Chapter Eleven - Part Two

Vegita yelled in pain and rage. He sailed into Bulma, punching and
kicking for all he was worth. Although she was able to block quite a
few of his blows, many of them connected. Despite his ragged condition,
it was easy to see that Vegita was still stronger and faster than she
was. She did actually manage to get a few punches in, but they were
nothing compared to what he was dishing out. Finally she saw a good
opening on his right side and she went for it. But she missed, and left
her entire midsection open in the process. Vegita slammed an uppercut
into her stomach and she went flying backwards. She landed with a thud
about ten feet away. As she tried to refill her lungs with air, Vegita
began walking toward her again. Bulma stumbled to her feet and prepared
herself for another bout. She was in terrible pain from that uppercut,
but she refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing it. Suddenly
Kuririn darted in from out of nowhere and stood between her and Vegita.

"Leave her alone," he ordered quietly.

Gohan appeared too. Glaring in hatred at Vegita, he stood next to
Kuririn, and together they shielded Bulma from him.

"Thanks for the support guys, but I’ve got it covered," she said
angrily.

"Go tell Goku what’s going on," Kuririn said, not daring to remove his
eyes from the angry Saiyan. "Gohan and I think you should take a break."

Her body agreed with him, but her anger still protested. They were
going to get themselves killed, and there was nothing she could do
about it! There was no arguing with them now. But she decided to let
them try anyway. They were in better shape than she was, and chances
were that they would have a better chance of defeating him than she
would.

"Fine!" She snapped. "Just don’t kill yourselves!"

She teleported to Goku’s side and doubled over in pain. At least now
she was free to show her pain.

"What happened to you?" Goku asked worriedly. "Kuririn and Gohan said
that Vegita was about to kill you!"

Bulma groaned. "I don’t know about that," she said, "but he really
caught me off guard with that uppercut. What’s really upsetting is
that I’ve made that mistake before a few times when I sparred with
Yamucha. But geez! I’m not used to being punched like that! Yamucha
barely tapped me compared to this!"

"You should have known better than to try to take on Vegita by yourself,"
Goku chided, closing his eyes.

"I had no choice," she said defensively. "What was I supposed to do? He
attacked me!"

She peered over the boulder to see how the others were doing. It didn’t
look good. Kuririn must have been hit pretty hard because he was lying
on the ground off to one side. Gohan was fighting Vegita now, and he
was getting creamed! Bulma watched despairingly as the fight ensued.
Vegita was gradually pushing Gohan closer and closer to where Bulma and
Goku were.

Suddenly Vegita slammed Gohan with a very strong energy blast that sent
Gohan flying backwards. He landed behind the boulder next to Goku. He
didn’t move.

"Gohan!" Bulma shrieked. "Are you okay?"

His only reply was to stare blankly at Bulma as if he hadn’t understood
the question. Bulma hung her head in despair. She was the only one left
who could still fight. She looked at Goku and Gohan, lying on the
ground in front of her. She was determined to protect them at all costs.
As she glanced at Gohan one last time, she noticed something very
peculiar. He had a tail again! Bulma considered both the possibilities
and the dangers it would mean if Gohan were to transform here. If
Vegita could do it, then so could he. Gohan began to regain his senses.
He looked up in wonder at the white light source above him. Bulma
realized that she had very little time to act.

"Come on Goku," she cried, grabbing onto his arm. "Gohan’s grown another
tail and he’s beginning to transform! We have to teleport away. We don’t
want to be here when he’s fully transformed."

Before he could answer, they heard a gasp on the boulder that they were
using for cover. She looked up to see a badly beaten Vegita, staring in
horror at Gohan, who had already begun growing.

"I’ll leave you to baby-sit," she said to Vegita smugly. "See you
later! Rapid Teleport!"

She teleported with Goku to a place on the ground about 200 yards away.
She watched in awe as Gohan grew to mammoth proportions, growling at
Vegita at his immense feet. Bulma got to her feet. There was still one
more thing that she had to do before they stopped to watch the show.

