The interior of the namekian's spaceship seemed very bland after they took down all the decorations of the house. Sala said that it wouldn't hold still during take off, that it would most probably crash (which he had prior experience during his first and solo one). So they took everything down and put it all carefully in boxes they stashed in the hold.

Now the main room seemed spacious and clean, almost like an hospital or laboratory... The white tiles and walls, instruments and furnitures, as well as Sala's and his stuff. On his side, the stack was pretty insignificant : a bag containing some clothes, some books he recently bought... The rest, except for important mementos of his family, he had to let go : he buried it near his house, hoping to find it when/if he got back. Sala, on the other hand, was a whole other story !

Between the mound of mechanic and electronic spare parts, stood two gigantic bags containing a disgusting number of clothes and other miscellaneous objects. Avo didn't really know what it was for and argued against overloading the ship, but in the end, in front of her technical gibberish about mass, speed, angle of trajectory and whatnot... he decided to just give up and accept the possible fate of dying buried under this... crap or scrap...

Thankfully for him, Sala had planned to put it all inside a capsule once she finished making inventory of everything. It was a marvel of human technology that they could just transport so much stuff inside such a tiny object. It made him wonder about the genius minds behind this and the radar's technology. Thinking about it, Avo asked :

“Should we drop by Capsule Corp to drop the radar we borrowed ?”

“Borrowed ? Still don't get the concept of stealing, do you ?” After a moment, she added : “I'd planned to study it during the trip, but okay. If you really want to...” She said that last part with a pouty face, kind of like a child. However, Avo wouldn't subject to those kind of antics... Just like a lot of others she tried in vain, which seemed to challenge her feminity a lot. Every time she would try a new thing to appeal to his feelings : making cute faces, sensual ones, crying, pleading and pouting... Even after thousands of attempts, she still tried to raise some emotional response from the green guy and started to doubt that maybe there were too many differences between their races' cultures or physiology...

Most humans who knew Avo seemed to think that his behavior was odd, cold or creepy. The fact was he liked everyone of their crew well enough, but tended to keep to himself because he never really felt like one of them. Only Sala, after years of wearing him out, had managed to infiltrate the ranks of very important people in his heart... and even then, he didn't show how much he cared. Sala had seen him smile, but never really felt much emotion from it, except for a quick hug when she resurrected...

Sala sat in front of the controls to check the monitor. After a few years of fiddling with it and classes in Namekian from Avo, she could now operate it without much problem. Checking the datas received from the freaky magic dragon, she whistled, impressed :

“I guess you didn't mess up on your second wish, Avo ! It's got everything : distant planets, schools, tombs, lost library... even pocket dimensions and parallel ones ! It's amazing how much magic there seems to be in the Universe ! Small wonder I'd never seen it before...”

Avo cringed internally before explaining in a flat voice :

“My healing's magic. So's the vision of Babidi... And I suspect Buu used a bit of magic to turn everyone into candy...”

“Oh, right...” she said absent-mindedly. “I'll need a bit of time to reprogram the computers...”

“Why would you reprogram them ?” Avo asked surprised.

“You want to just pick something randomly and go ? Don't get me wrong... You'll find something, but how much time would it take to go there ? Not to mention the parallel dimensions we don't know how to access, there are destinations for literally the other side of the universe... I'll need to program the computer so it can sort through the closest or more relevant destinations for newbies...”

“Newbies ? What's that ?”

“Right ! Forgot you never liked playing games ! I mean, we don't know much about magic... Especially me ! So we need to learn the basics first, right ?”

“...right!” the namekian murmured uncertainly.

“I'll try to categorize the different types of magic knowledge and maybe add a search engine...” Sala continued her monologue while Avo tuned her out. He never had the knack for technology like she did, and was never really interested in it anyhow... Sala on the other hand, specialized in high-tech theft. That meant using a lot of almost as high-tech devices and thingy Avo never understood during her heists. In front of puzzles, datas, or new technology, she always transformed into a fearsome analytical beast only focused on numbers, variables, temperature fluctuations... or something like that !

