Ch. 83: Piccolo the Ninja

'Krillin. I need you to use Solar Flare on those two so that I can help Vegeta. These two seem to be the most powerful of the bunch, so we're going to need all hands on deck if we want any chance of beating them.' Piccolo told Krillin telepathically as Vegeta and I flew off with Recoome and Guldo respectively for our fights. 

"We're gonna die..." Krillin muttered to himself, before nodding anyway, albeit reluctantly. He understood the logic behind Piccolo running off to help Vegeta, but it still meant that he, Gohan, and Nappa would need to keep Burter and Jeice occupied themselves, as well as stopping them from running off to chase after Piccolo.

"You mates ready to die yet?" Jeice called out impatiently.

'You need to get their full attention before you do it.' Piccolo reminded Krillin in a paranoid manner.

"Guys, we're going to have to be coordinated here. Gohan and I will distract them. Whoever's left, look for an opening, then hit them with everything you've got." Krillin told Gohan and Nappa, using the words 'whoever's left' to allude to the fact that Piccolo won't be fighting with them.

"Alright!" Gohan nodded. It was a fifty-fifty chance whether Gohan understood the meaning behind Krillin's words, but Nappa didn't know the rest of them well enough to have a chance.

"I'm not exactly a 'precise moves' kind of fighter, but I have an idea that might work, if you can buy me enough time." Nappa agreed. Krillin looked at him, leery, but nodded anyway.

"Alright, we've given you enough time to say your goodbyes to each other. If we take much longer, we might not get to see the moment that the big boss gets his wish." Jeice decided.

As Jeice and Burter prepared to take action, the ground began to shake. Vegeta was powering up.

"Now, Krillin!" Piccolo yelled.

"Gohan!" Krillin called out, blasting forward toward Jeice and Burter with all the power he could muster and more, pumping his energy up as he flew. 

"Un!" This Gohan was not about to hesitate in battle, unlike his original counterpart. Without another word, he blasted after Krillin, following the bald man's lead.

"RAAAAH!!!!!" Nappa took the time to power himself up directly.

"Idiots!" Burter shouted, watching Krillin and Gohan approach from an unsteady position.

"You honestly think..." Jeice started to berate the two shrimps for their stupid move, going right at two overwhelmingly superior fighters just because of a little shaking, when Krillin interrupted him with a shout

"SOLAR FLARE!" Krillin shouted, placing his fingers on his head. Suddenly, a bright light hit both Jeice and Burter, blinding them.

"Haaah!!!" To add insult to injury, Gohan and Krillin blasted the two with energy as they flew by. Jeice and Burter shot their own energy blasts randomly in front of them, but such haphazard firing would never actually manage to hit the two fighters, since Jeice and Burter couldn't detect their energies.

"Damn brats! My precious hair, mate! There's soot in my hair! Do you know how hard it is to get that out!?" Jeice shouted the moment that his eyesight began to come back.

"Your hair!? At least you have some. They broke my scouter!" Burter complained, looking around for the two. "You'll pay for that, shrimps!" He shouted, looking around. Gohan and Krillin were nowhere to be seen, though. In fact, the only person in front of them was Nappa, powered up and ready for action.

...

"You know, Vegeta, I may have let my guard down on purpose, but that blast was really something. It even hurt me... a little bit." The moment that Krillin and Gohan had given him an opening, Piccolo had escaped to run to Vegeta's aid just like Hanna had told him to. It only made sense, after all. What he'd seen, though, had shocked Piccolo to his core. 

Vegeta had beaten Recoome down in a furious offensive, before blasting him with an energy wave so strong that Piccolo knew that it would have ended him in a second. He'd begun gathering energy for his Special Beam Cannon on his way to Vegeta, but when he saw just how brutal Vegeta was being, the energy had dissipated with his shock. 

But it hadn't worked. 

Despite everything that Vegeta had put into it, Recoome had weathered his entire barrage of attacks and was still ready and able to fight. 

It wasn't like Recoome had gotten out of it completely unscathed, though. His battle armor was completely gone, and the clothes underneath of it were in tatters. He was even bleeding in places, but he didn't act like he was in pain at all. He was smiling and making a stupid dance pose like he'd have done if he hadn't just been on the wrong end of a blast strong enough to destroy an entire planet. He couldn't deny that he had been hurt by the blast, but only 'a little bit.'

"M-monster..." Piccolo couldn't help but whisper to himself, quiet as a mouse.

"Yeah, you're stronger than I gave you credit for, Vegeta, but now... it's my turn!" Recoome called out to the Saiyan, who was frozen in disbelief.

"Right. I need to gather energy!" Piccolo muttered to himself. Recoome's scouter was long gone, thanks to Vegeta, and the other members of the Ginyu Force were definitely too occupied to check their own scouters to find Piccolo, so he could gather all the energy he wanted from a distance and probably never be discovered... he hoped. He'd just have to concentrate his a lot more than Vegeta did.

"Now, this is one of my favorite little moves, Vegeta." Recoome said, causing Vegeta to unconsciously brace himself. "Recoooooome... Kick!"

The kick's windup didn't look dangerous. Recoome pretty much just floated in place making a dancer's pose. But the moment that Recoome said the word 'kick,' he blinked from his position, before kicking Vegeta in the face. It all happened in a single moment, and Vegeta was helpless in the face of such incredible speed.