Chapter 22 - Gohan And Piccolo Emerge

A new day opens up new possibilities, and new level of power to be reached. Unfortunately, with every new day Frieza looms ever closer, hovering ominously around the solar system, desperately looking for the ‘monkeys’ that evaded him previously. He is currently in an enraged fit, shouting at all who come near, and even incinerating a few of his low level soldiers as their incessant stuttering with fear gets on his nerves.

The evil tyrant is currently gazing out of the large bubble-like window located at the end of his living quarters. Usually he would have his trademark glass of red wine, sipping it exquisitely, but not today however, he is far too flustered for trivial matters like that. He has his fists clenched tightly behind his back, revealing his huge knuckles. Sparks fly from inside his closed palms, as he cannot control himself with his overwhelming anger. He mumbles and grunts a few times, before just suddenly roaring out incredibly loud, totally unexpectedly. Frieza completely loses it, going absolutely irate, and attacking his many bodyguards to try to nurture some of the frustration. He puts his fist directly through a wall, and screams out as loud as he can. "Where are those monkeys?!" His soldiers cower in fear, with futile hopes that they’ll survive this whole ordeal.

***

Whilst Frieza’s frustration reaches a peak, the warriors of Earth are managing to gain absurd new levels of power, surpassing any heard of strength plateaus with ease. The Saiyans have been particularly impressive, all of them training at a rate that no one deemed possible. Especially Korosu. This young warrior has somehow been catching up rapidly with Vegeta, his gravity enhancing clothing has been rendered almost worthless as it is no longer a burden to him. He has recently started wearing a bandana round his forehead too, which formally belonged to Bardock. He was given it as a kind gesture, to thank him for all that he has done. Ever since that, Korosu has been eager to surpass everyone by a huge amount, somehow motivated by the red bandana. It is like a token to him, helping him to remember his old friend wherever he goes.

Korosu’s training has undoubtedly been the most successful excluding those who have been in the room of spirit and time, and the main reason for this is sheer determination. No matter how painful or how hard the training is, he never gives up. He does his daily warm up allocated to him by Kami which he has already adapted to, showing the most potential that the old Namek has ever seen in a warrior. Korosu has spent a lot of time doing the warm up lately, in fact this must be the third time today that he’s been pushing himself to achieve it. He has already done the sit ups and squats, and he is just finishing off with the press ups, going through extreme agony and he goes up and down slowly, his arms shaking weakly, barely able to continue supporting his weight. A small pool of sweat has formed itself under the Saiyan, and his clothes are soaking wet from all the perspiration given off during this exercise. "Al…most….there…" He manages to say, as he goes down for the penultimate time. He gives off a roar of effort as he pushes himself up immensely slowly. His veins bulge out of his arms, and his muscles are incredibly tense. Korosu breathes heavily as he bends his arms at the elbows, and gets his whole body down only an inch or so from the floor, causing ripples in the sweat pool as he breathes. Veins in his forehead look as though they’re going to explode as they swell greatly, as he closes his eyes, and gives one last, massive push, gaining the strength to complete it from seemingly nothing.

"Well done Korosu!" Kami exclaimed, standing over the worn out Saiyan commandingly. "Now I want you to practice your melee attacks." Korosu looked up pleadingly with puppy dog eyes, his arms burning and stinging as if 1,000 red hot pokers were being shoved ruthlessly through them. He helplessly lies in a small stream of his own bodily fluids, unable to draw energy from anywhere to get up off his feet. Kami ignores his silent protests though, and continues. "First though, Mr. Popo has prepared dinner." Korosu somehow got an amazing burst of energy, as he jumped up onto his feet, and stumbled over to the small building where the dining room is located. He is still struggling to breathe properly due to the thin air on the lookout, and by the time he reaches the door, he is close to losing consciousness, dehydrating, and collapsing. Mr. Popo obviously noticed this, and greeted Korosu at the door with a large mug of water, with the Saiyan taking it gratefully, and gulping it straight down. He looks on expectantly, as Popo pours him another mug. This time Korosu just takes the whole jug off him, and drinks it in seconds, giving off a relieved smile.

10 minutes later of Korosu storms out of the dining room, patting his stomach and rubbing is gleefully. Amazingly he is fully recovered, and in his usual training frame of mind. This is probably one of the things that contributes to his training so much – the fact that all of his energy can be restored so easily and so quickly. He hesitates before starting his preset training, as Popo screams a cry of rage, knowing that he has to wash up all of the dishes. The other trainees run out past Korosu, laughing incessantly as they elude Mr. Popo and his ‘equal turns at washing the dishes’ policy. Vegeta however is the only one who doesn’t join in this amusing game, as he slowly walks out in his usual grumpy way. He doesn’t say a word, but merely goes off to an isolated part of the lookout to continue his solitary training. Korosu looks on sympathetically, but doesn’t have time to console the prince as Mr. Popo dashes after him with a cleaning cloth in his hand, demanding that Korosu wash up. The Saiyan just laughs, and uses his amazing speed and zanzokens to dodge Mr. Popo before escaping away from the scene effortlessly.

***

Bardock and Goku grin intently at each other, as Korosu practices his moves just behind them. The two charge in at each other at an amazing speed, and punch, kick, even headbutt without holding back. Both men are careful not to make any mistakes what so ever as they deliver powerful blows at one another. This is the kind of father/son relationship that Goku had always dreamed about, which may seem odd to most people, but this guy loves fighting and doing it with his Dad would make it even better.

