Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z or any characters from canon
LIFELESS
Chapter 1 New Enemies
It started off as a normal day for the simple farmer. The heavy set man had been tending some of his crops near Spinach Wasteland, just as he had done every day for the last 30 plus years, when a whizzing sound had turned his attention towards the sky.
The scene he saw caused his eyes to widen considerably. After all, it's not every day that you see a spaceship rocketing through the sky; at least not by earth standards.
The farmer watched in a stunned awe as the ship passed by him before being rudely awakened from his stupor by the sound of said spacecraft impacting the ground with considerable force.
The somewhat dimwitted farmer turned and looked towards the crash site, staring blankly ahead, trying to comprehend what had just happened when a thought crossed his head. "If the ship landed there... Why that's where the rest of my crops are!' he muttered with a start before quickly turning and entering his beat up pick up truck and foolishly heading towards the site of the crash.
The farmer was closing in on the site after only a minute or so. This was partly due to the fact that the crash site was such a relatively short distance. The other contributing factor was the fact that the farmer ignored all speed laws and road laws and had literally just driven over all the hills in the surrounding area in an effort to get to the location as fast as possible. The farmer, of course, was barely even considering the possibility of a ticket at a time like this. Perhaps he should have been considering he didn't "technically" have a license. On the other hand, he'd never really worried. There may have been laws governing this area, but with the closest police station being a little over one hundred miles away, the farmer had never actually seen a cop car roaming these hills. Or really at all, considering he had only ever ventured through about a sixty mile radius his whole life.
He'd always planned on at least making it over to West City at least once before he died. Those darn capsule things had made his farming work a lot easier and he'd really like to thank whoever had made such an invention. Another thought that didn't cross the farmers mind at that time... was that this was his last day alive, and that he should have done his visiting years ago because it was too late now.
As he reached the site of the crash, the farmer brought his truck to a screeching halt, sliding forward a few feet more than he expected. For a brief second, a thought crossed his mind that he should get his brakes checked before that thought process was interrupted as he reached the crater and looked down.
At the bottom of the crater was a white spherical ball of some sort. The farmer squinted a few times trying to make out more details when the front of the ball suddenly opened up. The farmers eyes widened once again as the pods opening revealed a creature inside of it.
For a second, the farmer thought to rush down and see if the thing was okay, whatever it was. That thought was quickly dashed as the door opened up to reveal the creatures face.
A cold smirk graced the beings lips as he looked up, immediately making eye contact with the farmer, who froze under the glare he received. "Why are you alive?" a harsh voice came out from the man, or perhaps monster that had emerged from the pod. The farmer felt himself shudder at the threatening voice. His next thought was one of fear as the alien, for that was what the farmer was now sure the creature was, began to float into the air, arms still crossed.
With the new lighting the farmer could now see the alien a bit better. The monster had straight black hair, extending all the way down to the creature's knees. It was clad in some kind of armor, though he couldn't tell the fabric, not that he could have been able to tell the difference between fabrics to begin with, even if this wasn't some foreign, or dare I say alien material. The farmer's eyes were then drawn to the creature's hand as it began to move. The now terrified farmer took a few cautious steps back towards his truck, hoping he could reach it, and his shotgun inside, before this monster did something.
He was luckily granted those much desired seconds as the alien began to look around the surroundings. "Why is everything alive? Did Kakarot really fail such a simple mission?" The alien muttered to himself as he looked around.
It wasn't until he heard the almost universal sound of a gun being cocked back that Raditz turned to look at the human with an amused smirk on his face. "Y-You better get back monster. I've got a shotgun" the farmer yelled, pointing his loaded gun towards Raditz's armored chest.
"hn, and you really think you can stop me? Hah, that hilarious, let's see here" Raditz said with a laugh before beginning to fiddle with some sort of contraption over his eye. Numbers began to read out of the device in question before finally settling on a relatively low number. Raditz stared in stunned silence for about a second before breaking up laughing.
"A power level of five. Hah this won't even be fun" Raditz said as he straightened up, ending his laugh. He then proceeded to start walking towards the terrified native in his way. The human farmer shook in terror before pulling back on the trigger of the weapon. Instantly, to the human, and considerably slowly to the saiyan, the shells from the shotgun blasted forward. The farmer had barely even to realize he had pulled the trigger. Only the knockback of the gun helped him to realize what he had just done.
