Arriving at the training ground of the Saiyans he was immediately noticed by Ocora who seemed to take in some nutrition.
"It has been a while, Ocora. Where are the others?", asked Darc her.
"Hey, Darc. Well, Maiz and Ruco are inside the training chambers. Been and the other four are probably resting right now. We change shifts so we can use the chambers as much as possible.", she answered him.
"That's a good tactic since you only got 3 chambers. And it also looks like you all improved a lot. I am happy to see that.", smirked Darc now since he could feel the energy exuding from Maiz and Ruco inside the chambers. By definition, they were about the same power that Nail was already. And that only in about a years time.
But their improvement will probably stagnate from here on out if they can't get fighting experience. Saiyan may have great potential but only a few chosen few that constantly fight battles will ever reach the Super Saiyan state.
Darc actually planned to push these four Saiyans to at least that level.
Ocora chuckled and put her hands on her hips. "And I am actually the strongest of us four.", she exclaimed proudly.
Darc was actually surprised. Sure she concealed her energy right now but wasn't Maiz the strongest one when he met them? Well, looks like Ocora has a better affinity with gravity chambers. Or did something happen while she trained?
"You surpassed Maiz? Did you hurt yourself while training?", asked Darc now since he actually wanted to know if it's her talent or the Zenkai that boosted her.
"Hmm? Actually, I kept pretty much to the instructions you gave us. I did injure myself somewhat while going overboard with an energy attack that I overestimated. But it healed pretty quickly.", she said after thinking about it.
Darc smiled. "So you got yourself a Zenkai. No wonder you surpassed him. But keep it reasonable. If you happen to die it would be useless to everyone.", he added after hearing her words.
"What is a Zenkai?", asked Lite now from the sidelines.
"Who is this?", asked Ocora with a frown after Lite butted in.
"Oh, right. This here is Lite. He is a friend of mine - a comrade. He will also be in charge of your group. And a Zenkai is the ability to improve after a near-death experience. The Saiyan race is known for it. If they survive their bodies imprint on the pain and open up more energy reserves. Depending on how much energy is accumulated inside those said reserves the Zenkai can vary from person to person.", explained Darc to the both of them.
"Isn't that practically cheating? Oh, wait. Isn't that actually about the same as what Guru did?", asked Lite and corrected his question after thinking about elder Guru. Ocora frowned again after being indirectly called a cheat. She definitely does not have a good impression of Lite now.
Darc arched his brows in amazement at the intricacy of Lite his thoughts. Was that really Lite at this moment? He put his hand to his chin and started thinking.
"Hmm, actually, that is a very good thought there. In a way that is correct. But I think they do have differences. For example, I think a Zenkai is riskier and only works on stronger opponents but does not tap on to ones potential. While potential can always be unleashed when it is accumulated and probably has a much higher limit cap than a Zenkai. But then again, on the other hand, a Zenkai can break one's limit if certain circumstances happen...", started Darc talking in thought.
"Alright, I got it. Don't go drifting off there. ", interrupted Lite after seeing that Darc went into a thinking trance.
Ocora actually got curious about this knowledge he had. " So we Saiyan can always break our limits as long as we fight and survive? Is it even possible to defeat people like Frieza?", she asked now.
"Pretty much but for that, you would have to go through hell and beyond.", answered Darc. "Now then. Back to the actual reason why I am here. Can you get everyone together? Just like I said. I want to introduce your captain now.", said Darc to her.
She looked at Lite and frowned once again. "You mean this weak looking guy?"
Lite his mouth twitched. "Weak?", he asked
"Stop this right now. I can assure Lite is strong enough to lead the group.", said Darc and sighed at this disharmony.
Ocora sighed. "Alright, I will get the others."
Shortly after she went away and got everyone together it didn't take long to introduce Lite to the group. He also explained that Lite will be the leader. At that point, Ruco got agitated again. So Darc had to let Lite show his power and beat up everyone. They also would probably gain some insight from that.
And after that was easily done the Saiyans kept their mouths shut. Ocora actually even got a little bit flustered after seeing his power. They still respected the strong.
----
Both Darc and Lite now stood in his office at the western headquarters.
"Good, I will be leaving now. Keep in contact via Alice and send reports every week if possible." Then Darc took out some documents from a drawer and gave it to Lite. "This is your first mission. You need to find the Tree of Might. It is a very unique tree that we need. And then there are also some coordinates of some planets where Saiyan where seen or were mentioned in the intel we got through hacking into Frieza his network. Gather them and return them here. That's about all for now."
Lite looked through the document and nodded. Then he smiled "Alright, this will be done in a jiffy."
"Is it? Anyway, you better start learning the instant transmission I included to the documents. With your current power, you should have enough energy to use it. And don't forget to come back to earth from time to time or Glew is gonna be pissed.", added Darc.
Lite scratched his head and laughed wryly. "Yeah, I nearly forgot about that."
Darc sighed but he couldn't really say anything more to that since he himself was doing the same thing. So he just teleported away back to earth.
----
When he appeared back at earth he could see his mother and father had come over.
"Mom, Dad. You are here again?", he asked them both.
His father grinned at him and nodded as a greeting but his mother was displeased with the way he greeted them.
"You don't like us being here? Hmpf I seem to have really failed as a mother. Your daddy is really something, Trunks. He doesn't want granny to visit you. That makes me sad. You won't become like him, right?", said Kibini while holding Trunks in front of herself. Trunks only looked at her in curiosity and started laughing. "Yes, my dear Trunks loves his granny, right?", she added and kissed Trunks his forehead and started to cuddle with him.
Darc sighed. "It's just that you are coming over like every day now. You know, if you really want to see your grandchild that much just give me a call. I will gladly bring over that energy bundle. Bulma and I could use that time for ourselves.", he said and joined them at the couch.
Kibini looked at him and smiled now. Darc arched a brow and wondered what that smile was about.
"Oh, that is a sweet thing to say, but I don't see you upholding it.", said Bulma from behind him.
Darc leaned his head back and smiled at her. "I don't uphold it? Then let's just go now before your mother gets wind of this and denies my parents to take care of him.", he answered her. That actually was the problem most of the time. But if his mother would just call him he could teleport Trunks to her and Panchy couldn't do anything but nag at him. Otherwise, Bulma would still at some point get distracted with Trunks herself if he was here. Effectively killing that chance.
Bulma looked at him deeply and Darc stretched his hand out and pulled her to himself to give her a kiss. Trunks saw that and flew over to them. Darc caught him. "What is it? Do you want to have a kiss too? Or am I taking away your mommy? Which is it?", he smirked at his son. He already somewhat knew what he was after.
Trunks looked at him and then to Bulma. He stretched his little arms to her. Darc sighed in defeat and lifted him over himself into the arms of Bulma. She only smiled and took him and also sat on the couch.
That little devil really was something. Well, when he is older it will become better. At least he hoped that it would.
They started a conversation that took some time until his parents said their goodbye.
"Until next time, you three", said Truff. "Bye-bye, Trunks. Behave well, do you hear?", added Kibini before they left.