"By Kami…" Yamcha whispered in horror as he stared at what Dodoria had done to the Namekian warrior. "He didn't even have a chance to fight back!"

"This… this is a dark day for all of us," Rombo said, clearly shaken by the sight of a fellow Namekian being slaughtered so easily by the invaders. "We have gone countless years since we have seen one of our numbers die…"

"I think," Krillin said, swallowing the thick ball of terror that had built up in the back of his throat, "that this will only be the first death your planet sees."

It was clear from what he was seeing that Larin and the other Namekian warrior simply had no hope against Dodoria. The alien warrior was toying with the two of them now, seeing just how much pain he could put them through. Krillin had seen fighters test their opponents, interested in just how far they could go before they ended up ending a fight. Sometimes it was because they wanted to teach the other fighter a lesson. Sometimes it was the powerful reminding the weak how powerful they actually were. But Dodoria was one of the very last kinds, the most dangerous kind: those that did it because they thrilled at the pain they caused.

"Now," Frieza said, looking over at Moori, "because you have been directly to the point and kept me in a good mood, I will only ask you this once: are there any more young fools that will try and stand against me?"

"I… I do not know," Moori admitted as Dodoria slammed his fist into the belly of the Namekian who had gotten his antenna ripped off. That caused the Namekian to let out a groan of pain but that only lasted a second, as Dodoria turned around and smashed his knee into his face, cracking his jaw. "I did not call for them-"

"Oh, that I can tell," Frieza assured him. "As I stated… I actually find myself liking you. Nothing but polite, barely stuttering in the face of my power… it is so utterly annoying when I ask someone a simple question and they begin to tremble and shake and can b-b-b-b-b-b-b-barely get out their words." He raised his hand to his mouth, stroking his upper lip with an index finger as he laughed at what Krillin could only assume Frieza thought was an amusing joke. "Do you remember that planetary leader… the one with the purple nose, Zarbon? Couldn't stop weeping the moment he saw me?"

"I do, Lord Frieza," Zarbon said with a casual air. "Every time you tried to speak he'd interrupt you to at once promise to do whatever you asked."

"I enjoy it when one is subservient, of course, but it is nice to be able to actually ISSUE my commands." There was a scream and Krillin turned to see that Dodoria had dislocated Larin's shoulder and was now sitting on top of him, leisurely punching him in the face over and over. Smack, pause, smack, pause, smack, pause. "I can't remember, Zarbon… was that the one I had you slowly skin alive or the one that I reduced to dust after he cut me off one too many times?"

"I believe that was actually the one you launched into space so they might freeze to death, sir."

Frieza laughed at that, clapping his hands. "That's right! Now I remember! Thank you Zarbon! How ever would I get by without you." He paused. "Well, honestly I would get by rather well as there are plenty in the Frieza Force I could replace you with but there would be a breaking in period that would delay things terribly." Zarbon merely bowed his head at that and Frieza turned his focus on Moori once more. "Continue to avoid emulating those failures and you and your village may very well get out of this alive." The Namekian with Larin screamed in agony as Dodoria caught a surprise attack he'd tried to launch, grabbing the Namekian by the ankle and slamming him hard into the ground. With his broken jaw Krillin knew even letting out the bellow of pain had been agony for him. Moori tensed at that but did nothing.

"Why isn't he doing something?" Yamcha hissed. "How can he just stand there while Larin is torn apart?"

Rombo was the one that spoke. "He is an Elder. His duty is to the village. Larin… Larin has interfered with his purpose to protect life on Namek. The moment he did so he became no longer a concern for Moori. He knows that as well… it is why he is making no move to beg for his help. None of them are happy about it but that is the situation we have found ourselves in."

"We… we should be doing something," Yamcha whispered. "We should be down there helping him!"

Krillin though shook his head, reaching out and grabbing Yamcha's wrist. "We can't. Frieza can tear us apart just sitting there… I can feel it, you can feel it. He is far beyond our level. We go down there and we are dead at best. At worst it will draw the others here and everyone dies. We have to think about this, Yamcha… we have to be careful. We can't rush in… not this time." Yamcha glowered at that but did nothing else. Made no move to interfere.

