The group of warriors stand around Raditz, stunned into silence. After several seconds, Goku finally speaks up.

"Woah, you really laid into Vegeta! I'm not even sure that I could've beaten him! How'd you manage to win?!"

The one-armed Saiyan opens his mouth to reply, but is abruptly cut off by a furious shout.

"SCUM! DISHONORABLE, WEAK, COWARDLY BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU!" Vegeta yells, straining his body in an attempt to throw himself at Raditz.

Unfortunately for Vegeta, he's completely unable to move under the massive weight of the Katchin holding him down. A few nervous chuckles escape from Yamcha's mouth as he watches the Saiyan's furious tantrum.

"You remember my Creation technique? Well, I used that to create an extremely heavy/durable material known as 'Katchin' around Vegeta, trapping him." Raditz explains, tuning out the Prince's angry swears. "Without any way to avoid my attacks or fight back, it was pretty easy to beat him."

"You... you tied him up, then beat him?" Tien mutters.

"Wow..." Krillin says.

"You didn't try actually fighting him?" Gohan asks.

"I did 'actually fight' him. I used my Creation technique to beat him, that's a perfectly valid way to fight."

"Still... that doesn't seem too fun. I'd hate to win a fight like that..." Goku mumbles.

"He'll just have to find a way to counter that if he wants to beat me." Raditz snaps. "I was fighting to win, not to have fun. If he wanted a friendly spar, he could've asked for one."

"Are you gonna let him out of that?" Yamcha asks curiously. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to leaving him trapped or anything, but the longer that Katchin is on him, the angrier he's gonna be when he's free."

"I guess you've got a point... but I can't exactly wave my hand and make the Katchin disappear. Kakarot, could you use your Instant Transmission technique to teleport him out?"

"You're not worried that he'll try to fight you again?"

"I'll be fine. Without Senzu Beans, he'll take a while to recover, and I bet that he'll spend even more time thinking about how to counter my Katchin Creation. I think I'll be ready for a more fair fight by then."

'Of course, by the time he's actually ready to fight, Future Trunks will arrived to warn everyone about the Androids. That'll distract Vegeta for another three years, and by the end of the Cell saga, he'll have mellowed out a little. I'll happily fight him then, when he isn't trying to beat me half to death.' the one-armed Saiyan thinks with a grin.

"Alright! This shouldn't take long!" Goku says cheerfully as he kneels down to touch Vegeta's shoulder.

A split second later, the duo disappear... along with the Katchin covering Vegeta.

They reappear a few yards away, both exactly as they were before they teleported.

"Uh... Raditz? It didn't work." Chiaotzu points out helpfully.

"I noticed. Give me a minute." the long-haired Saiyan says.

...

"Hey King Kai? Are you there? I need some help."

"Help? With what?" the blue Kai replies curiously.

"Are you blind? It should be pretty obvious."

"I'm busy! I don't have time to watch you every single minute of the day."

"But... but we were talking right before Vegeta showed up. You weren't watching?" Raditz says.

"Oh, that was just me avoiding work. I wasn't able to watch since the other Kais were around, so I talked to you to pass time and relieve my boredom. What's the problem?"

"I... I kind of trapped Vegeta in Katchin."

"YOU WHAT?!?!?!"

Raditz flinches back as the Kai's shout reaches him. He rubs his head in pain, taking a few seconds to gather his thoughts before he finally replies.

"He attacked me, so I created Katchin around his wrists, ankles, and neck to weigh him down. I tried to get Kakarot to Instant Transmission him out, but it didn't work."

"...I really shouldn't have taught you how to make that. Katchin is durable, yes, and it's one of the heaviest materials in the Universe, yes, but that's not the most special thing about it! Even Kais use it in combat! If a simple teleportation technique was enough to escape a Katchin attack, then we'd never think so highly of it!"

"So what makes it so special?" the confused Saiyan asks.

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"It resists Ki you moron!" King Kai screams, causing Raditz to flinch back once more. "That's why we value it so much! If someone tries to use a Ki technique against it, it completely repels it in ways that are unique to each technique! For Yardrat's Instant Transmission technique, it mimics the closest person's Ki, forcing whoever used the technique while touching it to teleport with it!"

"...Oh."

"'Oh' is right! I can't believe you'd even think of trying something like this without talking about to me first!"

"So... does this mean that Vegeta is trapped for good? Is there no way to free him?!"

"No, there's a few ways to get him out of there, but all of them require Divine Ki if you did it right. Give me a few seconds to get back to my planet and I'll take a look at the Katchin you trapped him in."

...

Raditz anxiously stands beside the still-screaming Vegeta, silently passing the seconds as he waits for King Kai to contact him. After about half a minute, the blue man's voice appears in his head.

"My Kai Kai technique seems to be a bit out of practice... I even landed in Hell on my first attempt. Anywho, I'm here now. Let's see..."

King Kai trails off as he stares down at the scene in front of his eyes. His grim expression soon turns into a joyous smile.

"Phew, it isn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be. Vegeta should be able to solve this on his own given enough time."

Raditz sighs in relief at the Kai's words.

"So, how is he supposed to get out of there?" he asks.

