Dragonball Z: Frieza Saga [2]

THE FAKE NAMEK

Back in the ship, Bulma announces that they are about to land on Namek. Krillen and Gohan excitedly go over to see, and they look at the Greenland of the planet in awe. The ship comes down with a crash as Bulma lands, and then they fully take in their surroundings. They are about to get off the ship, when it falls off the edge of a cliff, with the fall knocking them all unconscious.

When the three of them awake, they are staring up at green men, looking vaguely similar to Piccolo. Two of them stand there. They greet the heroes upon them awaking, and introduce themselves as ‘Raiichi’ and ‘Zaakro’. Apparently, they are the two eldest Nameks. They inform Bulma, Krillen and Gohan that it has been exactly one year since the last wish was made with the dragon balls, so they would have regenerated by now. This makes the three heroes very excited. The Nameks offer to take them to the dragonballs in their ship, and their invitation is obligingly accepted. Bulma uses the dragon radar to hone in on them, eventually stopping at a large lake. Everyone (Except Bulma) strips down to their boxers and dives in. They swim around, looking for the dragonballs, but not finding them for a while. Bulma moans at them all from the sidelines, telling them to look harder. Gohan and Krillen lift up rocks, but can’t hold their breath long enough to have a good look for anything. Eventually, one of the two Nameks comes up to the surface with a small golden ball in his hands. After clapping, and celebration, everyone gets dressed again, then get back into the ship.

To find the next dragonball, the Nameks have got to take the gang to a cave. Bulma find out that the dragonball is right inside it, so they cautiously walk along, with torches, examining the hieroglyphics on the wall, of strange amphibian-like, pink creatures. As they venture forth deeper into the cave, they come to a tomb. Bulma looks in one of the caskets as the radar flashes manically. A skeleton is holding the dragonball, and this scares Bulma witless, as she jumps back, shivering for a while until she realizes that it is the remains of a dead creature. She takes the ball out of it’s hand, and swiftly exits the tomb.

Once again, everyone gets into the ship, and they take off, heading for another destination. The ship itself is a large red thing, which seems very unstable, and makes an incredible amount of noise. It distracts the three heroes a lot, and also gets on their nerves too. The location of the third dragonball is near a forest. The Nameks set the ship down, and then everyone gets out, to start looking for the dragonballs. They are greeted by a huge T-Rex though, which forces them back into their ship. Even when they get to a high altitude, they are still only level with it’s head. The T-Rex seems to disappear, but then they notice a swamp, with the bones of the dinosaur disintegrating in it. The Nameks explain that it is a swamp of acid, which will dissolve anything that touches it. Bulma explains to them that there must be a dragonball in there, but then brings up the fact that they can’t get to it. After a little bit of thinking, one of the Nameks mentions that they have a Geranium suit, which will be able to withstand the acid for 10 seconds. Gohan volunteers to go in and to try to get it. Bulma is worried that Gohan won’t be able to get back up, but the Nameks also, very handily, have a Geranium rope on them too. Gohan puts on the suit, and attaches the rope. The Nameks tell him that they will pull him up after 10 seconds, regardless of whether he has the dragonball or not. He understands, and dives into the bubbling pool of acid. After a little bit of searching, Gohan locates the dragonball, and then grabs it. He pulls on the rope, but it has melted. He is quickly running out of time as his suit starts to disintigrate. Gohan, thinking fast, blasts a KameHameHa at the ground, shooting himself out of the pool, and back onto the ground, with the dragonball in hand. He quickly takes off the rapidly melting suit, and safely walks back into the ship, greeted with cheers from Bulma and Krillen.