So, she started her project after they keyed in Capsule Corp's coordinates. Sala stationed the spaceship in the air above the buildings as Avo floated down, in order to give the radar to someone. Five minutes later, Avo was aboard the ship again. The girl told him :

“I've identified a place you'd probably like to go... Apparently, they specialize in battle magic and they've got something in common with you...”

“Oh ?” he asked. “Where is it ?”

“Pretty far... but right now, I thought it would be relevant to you.” Opposed to silence, she sighed before adding : “I think they're Namekians. At least, from what I can gather from the data, here : a green-skinned race with antennas, healing magic, a type of magic to modify or enhance the body... Apparently this settlement lives on a hostile planet, which forced them to get better at magic. I don't know... You want me to look for something else ?” She finally asked uncertain.

“No, that looks interesting actually.” Avo said with a small smile. “How long would it take to get there ?”

“Around 2-3 weeks. Need to account for space variables on our trajectory but it shouldn't take us longer than 3 weeks...”

“Ok then, Navigator ! Lead us there !”

“Hehe ! Navigator... I like the sound of that !”

Needless to say, leaving Earth's atmosphere was... surprising. The force of gravity pressing them down and shaking the ship as they were flying out of its orbit seemed intent on crushing them both. Although it eased almost instantly, the sensation wasn't pleasant... Especially for the human. Sala was panting, sweat covering her brows and a good deal of her forehead. Seeing her, the fleeting image of a cat in the rain imposed itself to the namekian.

Without amusement in his voice or a smile on his lips, Avo asked her :

“Are you alright ?”

“Y-yeah... I'm...I'm alright. You could have warned me. That was surprising. You don't seem fazed... Are you already used to it ?”

“Used to it ? I only left the atmosphere once. No, it's just that my body is naturally sturdier than yours.”

“...naturally sturdier than yooours...” Sala parroted in a high-pitched voice. “Brag much ?”

“Not my fault you're a puny human.” Avo retorted with a smile.

After a few more rounds of trash-talk, the two friends went about their own business. While Sala was fiddling with the computers, Avo started meditation. The first rule on how to use magic was... basically to sit around and do nothing. But with professionalism ! You had to reach a state of rest just at the edge of falling asleep, letting your mind wander thereby allowing the energy particles everywhere in the universe to permeate his body. After that, he also had to unconsciously direct this raw energy to his brain, where he would refine it into usable mana. The whole experience usually required him to feel tingly all over, before getting a split between a headache and a brain-freeze. Not really a pleasant sensation, but he got used to it over the years... Still, the meditative state could easily be disrupted if he paid too much attention to the tingling.

Sala watched him a bit when she encountered a problem in her programing, wondering how he could just sit there like a stone for hours on end ! Of course, he taught her, or rather tried to, how to harness and create mana... but it never really stuck. The act of meditation seemed calming in theory. However the truth was : stay too long sitting on your butt and it'll hurt ! Her personal record was 2 minutes and peanuts. Okay... maybe she had a short attention span.

She thought a bit on a way for her to harness mana without getting bored as hell. Then she turned back to the computer and scrolled through the data. They were so much with so many details, that her earlier ideas of finding magic contents suitable for her personality seemed a vain approach... at least until she finished sorting through or organizing it better.

The journey through space continued, settling the two companions in a peaceful routine. Sala would occupy her downtime building gimmicks : a sort of drone, for recon on dangerous planets, defensive measures in the means of incapacitating weapons (electrified batons and tasers). In the meantime, Avo meditated or pondered over his healing powers. Truth was, he never really thought about it much before : he did what Bana taught him. Without really paying attention to the process. In itself, the process seemed simple : using mana to stimulate the natural healing power of the body while nourishing its cells, so it wouldn't do any harm. But he didn't really know why or how it worked...