"Be right back," she said, then teleported away again. A few seconds
later, she returned to Goku, this time carrying Kuririn.

"I’m sorry Goku," Kuririn sighed as Bulma set him gently on the ground
next to his battered friend. "Even after taking that hit with the genki
dama that stubborn bastard is still too strong for me."

"Hey, that’s okay, Kuririn. I know you gave it your all. I just hope
Gohan will have better luck."

"Huh? I thought Vegita took care of him too," Kuririn said in amazement.

"Not quite," Bulma said nervously. "Just take a look at that if you
don’t believe us." She pointed at Gohan, who had by now completely
transformed, and was going after Vegita. Kuririn gasped.

"What the? How in Kami’s name did that happen?" Kuririn exclaimed.
"Gohan didn’t even have a tail anymore!"

"Apparently he grew another one," Goku said, wincing in pain. "Bulma
saw it before we teleported here. I just hope that Gohan won’t get out
of control. I sense a terrible anger in him."

"Let’s just hope he takes it all out on Vegita," Kuririn said, gulping.
"I don’t know what we could do if he came after us."

"I’ve already dealt with Gohan in his transformed state," Bulma said
grimly. "And even with Piccolo helping me we were no match for Gohan.
I would have been killed if Piccolo hadn’t destroyed the moon when he
did."

"When was this?" Kuririn asked, puzzled. "I don’t remember all this
happening."

"I’ll explain later," Bulma said. "Now isn’t the time. We have to
concentrate on this fight first."

They watched attentively as Gohan attacked Vegita. There was no way
that Vegita was going to get out of this one. His energy was nearly
spent.

"Man!" Kuririn exclaimed. "Gohan’s really giving Vegita a beating! At
this rate it won’t be too long before he’ll have finished Vegita for
sure!"

Bulma nodded. Vegita had tried several times to cut Gohan’s tail off,
each time without success. He was dodging left and right, barely
escaping Gohan’s swipes. In evading Gohan’s most recent blast, he
managed to fly high up in the air.

"Let’s see how you like this!" He shouted as Gohan shot up in front of
him. Furiously, Vegita fired off a long series of huge blasts of energy
at Gohan. Every one of them made contact.

"Wow!" Bulma gasped. "Amazing! How can Vegita have this much left? It’s
incredible! Shredded and mangled though he is, he still might have the
power to take us out eventually!"

Suddenly Yajirobei smashed into Bulma from one side. "Watch what you’re
doing!" She snapped at him testily. "Where are you going in such a
hurry anyway? The battle’s not over yet."

"It is for me," he said obstinately. "I’m outta here! One of those
apes is enough to last me for a lifetime. But two!? This is insane!"
With that, he ran to his small capsule car and sped away.

Groaning, Bulma got up off her back. The next time she saw that jerk
she was going to knock him over! She noticed as she got to her feet
that Yajirobei had dropped his katana. She picked it up and handed it
to Kuririn.

"Here," she said. "Take this before I break it in half. If you ever see
Yajirobei again you can give it back to him, but I’ve had enough of
that coward to last me forever." Kuririn just grinned at her.

Bulma glanced back up at Vegita and gasped at what she saw. "Kuririn!"
She shrieked. "Vegita must have learned how to create a kienzan! And
look! Oh no! Watch out Gohan!" She yelled. But she was a little too
late. Vegita had sliced off Gohan’s tail with his own version of
Kuririn’s kienzan.

"Whoa!" Kuririn gasped. "It’s not over yet! Look at that! Vegita can’t
get out of the way! Gohan’s falling on top of him!" With an enormous
crash Gohan landed on top of Vegita as he shrank back to his normal
size. They were less than twenty feet away, and from what Bulma could
see, Vegita wasn’t moving too easily. Gohan wasn’t moving at all. She
sighed.

