spend an unclear amount of time training himself up in the Room of Spirit and Time so perhaps he was more experienced than Chayote gave him credit for.
Piccolo jumped up as his rising knee strike launched Chayote into the air. The Namekian looked vexed at the fact that despite a fruitful beatdown he failed to draw a drop of blood off of her. His approach was careful, aware of Chayote's unruly power compared to his own, Piccolo stayed on his back foot at all times, he did not pursue her into the air mindlessly, just vanished, appeared for a lash of his elongated arm or a swipe of his wild claws and then vanished back down again.
"Get gone!" Piccolo hissed as he gripped his right wrist with his left hand. Pushing through fatigue and battle tension, the Namekian released a head-sized bullet built out of stormy Ki that blew up in Chayote's face as she landed. The reincarnation of the Demon King cracked his neck a pair of times before entertaining his knuckles and breaking his fighting stance.
Chayote opened her eyes and stood up. Piccolo turned to her but remained in a cross-legged sitting position. The green-skinned martial artist looked grumpy after the pair's latest session of image training. His disgruntled face said as much, then again, Piccolo was often grumpy. It was his default state, if the wannabe demon ever smiled, that was when Chayote would have felt worried.
"It was like fighting with a punching bag!" he hissed.
"You're an impressive fighter. Our strength and speed aren't equal but I've got much to learn from you," Chayote admitted, scratching the back of her head lazily as she yawned. While the Saiyan understood the importance of using image training to keep herself polished in outer space, she couldn't help but get sleepy during it, no matter what the time she did it in was.
"How about you teach me something too next time?" he closed his eyes and let out a bitter breath from his chest, blowing it out through his nose.
"I think we might have gone through all of our times…" Chayote elevated herself via levitation to the pine-colored porthole and observed a gorgeous, green planet shrouded by white, fluffy clouds and surrounded by dark shade around its edges. Likely a decoration due to a feature of the system that the planet resided in. "Planet Namek was meant to be on the other side of the universe from Earth, that spaceship that Kami came in was amazing!"
"It wasn't Kami who came with the spaceship!" Piccolo scolded Chayote. "It was the Namekian that was both Piccolo and Kami alike."
"Yeah, good luck getting me to say that every time…" Chayote rolled her eyes. She did feel a hint of gratitude to Piccolo Jr. for helping her out during the most abhorrent period of her life when it felt like Chayote had lost all control and as if her free will would be violated into nothingness which was why she not only approved of Piccolo's decision to travel to Planet Namek but also accompanied him there herself though at times the Namekian's company was irksome.
"Heh, it would be the most pleasant torture to see, more so than seeing you land on a planet of "demons" you hate so much…" Piccolo cheeked at Chayote with a malicious smile, trying to stare a hole through the Saiyan with those beady eyes of his.
"Yeah, yeah…" Chayote grumbled out. "The crew that tortured me for days or weeks or however long it took were most likely not even demons at all. Slug was very much like your predecessor, just an old-fart Namekian."
"Hmph… That just makes this worse for you – you're landing on a planet of Namekians…" Piccolo's glare when looking at Chayote softened somewhat. It was as if with this obvious statement he himself, at last, realized the obvious – what it took for the Saiyan woman to get over herself and travel here with him. Just to see Earth safe and completely Piccolo-free.
"I don't know about you but… This doesn't look natural…" Chayote pointed at the cottony, green marble that was Planet Namek, pointing at a supermassive tree structure that stuck out of it like a dagger sticking out from the heart it had stopped from beating. "I mean… I have heard stories of Namekians being pretty chill, tree-hugger-like folk but what are the odds that this one tree's just grown this large? Doesn't look very natural, does it?"
"How am I to know?" Piccolo shrugged, shutting himself off of this curious sight. "I've never been on this place, you're the space-faring expert that's heard things about the Namekians."
"I've never been to Planet Namek nor have I heard from anyone that's been here. I don't think any foreign foot had landed here for hundreds of years…" Chayote scratched her head. Now that she thought about it, there was a massive void in her knowledge of the Namekian society that might just have fit a planet-sized tree in it if one tried stuffing it in hard enough.
Slowly rotating around its axis in order to enter the Namekian atmosphere and land properly, the ship touched down with a gentle thud that was just a tad stronger than an elevator descending to the ground floor. Once the spaceship opened up and lowered its bridge, Chayote's feet bumped her body harder when the Saiyan jumped out of the spaceship to look around this space marble.
"So this is Planet Namek…" Piccolo looked around a few peeks at a time, turning his head around from within the spaceship as if expecting to be ambushed but then levitated out of the sanctuary of the Kami's spaceship and touched his feet down onto the blue grass as well, scanning the planet's lush nature. "It doesn't look touched much. Maybe we've landed in some far-off region of the planet?"
"Dunno… There was a huge cataclysm in Planet Namek hundreds of years ago, I think. Who knows, maybe the bunch went extinct. Would explain why random Namekians are popping up all over the universe from time to time – if only those that got sent away made it…" Chayote shrugged as she sampled the swampy-colored, green water in her hands. Despite its revolting color, the water seemed crystal-clear and safe to drink though the Saiyan didn't slurp any of it. After all, who knew what the nature of the cataclysm was?