With a start he turned to look at the now dying creature before gasping. The creature appeared to be fine. His hand was clenched in front of his chest around where the shells should have hit him but there was no blood. In fact, the monster appeared to be smiling. The farmer then recognized the smile as a smirk before the creatures mouth opened. "Wrong move" Raditz said cockily before throwing something from his hand. The farmer never knew what hit him but he would have likely found it ironic if he could have seen what occurred. Raditz had easily caught all of the shotgun shells with one hand and then proceeded to return said shells to the farmer, albeit at a vastly superior speed. Those shells impacted with the weak human with enough force to blast him back into the front of his own truck, severely damaging the frame and engine. Not that such a thing mattered to the farmer anymore as he was dead on impact.
"hmph, waste of my time" Raditz said with a sneer. "Now then, there must be a reason Kakarot failed his mission. I know, i'll use my scouter to find him. It should be the highest power level on this planet" Raditz said aloud as he began to run through the functions on his scouter to increase the range. The scouter then began to beep as it took in an impressive, by earth standards power level. "Hn, still seems weak. I doubt it's Kakarot. But I might as well check" Raditz said with a shrug as he began to float into the air once again before blasting away in search of the power his scouter had picked up.
Tien was running through the city with a slightly annoyed expression on his face. Somehow, Launch had tricked him into helping her rob a bank. One minute he had been waiting outside of the grocery store she'd made him come with her to. The next, there had been a loud explosion and Launch had burst out of the bank on the other side of the street, catching him completely by surprise.
"When did she sneak over there" he had thought in astonishment before Launch had run past him, carrying four large bags, most likely filled with money. She had then immediately thrown two of the bags to Tien, who caught them on instinct before blinking in surprise as he realized what he had done.
Before he could say anything, the cops showed up, and; with him holding the bag of money, he was immediately labeled as a target. Tien immediately decided that being arrested as an accomplice would only cause problems for him , and so he turned to run, trying to get a glimpse of Launch, who had seemingly ditched him, most likely with the intent to return to their house in the mountains and rendezvous there.
Deciding that looking for Launch was a waste of time, Tien turned his efforts to escaping the notice of the cops. He quickly turned down a dark alleyway just out of sight of the cops chasing him before immediately taking off into the air, leaving the bags of money on the ground. He did this, not as a necessity to avoid being caught, but simply because he felt he had no need for money, especially the stolen kind. When he got back, he was going to have a long chat with Launch.
Still fuming over the events he had been thrust into that day, Tien began to fly over the mountains towards his home. He had only been moving for a few minutes when he felt an incredibly high power level closing in on him from his lower right side. Stopping where he was in the air, the triclops began looking around desperately looking for a way to escape the impossible power level that was approaching.
Before he could devise a plan, a purple blur of ki shot by him immediately followed by the sound of someone pulling to a halt. "Well, You're definitely not Kakarot. Bald, three eyes, I know, you must be a circus freak" Raditz said cockily as he examined the human in front of him. The power level coming from the human was just a little over 200. Not impressive in any right, but it was still the largest one he could find on this planet.
" Tell you what, put on a show and I might let you live" Raditz said as a twisted smirk enveloped his face. Tien stared at the man in front of him, trying to hold down his fear. He had fought against impossible odds before in the form of King Piccolo, but the creature in front of him was at least ten times as strong as that, and the speed he had approached at was incomparable to anything he had ever seen, even Goku. Suddenly, Tien noticed two distinct things of note.
The first was that he could feel the ki of both Goku and Piccolo together on the lookout, something which he had never expected considering Piccolo's animosity to not just Goku but Kami as well. The second thing Tien noticed, and perhaps the one that potentially scared him more, was the tail wrapped around the monsters waist. "It's just like the one Goku used to have" Tien thought in surprise and a certain degree of cold fear as he began to consider the words of the person in front of him.
Raditz's cocky smirk was slowly fading to one of annoyance as the human in front of him failed to respond to a single comment he had said. Instead, the human seemed to be staring off into space, as if he wasn't even there. Before he could open his mouth to express his anger, the triclops finally locked eyes with him. "Who is this Kakarot you mentioned?" Tien asked, staring warily at the saiyan, and hoping his suspicions weren't wrong. "Hn, well he's my brother. We sent him here when he was a baby to kill all of you pathetic earthlings so we could sell this rock. Looks like he failed... so I'm here to finish the job" Raditz said, watching with cruel glee as the bald man before him began to shake in what he considered to be fear.
