"Shit! It's like someone poked my eyes out!" Bardock cursed, scratching the back of his eyelids as the contrast of walking through a shimmering portal of pure light into complete darkness was too much for the Saiyan.
Without saying a word in return, Piccolo formed a ring of energy around him and created a pair of Ki spheres that rotated around him by following the ring's energy trail. By doing so he created a source of light that was luminous enough to provide complete clarity within hand's reach around the two and even lit up bits and pieces of the faraway corners too.
"A lab?" Piccolo voiced his observations while the two walked on. "That Ki up ahead…"
"Yeah, it's almost familiar, but not really. Like someone we know but… Different." Bardock focused his stare toward the Ki signature while the two walked onward, down a narrowing row. Given the orbiting Ki spheres that kept the light alive, Bardock let Piccolo walk first while the Saiyan stayed behind until the tunnel widened again as it merged with a titanic hall. The very edges of this chamber were unreachable, even to Piccolo's luminescence.
With loud grunts, Bardock flung a handful of Ki blasts in all directions, clenching his fists right after and stopping them in place. Thusly he extended the reach of light in the lab chamber. Piccolo looked around, trying to figure out the best way to reach the Ki signature that both of them sensed inside this chamber. Meanwhile, Bardock walked around the lines of computers, lab tubes, and gadgetry.
"This tech's all over the place. Some of it looks ancient even by Earthling standards while other may not be several years old since someone moved it." Bardock observed.
"Ice…" Piccolo muttered, approaching a large glacial protrusion and touching its frigid angles and ridges. "I think I know this place. The technology, the idea to hide so much equipment deep into the glaciers of the Northern Region, it's exactly like Dr. Wheelo."
"H-Hello?" a husky voice lingered in the air long after Piccolo and Bardock jumped up and froze in place. Despite being beings that could challenge the mightiest in the universe, the pair still had the instinctual need to preserve their own lives, which caused their pulses to spike up when the forced, wheezing call for help reached them. "Please… Help me…"
"That voice…" Bardock clenched his fists. "I know that voice!" he grit his teeth and rushed onward. Piccolo was about to reach out for his partner to not rush ahead into what could have been a trap, but then he lowered his hand and began walking after the charging brawn-head at a controlled pace.
Piccolo's eyes shot wide open, and he lost the finer control of his jaw when he walked out from the library-like queues of servers, computers, and test tubes and witnessed a two-men-tall and three-men-wide entity hanging atop of sparking tesla coils that sent occasional jolts from one to another. The poor creature had been utterly eviscerated, and it looked like its muscles had been torn out one by one with crude plier-work. Someone had replaced some of its organs and ripped chunks with electronics, but then it was as if they had abandoned the work halfway and the architect of this monstrosity had left its unfinished work just hanging. Had it not been for half-intact, horned head with an angular jaw-line, a nose that may have once been sharped but now ripped from the face and a purple gemstone over his head, surrounded by white, bone-like bio-helmet, the person calling out for help would have been nigh unrecognizable from mere nightmare fuel.
"Great King Cold?" Bardock muttered, similarly baffled as Piccolo was, albeit possessing some greater insight into the personage they've stumbled into. Piccolo turned to his partner, wondering about what it was exactly that Bardock knew, but before he could ask, Bardock's face changed to a furious scowl and he raised his hand up to obliterate the disemboweled ceiling accessory.
"Wait!" Piccolo stopped Bardock. "Whoever this Frieza lookalike is, it's clear that he's in no state to cause anyone any trouble. He might know more about the great catastrophe about to ravage the Earth though."
"F-Frieza…" the mangled alien giant said as if he had just seen water dropping before him while dying of thirst. "You know my son then?"
"His son?" Piccolo leaned back in surprise. "Listen up, if you want us to end your miserable excuse of a life, you better tell us everything that you know, starting from the moment you came to this planet!"
Bardock turned back. It felt as if it had grown far darker in this chamber than it was just a moment ago. While the Saiyan shoveled it off under the bed of it being just his imagination running wild while under endless layers of pure, rock-hard ice that lurked deeper than sunlight ever licked its surface, a few moments later the Saiyan jumped up and turned back again.
"P-Please… Just… Get me down from here and… We'll reward you… Anything in the universe… Any planet… Any system even… All yours…" the mashed ripped, and gutted remain of what once was Great King Cold wheezed out. In his pitiful state of most of his lungs being exposed to the elements, inflating and deflating in real-time and clear view, the alien of surprising vitality could only force breaths out through his airways and speak in a haunting and slurpy hiss.
"Piccolo…" Bardock grabbed hold of Piccolo's shoulder, shaking it.
"Not now, you're more of an acquaintance of this scumbag. He knows what's up, help me get it out of him." Piccolo barked out at Bardock, unaware of what had chilled Bardock's spine and sent his heart tumbling down to his heel.
"I think… I think the Ki blasts are disappearing…" Bardock pointed behind them, where he had positioned a bunch of stationary, azure Ki blasts to provide limited light.