"Hmm… There aren't any lush forests here, a bunch of trees that are thin like twigs. All of this for miles…" Piccolo flew up and looked around.
"Yeah, I took your kind to be more throne of skulls type rather than living in nature type," Chayote yelled out for the airborne Namekian to hear as she scoped the surroundings, realizing that the whole planet was made out of crumbled island landmasses floating in these green waters, which was what granted the planet its color. In a lot of ways, Planet Namek was similar to Earth with how dominant the color of its water was for the appearance of the entire planet from up above.
"Maybe the other Namekians are a bunch of weaklings?" Piccolo raised a possibility. "I can't sense many notable Ki signatures nearby… Though those I can reach are far more powerful than humans."
"Nah, the Namekians had a rep for being high in battle power and carrying a whole bunch of weird techniques under their belt…" Chayote doubted Piccolo's judgment. That was when a spike in Ki attracted their attention at the same time.
"That Ki signature doubled in size…" Chayote voiced what troubled both martial artists at the same time. The fighter in question was nobody of importance, based on its battle power though the fact that his power just doubled for seemingly no reason interested both of them.
"Somebody's fighting someone…" Piccolo nodded. "This doesn't feel right, it's as if many of Ki signatures are fighting off that one. As if that thing is raiding a settlement or a city."
"If you want to find your people, our best odds are to head off that way then," Chayote concluded earning a strict glare from Piccolo.
"We need to help that settlement if they are really in trouble," Piccolo hissed out.
"That too, I suppose…" Chayote shrugged, making an innocent face as the concept of rescuing a town or a village full of Namekians, the folk that caused her nothing but embarrassment, trouble, and torture at their hands didn't excite her as much as it did Piccolo, who, no doubt, wanted to be noticed and accepted by the other Namekians and saw his chance to do so.
"Something's definitely off…" Piccolo observed as the two took off toward the escalating battle power in a rush. He was staring down and after turning her head to see what troubled her green-skinned friend Chayote witnessed villages of white, bone-like buildings that were eerily identical to the spaceship that they came here with filled with holes and smoking.
"Ki-ki-ki… What's wrong? Is my fused form too much for you folks?" a short and plump, purple-skinned and ovular-headed alien showed off before a handful of airborne Namekians, all of whom clutched at their injuries are tried a last resort attempt at killing their opponent via an intense and scornful stare.
"That armor!" Chayote pointed at the short, egg-headed plumpy, dropping her jaw. "It's like that of the Frieza Army!"
"Frieza Army?" a masculine voice came from far off to the west of where the clash between the purple-skinned dwarf and the defenders of the Namekian village under siege was taking place. Its presence as well as the notable Ki signature of its owner did not elude Chayote as she turned to face its master. The moment that her eyes bore witness of the man in a black and blue Saiyan armor and a white cape, not unlike the one that Piccolo wore on his shoulders, her jaw could only jar even lower.
"K-Kakarot!?" Chayote freaked out. "What the heck? Did you resurrect already?"
"Get yourself together, you fool!" Piccolo hissed, "This isn't Son, feel his Ki signature!"
"Hmm? This guy looks like a Namekian though who's this broad, I wonder?" the Goku-like Saiyan scratched his wild and spiky hair as he reached to activate his scouter.
"That chick's a Saiyan, Captain Turles!" a vicious-looking alien of a devilish pink complexion and threatening bodily bulk and chest thrice the thickness of Chayote's entire body declared as he pointed at her and the tail that wagged in excitement, sticking out from the Saiyan's shorts.
"So it seems…" the man referred to as Captain Turles mumbled to himself as numbers kept counting up on his scouter. "Huh? The battle power of 52 140!? That's impossible even of a Saiyan, the scouter has to be malfunctioning."
"52 140!?" a sludgy alien, decorated with cybernetic enhancements and a glossy, metallic armor all over his body freaked out with a raspy voice. The bulky man in Frieza Army armor with a flowing, red cape behind him activated his scouter.
"The scouters must be broken, they state that this Namekian has a battle power of 38 647, that is impossible. There's no Namekian this strong!" the giant stated in a slow and confident manner of speech.
"Oh well… There's only one way of checking for sure, we came here to test out our newly revived Beenz members, didn't we? Rasin, Lakasei, kill those two before you finish off those broken Namekian warriors," Turles ordered the soldier with an egg-shaped head, curiously referring to the two as two warriors with two names despite there being only one opponent.
"What's that? You said that Chayote was stronger than me with that device of yours?" Piccolo raised his eyebrow. "You better keep close attention, I'll want a second opinion on that…"
"Whatever, that guy's a pushover…" Chayote shrugged, letting Piccolo keep the shrimp all to himself. "I'd rather take on the rest of those guys!"
"Huh?" the most human-like member of Turles' crew smirked. The man scored an impressive, teal punk-rock look to himself with a topping of the Frieza Army gear which was the most intriguing aspect to this group for Chayote. "Did you guys hear that? She said that she was gonna beat us all down? The entire Crusher Turles Army Corps all by herself!"
