Cooler Rising

Piccolo circled the soldier. "If I'm so good, take me to your leader," he said. "Let me show him my strength."

The soldier laughed. "Oh yes, I can do that," he said. "But he's going to be much harder to impress than I am. Come on."

The soldier flew off. Piccolo followed after him.

"I find it odd that an outsider knows of the fight against Freiza," the soldier said. "I was only a boy when it happened."

"I'm no outsider," Piccolo said. "I'm a Namekain just like you are, and if I judge your strength correctly I could kill you if we were going all out back there. And I was involved in the fight against Freiza."

"That's impossible," the soldier said. "Freiza was killed by a Saiyan. You're a Namekain."

Piccolo laughed. "I wasn't as strong then as I am now," he said. "If he appeared today, I could probably hold my own against his final form. But back then, I was lucky to survive fighting against his third transformation."

"You really did fight against Freiza, didn't you?"

"I did," Piccolo said. "But that was a long time ago."

"The elders tell me I'm one of the strongest Namekain soldiers to have been born in the last two hundred years," the soldier said. "It's supposed to be a great honour, but the role of a soldier in our society is a small one. We're a peaceful people; we don't believe in rampant conquest like Freiza and his soldiers did.

"You think about that for a minute. What you said is true--if that fight we had was anything other than a test to see how strong you are, if all bets were off and we were fighting for our lives, you could have killed me in an instant if you really wanted to. That means that you're probably one of the strongest warriors in this galaxy and the next.

"What could possibly be here that you need so desperately? What could we offer you that you need to boost your strength any further than it already is?"

"Tell me, what's your name, kid?"

"They call me Sax."

"Sax, in the last week or so, have you sensed any great powers popping out of nowhere? A strength so large that nobody could possibly stand against it and hope to live?"

Sax nodded. "I have. And in the last couple of days, it's grown a lot stronger...as if it's eaten something to boost its strength, or it's unlocked a new transformation."

"I plan on fighting it," Piccolo said. "When it comes through here, and it inevitably will, I want to be able to face it, and fight against it. I know some people back on Earth--the same people that fought on Old Namek during Freiza's invasion--will do the same thing. This power must be stopped in its tracks before it can do any real damage."

"So what ritual are you going to need to do that?"

"I need an Elite Namekain Sword," Piccolo said. "I need to go through the ritual to unlock the true transformation of our people. And I might even need someone to fuse with."

"You're a Namekain, but you're obviously not somebody who's spent a lot of time here. The amount of elite soldiers on this planet is small enough that I know them all by sight, if not by name. How could you know this much about the rituals of the Namekain elites?"

"During Freiza's invasion, I had the opportunity to fuse with one of your soldiers. His name was Nail. He was weak; he'd just encountered Freiza...had I not fused with him when I did, no doubt he would have died within the hour. It was his strength that boosted mine enough to stand up to Freiza's first transformation.

"It turns out that fusion had another effect that he hadn't mentioned. I gained a lot of knowledge about Namekain culture that I hadn't had previously. I guess most of what I know about our people comes from that one fusion."

"Alright," Sax said. "The elders are this way. They're going to want to see you."

Sax turned, and Piccolo turned with him.