"A Namekian… And a Saiyan?" King Cold wasted his limited remaining breaths stating the obvious. "Don't tell me… You're the ones that hurt my son and… Left him that way…"
"That's right, but right now we're also the only ones that can get you out of whatever this that you've gotten yourself entangled in is," Piccolo replied before the ridges hanging over his eyes lifted, and he turned around as well, noticing a distinct decrease in light. Then, in a snap, it was all gone and the crashing wave of shade submerged the two under. "No more games!" Piccolo bellowed, throwing his hands out and covering the entire laboratory room in golden Ki blasts that lingered in place.
"N-No…" King Cold found energy in his lungs to let out a pathetic yelp when the return of lighting exposed him to a pair of chubby humanoids standing just about fifteen meters away from Piccolo and Bardock. "P-Please… Just… Just let it all end…" King Cold burst into tears, though, because of his sorry state, he had no tears left to give, leaving only droplets of cherry-shade blood trickling down the remaining half of his face that hadn't had steel parts molded to it crudely.
"How the heck did those two creeps sneak up on us?" Bardock couldn't help it as both his feet began dragging back a few meaningless specks ever since the curious pair of marshmallow-cheeked individuals with distinct, cerulean eyes decorated with an excess of eye-liner revealed themselves. "Even now, they're standing in clear view and I can't sense their Ki at all…"
"Sneaky little bastards, aren't you? How did you extinguish Bardock's energy so quietly?" Piccolo smirked, addressing the pair.
The two that had confronted Bardock and Piccolo were a similar pair. A short yet obese man of cheeks that seemed blown out and hugely unnatural. He had a distinct lack of facial features, except for the artificial-looking cerulean eyes that remained stuck in a rhombus-like shape and a pudgy little nose in between that almost lined up with a doll-like line for a mouth. While its exact skin color had been tough to tell in the limited lighting of the golden Ki blasts, it seemed as if it had been pale. Not biological, human pale either. The skin of both of the pair seemed as if the artist drawing them into existence stopped before they had colored their skin in to save time, energy, and resources on more extravagant drawings ahead.
The second one was similar in facial shape, though having female features attributable to a human teen, had it not been for her round-shaped, pale head with blown-out cheeks. Both of them wore near-identical baggy trousers and black bodysuits and strap-on vests. Both of them didn't seem to react with any sort of emotion and just stared at the pair with blank faces.
"Intruders identified. Piccolo and Bardock…" the overweight male doll-man turned his head to look at each martial artist while addressing them.
The short female turned for one of Piccolo's Hellzone Grenade blasts and touched it with her palm. Like a droplet of spring dew, the Ki ball slurped inside of the little woman's hand almost as if vacuumed inside. This display answered Piccolo's question without words.
"Danger level… Moderate. Early experiment exposure troublesome… Proceeding with elimination." The female spoke up with an identical, screechy voice to her male peer.
"Guess we'll have to deal with these two before getting our answers from the strung-up high and mighty." Bardock tightened his sleeves to prepare for a clash with the pair. Given their lack of notable Ki signatures, one wouldn't know just how the battle would go without exchanging a few blows with them.
"Where is he?" Chi-Chi sniffled, pressing her fist to her chest as she looked at a blank point beyond the Son family home window. "If he doesn't hurry…"
Normally when looking out for the sick the entire family wouldn't have just stood around by the bedside, but just recently it became apparent that Gine's condition wasn't about to head anywhere close to getting better. Quite the opposite. On top of a hazy state of semi-consciousness and profuse sweating and hyperventilation, it's become clear that Gine was in a lot of pain too as the woman started shifting about in her bed and groaning in torment.
"Something's weird here." Goku's face became more serious. "Dad should have been home by now. The Korin Tower might be on the other side of the world but it shouldn't have taken him more than seconds to get there."
Gohan, Chi-Chi, Goku, and Ox-King all jumped up at once when a salad-colored dwarf appeared in front of their window, throwing his arms about as the white and long cloth that Dende had donned shook about providing the little Namekian with an unnatural and almost haunting look. Despite the tremendous amount of scare, Gohan rubbed his teary eyes in childish glee and flew over his grandmother's bed to open the window for the little visitor.
"Dende!" Gohan welcomed his friend as the two held each other's hands. Gohan guided his way to Gine's bedside, and Dende slowly followed suit.
"I couldn't reach anyone at the door. Upa explained that people of Earth knock on it, but I must have been doing something wrong because nobody came. It's been too long, Gohan." Dende nodded in acknowledgment of his friend whom they used to play around with all the time while the Namekians stayed on Earth.
"Wow! We must not have even noticed you knock over this ordeal! Sorry about not coming over for a while. I'm more into my studies these days and I've started school so I don't have that much time to go to God's Temple anymore…" Gohan butted his fingers, looking a tad blue because of that admission.
"That's okay, I'm studying with Kami Upa as well to one day succeed him as Kami. It's not like I have too much time to play around too…" Dende rubbed the back of his head with a somber confession of his own.
"Dende, you live with Upa, don't you? Has dad come to God's Temple? I sense his Ki faintly on the whole other side of the world, far off north to where the Sacred Land of Korin is. He went to get Senzu…" Goku asked the little Namekian.