"Well, well… If her power was what our busted scouters said it to be, I'm sure she'd cause us some problems…" Turles shrugged with a smug look. "Either way, I'd keep close attention on your pal, missy, who knows when you might need to pitch in to save him?"
"Save Piccolo?" Chayote blinked rapidly a few times. "You're the one who doomed a Beenz to death, did you know how rare those guys are? I haven't heard of one being seen in years!"
"They're not just rare, they're extinct!" the broad-shouldered giant with red cloth sleeving his arm and covering his legs proclaimed with a wicked smirk on his face, knowing full well the kind of effect his proclamation would have. "Captain Turles resurrected these two from a fossil using the juice of fruit from the Divinity Tree."
"Whoa, that's interesting. You mean that this Divinity Tree bears fruit that can resurrect people?" Chayote gasped before her surprise changed to excitement. "I'd like to see that. This Divinity Tree wouldn't happen to be that massive thing looming off of the planet's surface, would it?"
"Ah, so you've come from space… Here to think we thought you to be a stranded local…" the punk-rock looking soldier yawned. "If you want to see what the Divinity Tree can really do, just wait until it grows even larger and brings us more fruit!"
"You heard that, Piccolo?" Chayote turned to the Namekian who had entered his fighting pose without even taking off his weighted clothing. That was most likely the source of the drastic difference in their strength at the moment.
"Sure, it would be just amazing to not have to rely on the Dragon Balls too much, huh?" Piccolo reared his fangs while keeping a close eye on his opponent who just danced about. "I guess we can just entertain ourselves with the space trash in the meantime…"
"The… Dragon Balls?" a Namekian of an advanced age muttered from down below. Piccolo glanced down at the shriveled elder which was just the opening that his opponent was looking for. Whether his opponent was now Rasin of Lakasei, he charged right at Piccolo with the intent to batter him just like they've broken the spirit of the rest of the Namekian warriors so far.
Piccolo regained his good graces to react but by that time his opponent burst with a blinding flash and parted into two separate beings, shocking both Piccolo and Chayote with this curious maneuver. The pair proceeded to pound and kick at Piccolo though the Namekian held his own, covering up from the relentless barrage of attacks and withstanding the combined assault like a stone wall.
"Irritating little shrimps…" Piccolo grunted after swiping with his elbow and spinning his knee to deflect the pair of annoying alien gnats away from him. "Caught me off-guard with this pathetic technique…"
"Pathetic?" Raisin chuckled.
"If it sends you to your grave, what are you worth exactly?" Lakasei posed behind his comrade and occasional fusee with a cheeky pose.
"Splitting and fusing… Such an elementary technique. Do you even know that you two are stronger together when your fighting strength doubles?" Piccolo cracked his knuckles and spun his long and muscular neck around, stretching it out in the confines of his baggy cape collar.
"My power level is 7600!" Raisin chanted out, posing below.
"My power level is 7600!" Lakasei posed above.
"Whether we attack together or as one person, it makes no difference!" they chanted out together in unison.
"Hmph… Indeed, it doesn't…" Piccolo closed his eyes and admitted it. In a snap, the Namekian opened his eyes with a malevolent smirk and raised his arms over his head, emanating intense, bright light from his body as he emitted an explosive burst in the shape of a Ki wave that obliterated both of the two shrimps, disintegrating them both at once, just as it would have reduced both of them together at the same time.
"The last of Beenz…" the cybernetically enhanced member of Turles' crew whistled out, letting the cruel realization linger in the air. "Maybe the scouters weren't exactly wrong about their battle powers? After all, they've worked just fine before…"
"Perhaps so, either way… We can't quite deal with someone of a power level over 50 000 for now," Turles sighed. Then, in a sporadic twitch, he raised his arm up and fired a Ki blast aimed toward the village. Piccolo, still in a bit of a race for his breath after the impressive explosive Ki wave, couldn't settle on who to gander at, the cruel crew of aliens or their target – the helpless Namekians as he raced after his own kin, aiming to overtake their inevitable, explosive demise.
Chayote, on the other hand, dived in the way of the Ki blast and swatted it aside, following it with her eyes as it detonated far-off in the distance with enough might to blink out the entire planet had Chayote not taken off a decent chunk of its force with her deflection. Just as she turned toward the cruel captain to scold him for getting kicks off of attacking helpless Namekians instead of taking her on in battle as a true Saiyan should, they were nowhere to be seen.
"They bolted…" Chayote sighed.
"Whatever, they're lowlife nobodies, don't even know we can track them by their Ki," Piccolo showed his fang while still holding a terrified Namekian child in his hand. The kid appeared to be mortified of Piccolo and his brutal visage at that moment just as much as he was frightened by the alien invaders. "For now, let's find out what's going on here, we can find and snuff those guys out again whenever we want."
Piccolo placed the child back down, allowing it the freedom to run and hide behind the elder who was unsure of how to treat these two new factors that appeared to clash with the enemy of the Namekians that invaded their planet, slaughtered their people, destroyed their villages and aimed to drain the life out of their entire planet to feed their Divinity Tree.