The three of them quickly take off with the Nameks, over to the location of the fourth dragonball. The radar leads them to a dry desert, far from any sort of life. They come to a halt, but the radar says that the ball is coming towards them. After a short pause, they see a twisting, swirling tornado coming towards them, with the dragonball entrapped in it’s winds. Realizing that they had better not use any KI attacks from fear of destroying the ball, Gohan and Krillen know that they must somehow get it another way. Gohan is the first one to think of something, and he shoots right up into the air, floating above the top of the tornado. He dives in, and grabs the ball, but is unable to fly out again, because of the extreme pressure forcing him down. After a while of struggling, Gohan blasts a powerful KameHameHa at the base of the tornado, sending him shooting out, and calming the raging winds. His friends applaud him as he once again retrieves another dragonball.

Meanwhile, Goku has got himself out of his bandages, and into his uniform which King Kai gave him. He flies out of the hospital room, and out into the open air, to do some much needed training. When the doctor and nurse come in to see an empty bed, they are shocked, and horrified.

Back on Namek, the gang are venturing forth into a strange looking forest. After a bit of exploration, the ground starts to shake, and rises into the air. It is now that they realize that they are on top of some sort of huge winged animal. They are lifted up into the air, where they join a whole flock of the winged terrors. Raiichi the Namek points out that he can see a castle, and if they jump now, then they would be able to land safely. Everyone jumps off obediently, landing without injuries. The castle seems to be way out of proportion with our heroes. Everything is of an absolutely epic size, such as a toy plane on the mantelpiece, which is big enough for Krillen to fit in. They all go into the room, and notice a giant sleeping on his king-sized bed. The dragon radar is blinking frantically now, and they finally notice that the dragonball is linked to one of the giants earrings. Bulma makes Krillen and Gohan get it, as she looks on. They manage to yank it away, but as they walk off, the giant awakes. Panicking, Krillen fires a destructo disc at the giant, but it does little damage. Thinking fast, Gohan joins in, firing a KameHameHa at the giants face, and blowing part of it off. The giant is relentless though, and continues coming forwards towards them. Bulma desperately tries to fire up the toy plane on the mantelpiece as Gohan and Krillen continue to struggle to fight off the giant. She gets it working, and swoops in towards her two friends, picking them up, then flying out of the window, joining the Nameks outside. The giant doesn’t look too happy.

Back at Freiza’s docking station, Vegeta is fully recovered, and stepping out of the regenerator. He remarks on his improved strength, then sets off along the corridor.

On Namek, Gohan, Krillen and Bulma are in an icy cavern, looking for the dragonball. The radar blinks incessantly, as they notice it engulfed in ice. The two Nameks have disappeared off somewhere, but no-one is too concerned about this. They start to thaw the ball out, and then excitedly grab dragonball number six! The celebrations are cut short though, as the floor caves in. The three of them shoot down an icy slope, riding on a glacier, with Krillen desperately trying to stop them from crashing into the walls by launching KameHameHa’s everywhere. He succeeds in getting the glacier to go in s straight line, as they continue to zoom down the slope. They look back, and see that they are persued by a massive snowball, which is likely to kill them if it reaches them. Seeing some icicles hanging from the walls, Krillen blasts them down as they go past them, in an effort to stop the snowball. Big mistake. The snowball is now on a rampage after them, with spikes! Krillen, Gohan and Bulma panic as the giant snowball closes in on them.

At Freiza’s docking port, Vegeta is putting on his armor, and questioning the doctor. He learns that Freiza is on Namek, and as he suspects the man to be the one who blew up his home planet, he informs the doctor that is where he is going.

Back at Earth, Goku is in a deserted area, with pyramids spanning the landscape. He uses his immense power to shift some of them around, and to blow a couple up, until he feels a sharp pain, which takes him down to the ground, and eventually knocks him unconscious. He evidently hasn’t recovered fully yet.

As we go back to Namek, we see that Krillen, Gohan and Bulma are still being pursued by the snowball, which is hot on their heels. They are starting to get worried now, as they fear that it may all be over, until they see an opening in the cave, with light shining through it. Gleefully, they try to make the glacier go faster, and they succeed, as it bursts out of the hole in the cave, with the snowball not far behind. They crash land a distance away from the snowball, and they have survived another ordeal…barely.

