Earth
Raditz and Nappa's auras howled across the desert like twin cyclones as they lunged for Ginyu.
"Die!" With a blur, Ginyu was just there, both fists scything down toward their guts.
But the two reacted on instinct.
Shhk!
Nappa bent backward into a steel-bridge lean, boots scraping a shining line in the grit as the punch skimmed past. Raditz sprang up and over, the blow whistling beneath him.
Ginyu's strike hit nothing. Nappa spun in behind him, arms locking around Ginyu's waist. With a savage arch he German-suplexed the body thief straight into the ground.
The impact gouged a crater.
"Clear!" Raditz barked.
Nappa sprang out of the pit. Ginyu surged up but Raditz was faster.
"Ki Burst Cannon!" He leveled both hands and hammered three invisible shock shells into the crater, bouncing Ginyu back down.
Nappa seized the opening. He brought his right hand up to his chest; a fist-sized, near-solid orb of power budded in his palm.
He hurled it.
BOOM the moment it touched earth the world kicked. The crust sagged inward and a tight mushroom cloud punched up.
"Not bad. That string was smooth." Gohan's eyes lit. "They've got the timing down."
"They've put in the hours," Goku said. "Even when I cap my power to theirs, I can't say I'd take them easily two-on-one."
"Whew." Nappa exhaled hard.
"Nappa heads up. His ki hasn't dropped at all," Raditz warned, eyes fixed on the heart of the cloud.
Zzzt zzzt zzzt!
Pink lances stabbed out of the smoke.
"Nappa, move!" Raditz weaved and juked through the Death Beams; Nappa blitzed sideways, opening distance.
"You filthy monkeys!" A contemptuous voice rolled out, and the drifting dust blew apart under pressure.
Crunch… crunch…
Ginyu climbed from the crater unscathed. His aura hadn't dipped a hair.
"Nappa use the finisher," Raditz said through his teeth.
"Tch… I hate to admit it." Nappa's gaze went cold and cruel.
"Show me, then," Ginyu said, intrigued despite himself.
"If you weren't wearing Frieza's skin, I'd kill you myself," Nappa snarled. "Don't get cocky just because "
"You want to die that badly? Death Comet!" Pink fire roared to life around Ginyu. He thrust his right hand up, power coalescing.
"Nappa, now!" Raditz raced to face him, raising his right palm.
Nappa lifted his left. Their hands met, palm to palm power pooling between them.
One red, one gold the lights braided together, compressing, then fusing.
Heat rolled off their hands in waves.
Ginyu's Death Comet screamed across the sky
"Flame Meteor Wave!" Raditz and Nappa roared in tandem.
Raditz pivoted right, Nappa left, until they were shoulder to shoulder, outside arms braced. The fused beam launched thicker than Ginyu's, sheathed in a mantle of real, burning light like a comet's tail.
KRASH
The two pillars collided midair, shoving and grinding for purchase.
"What a fusion technique," Gohan said, impressed. "Piccolo, that punch-through looks on par with your Special Beam Cannon."
"…It's good," Piccolo allowed, rare praise.
The Flame Meteor surged, eating into the Death Comet and edging closer to Ginyu.
"I got careless," Ginyu hissed, pouring more power in. His pink column thickened, holding the line then began to push back.
"Nappa!" Raditz grunted, forcing more ki into the beam.
"On it hrrraaa!" Nappa bellowed, eyes bloodshot, going past his limit.
Their irises flickered between black and gold. A lick of gold flashed through Raditz's hair.
The Flame Meteor swelled again, ramming Ginyu's attack back.
"Are they… about to break through?" Gohan murmured.
"Hold it, big bro!" Goku clenched his fists, breath tight.
Reality, though, was reality. Both men had hit the wall blood traced from their nostrils.
"Die!" Ginyu snarled and cranked it further.
His Death Comet swallowed the Flame Meteor and tore for the brothers.
"Not good they're tapped out!" Gohan flickered into place in front of them.
Just as the Comet reached them, he raised both hands and caught it.
"You two, fall back," he said, almost casually as if this attack weighed nothing in his palms.
Raditz and Nappa didn't argue. They peeled away, hearts pounding. Thank Kami he's here.
