Zeck was not the only one who had just infiltrated a large flying ship in order to stop the planet from coming to harm.
Whether by divine intervention or sheer, terrible luck, on the same day that Slug descended upon planet Earth, another great evil had stirred.
The 'Emperor' Pilaf had three incredible talents that had always set him apart from the rest.
The fact that he was incredibly intelligent was actually the lesser of these three talents, for he also had incredible luck, and a talent for being underrated.
Without the latter two of those talents, Tater would have tracked him down and killed him long ago as retribution for the attack on the Saiyan's home, earlier in the year.
Instead, he had not only managed, by sheer luck, to have not been seen by the Saiyan, but Tater simply hadn't cared enough to look for whoever had fired the missiles into the side of his house at the time. Honestly, he didn't really consider some idiot with a rocket-powered bomb or two to be a threat worth going out of his way to deal with, so, when the Ox King had mentioned his little 'my castle is constantly on fire' incident to the Saiyan sometime during the World Martial Arts tournament, Tater had simply switched gears and spent two months figuring out how to deal with that instead, for a hefty price that the Ox King was perfectly happy to pay.
As such, Pilaf had been ignored and left to scheme as he always did.
Gathering the greatest fighters in the modern world had not done anything more than rile the Saiyan up, and what was worse, several of the Dragon Balls had disappeared from his radar when he finally decided to check it after the failed attack.
He'd managed to find one: The Four Star ball, which Kakarot had dropped in some remote wilderness, along with one of Chichi's bags, back right before the duo had vanished into the demon realm.
Beyond that one, though, only three Dragon Balls showed up on his radar anymore.
After getting her wish denied, but also granted at the same time, Bulma had essentially lost interest in the Dragon Balls completely. She'd basically decided to use them as portable tracking beads, because they didn't really hold any other function, if no wish could be made.
As such, Kakarot got the four star ball.
Master Roshi ended up with another one. Grandpa Gohan and the Ox King both ended up with one.
The remaining two, taking a page out of Tarble's book, Bulma had thrown into a shielded 'safe' in the closet in her lab, and forgotten about.
Two months ago, during one of his experiments, Zeck had accidentally shorted out the containment field that blocked the Dragon Ball signal, for almost exactly thirty seconds. Pilaf's radar had logged the signature.
Immediately, Pilaf's genius mind had put two and two together, and realized that someone at Capsule Corporation was deliberately blocking the signals.
But, the problem he faced was the same as always: He didn't have the ability. Specifically, the manpower. Each Dragon Ball was guarded by a threat that technology alone simply couldn't handle.
Then, he remembered an old legend that his father, a demon who had fled from the demon realm around two hundred years ago had once told him.
The legend of the Demon King, Piccolo. A terrifyingly powerful monster that had slaughtered all of Earth's established martial arts schools of the time, and nearly brought about the end of the world as they knew it.
Back then, a brave martial arts master had devised a special method, and managed to seal the monstrously powerful Demon King into a rice cooker, which had then been tossed into the ocean.
Pilaf didn't think much of a Demon King that'd lost to a rice cooker, but his father had worshipped the ground that this 'Piccolo's' feet walked on with a fanatical zeal. Toward the end of his life, the aging demon had even taken the young Pilaf to the cliff where it was said that the rice cooker containing the Demon King inside had been cast into the ocean.
Pilaf still remembered the place. Time had not changed it at all.
So, he'd gotten to work.
Back during that time, it was likely that whomever had thrown the cooker into the sea had genuinely believed that made it irrecoverable.
Unfortunately for them, everything that existed had some pattern to it. Even the sea's tides.
With his incredible luck, Mai, and Shu as his stalwart aides, Pilaf had dug the rice cooker out of the depths of the sea in record time, and released the ancient demon.
Unfortunately, the correct word definitely was ancient… But also powerful.
The Demon King Piccolo did not take orders, and what was worse was that he knew about the Dragon Balls, and had a wish of his own to make. Pilaf and his crew were forced to choose between being relegated to servant roles or simply eliminated. They chose the former without hesitation, hoping that, after he wished for eternal life, then conquered the world, perhaps they would be granted a small portion of it to govern in his stead. Not much, but all they could do was serve King Piccolo and hope.
And thus, the aged King Piccolo began flying toward West City in Pilaf's large flying machine, which had been converted into his own makeshift castle, just as its protector, who could have slaughtered the green menace with a simple flick of his fingers, Zeck, had flown off to confront the other evil Namekian.
But, just as the flying machine slowed down, getting close to its destination, there was a loud CRASH from the brig.
Krillin had arrived. And he was fully prepared to stand between the evil Namekian and the city full of innocent people below.