"I think it’s over," she said to Goku. "I suppose we’d better go get
Gohan."

"Yeah," Kuririn agreed. "Hey, wait a minute! What is that?" He pointed
to some object descending from the sky.

"I have no idea," Bulma said in consternation. "Look! It’s landing by
Vegita! Now I remember! It’s a Saiyan space pod! I remember seeing
those things when Vegita and Nappa first landed. It’s what they came
to earth in."

"I knew it!" Kuririn growled. "I’ll be damned if I’m going to let that
monster escape!" He limped toward Vegita, brandishing Yajirobei’s sword
menacingly.

"Stop him Bulma!" Goku said fiercely. "Don’t let him kill Vegita!"

"What!?" Bulma exclaimed in disbelief. But she couldn’t say no to Goku.
Not after the desperation she saw in his face. She ran up to Kuririn,
who had by now reached Vegita and was about to drive the sword straight
through his head.

"No Kuririn! Don’t do it!" She exclaimed. "Goku wants you to spare
Vegita!"

"What!?" Kuririn asked incredulously as Vegita slowly crawled to his
pod.

Suddenly Kuririn’s face took on a strangely attentive expression. "Is
that you, Goku?" He asked. "But Goku, we can’t just let him leave! Even
if I do show him mercy he’ll just come back to earth again when he’s
healed and get rid of us then!" -- A long pause. -- "All right Goku. You
win. I’ll let him go. But I hope for all our sakes that you know what
you’re doing."

Bulma stared at him in surprise. "Who are you talking to?" She asked.
"Goku isn’t even here!"

Suddenly Vegita cackled feebly. "You fools should have done away with
me when you had the chance! When I return you’ll all regret this day.
You’re all soft idiots!"

"Aw shut up!" Bulma said irritably. "I don’t expect you to be grateful,
but if all you have to say are a few weak threats, then you’d better
get out of here before Goku changes his mind. Besides," she added with
a sly grin, "when and if you ever do come back, we’ll be ready for you!"

The pod slammed shut and Bulma stepped away from it. As it flew up and
out of sight, she and Kuririn walked back over to Goku. Kuririn was
carrying Gohan, and Bulma was following him, tracing Vegita’s pod with
her senses until she could no longer detect his ki.

"Is he okay?" Goku asked Kuririn as they approached.

"Yeah," Kuririn replied angrily. "But given another chance, I won’t let
him go again!"

"Not Vegita!" Goku said impatiently. "Gohan. Is Gohan okay?"

"Oh!" Kuririn exclaimed. "Gohan! Yeah, he’s all right. He’s a little
weak from the transformation, but he’ll be fine."

Goku sighed. "That’s great. How about you two?"

"I’ll live," Kuririn said, grinning. "I didn’t get quite as smashed as
you though, buddy."

"How about you, Bulma?" Goku asked.

"Well, I guess I’m okay," she replied. "I’ve never had so many bones
broken at one time before in my life, but to tell you the truth, I
wouldn’t mind if I was as bad off as you, Goku. Just as long as the
outcome of this fight was the same."

"So, I guess we’ll have to wait for someone to find us," Kuririn said.
"Do you think everyone went to Muten Roshi’s house to wait this out?"

"I have a feeling that they did," Bulma replied. "But we won’t have to
wait too long. I’ve decided to fly over there and tell them it’s over.
Anyway, it just so happens that I had left a capsule for an enormous
air van there. I’ll have to bring everyone with me, but I’ll make them
hurry. I should be back within a couple of hours. It would take less
time if I could teleport, but I don’t think I have enough energy for
that."

"Are you sure you can fly that far?" Goku asked her.

"I hope so," Bulma said. "I’m pretty worn out. But don’t worry. I’ll be
fine."

"You sure will!" Kuririn said excitedly. "Look!" He pointed to a small
craft descending toward them in the sky. Bulma could just barely
recognize it in the evening sun. It was her van! And Roshi was halfway
out the passenger-side window, waving at them and shouting all kinds of
happy greetings.