In reality, Tien was caught up in too many emotions to experience simple fear. If Tien was understanding this monster right, there was a good chance that his friend Goku, the man who had defeated King Piccolo as a mere teen, and then went on to stop Piccolo's reincarnation, was actually an alien. And not just any alien, but an alien related to this one here in front of him.
Raditz stared in confusion as he began to realize that the human knew more than he was letting on. "You know something I don't" Raditz said before moving in and appearing inches away from the human, startling him. "Tell me" Raditz said threateningly as the human took a step back and moved his hands over his forehead.
Raditz paused as he considered the strange response before the human yelled Solar Flare and a blinding light covered his vision, causing him to scream out in pain as his sight was replaced by a blinding white light and a painful burning sensation. By the time he regained control of his eyesight, the human had disappeared.
"darn it, where did he go!" Raditz yelled angrily as he searched around, trying to find the power again with his scouter but to no luck. Snarling in rage, Raditz rushed off in a random direction, searching for the human that dared run from him.
A few miles below, hiding in a crevasse, a sweat soaked Tien shook with relief as the monster flew away. Knowing he had stood no chance in a battle against the monster, Tien had done the only thing he could and retreated. It left a bitter taste in his mouth but it was really the only option he could think of that didn't end in his brains forcibly removed from his body, or some other gruesome death.
As soon as the solar flare had gone off, Tien had dropped to the ground and quickly lowered his power level to as low as he could go in hopes of hiding from the alien. It appeared that luck was on his side as the alien soon rushed away from his location in frustration. After the initial sense of relief passed, Tien moved his mind over to other pressing issues, such as finding out why Goku and Piccolo were on the lookout. Before he could make a move from his spot though, his ki senses alerted him of something he had definitely not expected. The power level of Goku, which had been wavering for a few moments... suddenly ceased to exist.
~20 minutes earlier on Kami's Lookout~
Goku could barely believe it. The enemy in front of him, a self proclaimed demon... imp creature going by the name of Garlic Jr, which only made him want some garlic... with maybe some pork, and he couldn't forget the rice. "Oh wait, i'm fighting!" Goku thought with a sudden realization, barely managing to return his focus to the fight in time to avoid a slap from the small green imp.
"Hah hah. Don't you fools understand! I am Garlic Jr. It is my birth right to rule this world!" Garlic said a bit too cockily. "Hn, sorry, but I called dibs on this world long before you showed up you damn imp! And stop calling yourself a demon. I am the demon king and you sure as hell aren't one of my subjects" Piccolo said angrily, his aura flaring around him in tempo with his anger.
Garlic merely smiled back at him. "hah, you, a demon. Unlikely. If you truly were..." Garlic said before his entire body began to shake and shudder before suddenly expanding, increasing his mass at least 5 times over and revealing a creature more closely recognized as an ogre than an imp. "Then the makyo star would be strengthening you as well. And based on your poor appearance, I doubt that's the case" Garlic said with a devilish smile, basking in the new and improved power being generated by the makyo star. He felt as if he could do anything, as if he had no limits.
It was probably for the best that he hadn't fully mastered sensing power levels, or he might have realized that there was a creature currently on this planet that was 4 times as powerful as he.
Of course, even then, his confidence would not waver, and for good reason. For he, Garlic Jr, had successfully gathered the dragon balls and made his ultimate wish. He was immortal. It wouldn't matter if his opponent was 4 times, or 400 times stronger. Nothing could stop him now.
Goku and Piccolo, after watching the transformation with surprise, looked towards each other. "Hey Piccolo... I think, just this once, it would be a good idea for us to work together. He's a decent amount stronger than us right now... and I get the feeling he has some kind of secret technique planned" Goku said staring seriously at his long term rival. Piccolo merely smirked in response. "you know, I actually agree with you this time Goku. Just try not to get in my way" Piccolo said as he took a few steps closer to the opponent before stopping again. "oh, and this is temporary. As soon as we deal with the overgrown imp, you're next Goku" Piccolo said before dashing forward towards Garlic, who looked at Piccolo with some semblance of surprise at the speed he was approaching at.
Garlic was only given a second to be surprised before a brutal elbow connected with his chest, sending him flying back, and causing him to gasp in pain. Before his body could move more than a few feet, Piccolo's other arm stretched out, catching him by the arm and swinging him around, launching him in the other direction towards Goku, who had his hands cupped together at his side, a strange blue light being generated.
Garlic was given a bit less than a second to consider what the blue ball might be before Goku's arms were suddenly in front of his quickly approaching face. He heard Goku's voice screaming before the whole world went blue and an indescribable amount of pain overtook him. His body was shredded by a point blank Kamehameha wave.