It wouldn't have mattered anyway because from the looks of things it appeared that the battle, if one could even call it that, was just about over.

Dodoria chuckled as he smashed the two Namekians' heads together, looking at their twitched forms as they laid puddled on the ground by his feet. "Now…what was all that about you standing against me?" He crouched down and pressed a thick meaty finger into the temple of Larin's remaining partner. "Don't seem like you are standing all that much. In fact it looks like you aren't going to ever do any standing again." He glanced at the warrior's mangled, twisted legs, which had been shattered in multiple places. "Man, that is gonna be quite the burden on these villagers. They're gonna have ta feed ya and bath ya and wipe ya after ya take a shit… I think the only proper thing to do is to lighten their load." And with that he pressed down harder and the warrior let out one final cry before Dodoria drove his finger though his head and into his brain, killing him.

Krillin shut his eyes and grimaced and Rombo let out a mournful sigh.

"Ya never should have listened to that loudmouth who dragged ya inta this," Dodoria said before kicking Larin. The blow sent the Namekian warrior flying through the air, disappearing over the horizon so that Krillin could no longer see him. Dodoria chuckled and got up, brushing his hands off as he did so. "All taken care of, Lord Frieza."

"Save for the fact that we don't know if the one you kicked is dead or not," Zarbon retorted.

"Nah, I felt ribs snap on that kick. He's dead."

Zarbon though pressed the issue. "Can you be sure though? Lord Frieza did command you to kill them and there is a chance that he is still alive."

"Ain't no chance," Dodoria said with utterly confidence. "I know when I've killed something and I've killed that one dead."

"Just like you know that one was actually the leader who dared to insult our emperor?" Zarbon asked and that caused Dororia's eyes to widen. He looked back at the two dead Namekians even as Zarbon let out an overly dramatic sigh. "You were given a rather simple order, Dodoria, and not only did you fail to complete it but your actions have allowed the cretin that dared to insult Lord Frieza to escape."

"He's dead!" Zarbon declared quickly, a twinge of panic coloring his words. "I know he's dead! I'll go retrieve his corpse right now!"

"no no," Frieza said, waving him off. "If you say he's dead that is good enough for me." The alien ruler paused, a smile tugging on his lips. "After all… you know what will happen if that impotent fool shows his face again, Dodoria. Look at your sparring partners… you'll be joining them if your foolishness caused you to leave your task incomplete."

Krillin wished he could have enjoyed the fear that was clearly going through Dodoria's body at that moment. Gleefully chuckled at how the monstrous alien warrior had been brought low, made to feel the terror he had brought not just to Larin and his fellow warriors but countless others long before he had ever even known what Namek was. But he couldn't find it in himself to delight in the fear that Dodoria was fearing in the face of the death that he-

"Sir," Isco stated, "I have claimed the Dragon Ball and I am already on route to deposit it where Frieza and his forces will not be able to find it. And now that I am well out of blast range it occurs to me that we have failed to take into account just how Frieza will react with Moori is unable to give him the Dragon Ball."

"…ooooh nooooo," Krillin murmured.

~MC~MC~MC~

Frieza had to admit… he was pleased.

'When I decided to come down here on my own I thought it would be rather tiresome,' he thought as he watched the squat Namekian leader go to retrieve the Dragon Ball. 'Not merely having to deal with the apathetic little wretches that call this planet home trying to stand up to me… no, it is just so tiresome dealing with my father's machinations.'

Frieza had known from the moment he had taken over his father's empire (and he refused to claim it was half an empire… even if Cooler's half hadn't been utterly destroyed because of his foolishness Frieza had worked hard the last half a century to build up the Frieza Force into a truly terrible and wondrous machine of conquest) that his father wasn't slipping away to retire. No… this was test, as was everything else that his father did. All a test to see if he ready to rule… or if he was plotting against his father… or if he was doing something else entirely. One could never know with his father, to the point that Frieza sometimes wondered if King Cold even knew himself why he had set things up. The man loved his plots and schemes to the point that he created them without a second thought towards an end goal.