Instead of answering, King Kai instead asks a question of his own. "Raditz, I've already told you about Bojack and his crew, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"When you were practicing your Creation technique and had the idea to do this, did you think that you were the first to think of trapping an opponent in Katchin?"

"Well, no, of course not."

"So you must've wondered why the Kais didn't use this technique to trap Bojack and his crew, correct?"

"Um... yes." the tall Saiyan lies. "But what does this have to do with getting Vegeta out of there? It only makes sense that Bojack would be able to resist it when Vegeta couldn't. After all, that Bojack guy must be hundreds of times stronger than Vegeta."

"That's correct. Vegeta wouldn't last a second against Bojack... but there is a point to what I'm saying, I just haven't gotten to it yet." King Kai says, intentionally taking more time than necessary to give the answer.

"So...?"

"You may not have noticed it, but your body automatically creates an almost skin-tight barrier of Ki around you as Ki leaks out. As it is now, it won't do anything to protect you, but when you learn to sense it, you can empower or depower it at will. The same is true about every being in the Universe."

"So that means that the Katchin is wrapped around the natural barrier around Vegeta's skin?"

"Exactly. If he wants to get out, he'll have to learn to dismiss the barrier, then, in the brief moment before the Katchin would touch his skin, use a teleportation technique to move away."

"Whew, that's a relief... but what would happen if his natural Ki barrier was down? Would he be permanently trapped...?"

"Not exactly, but it would be much more difficult for him to escape... you'd better not abuse this information!"

"I won't!" Raditz says hastily.

"Good. As I was saying, there are three main ways for him to escape that I know of."

"1: He could simply destroy the Katchin. Of course, this is mostly hypothetical. Vegeta isn't anywhere near strong enough to do that. Heck, even Bojack wasn't that strong! You'd have to be at Majin Buu's level at least to do something like that, although that would take a bit of time, even for a monster like Buu."

"2: He could cut the body part attached to the Katchin off, then regrow it with a Healing technique. Since it's wrapped around his neck, this isn't something he can survive..."

"3: Finally, he could use a technique that utilizes Divine Ki to resist the Katchin. A simple Kai Kai would be more than enough to teleport out of it. After all, Divine Ki is far different from a mortal's Ki. Even Katchin won't stand a chance against it. Unless you wait until the Dragon Balls are ready, you can't use this method."

"Wait, the Dragon Balls have Divine Ki?!" Raditz suddenly interjects, obviously surprised.

"Of course they have Divine Ki. The original Namekians, folks far stronger than most Gods mind you, were able to shave off bits from the Super Dragon Balls to create their own set of Dragon Balls. They took with them the tiniest fraction of Divine Ki, which has magically spread throughout every single set of Dragon Balls made since. It isn't a lot, but it's enough to render the Ki-resisting functions of Katchin useless."

"So all we've got to do is have Kakarot teleport to Namek, then borrow their Dragon Balls? That shouldn't take long."

"That's a good plan... but unfortunately, the Namekian Dragon Balls have been used recently." the Kai says with a helpless shrug. "As a matter of fact, it was only a day or two after you made your wish."

"What?!"

"Yeah... their Grand Elder sensed the use of Earth's Dragon Balls and contacted me to make sure that they weren't used for any nefarious wishes. Once I told him what you wished for, he felt inspired to make a few similar wishes."

"Ugh, so we have to wait for Vegeta to learn to sense the 'natural Ki barrier' you were talking about, then have Kakarot teach him the Instant Transmission technique, and then wait until he's mastered both of them enough to get out on his own?" Raditz gripes with a scowl.

"Don't forget, you're the one who chose to trap him. This is all on you. You need to find someone to take care of him. He can't move on his own, he can't eat on his own, and he can't p--"

"I get it! I get it! No need to go into details... lucky for me, I think I have an idea."

As soon as he says this, Raditz disappears from the sight of Goku and the Earthlings, having moved away at maximum speed...

A fraction of a second later, he lands on the smooth grass in front of Capsule Corporation's HQ, startling a blue-haired woman who was out for a walk.

"Hey Bulma... I hate to ask you this..." he lies. "But I need a favor."

At this very moment, halfway across the planet in Orange City, a giant of a man with a mane of reddish-brown hair confidently walks through the door of a nearly-empty building, carefully moving towards a bald, glasses-wearing lady seated behind the front desk.

"I'm sorry sir, but the sign-ups for the World Martial Arts Tournament are over." the clerk says with mild annoyance. "They've been over for a few days, as a matter of fact. You'll have to wait for the next tournament."

The beefy giant defies her expectations as, instead of throwing a fit or walking out, he instead grins.

"Sweetheart, maybe you'd better check again. I'm already signed up." he says cockily.

"Check again? If you're already signed up, then wh--"

"Check the VIP list. As for why I'm here... well, I'm sure you're smart enough to understand."

The clerk's eyes narrow, any trace of annoyance completely gone.

"Name?"

"Spopovich."

She nods her head, pressing a small button under her desk. The wall behind her slides away, revealing a staircase leading downwards.

"The boss will see you now, Mr. Spopovich." she says with the utmost respect.

Spopovich smirks as he walks past her, silently enjoying the feeling of Ki flowing through his body.

"Yeah... this new tournament is going to be fun."