Blood flowed freely from his wounds as he lay on the ground twitching in agony. For a second he wondered if the dragon had lied to him about his immortality. It certainly felt like he was dying. Then he began to feel a new sensation. His wounds, which had been devastating only a few seconds before, were rapidly closing up. With a smirk, he pulled himself to his feet, nary a scratch on him. He looked towards his opponents cockily while they both looked at him in horror.
"but... that was my full power. I thought we got him!" Goku said in shock. Piccolo just shook with a certain realization. "The dragonballs! I think he used them. The dragon was here when I arrived" Piccolo shouted out before grinding his teeth in anger.
Garlic only started to laugh were he was. "hah hah hah, that's right. You are standing in front of the Immortal Garlic Jr! Nothing you can do will stop me now, not that you could have to begin with" Garlic said before turning to look at Goku.
"So then, I think I'll start by killing you, Kami's prized pupil. Lets see how valuable you are when your insides are outside you!" Garlic said as he rushed towards Goku with a heavy right handed swing. Goku easily dodged the telegraphed move by ducking under it and kicking out Garlic Jr's legs, knocking him to the ground before jumping up and coming down with as much force as possible, slamming a damaging axe kick into Garlic Jr's chest.
Garlic coughed up blood from the strike, feeling one of his ribs crack from the strike. With a growl, he forced his arm up and caught Goku by the back of the head, pivoting from his spot on the ground, ignoring the sharp pain from his healing rib, and slamming Goku face first into the tiled ground of the lookout, once, twice, three times before getting to his feet and punting the barely conscious Goku across the lookout, watching him collide with one of the remaining buildings and slowly slide down the side before landing unceremoniously on the ground.
Piccolo only stared on in horror, watching how easily Goku had been stopped. Their power levels may have been close, but it was now very obvious that Garlic's increased muscle mass meant he could do a lot more damage per strike. For a second, Piccolo considered playing the same game and increasing his own mass to deal with Garlic's new form. Before he could commit to his plan however, he heard a cry of rage from the building where Goku had collapsed.
Standing there, glaring angrily at Garlic Jr, was a small boy with a tail. "Hm.. must be Goku's kid Piccolo thought before freezing on the spot as his ki sense picked up the power level of the boy. "It's stronger than all three of us combined. How is that possible!" Piccolo thought with a strong sense of surprise.
"You leave my daddy alone!" Gohan yelled angrily as he rushed towards the surprised Garlic Jr. Garlic was given no time at all to realize what had happened before the small boy was suddenly upon him, landing devastating strikes all over his chest. Each hit felt like a freight train being slammed into him. The power was unbelievable. But what was even more impressive was the speed. He hadn't even seen the boy move, and yet he was sure he'd been hit at least ten times, maybe more.
He desperately tried to regain the upper hand and locate the boy when a brutal uppercut sent him flying high into the air. Garlic's body continued it's trajectory straight up for about ten seconds before gravity began to pull his broken body back towards the ground. Meanwhile, Gohan's heavy breathing began to slow as his anger began to fade.
Piccolo, who had watched in awe up until this point suddenly realized something truly horrible. Gohan's power, which had briefly flown up to unimaginable heights was quickly dropping back down to a measly amount. At the same time this was happening, Garlic Jr's power, which had been nearly gone was now steadily rising back up, no doubt from his immortal body repairing itself.
"Damn it!" Piccolo thought as he ran towards where the boy was before turning his head straight up to see the falling Garlic Jr and releasing a powerful mouth blast straight into his falling body. The blast tore right through his stomach, leaving a large, and undoubtedly painful hole through Garlic, who's mouth opened wide in pain and surprise as his already weakened body took even more damage.
Piccolo stood there panting as he watched the body fall to the floor a few feet from him. He cautiously took a step towards Garlic before shuddering in fear as he watched the hole in his stomach slowly start to shrink and knit skin back together. "I've got to destroy him now... but I don't know if I have enough power left" Piccolo thought, his eyes briefly turning to the boy. "the brat could do it... if we could get that power back. But I think it's emotion driven. Without any training I doubt he could summon it on will." he thought with a mental sigh.
"I guess it's up to me" he thought before reaching a clawed hand down and placing it on top of Garlic Jr's head before starting to pull, with every intention of removing the monsters head from its body. With a squelching sound, the head finally gave way and Piccolo quickly blasted it with as much ki as he could spare, totally destroying the head before kicking the remnants of the body away from him and off the lookout. He approached the lookout edge and stared down towards where he had dropped the corpse. "hn, doesn't look like he's getting up from that one. So much for immortality" Piccolo thought before turning to look around the vicinity. He saw the boy from earlier crouching over his father, who appeared to be stirring a bit.