King Cold loved to see how people would react to different situations. It was why he had, as Frieza had learned from some research into the Saiyans, been so interested in them.

(He wasn't obsessed. He wasn't. No matter what his annoyance of an older brother claimed he wasn't obsessed.)

With each King Vegeta his father had treated them differently. Vegeta the First he had risen up after killing the previous King so that even their tiny monkey brains were able to realize that the only way they were going to be able to survive was to fall into line. Vegeta the Second had been left in constant fear, always worried he'd done something wrong thanks to small little comments that Frieza's father had made; of course his father had done nothing to actually meet with Vegeta The Second, never traveling to the planet and only communicating through written word so that the ruler could never get a read on him. With the Third he had decided to, early in his life, send him secret messages concerning how he wished him to rule. The moron hadn't realized that he was contributing to his father's growing madness, even when Vegeta the Second had truly went off the deep end and challenged his son to a battle, ending up with an utter slaughter for his troubles. He had done all this just so when they first met Vegeta the Third would be so utterly flummoxed by King Cold being nothing like he expected, with none of the warmth he had thought would be directed his way, that he'd be left flat footed. And, of course, having Frieza take over would completely make the giant fool of a Saiyan, dumb even for a monkey, even more unsure of himself. And with Vegeta the Fourth… well, there was a reason Frieza kept the Prince so close to him and it had NOTHING to do with his "charming" personality.

(Well, to be honest Frieza hadn't researched any of this at all. He had commanded others to look into it for him and report back with as short and to the point of a statement as they could. But he had gained the knowledge all the same and that was what truly mattered.)

His father's sudden retirement was another scheme. Frieza had realized that right away. And he had realized that his father's insistence that he not alter the 'Inner Circle' or his 'Royal Council' was a way for his father to keep an eye on him; after all, what good was an experiment if you couldn't monitor it and see the end results? He had been informed that his father would be "most displeased" if Frieza dismissed Zarbon, Dodoria, the Ginyu Force, and several other important members of his Command.

'Can it really be called MY command if I am not allowed to select who is a part of it?' he thought, not for the first time.

All of the Old Guard were his father's pets. They had been saved by him, recruited by him, or owed him in some other way. The only one he hadn't been worried about was Berryblue, who while being recruited by King Cold was utterly loyal to Frieza, having shown a thousand times that she served him and only him. That he had no doubt and that was why she was allowed the right to talk back to him in ways that would get others killed. She had earned that right.

But the others? Frieza was always looking for a way to get rid of them even as they looked for a reason to go running back to his father and inform him of his actions. It was why he hadn't brought the Ginyu Force with him to Namek; they were off on another mission, dealing with a bit of a problem the Heeters had been forced to alert him about, and contacting them would mean transmitting that he was heading to Namek. No one outside of those that had arrived on the planet knew what he was doing and he suspected that even now the spies were composing their messages to his father.

Every action had to be carefully watched, to ensure that he didn't give Zarbon or Dodoria a reason to run to their father. It irked him to no end that they feared his father more than they did him but soon that would change.

And that is why he had decided to handle the situation on his own.

'It is going rather splendidly,' he thought to himself as Dodoria made a show of walking over to the corpses of the two Namekian warriors and dragging them to where all the villagers could easily see them. It wasn't needed, of course, but Dodoria was desperate to impress him after his failure. 'I have forgotten how good it feels to get out and remind the sniveling minions just how powerful I am while ensuring that my future subjects know it is wise not to coax out my anger.'

While he utterly disagreed with his father and brother claiming that he had grown 'lazy' he could admit that he had removed himself from the field over the last few decades. When he'd first taken over the Empire he had been out there often, slaughtering those that showed any signs of resistance and proving to his new soldiers his strength. But as all had settled into the new normal he'd been able to retreat to his flagship, monitoring situations and gaining information while in his private rooms.