"They must have discovered the capsule on the table!" Bulma cried. "If
I weren’t so happy to see them I might have been angry at them for
taking it!"

Goku sighed happily. Now at last, he thought he could take it easy. The
large air car landed not too far from the tired warriors, and when the
large side door opened, a mass of excited people ran out. Chichi was
the first to exit the van.

"Gohan!" She shrieked, running to her son’s side with a brown blanket.
She wrapped him up tightly in it and cradled him like a baby.

"You should be proud of him Chichi," Bulma said. "If it hadn’t been for
him, we would probably all be dead now. That’s quite a little hero you
have in your arms."

"Well, of course he is," she said proudly. "But why won’t he answer me?
He won’t wake up!"

"He’s just sleeping," Bulma said. "I’d just let him if I were you. He’s
been through a lot."

"You all have," Roshi said. "I’m just glad you four managed to survive,
at least."

So was Bulma. They helped get Goku and Gohan into the van, and they all
set out for the hospital. Roshi, Chichi, Oolong, Puar, and even Karin
were there.

"Hey Karin," Goku said, grimacing in pain. "You wouldn’t happen to have
anymore sensu beans would you?"

"No, Goku, I gave you the last two that I had. But I’ll have a new crop
in a couple of weeks."

"I hope so," Goku said. "Because it’ll take me forever to heal in the
hospital."

"Don’t worry Goku," Bulma said. "We’ll all need time to heal anyway, so
you’ll at least have plenty of company."

Suddenly Gohan began to come to. He jumped up.

"Where... where’s Dad?" He said worriedly, trying to jump out of his
mother’s lap.

"I’m back here son," Goku answered him. Gohan looked behind the seat to
see his father lying down in the back of the van. Gohan was beyond
relief.

"What happened?" Gohan asked. "Is Vegita gone? Why can’t I remember
anything?"

"Vegita’s gone all right," Kuririn said. "You took care of him. He got
into his space pod and flew away for good!"

"What? He did? That’s incredible! All right!" Gohan laughed happily and
settled down on the seat next to Kuririn. "So, how did we defeat him? I
Bulma looked back at Kuririn and shook her head at him. She didn’t think
they should tell Gohan about it just yet. Apparently Kuririn agreed
with her.

"We’ll tell you later," Kuririn said. "You’ve had enough excitement for
one day, I think."

Gohan didn’t seem to mind too much. "Bulma," he said. "I’ve been
thinking. They said that Piccolo came from a planet named Namek. Do
you think that Vegita was right and there can be other dragonballs
there?"

"I’m sure there are," she said carefully. "If Piccolo’s and Kami’s home
planet still exists, then chances are we’ll find more dragonballs
there."

"Then all we have to do is go to Namek, and we can find the dragonballs
and wish our friends back to life there!"

"Well it’s not quite that easy," Bulma tried to explain. "First of all,
I don’t even know where Namek is. I’ve never even heard of it before."

"Hey!" Goku said suddenly. "I know just who might be able to help you
with that! Hang on a second and I’ll call him."

"Call him?" Bulma thought, confused.

Suddenly a strange voice began speaking from out of nowhere.
"Congratulations!" It boomed. "You all did very well. You should all be
very happy with such a great victory."

"Who is this?" Bulma asked nervously. "Where are you?"

"I am Kaio Sama," the voice boomed. "I trained Goku during the past
year."

"Oh! So you taught him that awesome Kaioken technique!" Bulma exclaimed.

"Yes," Kaio Sama answered. "I also taught Goku how to create the Genki
Dama."

"I never thought I’d ever get to talk to the legendary Lord of the
Worlds," Karin said in amazement. "What an honor!"

"Well, back to business," Goku said quickly. "Lord Kaio, I was
wondering if you could help us with something. Do you happen to know
where the planet Namek is? We want to go there and use the dragonballs
to wish our friends who died back to life."