"Off you go." Gohan jerked a knee up; the beam skated off his guard and speared into the sky, thinning as it cleared the atmosphere and finally unraveling into harmless sparks.
"Son Gohan… so you'll face me yourself?" Ginyu sneered.
"Please. You don't rate," Gohan said, stepping aside. "Piccolo go."
Piccolo didn't hesitate. He ghosted into Ginyu's face. Seeing that familiar visor of Frieza's features, rage flashed behind his eyes.
"You may not be Frieza," he said coolly, "but wearing that mug makes me want to break it."
"Heh. And if I'm not gah?!" The laugh died in his throat as his body whipped backward.
Piccolo's fist had already caved into his cheek. He'd punched between syllables.
Before Ginyu hit, Piccolo was on him again.
Zzup!
He arrived where Ginyu would land and snapped a right kick up thock! rocketing him skyward.
Another flicker Piccolo above him now, hands clasped, hammering down with a comet punch straight into Ginyu's gut.
KRUMBLE BAM!
The ground peeled back like paper.
A clean, brutal three-piece left Ginyu stunned and reeling.
"Masenko!" Piccolo raised both hands and chopped them down. A golden column detonated from his palms.
A cold spike of death jolted Ginyu awake. "Barrier!"
He set his stance, arms crossed, a translucent wall flashing before him.
Skreeee
The Masenko tore the wall like cellophane and smashed into his forearms.
KA-THOOM!
The blast punched straight through the crust; molten rock geysered up in a roaring orange fountain.
"Piccolo easy," Gohan called, frowning. "Earth can't take too many of those."
"…Noted." Piccolo hadn't expected a casual shot to drill into the mantle. His new power was still ahead of his control.
Lava hissed. Smoke rolled. Ginyu was nowhere in sight
Piccolo's eyes narrowed. He felt the ki. Hurt, yes but alive.
Blorp.
A bubble popped in the magma. A figure floated up, wrapped in a thin red sheath of energy. The soles of his feet were charred black.
"Damn you," Ginyu spat. "If I hadn't thrown up the shield, I'd have been cooked! Damn it damn you!"
"You'll regret wasting power on that shield," Piccolo said, voice like ice.
"Arrogant!" Ginyu roared, dragging up everything he had.
His full power unfurled 1.2 billion worth of murderous, oppressive ki. The planet itself seemed to shudder. Around the globe humans screamed and prayed; to them, the world was ending.
Near Capsule Corp's villa, Namekians had gathered.
"Moori, prepare the Dragon Balls. Just in case," the Grand Elder said, gaze grave and distant.
"Yes, Elder." Moori hurried to assemble the seven soccer-ball-sized orbs.
Back at the battlefield
Ginyu's power climaxed in a ragged howl. Krillin, Raditz, and Nappa stared, cold creeping into their bones. Gohan's face didn't change. Goku trembled with excitement.
"Such a waste I don't get to fight him," Goku whispered, shaking like a tuning fork.
"Namekian. Feel that? Your time's come," Ginyu sneered from on high, throne reoccupied by force.
"What are you so proud of?" Piccolo reached to his collar, seized his cape, and flung it aside.
"Proud of what exactly?" His aura blew out like a storm. "HAAA !"
Power erupted from him bigger than Ginyu's. The earth rumbled anew. Two titanic ki fields slammed together, the air bucking and screaming.
"No way… A Namekian can't be this strong!" Ginyu's eyes showed it: disbelief and the first taste of fear.
"You thought stealing Frieza's body made you invincible? Trash wearing a crown is still trash," Piccolo said.
"Shut up! Die die die!" Ginyu raked the sky with Death Beams.
Piccolo stood in the air, body sliding left-right on invisible rails, letting each line pass.
"That all you've got?"
His eyes flashed. Two hair-thin golden lances faster than Death Beams speared Ginyu's shoulder. Had Ginyu not twitched right, they'd have holed his skull.
"Bastard!" Ginyu charged, forcing it into close quarters.
The naked eye couldn't track them. Sound did fists, elbows, knees colliding in a drumline that shook the plateau.
Frieza's body was a tank; leaning into trades, Ginyu managed to brawl Piccolo to a near-standstill.
"Figures," Gohan muttered. "Hardest punching bag in Dragon Ball."
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