'And while I see no need to exert myself too greatly… there is something quite enjoyable about taking a moment to stretch my legs.' He looked down at his Mobile Throne. 'Well… in a manner of speaking.' He mentally chuckled at his own joke… only to raise an eyebrow when the Namekian leader returned empty-handed. "Now now… unless the Dragon Ball is rather small…"

But the Leader shook his head. "It is gone." And with that he dropped to his knees. "I know you will demand payment for this… take my life and spare my village."

"Elder Moori, no!" one of the other Namekians cried out.

"Don't do this!"

"I am the keeper of the Dragon Ball and it has disappeared on my watch. Unless you have taken it…" And for the first time he stared at Frieza with a touch of defiance. But Frieza merely continued to look at him, annoyed that the Dragon Ball wasn't in his possession, and the Elder sighed, closing his eyes. "No. It must have been Larin. He must have sent one to take it away." And with that he exposed his neck.

"…I must admit, as angered as I am by this… I am impressed. No whining. No pleading. Others would desire that… I would normally desire that. But at the moment I have no time for such distractions." And with that he waved his hand. "Zarbon… kill half the villagers. Start with the oldest."

"What?!" the Elder cried out but Zarbon had already thrust out his hands and fired on the Namekian villagers, dropping them at once to the ground as their hearts were pierced by the thin energy beams the green warrior fired from his fingers. "But-"

"You are willing to give up your life… that means that torture won't work on you." Frieza shook his head. "But you care for these meaningless things so their deaths will motivate your tongue to begin working." He smiled at that, leaning forward. "You should be thanking me. Zarbon chose to kill the oldest first. That means the children were spared… for now." His eyes narrowed at that. "So… where is the Dragon Ball?"

"I… I don't know!" Moori pleaded.

"Zarbon?"

Several of the villagers, before realizing what was happening, fell to the ground dead, smoking holes burning in their chests.

"Too bad you got rid of the warrior leader," Zarbon taunted to Dodoria. "If he were here you could have questioned him."

"He is dead anyway!" Dodoria snapped. "And what if one of these Namekians know where the Dragon Ball left and you killed them?"

"Are you saying I should disobey our master?"

"I am saying-"

"You both better hope that we learn where the Dragon Ball is," Frieza snapped, his good mood rapidly fading as the Elder continued to stare in horror at the massacre. 'Hmmm… perhaps he is telling the truth. A pity but… well… he should have considered that the rebel would attempt something like this and gone to get me my Dragon Ball before his minion made off with it. Ah well, will only take a few adjustments with the scouters to-'

"SOLAR FLARE!"

Frieza cried out as his vision suddenly went white and he shielded his face with his hands, Zarbon and Dodoria joining him in crying out.

The Emperor of the Known Universe had looked directly into the hearts of bright stars. Had seen planets burn… and caused it himself, cackling as the fires consumed the entire orb. Witnessed the darkness of space explode with light when a weapon of mass destruction was fired upon him and his armada in hopes of preventing them from claiming what was his by right.

But the blast of light that struck his eyes was the brightest, most painful burst he had ever encountered. It made not just his eyes burn but his brain as well. He couldn't think. Couldn't process what was happening. All he knew was the light and the pain of it and he did all he could to try and stop it from hurting him more.

And as the pain faded the fact that it HAD hurt him… well, that enraged him. He was LORD FRIEZA! Emperor of the Known Universe! HE! DID! NOT! FEEL! PAIN!

"Zarbon! Dodoria!" he roared as he found himself able to speak once more without descending into screams.

"Can't… can't see a thing!" Dodoria bellowed somewhere to his right.

"Open your eyes and find whoever did this!" Frieza demanded. His hand lashed out and suddenly the world spun, his mind racing for a moment as he tried to figure out what had happened only to dimly realize he must have hit one of the controls on his Mobile Throne and caused it to launch forward. It was supposed to respond to the most minor of touches by his feet but there were emergency controls near his hands. His flailing must have hit something…

Zarbon let out a screech and Frieza felt his Mobile Throne strike something… he darkly realized that it was VERY likely he had just run over his advisor. He kept moving though, spinning wildly which left his stomach lurching in his chest before he finally struck something so hard that he was nearly thrown from the Mobile Throne. Frieza cried out in pain as he felt his neck crack hard, the sensation nearly as agonizing as the light that had pierced his eyes.