Bardock delivers two swift right hand jabs to Bardock’s face, temporarily phasing him, before sending his clenched fist into his dear old son’s gut. Goku’s eyes seem to swell, and he gasps for air, desperately trying to capture some. Bardock doesn’t let up though, and kicks his son into the air before flying in at an amazing pace, attempting to arrive in front of him to intercept him. The Saiyan manages to beat his son, but unfortunately for him Goku is no where to be seen. Suddenly a figure zanzokens behind Bardock, and delivers a double axe handle smash to his back, sending him soaring rapidly to the cold, hard, tiled floor, and causing him to destroy much of it with amazing impact. Bardock gets to his feet, and wipes some blood away from his face. Goku looks on in a slightly worried manner, but Bardock grins to show he’s all right, relieving Goku. Immediately the two go right back at it, clashing with each other all over the lookout.

***

Kami gathers everyone together to give Gohan and Piccolo a friendly greeting, as the two are due to come out any second. Sure enough the couple calmly walk out a moment later, looking distinctively different to before, especially Gohan. His hair is much longer, and his face looks more mature. He also wears some new clothes, obviously given to him by his trainer – Piccolo. The poor kid has obviously had a rough time, his face completely scattered with bruises and cuts. He looks around and spots his dad, and a huge grin spreads across his face. Goku responds with a smile of his own, and catches the excited boy as he runs in towards him.

"You’ve grown!" Goku exclaimed looking at his son. Gohan gave a smile which only a child would be able to maintain, full of joy, as fights a losing battle to hold back his tears of joy. "I can sense you’re stronger too! Did Piccolo train you well?"

"It was harsh, and I didn’t think I’d make it at first, but Piccolo’s a great guy, and now we’re both powerful enough to take Frieza!" Gohan boasted.

"Don’t over estimate him Gohan. You’re stronger than I am at the moment, and I’m really proud of you, but you mustn’t let up on the training. Every little bit helps, ok?" Goku said, changing his voice tone to make it very stern.

"You got it Dad!" Gohan said happily. "Am I allowed to go and see Mom first though? It’s been a whole year after all…"

"Ok, go on kid, but try not to take too long, we need you here to train. There’s bound to be a few things I can teach you before Frieza arrives." Goku responded, before giving Gohan a nod as if to say goodbye, with his son doing the same thing. Gohan then dived off the lookout and sped away.

"Namek, neither you nor the brat seem that much stronger to me!" Vegeta mocked arrogantly.

"Well if you must know Vegeta, we’ve been compressing our power levels" Piccolo answered defiantly. "Allow me to prove it to you!" He clenches his fists, and grunts with effort as a small vein stands out in the corner of his forehead. His green arms swell as his muscle mass increases slightly, and he is covered in a blindingly white aura which shapes itself around the Namek, a little bit like a raindrop. Piccolo gives off a deafening roar before ducking his head back, and allowing his last remaining bit of power to show, reaching his maximum, and making the aura increase massively in size. He stands tall in a powerful stance, and looks on to see the expression on everyone’s face. They are all amazed, even Vegeta who is totally speechless for once. Krillen and Tien are in a state of shock, wondering how he managed to get so much stronger than them in the same time period. Piccolo smirks and lets his aura slowly drain away, going back to compressing his true power.

"But…how…in just one year…it’s…impossible…no way…" was all Vegeta managed to say, jumbling up his words in a confused frenzy of disbelief.

"If you think I’m strong wait until you see Gohan!" Piccolo laughed in response. "He doesn’t realize it, but he’s just as strong as me now, and when he gets angry he’s unstoppable! I’m not sure if even you Saiyans will be able to increase as much as the kid!"

"Thank you Piccolo, I can see that you took time from your own training to help Gohan become stronger" Goku said compassionately, seemingly the only one to work this out.

"We both know that he’s the one with the biggest potential, hopefully I’ve made enough of it show for him to beat Frieza…"

"You mean he can become even more powerful than this?!" Vegeta interrupted, refusing to believe what he is hearing. Piccolo looked towards the prince and nodded with a cocky smirk on his face. Vegeta goes into a fit or rage, not understanding how it could be possible for anything like that to happen. "LIAR!" he yelled at Piccolo angrily, before flying off at a great speed, heading towards a range of mountains.

"He’ll probably be back a bit later" Korosu answered to everyone before they could ask the question. "Now I assume that it’s Goku and Bardock next? No point in me going in until Vegeta gets back." Kami nods, and shows the father and son combination to the room. "Good look you two" Korosu says meaningfully, his bandana flowing like a kite in the breeze.

"Don’t worry Korosu, we don’t need it" Bardock replied confidently. "Get ready, because I’m going to become even stronger than even you friend!" Korosu smiles at the competitive nature of Bardock, and waved a final farewell to both he and Goku. They disappear off to the room, leaving Korosu, Tien, and Krillen standing in the center of the lookout.

"I hope they can increase as much as Piccolo and Gohan" Tien hoped.

"Hey, this is Goku, if his dad’s anything like him then they should be able to get way stronger, but I don’t know if it will be enough…" Krillen said sadly.

"It will be." Korosu responded. "Bardock is an awesome fighter, and he will become more powerful than any of us could ever dream of being if he works as hard as he possibly can. I know first hand how strong Frieza is, but I think we’re in with at least a fighting chance. Frieza’s going down!" Tien and Krillen nodded their approval with huge grins of hope on their faces, happily looking forward to seeing Goku and Bardock come out. Frieza looms ever closer though, now putting immense pressure on his workers to complete the task of locating the Saiyans, with an obvious consequence from the violent tyrant – Death.