"Of course I know where Namek is!" Kaio boomed. "Now let’s see here,
Namek... Namek... ah! Here it is! Yes. There appear to be around 100
Namekians living there at the present."

"Even such a relatively small number makes me nervous," Bulma said.
"Just imagine a hundred people as strong and terrible as Piccolo. Even
if we managed to get there, what would we do if we had to fight them
all off to get their dragonballs?"

"I don’t think that would happen," Kaio chuckled. "Piccolo was the
exception, I think. Remember that he didn’t grow up on Namek. He was
greatly influenced by Piccolo Daimaou there on earth, you know. Anyway,
the current inhabitants of Namek are a peaceful people. Oh, they can
fight, but I’m sure if you explained things to them they would be more
than happy to let you use their dragonballs."

"I wonder how the original Piccolo Daimaou ended up here on earth,"
Bulma mused. "Why was he here instead of on Namek?"

"Would you want such a beast on your planet?" Karin asked her. Bulma
shook her head. "Well, I’ll bet that’s why the Nameks got rid of him!"

"Anyway," Bulma said, taking out a pad of paper. "Kaio Sama, you said
you knew where the planet Namek is. Would you happen to know its
coordinates? That would be a big help."

"Hold on a second," Kaio mumbled. "I have to convert this into Earth
units here... okay! Write this down!" Bulma wrote everything down
exactly as he dictated it to her.

"Good luck!" Kaio said. "And keep in touch, Goku."

"I will Kaio Sama," Goku replied. "And thank you!"

Then everything was silent, except for the beeping of Bulma’s
calculator. Suddenly the silence was broken by a piercing shriek that
caused everyone to jump at least a foot off their seats.
"What’s the matter, Bulma?" Kuririn asked, peering around her seat at
an anguish-stricken Bulma.

She sighed. "I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news," she said,
turning to face him and the rest of their passengers.

"What’s the good news?" Gohan asked.

"The good news," she replied, "is that I’ve calculated how far away
Namek is from earth."

"Well, what’s the bad news?" Kuririn asked her.

"The bad news is, that with the technology we currently have on earth,
it will take us over 4,339 years to finally reach Namek!"

"What?!!" Kuririn, Gohan, and Goku exclaimed.

"I’m sorry guys," Bulma sighed. "But we just don’t have spaceships fast
enough to make that trip."

"Yes we do!" Goku said excitedly. "We have three different Saiyan space
pods to choose from! There’s the one I arrived on earth in, the one
that Raditz came in, and the one that Nappa came in!"

"I don’t know what condition the first two are in," Bulma said slowly,
"but I’m certain that Nappa’s is able to fly! His looked just the same
as Vegita’s, and we all know how well his worked!"

"Well all right!" Gohan exclaimed. "I guess we’ve got a plan! Do you
think you could figure out how to fly it if we got one in good shape,
Bulma?"

"Well, their scouter wasn’t too hard to figure out," she replied. "I
guess it shouldn’t be too hard! And I’ll bet that if we get my dad to
help it’ll be even easier!"

Gohan laughed gleefully and jumped up to give Bulma a high-five. She
twisted around to reach him, but suddenly an intense pain in her chest
overcame her. She nearly fell out of the seat as she doubled over.

"Oooh, I shouldn’t have done that," she groaned, gritting her teeth in
pain. "If I did crack some ribs, that sure didn’t help any."

"I’m so sorry Bulma," Gohan gasped. "I didn’t realize..."

"That’s okay," she said, trying to smile. "Neither did I."

"Well that does it!" Chichi snapped. "None of you had better even
mention spaceships until you’ve healed! Now be quiet and relax. We’re
almost to the hospital."

Bulma closed her eyes and breathed slowly. Painfully, she eased into a
reclining position and tried to relax. Their fight was over, but
somehow, she couldn’t help feeling that their adventure was just
beginning.


On to Part Two: The Namek Saga Chapter One...