Almost.

Finally, FINALLY!, he managed to open his eyes and find that he was half in one of the Namekian hovels. With a snarl of rage he flared out his energy, destroying the building before he spun around and fired on the other buildings, destroying them as well. His eyes were red, spots were dancing across his vision, and the release of his energy had destroyed his Mobile Throne completely.

Frieza took a slow breath, looking about at what remained of the village. Dodoria was rubbing his eyes violently with his meaty forearm while Zarbon groaned on the ground, looking rather bruised thanks to him being stupid enough to get in the way of Frieza.

But… most importantly… the villagers were GONE.

Frieza reached up to touch his scouter to try and track the foolish Namekians only to find that his scouter had been destroyed. Glancing at Zarbon and Dodoria showed they had lost theirs as well.

"Well…" Frieza said coldly, gritting his teeth, "I hope wherever those cretins went has plenty of space for their GRAVES! DODORIA!"

"Y-yes Lord Frieza?' the muscular warrior asked.

"FIND THEM!"

~MC~MC~MC~

"T-thank you," Moori said as he moved next to Krillin as they blasted through the sky, staying as high as they could so as to avoid any watchful eyes. Thankfully all the Namekians were able to fly and knew the planet VERY well and thus were able to guide Krillin and Yamcha easily by just the bare minimum of landmarks. Rombo, having been told the meet up place for Elder Sax's village and any other Namekians that were found, was in the lead, with Krillin and Yamcha hanging towards the back just in case Frieza and his men came at them. They must have made quite a sight, what with all manner of Namekians making up their 'flock'.

"Don't thank me," Krillin said grimly. "Because of us half of your village is gone."

"But the other half lives AND the Dragon Ball is out of the hands of the invaders," Moori told him. "That is what matters. Yes, you could have come and confronted Frieza sooner… but you would have ended up no different than Larin. We would have still most likely been slaughtered by him… or been reduced to being his slaves. And Frieza would now hold a Dragon Ball. You have given us a chance. Not just our village but all of Namek. For that we will be forever grateful."

Krillin sighed at that. "I wish I could feel as hopeful as you do."

"Are you sure that they can't follow us?" a young Namekian boy asked.

"We know they can't," Yamcha said. "Our friend Raditz used to work for Frieza-" That caused the young Namekian's eyes to go wide. "I… I mean he used to but he wasn't that bad! Well, he was pretty bad. I mean he did some bad things like kill me…" The boy stared at Yamcha in open horror and he backtracked. "But hey, I'm all better! That's what matters, you know? All is good! Its fine!"

The young Namekian just stared at him.

"Listen… uh…"

"Dende."

"Dende. Don't worry about Raditz. Yeah, he's gruff but he's with us and he hates Frieza more than anyone. So there is nothing to worry about from him. And as for those three they'll never be able to find us… those little devices they were wearing are called Scouters. They let them detect energy. So with them destroyed they have NO hope of finding us!"

"You know," Isco said in Krillin's ear, "Avo would complain that Yamcha just jinxed us, if he were here."

"…crap," Krillin muttered.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Here!" Chiaotzu exclaimed as he arrived back at the canyon where they'd hidden the ship; with Frieza's arrival the plans to send it up into space had been scuttled for now. The Namekians from Sax's village were all gathered together, huddled into tight little groups talking amongst themselves. Bulma looked up from the Dragon Ball she was studying just as Chiaotzu flung over her head a scouter.

"You managed to get it?"

"I told you he did," Tien complained. "Took out the Frieza Force soldier too."

Chiaotzu nodded, though he didn't look too pleased with himself. "I had to sneak up on him… it wasn't a fair fight."