On the planet Earth, Chi-Chi and Master Roshi are scouting the land, looking for Goku. They eventually find him on the floor, and take him back to the hospital, where he is told off, and put back into bed.

Back on Namek, Krillen, Gohan, Bulma and the two Namekian guides are approaching a big hill, with a small stone temple at the top. They climb then hill, only to find that the temple is across a small swamp. It will be easily crossed though, so Gohan prances across the stepping stones, but gets suspended in mid-air, looking very distressed. At first, Krillen thinks that Gohan is playing around, but then he realizes he is serious. He hears a scream, and turns to see Bulma getting held captive by the two Nameks. He is confused, and worried, not knowing what to do.

At Freiza’s docking port, Vegeta is marching down the corridor, looking very annoyed at something. Cui stops him, and asks where he’s going. Vegeta tells him that he is off to Namek to kill Freiza. At first, Cui thinks that this is some kind of joke, but when he sees the look on Vegeta’s face, he sees that he is serious, and thinks he is insane. Vegeta obviously wanted revenge on Freiza because of his destruction of his home planet, and his general bad attitude to anyone stronger than him. Cui informs Vegeta that Freiza went to Namek to wish for eternal life from the dragonballs, and as this is the wish that Vegeta wants to make, he knows he must stop Freiza before he makes any sort of wishes. Vegeta runs down the rest of the corridor after grabbing his scouter, and jumps into his pod, which then heads for Namek.

Back at Namek, the whole place reverts to craters, rocks, and wasteland. It is shown that Gohan is suspended in the air by some sort of tentacle coming from the water. Krillen turns to the two Nameks, and notices that they have changed into pink monsters, with tentacles coming from their heads. Krillen recognizes them from the cave drawings. He is very alarmed at this point, and to make matters worse, the dragonballs turn to stone. The pink aliens explain that they crashes on this hideous planet a few years ago, and were waiting for people to land here too, so that they could steal their ship, and escape. The aliens then went on to explain that they were masters of illusions, and can read minds. They read our heroes minds, and made this quest for them, only to lead them into danger, and to trap them. Krillen isn’t too happy at this, but now he is at a loss, trying to work out what to do. Krillen goes over to help Gohan, but a tentacle shoots up and grabs him too. Now they are in big trouble. The two aliens explain to the gang that the stellar winds are coming (Giant, deadly hurricanes) and that it is a good job that the Z gang came when they did. The two aliens walk off to the ship, and start to try to guess the password.

Bulma cowers behind a rock, watching the two aliens say some really stupid things. Gohan and Krillen are still rendered useless by the massive tentacles. Bulma accidentally makes a small rock roll down the crater, and the two aliens notice her. They force her into telling them the password, and she shouts out ‘Piccolo’, making the doors open. The aliens smile, and look up into the magnificent ship.

Meanwhile, Krilen and Gohan are struggling to break free, as they get dragged underneath the waters surface, and start gasping for breath. They come up with a plan though, and start blasting KameHameHa’s at the tentacles. They get freed from one, but then more come and grab them. In the end, Gohan and Krillen join hands, and start swimming in circles. They use their most powerful energy beams to shoot them round, cutting the tentacles in half as they spin. Eventually, they get free, and shoot out of the water. The tentacles go to grab at them, but they are too slow, and Gohan and Krillen are off, going towards Bulma.

The pink aliens are about to walk into the ship, when someone shouts the word ‘Piccolo’, making the ships door shut. The aliens turn around, and see Gohan and Krillen standing there, not looking too happy. They charge at the aliens, and make very short work of them, defeating them easily. The winds are approaching, so Bulma, Gohan and Krillen rush into the ship. They start to chug into the air, and are finally off, soaring through the air, narrowly avoiding the dangerous winds, that destroy the surface of the planet even further. They charge through space, heading for the real Namek. They approach a beautiful, green planet, which must be Namek. Bulma sets the ship down, and they see a saiyan pod shoot by as they land. This worries them greatly.

>>> Continue on to page 3 of the Frieza Saga