"Daddy!" Gohan said while shaking his father's shoulder trying his hardest to wake him. The big bad man was gone. But the green guy was still there and he was scared. He'd heard his mom talk about the evil Piccolo. He'd had nightmares about this guy since he could understand what a monster he was. And, well, replacing one monster with another still left a monster on the lookout. A monster that had just ripped someones head off and was now looking their way. "DADDY HELP!" Gohan yelled at his father.
Goku's body rustled for a second before his eyes slowly opened looking towards Gohan with surprise. "Gohan? What's wrong?" he asked as he took a look around, trying to gather an idea of what had happened. His head was pounding and his body felt terrible.
"Did I really go down that quickly?" Goku thought with a sense of surprise. He could barely remember fighting. One second he had been knocking Garlic to the ground, the next, he had felt a hand on the back of his head and then the ground had gotten really close really fast and everything had gone dark.
Now though, it seemed like the fight was over. Off in the distance he saw Piccolo staggering towards them, looking a bit worse for wear but otherwise fine. With a grunt of effort, he pushed himself to his feet. "Gohan, go wait inside" he said with a tired voice, expressing more fatigue than he would have liked considering he was unsure of Piccolo's intentions.
When he saw Piccolo's smirk spread across his face at his worn out comment his heart skipped a beat. "I don't know if I can fight him right now. We're both pretty low on ki, but i've taken way more damage than him." Goku thought as he stood there staring intently back at Piccolo, who continued his approach, this time with a bit more confidence.
"But daddy, I want to stay with you!" Gohan complained, pulling on his pant leg, tears forming in his eyes. "Gohan, go inside NOW!" Goku said with a bit more force than he had intended.
Gohan looked startled for a second. His father had never raised his voice to him before. For a second he wanted to ask his father what was wrong, but a second later, his young, but still intelligent mind came up with the answer. With a nod, he quickly rushed inside the crumbling temple, taking care not to cause the place to collapse on top of him.
"Piccolo... what are you planning?" Goku said seriously as his body slowly slid into a fighting stance. Piccolo only grinned back. "It looks to me like you already know. I told you, once I killed that imp you would be next" Piccolo said before dashing forwards towards Goku.
Goku waited patiently for the strike to come, watching Piccolo's left arm swinging for the right side of his rib cage. He quickly pivoted his body in order to block the strike, his right arm holding the attack in place before he threw a quick jab with his left to try to force Piccolo back.
When he saw the glimpse of a smirk on Piccolo's face, he knew he had made a mistake. Piccolo easily leaned out of the way of the jab before pulling Goku forward off his base and driving up a brutal knee strike into Goku's ribs, causing the already bruised ribs to start to crack. Goku spat a small amount of blood as the strike impacted, his body bent forward over the devastating knee before he felt both of Piccolo's hands strike the back of his neck with monumental force, slamming his injured body back into the tile.
He lay there woozily for a second before quickly rolling to the side, barely avoiding the curb stomp that was set to fall on his head. Piccolo frowned for a second seeing his attack had missed before swinging a roundhouse kick towards the still recovering Goku.
Goku quickly brought his arms up in a block to hold off the attack, barely holding back the force of the strike before pushing back with as much force as possible, knocking Piccolo back a step as he was forced to rebalance his leg. Goku continued with a right hook that impacted on the side of Piccolo's face, knocking him back another step before Goku's own roundhouse came in, hitting the already stunned Piccolo across the lookout. Goku wasted no time in pursuing his opponent, intent on finishing the fight before he took any more damage.
He got within two feet of Piccolo's airborne body before Piccolo's hand suddenly reached down and planted itself on the floor. Piccolo used his new found balance to pivot his body around Goku and land a powerful thrust kick to the side of a surprised Goku's head. Goku's body was launched back across the lookout, towards where he had been only a few seconds earlier.
Piccolo considered rushing towards Goku to finish the job, but the look of determination still visible on Goku's face gave him pause. That was probably for the best in his case as Goku quickly caught his balance and backflipped back into a standing position, sliding back into a fighting stance.
Piccolo gave a smirk towards his enemy, enjoying the battle. Goku returned his own smirk. "You've gotten even stronger than the last time we fought" Goku said with a light smile. Piccolo only nodded back. "the same could be said of you. It's too bad you'll be dead after today. I could get used to fighting you" Piccolo said before launching forward towards Goku again.