"We aren't concerned about fair fights anymore," Raditz called out to him from where he was watching one of the entrances to the canyon. Above him Senza was working with several other Namekians to lift heavy rocks they had blasted off of a nearby outcrop so they might cover the top of the canyon. They were hoping that perhaps they could use the canyon itself as the entrance to whatever cavern or underground cave the Z Fighters and the Namekians carved into Namek, if Lord Guru didn't know of any secret hiding spots for them. Senza has used his, as Kayos had once called it, "Clothes Beam" (a name he disagreed with but had stuck with the other Z Fighters) to create thick tarps that resembled the rock of the canyon, allowing them to hide a bit but the rocks would help fully disguise the canyon. That left only the two entrances, on either end, for Raditz and Tien to stand guard at either end.

'That's easy… getting Kakarot's friends to put away their morals and realize that sometimes if you want to survive you have to do dirty little deeds is going to be the hard part,' the elder Saiyan thought. 'They are getting better… the robot is helping out too in smacking down their more stupid ideas…' He sighed. 'Damn you, Kayos… I need you around to talk sense into these morons.'

Raditz had been startled to discover that he missed his brother. He'd only been around Kakarot for a few weeks but in that time he'd found himself truly coming to rely upon his brother. And not just because of his oath, either. Kakarot and him worked well together, despite the fact that his little brother didn't think like a Saiyan at all. Perhaps that was why they DID work well together… because they didn't think like each other that meant that they were able to counter the blind spots the other had. And the personality clashes that had made the rest of the Frieza Force run VERY far away whenever he and Nappa and Vegeta were in the same room together didn't occur with Kakarot. They were different… and that meant they didn't get on each other's nerves the same way that Nappa and Vegeta had for him.

But… even more shocking?

Raditz was missing Avo Kayos.

'The human is one of the most underhanded fighters I've ever met. No sense of honor for his enemies. Utterly vicious even if others don't see it.' After hearing the Z Fighters reference 'poison' several times when it came to Kayos he had finally asked them about it… and startled them all when he'd laughed and declared that he'd never considered poison before but it would have been the perfect way to deal with Vegeta and Nappa. 'The man will protect his friends fiercely… but anyone else is a tool at best and a foe to be destroyed at worst. And he doesn't care about morals or values when it comes to that, either. He just wants the job done.'

Kayos understood that battle wasn't clean. It wasn't created with rules about how far one should go. He got that people saw rules as stupid limitations and the only time you should be pleased about them was when someone said they'd personally had rules.

'If he were here… he would have all of these fools whipped into shape,' he thought. Kayos, had he been born a Saiyan and on Planet Vegeta during the height of its power, would have been declared a Trainer, tasked with teaching young Saiyans the art of combat. They would have hated him… but all would have desired him to teach them. Raditz sighed before looking skyward. 'Kakarot… you and Kayos better hurry up with whatever world you are trying to save and get back here. I'm not sure how much longer I can deal with your friends.'

"It was dishonorable…" Chiaotzu muttered even as Tien put a hand on his shoulder.

"Raditz is right; we can't think like this a tournament. We're basically in a war and we are going to have to be sneaky if we want to survive this." Radtiz blinked at that, wondering if it was finally sinking into some of the Z Fighters' heads that they were in grave danger and NEEDED to be smart about how they handled things.

"I know," Chiaotzu said softly, looking down and scuffing his toe against the ground. "Isco, will you be able to take down the scouters?"

"I will… and perhaps more. I'll have to be careful, as I don't know how much protection their systems have-"

"None," Raditz commented. "They have none. Frieza is arrogant like that. He thinks no one would dare attack his own computer systems. Its how I was able to easily stripe my scouter of tech."

That made Gohan look up from the game he was teaching several of the Namekian youths. "So we could stripe that one as well after Isco is done?"

Raditz considered that. "Might not be a bad idea." He looked at Bulma. "You aren't great at sensing energy…"

"My mech can do it for me," she said, gesturing at the power armor she had stripped off in order to look over the Dragon Ball Sax had given her. "I can look over the scouter though, see if it would work better than what I have set up. And we could always use the spare parts."

Gohan nodded quickly. "And it can detect other things, right Uncle Raditz?"

"Yeah, course it can," Raditz replied, not quite sure why his nephew was getting excited.

"Then if Bulma can't use it… can I?"

"I don't see why not," Bulma said with a shrug before Raditz could say a word. "Chichi?"