His “father” always told him that a life had a finite amount of energy in each cells, and using too much without replenishing it would cause the body to suffer on the long-term. Problems were : what was a cell ? How to sense this energy ? And most importantly, why could he use this power ? If he had a finite amount of energy, like every life in the universe, did he use his mana to compensate for that or did overuse his energy like a moron ? Thankfully, he knew the answer to this question... Bana should have taught him a reliable use of magic !

From time to time, he paid attention to his friend's antics, as she was struggling mentally in front of the monitor, or one of her inventions didn't do what it was designed to. He watched her pull on her hair, grumble and mumble under breath, or simply lose it and throwing said-thing to the floor. In the same way Avo was an interesting mystery to Sala, human behavior remained a blurry picture despite all the years spent with them. Maybe it was just him and Bana, or maybe it was a trait of their whole race... but they never did express themselves like she did. She was exuberant; he was introverted.

One morning – or night, since telling them apart in the void of space is hard without a watch – Sala squealed in delight. She exclaimed :

“We're approaching ! We should see the planet in a couple of minutes...”

And she was right. Soon, a round object, tinier that his hand could be seen growing fast. When they arrived in a range where they could observe the planet, they sighed, depressed.

“It's a piece of rock... Can't see much green, or blue... Gosh ! Don't tell me it's an arid planet !”

Avo remarked in his usual flat tone :

“You said it yourself : this rock's supposed to have a harsh environment. Guess you were right!”

“Yeeeeeah... I wasn't expecting this, though. Scanning for life-signs... Okay, there seems to be several settlements... and a lot more life than I thought there would. The things living herehaveto be scary !”

“We haven't even seen the surface. How can you judge so fast ? Maybe the plant-life just isn't green on this planet, but grey instead...”

“... That's a depressing idea !” A short while later, she continued : “You know... There isn't much on this rock for me. I'm not namekian, couldn't meditate like you taught me to, and the magic should be similar to yours... I'm pretty sure I'll suck at it !” A new pause, then : “Maybe I should head for another planet while you learn on the surface... to find something that's more my speed.”

Avo considered it a bit, and although he would have preferred to be with his friend, he understood her temperament pretty well. Not to mention the fact that she lacked patience, when a subject didn't interest her, she could be downright insufferable. Especially if she was forced to learn. That wasn't something he wanted to relive... He nodded before asking :

“How would we meet up ? We set a date and place for a rendez-vous ?”

“Naaah, Avo ! You know me ! I'm not a primitive ! I've got you something like a phone... Well I enhanced it a bit. It doesn't have a very long range, but we'll be able to communicate if I'm near the planet.”

A few hours later, Avo was on the surface, alone. Besides water and a few spare clothes, he didn't have anything else. A blessing his species didn't need to eat ! So, obviously, he packed lightly and only carried a backpack. He looked around him : a inhospitable hillside, pretty deserted except for low hanging vegetation, brown or dark in colors. He tried to sense the life-force of his kind... searching for energy similar to Bana's, he encountered several which matched, if only for the sinister tint he felt. Nonetheless, he started to head in their direction.

It took him a while to reach their village. Instead of a small village, he thought it looked more like a really old town, with wooden huts, straw roofs and walls of stones carved by hand. Rare were the houses that looked like his, and the ones that did, were pretty far from the other buildings, distinguishing themselves by gardens, and animal furs. Avo found it odd that the people here would hunt... Namekians didn't need to eat. He observed for a while, but the village seemed empty. Maybe it was night-time and everyone was asleep, but that was another thing namekians didn't need as much as humans...

As Avo was puzzled about the situation, he headed for the gates. From what Bana said, they were a peaceful people who gladly welcomed visitors if they proved to be good people. His explanations were a little fuzzy on the details. However, meeting them was the fastest way to learn what he came for.

Once beyond the gate, Avo felt the energies guiding him here converging towards him even though he didn't see a soul... Even more puzzled and before he could ask himself about this problem, his head started to feel funny. Light and heavy, a bit like he was sick. At least that's how Sala described it when it happened to her... His vision grew blurry, then the nausea came... Finally, he couldn't keep his eyes open...