Goku mirrored his movement and the two were set to clash in the center of the lookout when the unexpected happened.
Both fighters suddenly were stopped in place as a large arm slammed into each of their chest, causing them to both gasp in pain. The two fighters looked up from their new position in surprise before their expression turned to one of fear. Standing in between them, with both arms out, one planted in each of their chests, was a perfectly healed Garlic Jr.
"But.. how" Piccolo managed to stutter out. "hah, what part of immortal don't you understand?" Garlic said with a smirk towards Piccolo before his face turned to one of anger. "But what you did still hurt and I won't forgive you for that" Garlic said as his giant hands closed around the center of Goku and Piccolo's torso and he slammed the two together, causing a shockwave to form from the impact before tossing the damaged bodies straight up into the air and throwing a large ki blast up into the air which exploded in between the two fighters.
The blast burned a brilliant red before the shockwave from the blast separated the two fighters. Piccolo was revealed to have taken the worst hit, with half his body missing and a dangerous amount of blood flowing from the injuries. Goku on the other hand, appeared to have avoided most of the explosion. His arms were crossed in an x shape in front of him, and though his arms were now covered in burns, he seemed to be very much alive.
His body soon landed on the ground where he rolled twice before landing stomach first at the edge of the lookout, on of his arms dangling over the side of the lookout. "heh heh, wow that was close" Goku said with a half hearted smile, peering over the ledge and looking down. His mind quickly turned back to the battle at hand and he tensed his damaged body to try to return back to the fight. Before he could stand though he heard a yell that nearly caused his heart to stop.
"DADDY!" Gohan yelled as he rushed into the fight once again. This time, Garlic Jr was a bit more prepared. Gohan's speed was still too much for him to deal with through normal means, but with the gravitational pull of the dead zone, he could stop this brat in his tracks. With a smirk, Garlic flared his aura up before opening up the dead zone and creating a barrier around himself in order to not be pulled in.
He watched with satisfaction as the small boy's body phased into existence a few feet from him, the angry look on his face turning to one of fear as the gate began to pull him in. "Hah hah. There is no stopping the dead zone you foolish boy!" Garlic said as he turned to destroy the boy, only to see a flash of orange as Goku's body briefly appeared in front of Gohan before grabbing him and pulling him away from the temple.
"Gohan, are you alright?" Goku asked with concern, looking towards his son, who was currently shaking in his arms. "Daddy" Gohan cried out as he tried to grab onto his father, desperate for comfort. Goku's face turned to a smile when he saw his son was alright. "Thank Kami you're alright. Chi Chi would have killed me for sure heh heh" Goku said before setting his son down on the ground. " I need you to do something very important right now..." Goku said, his voice turning serious again.
Gohan could only nod, his young mind barely able to grasp the current situation. " I need you to go as far into the temple as you can... and don't come out, no matter what happens, you understand me Gohan?" His father said with the most serious expression he had ever seen.
Gohan quickly took his father's advice and rushed into the temple. Rather than rushing to the back like he had been told though, he stayed near the entrance, watching the battle with fearful eyes. This action went unnoticed by Goku, but it certainly didn't go unnoticed by Garlic Jr who smirked before charging up his strongest attack. A giant ki blast began to form in front of his hand, pointed towards Goku. At the last second, before firing however, his smirk widened to encompass his whole face and he turned his arm to fire towards Gohan.
Goku watched the new trajectory with a look of confusion before a feeling of horror overtook him. Standing at the edge of the doorway, Gohan was frozen in place staring his death in the face. Goku did the only thing he could and rushed forward, barely managing to reach Gohan in time to push him out of the way.
For a second, his mind was filled with relief before that relief was replaced with a sense of immeasurable pain as the attack ripped into his side and tore all the way through. His torso fell forward while his legs, or what was left of them, pretty much the knees down fell back. Goku's throat tensed to scream out in pain before a bubbling of blood stopped the yell from forming and then his consciousness, and his very life, faded away.
Gohan watched in horror as he watched his father die in front of him. He stared on not fully comprehending what had happened when his father's body began to fade away. This snapped Gohan out of his trance and he quickly rushed forward, trying to reach for his fathers disappearing form but he was too late.