"I suppose its safe," the woman commented.

Raditiz narrowed his eyes at that. Just WHAT was Gohan up to? Because he knew the little boy was far sneakier than his parents realized… that was the nature of Saiyan Children, after all. At that age they knew they had power but also knew that any adult could rip their head off it they got too annoying. You only survived if you latched yourself onto someone stronger who could guide and protect you… or if you were able to be cunning enough to be able to get what you wanted without getting the smack you most likely deserved.

"I must say this is just embarrassing," Isco commented. "When you said you had stripped your scouter, Raditz, I assumed you meant you actually stripped it of everything useful."

"You thought I just had a scouter on for the look?" Raditz asked, staring at the drone.

Isco scoffed. "You squish bubbles do all sorts of moronic things. I, for example, don't need to protect my glorious metal form, but you wear clothing. Sometimes just to show off your mammary glands!"

"We noticed that too," Elder Sax stated, causing Chiaotzu to giggle and Tien to smirk while Bulma and Chichi glowered at him.

"But this is just… I am embarrassed to say that this is a fellow machine. Much like how I assume most parents are ashamed of their children."

"Isco!" Chichi scolded.

"No no, I completely get it," Raditz said with a nod, Tien and Chiaotzu mimicking him.

"Frieza deserves to be hacked just for having such primitive hardware and pathetic software." Isco's shell opened slightly and a cable slithered out. "In fact…"

"Isco," Bulma said nervously, "I think we should JUST take the scouters offline."

"I can cripple his ships. I am not going to give up that chance. It's the only way he will learn. Also I must remind him that I am coming to replace him."

Bulma opened her mouth but Raditz smirked and cut her off. "Let the drone have his fun."

"…fine."

~MC~MC~MC~

"Where are those green bastards!?" Dodoria snarled as he rocketed through the air. 'I need to find them… if I don't return to Lord Frieza with their heads then its gonna be my neck on the chopping block!' He had already been in the bad graces of his employer thanks to the bastard Zarbon and now he was running further risk of enraging Frieza if he didn't complete his assignment. 'And after this I'm gonna make sure that Zarbon is the one fleeing for his life!' he thought darkly.

He still wasn't 100% sure why they were on the stupid planet as it was. All Frieza had said was there were 7 relics, the 'Dragon Balls', that he wished to claim that would grant him great power. But Frieza already had far more power than he knew what to do with so Dodoria had no idea WHY he would need even more. It all seemed like a waste of time to him; they could be out taking over planets but instead they were stuck on the stupid wet planet doing things far beneath ALL of them. Not just Frieza… but him and Zarbon as well! In fact most of the soldiers hadn't been out on a proper planet-cleansing in years. Zarbon trained the troops and Dodoria handled rogues that had decided they didn't need to follow orders.

'I heard he was even thinking of bringing the Ginyu Force here, before he left them to deal with the mess the Heeters created!' Dodoria thought in annoyance. 'Just what is-'

A blast of energy struck him in the side, causing him to lose some altitude. At once Dodoria corrected and looked around, trying to figure out just who had struck him.

"Listen here, ya green bastards!" he snarled. "I don't know how you were able to blind us but you are going to pay for it! We might have let you live, even after those warriors showed up, but you deciding to do the dumb thing and try and fight back? All that's done is piss all of us off and now we're gonna enjoy tearing you apart! I'm gonna personally rip off your arms and legs and pin you to the front of our ship before we leave this planet!"

"Well well well," a familiar voice said, causing Dodoria to slowly turn, "someone has gotten creative. I must admit I am impressed."

"Vegeta."

The Saiyan warrior smirked. "But… that creativity won't save you here."

"You think I'm afraid of you? I know how powerful you-"

Vegeta suddenly was right in front of Dodoria, the thick warrior barely having a chance to register what had happened before Vegeta struck him in the side of the head with a kick. The blow had Dodoria reeling and he crashed hard into the ground, groaning in pain.

"That's the thing, Dodoria," Vegeta taunted. "See… I'm not the average Saiyan Warrior anymore."