Ch. 143: Transportation and Rebirth

"Wait, so you're basically like a freelance Shenron, then?!" Yamcha asked with a look of wonder in his eyes. In response, King Kai chopped the top of his head. "Oww!"

"Shut up you idiot. She's a high-tier god. It's not her job to bring every single moron in otherworld back to the world of the living. Just be glad that the Dragon Balls can bring you back." King Kai reminded him. 

"She's not wrong, though. We can't just rely on the people who happen to be more capable than us to solve all of our problems. It'll just end up being a stopgap." Pigero's mind flashed back to the kids back on the island. They'd been starving and going without sleep because he'd been the only one strong enough to take care of himself. Had even one or two of them been five, ten years older, maybe they'd have been able to get by better, rebuild the city that the tsunami had destroyed. 

No matter their skill sets, Pigero knew better than anyone that a single person couldn't uphold an entire society.

"Anyways, I'll pull the souls from otherworld and drop them on Earth, but it'll be up to Goku himself whether he survives or not. Mistress is interested in his abilities, but we've no plans to hold his hand and protect him from harm. That'd be beside the point." Shay made herself as clear as possible. 

"Alright, then! I'm soul-ed! Please take care of the Namekians for us." King Kai said, causing Yamcha and Pigero to inwardly facepalm.

...

'Hey, Goku!'

No answer.

'Gookuu. I know you can hear me, please respond.'

Nothing.

'Alright, Goku. If that's how you want to play it, Super Saiyan, then I'll just start telling jokes until you crack! So, Frieza's a member of the Frost Demon race, right? So what do you call an extra-cowardly Frost Demon?' King Kai asked, bringing a little smirk to Goku's face, which had been frozen into an expression of pure rage up till that point. 

"A freeze-up?" Goku answered.

'Nice to hear you're still sane, Goku. A real load off my shoulders...' King Kai sighed through their telepathic connection. 

"King Kai, I'm a little busy at the moment." Goku told him.

'Waiting for Frieza to jump to his full power, right?' King Kai noted. Honestly, Frieza was already pretty close to his limits, and was basically just screaming into the air at this point, but he was still trying to gather a much power as he could, because it'd become clear that his power as of right now was garbage compared to Goku's and he couldn't take it. 'I'd normally tell you how stupid I think that is, but in this case, you need to make sure to crush that stupid Frieza as hard as you possibly can!' 

"I was going to do that anyway. He needs to learn a lesson." Goku answered.

"Look, Goku, what I mean by that is, I just talked to Shay. Apparently, so long as you crush Frieza with everything that you have, she'll take care of almost everything else. She's agreed to bring every living being on Namek to Earth before the planet explodes, and she's even agreed to bring all your dead friends and allies back to life!' King Kai explained to him.

"She can do that?! So what's the catch?" Goku exclaimed in shock. Something that could tie everything up that well must have had a catch, he knew.

'You figured it out, huh? The catch is, she's not helping you at all. She's basically just doing it so that you can focus on Frieza with everything you have. She wants to see the extent of your new power. If you don't prove yourself and survive the planet's explosion, she'll just lose interest and forget about the whole deal.' King Kai told Goku.

Goku smiled. "That's fine. I kinda wanted to test myself, too. Tell Shay that she's got a deal. I'll defeat Frieza with this strength of mine, and get out of here alive. I wasn't about to leave here without beating this bastard to a bloody pulp, anyway."

'Good luck, Goku.'

...

"It's like the planet's falling apart! Someone help! I'm too young and pretty to die here!" Bulma cried. Repeatedly, as the planet shook around them. The terrain was shaking, screaming in its death throes. The seas raged and lava was spurting out of the ground in places, beginning to cloud the sky with ash. It was literally the end of the world.

"We've gotta get out of here!" Bulma yelled, grabbing Piccolo's collar. He nodded, agreeing with her. 

"Gohan. We need to get back to the ship and head out. You can sense it, too. She's gone." Piccolo told his young ward, placing his hand on the half-Saiyan's shoulder.

Gohan sniffled. "I know. I can't sense Krillin, either. Frieza killed them." He managed to choke out, staring at the horizon, "But we can't leave."

"Gohan, if we don't leave now, then we'll all die! The planet's exploding all around us! We have two ships, so I'm sure that Goku'll find his way home as soon as he's done with that Frieza guy." Bulma tried to reassure Gohan, but he just shook his head.

"This isn't about dad!" He shouted before lowering his voice back down to an even level, "We can't take all of them." He told Bulma and Piccolo. Piccolo began to say something in response, but he was interrupted by a space-pod crashing down from the sky. Nappa walked up to the two of them, holding a remote in his hand.

"Up, kid. You, too." Without a word of explanation, the burly Saiyan grabbed Gohan by the waist and lifted him over his shoulder, before grabbing Cargo by the collar of his shirt and dragging him along with his other hand.

"HEY! Let go of me!" With a hard push, Gohan knocked the older Saiyan into the dirt, landing lightly on the ground behind him. "What was that?!" He asked.