"Oh, that's right. That's why I came here. To treat Gine while Bardock and Piccolo take care of an errand for Kami Upa." Dende snapped his fingers, elevating himself through levitation over Gine and extending his hands. The moment that the blazing aura left Dende's hands and enveloped Gine in a sparkling and sharp burn, the Saiyan settled down from her torment and returned to a peaceful sleep.
"Ho! That's amazing!" Chi-Chi said. "Do you think you can heal her completely?"
Dende did not answer that question. Instead, he allowed some additional, stronger reddish pulses to flow from his body and transfer into the vibrant aura surrounding Gine. The Dragon Clan survivor of the Namekian race forced his healing ability to work overtime, making Gine change color to a dark fern-green while the orange aura turned emerald though continued to shimmer with vibrant vigor.
Sweat ran down Dende's face. The Ox-King hopped up as if scolded by boiling water and ran off for a few seconds, returning with a tray filled with orange juice that he showed to Dende. Barely acknowledging the fresh juice, Dende made the glass lift off the tray and linger over his head. While the young Namekian turned his head and opened his mouth, the glass tilted to the side, letting the drink drop into Dende's mouth in a focused spill.
"I thought you only drank water…" Gohan observed, making Ox-King scratch his head apologetically for failing to pick the right refreshment for the alien youth.
"Namekians can eat or drink whatever they like. We only need water for sustenance occasionally." Dende pointed out. "I'd prefer water but I am grateful for your fruit juice extract, Gohan's elder."
"Sure thing…" Ox-King bawled out. "Sorry, sorry, it ain't like Piccolo ever dropped by for a visit or anything so I didn't really know…"
"Maybe we should leave him? Do you need to focus on this?" Chi-Chi wondered, looking at the back of Dende's head as the little Namekian loomed over Gine's body.
"I'm not yet sure. This is the most powerful that I can make my healing ability so it shouldn't take too long but this sickness is strange." Dende shook his head, unsure of how this entire process would go.
"We'll leave Gohan-chan here then and leave you two to catch up. Having all of us stuffing in the same room must be distracting. Goku-sa, you should get Dende a jar of cold water from the well." Chi-Chi suggested.
"That would be great. I can already see that treating this might leave me tuckered out." Dende said with light crystals of sweat hanging over his forehead.
"I can do you one better. I can get some straight from the source by the waterfalls in the canyon. That stuff's the best!" Goku winked with a thumb up. He wasn't used to a situation where the problems couldn't have been solved by throwing punches and kicks, so he was beginning to feel useless just standing and watching Chi-Chi and Dende take care of his mother the best they could.
"I'll make you something to eat and drink, massage your shoulders, you've been on your feet the whole day, Chi-Chi, you look pale." Ox-King expressed his worries, comforting his daughter while the three left Gohan's room to let the two old friends catch up while Dende worked his magic.
"So then my grandma beat the snot out of the cannibal witch from the woods and freed me! I was lucky that my dad didn't come to play with me that day because he'd have stuffed down all that poisonous food with me and gone down like a brick! Not grandma though, she's so wary of unprocessed food… Must be because she worked on a plant her whole life…" Gohan wiped the ever-emerging gleams in his eyes while looking at Dende work.
"She sounds… Nice…" Dende said. There was a sense of direness and discomfort in his voice. He couldn't stop sweating and a few times Gohan caught Dende's hands hanging heavy like they were made of lead or something. The powerful emerald gleam around Gine faded out, and the woman returned to a shiny, orange glow while the aura became more translucent and fiery. Dende panted, shaking his open palms to reestablish a grip over the situation, but Gine's condition didn't shift.
A blood-freezing scream filled the house. The entire Son family burst through the door with jolted faces as Gine began thrashing around in pain and one of her windmill kicks socked Dende away. Goku caught the little guy by letting him softly bump at his chest while the Saiyan lowered the worn-out Namekian to the floor.
"I… I can't heal her…" Dende admitted with absolute collapse on his face. His lips hung open as if he couldn't close his mouth even if he tried, and his open eyes shook and twitched every few blinks.
"I didn't think that was possible," Gohan admitted.
"Neither did I…" Dende looked up. "I… I must not be good enough. The elders back on Planet Namek could heal everyone with their healing skills. Even people on the verge of death. Only those dying of natural causes couldn't have been salvaged because their entire bodies were failing."
"Wow, she got way worse…" Goku covered his ears as his mother just couldn't stop wailing in torment. The woman grabbed her chest as if it was about to burst out from her ribcage in a violent explosion of blood and heart chunks.
"It seems I've only slowed down her sickness a little, but too much of her body must have become afflicted. This must be just like when one is dying a natural death I… I can't help her." Dende admitted with a stunned contortion of his face.
"Alright! I'm off to get the Senzu then!" Goku clenched his fists, rushing off to the side before stopping in place right outside Gohan's room.
"What's wrong, dad?" Gohan peeked outside, wondering why his father stopped after looking so fired up just a second ago.
"Phew… I must be out of shape. Or I'm just not used to doing nothing but worrying the entire day…" Goku breathed in and out deep, stretching his muscles before resuming his dash toward the door and taking off toward the Sacred Land of Korin.