His father's body was gone. His father was gone. Dead. Because of him. Because he hadn't hidden as well as he was supposed to. A red hot anger was building inside the boy as his teeth clenched together and his hands closed into fists, drawing a bit of blood as his nails dug into his skin. That was when he heard the laughing. The laughing of the monster that had taken his father from him. Garlic Jr.
With a roar, Gohan's power began to flare higher and higher. In seconds it had already passed the level he had managed before and it continued to climb. Garlic's face, which had been covered by a triumphant smirk a second before was now covered in an expression of fear. He took a step back before nearly losing his balance as he felt the pull of his dead zone.
His eyes briefly turned to look at his pocket dimension. That time was all it took for things to go horribly wrong for him. If the boy had been fast before, now he was inconceivable. Garlic felt a single fist planted into his face and things went black for a split second. Gohan tried to rush forward towards his now airborne opponent, intent on avenging his father when a dark green clawed hand suddenly caught his arm. He turned angrily, smashing his small fist onto the arm and ignoring the shout of pain as said arm broke off and fell to the ground, spurting purple liquid blood over him before turning to strike again at Garlic before blinking.
Garlic Jr's body, no longer held down by the strength of Garlic himself, had been picked up by the gravitational pull of his own dead zone. He was only inches away from it when his eyes fluttered open. He had a split second to wonder what had happened when he felt his bottom half pulled into the dead zone. He screamed in anger, trying with all his might to break free. But it was far too late. A second later, his body had been pulled in and the gate closed behind him, leaving him trapped.
With the gate gone, the sky over the lookout began to clear up. Gohan looked around in confusion, his anger quickly leaving him before quickly being replaced with exhaustion. Before he could figure out what had happened, his body slumped over, exhaustion taking control as he passed out onto the ruined tiles of the lookout.
Piccolo slowly walked forward, nursing his wounded arm as he slowly gathered the ki needed to regenerate it. "This boy did what neither of us could do..." Piccolo thought as he stared down at the son of his worst enemy, or rather, former enemy, considering Goku's death only minutes before.
To Piccolo, it was bitter sweet at best. His rival was gone, and the immortal imp was gone, leaving him in a position to take his rightful place as ruler... but it felt like he had been cheated out of his victory. Goku had fallen to a surprise attack, one that hadn't been his. And Garlic had been locked away in his own attack, by the actions of a toddler's temper tantrum.
With a sneer, Piccolo looked down at the boy before gathering energy to end the child's life. "if he's this strong, now, I definitely shouldn't wait for him to get any stronger" Piccolo reasoned to himself before hearing movement to his left, with a glance he turned to see Kami struggling towards them, relying heavily on his cane for support.
"Wait Piccolo" Kami said with a look of fear and barely disguised disgust at the actions of his darker half. "hn, and why should I old man? I'm definitely not going to turn a blind eye to a threat just because it's a kid." Piccolo said with a sneer, his hand still gathering ki for his attack.
"Please... extend your senses to the world below. There is more going on then you realize." Kami said with a gasp of breath, over exerted from even reaching the battle from where he had lied before in the temple ruins. Piccolo stopped with a curious look before closing his eyes, his ears twitching as he extended his senses to feel out what the old man had meant. That was when he felt it. A power level at least three times his own.
It was weaker then what the boy had managed to put out, but it was definitely enough to cause problems for him. "damn. This isn't good" he thought before sensing something else.
Whoever this person was, he wasn't alone. A couple other power levels, all well below his, but significant nonetheless were near him. "looks like this guy is distracted... I better deal with this while I have the chance" Piccolo thought as his hand closed, dispersing the ki blast.
"i'll be back for the boy. He better still be here when I get back or your precious earthlings will pay the price in blood" Piccolo growled out before turning and dashing off the lookout. He dove straight down off the lookout for a few hundred feet before stopping at the top of a tower covered in indian paintings.
"That cat had better be able to help me" Piccolo muttered as he stepped into the tower, ignoring the fat samurai who was currently hiding inside of a large pot, his butt facing up and shaking in fear. "Cat. Give me a senzu bean... NOW!" Piccolo demanded of the large white cat named Korin, of whom this tower was named after. Korin looked hesitant for a second but a second growl from Piccolo quickly changed his mind.
"I only have two ready" Korin said with a decent amount of fear. He was strong, but Piccolo was definitely out of his league. "Hn, well I only need one. But give me both and I won't kill you, how's that?" Piccolo said with a smirk, enjoying the fear radiating off the cat. "Here" Korin said as he tossed the two beans to Piccolo, who easily caught them before launching away from the lookout. After a few seconds of flying, he ate one of the beans, feeling his power flare back to max, plus a small boost from the fight. It was still nowhere near enough to beat this new opponent in a one on one fight, but it might be enough if he played his cards right.
