Piccolo's First Ever Sunburn - 1

6 AD Cell and 1 BC Buu. Y'all pretty much know all about the changes that occurred at this time gap, only that the characters are one year younger before DBZ 2 (Buu saga) starts, so there's no need to get into details. After Goku's death, Piccolo vowed that he would train harder to maintain peace on Earth. He knew that even though Gohan displayed an incredible amount of power during Cell's defeat, he would sooner or later lose some of that power because of the lack of training. Piccolo knew pretty well, now that Goku was gone, there was no one left to stop Chi-Chi from forcing Gohan to study all the time in order for one day he would become a great scholar. Of course, there were still the rest of the Z Fighters, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, and newly, Number 18, but Piccolo had the most potential of them all. Even though there was another great fighter left who was a bit stronger than the Namekian, the Saiyan prince, Piccolo just could not trust him or rely on him because of Vegeta's arrogance. And after also noticing that Vegeta lost somewhat interest in training hard like he did when Goku was alive, basically, Piccolo became Earth's greatest hope.
Piccolo trained day and night as hard as he could, but after six years he didn't get much strong as he hoped he would get. His power only reached USSJ Future Trunks' and that was it, he couldn't ascend any further. He started to wonder whether his body reached its limit or not, so he decided to train in one of the harshest places on the planet, in the sandy desert. If he could endure and survive such a place while training and still not get any stronger, then the answer would be rather obvious.
As soon as he started closing to the desert, he immediately started sweating hard just by flying. He landed somewhere at the centre of the desert, and right after, he threw down his cape, turbine and his upper shirt, but it didn't make much difference; even if he were completely naked, the extreme heat would still get to him. Trying not to bother with it, he started training and so he did for six straight hours. Of course, after that, he was more than thirsty. Suddenly, a big ten liter bottle appeared in his hands out of nowhere, which Piccolo made thanks to his magic abilities. The bottle was filled with water, which he gathered at the nearest spring to the desert. Thanks to his magic, the bottle kept the water fresh and cold even in the hot temperature. Piccolo was so thirsty and exhausted, that he drank a quarter of the water straightaway, of which he was also amazed. He never drank so much water at once in his life; that desert was harsher than he imagined it would be.
His second training session, however, only lasted three hours; he could not take it anymore, so after drinking another 2.5 liter, he decided to take a break until the nightfall came, continuing his training when it was cooler. He knew that the following day he would have to return to the spring in order to take more water, this time, he planned to gather it in a 100 liter barrel. As the sun was setting down, Piccolo noticed that his skin color turned into light purple and his pink patches on his arms, and his stomach had also changed their color becoming red. But on top of all, the skin on his upper body, which was exposed to the sun, started itching. However, he didn't pay much attention to all that, cause as soon as the sun set, the cool breeze invigorated him as he trained continuously for another six hours. Although it was below freezing at night, his intense training kept his body warm. After six hours, he decided to take a short nap, floating in the air, as if he was meditating. Indeed, his nap was short, cause as soon as the sun risen, its hot beams already started irritating his exposed skin.
Knowing that he had another five litres of water, and the closest spring was only 15 minutes away, Piccolo decided to start the day with another round of training. He hid the battle of water under a pile of sand, memorized its location, and then he flew up in the sky. There he split himself into six versions of himself and had the other five versions all attack him. It was the biggest fight the desert has ever seen: all six warriors were fighting so fast, that a normal person could only hear the blow of the rapid punches and kicks, unable to see anything of the fight. Many ki beams were shot unintentionally into the sand, making big holes, while the strong waves lifted the sand into the air, making it hard to see or breathe. This time, Piccolo managed to resist four straight hours of training, however, by the end of that, he was quite over exhausted and could hardly wait to drink some water. He reunited himself with his counterparts and immediately started searching for the bottle of water. He had very little strength left, so he landed and continued his search by foot. It didn't take long until he found the place he hid it, but to his shock, he saw a small hole in the location where the bottle should be. He rushed there as fast as he could, only to see the bottle in pieces, while the water in it was long evaporated in the sand. "Oh no!"-he thought-"One of the beams must have hit the bottle and shattered it. Damn it! I just hope I have enough strength to reach to the nearest water source." Then he started walking towards the spring which was located in west, however, if flying there would only take him 15 minutes, walking there wouldn't be that easy, cause it was 60 miles away. Piccolo's surviving chances were pretty slim, and he knew that, but the mighty Super Namekian wasn't about to give up that easily.
The temperature was above 50 degress, the sun was burning hot, and even though the wind was blowing hard, that did not help him at all, cause it was very dry, making the situation worse than good. Because of the wind, Piccolo did not put his cape on, nor his turbine for that matter, cause if he did, the wind would just simply blow him away at his current strength and his turbine too. Unfortunately, the wind was also blowing from west, and not knowing where or how far a water source would be in east, he decided not to take any risks, that's why he did not use his cape for the wind to lift him up and blow him towards there. However, he also did not put his shirt back on, which soon he would regret dearly.
He was walking and sometimes floating, when he gathered enough strength, for seven hours but still had another 15 miles to go. Piccolo was feeling very dizzy, and he almost fainted too. Just then, he miraculously saw a lake about 25 metres away, and with joy, he rushed there as quickly he could. He laid flat on the ground and started drinking, only to hear a few seconds later crunches in his mouth. He realised, it wasn't water he was "drinking", it was sand and the lake was nothing but an illusion. He coughed out the hot sand from his guts, feeling very stupid for falling for that, he stood up and continued walking. While he was walking, he noticed something else too: his skin on his arms and abdomen were of a dark purple by now, and the patches were red as blood. He didn't know whether if that was another illusion or not, it did not really matter, because his whole body was aching from a great deal of pain, not just from the training, but mostly from the sunburn. He felt like he could not take it anymore, so he tried to contact Gohan telepathically:
-Gohan...I need your help. Hurry! I'm stranded in the dess...-but before he could finish his sentence, he lost his conscious and collapsed faced down in the sand.



TO BE CONTINUED>>>