~Back with Raditz~
There was something wrong with his scouter. There had to be. It was the only thing that made any sense. Power levels kept flashing across it that made no sense. There was one that had been around 400. Another had briefly passed his own level before disappearing. Not long after that, his scouter had picked up a power level more than twice his own. As disconcerting as this all was, the worst part was that, for whatever reason, his scouter couldn't find the location. The power levels appeared to be coming out of nowhere.
With a scowl, Raditz flipped his scouter off. "I'm definitely going to need a new one of these" he muttered with a sigh as he continued to float there. "It's no wonder Kakarot failed. There is something seriously wrong with this planet. " Raditz said while taking a deep breath and calming his nerves. With a sigh, he flipped his scouter back on, watching with slight surprise as it picked up three power levels all lower than 200 approaching him from the south.
"Hey Tien... is this guy really that strong?" Yamcha said with a cocky laugh, following behind Tien in the air, with Krillin on his right flank. "Unbelievably so" Tien said, grinding his teeth together.
After his first encounter with the alien, he had quickly headed to Kame house to alert the others. He had found Krillin and Yamcha there, 'training' on the island with Master Roshi and one of his calisthenics video's. When he dropped in front of them all, the look of surprise said it all. They had no idea anything had happened. He quickly went to work on filling them in on everything he knew.
There was of course some debate about whether Goku was alright on the lookout, but Tien quickly pointed out that that wasn't their first issue. He also purposefully neglected to share his fear that this monster was somehow related to Goku.
Not long after that, himself, Krillin and Yamcha had left the island, intent on stopping the alien by any means necessary... or die trying. Now, they were within a few miles of the monster and he was surprised to sense that Raditz was no longer moving and had stopped in a field. "um... not to be a coward or anything but if this guy is really that strong shouldn't we wait for Goku or something?" Krillin spoke up.
"Goku might be dead" Tien said harshly. "Waiting for him isn't going to do us any good. It's up to us to stop this guy." Tien said. "Hey, well it'll be fine. I mean, the three of us could probably beat King Piccolo three times over. There's no way this guy's as strong as that" Yamcha said, sounding annoyingly confident. Tien merely rolled his eyes at that. "Just try not to get yourself killed..." Tien said as they passed over a small mountain and saw Raditz down on the ground, his arms crossed.
"... so it's the circus freak again" Raditz said with a smirk as the three humans landed in front of him. "and he brought the rest of the circus" he said with a laugh, looking at the other two humans.
"Ya... it's me again... and this time i'm not running" Tien said as he entered a fighting stance. "You know, i'm only here for Kakarot, but if you want to get in my way..." Raditz sneered, "Well that's gotta be the stupidest decision of your life. Which, by the way, just got a lot shorter!" Raditz said as he flared his aura, enjoying the looks of fear that covered the two bald one's faces. "Oh man. I think this was a bad idea!" Krillin said in fear as he was nearly pushed back by the aura alone.
"We've got to be careful. As long as we all fight together we might have a chance!" Tien said, sounding a lot more confident than he felt. "We've only got one shot! Here we go!"
And there is chapter one of my first DBZ fanfic and my first story in about 7 years. I will say this. I've got plans for this story up to the buu saga. Still some kinks to work out but the general idea is there and, hopefully with some support, i'll make it far enough to make my twists and turns come out. I'm a big fan of DBZ and an equal fan of, well, fanfics. I've read all the top stories on the site and it's really motivated me to try my hand at writing one of my own.
So first thng I want to cover is the reason why Raditz didn't find Goku's power level. Kami's lookout is supposed to be a big secret. It's been there for 1000's of years and no one has known about it. I like to think this is because It has a magical property to it. It can't be sensed through normal means, whether that be through ki sense or scouter. With all the strongest power levels currently hidden from his scouter, the next best option was Tien.
I will do power levels, at least up through the Frieza saga. It gets harder to keep up with by the time Cell comes around, but thats a while away. Lets start with these
Power Levels
Farmer: 5
Raditz: 1200
Tien: 208
Garlic (untransformed): 150
Garlic (transformed): 400
Goku: 310
Piccolo: 290
Gohan: 20
Gohan (angry): 1200
Gohan (enraged): 2500
Krillin: 198
Yamcha: 172
Also, if you have any questions while reading you can always message me or review, and i'll answer.