As the pod hurtled through space, traveling faster than the speed of light, its inhabitant thought to himself, 'This planet, this "Earth" had better be worth the journey.' His body was hooked up to various life support apparatus, and he supposed that he should have activated the pods suspended animation system, but on further reflection he realized he didn't care. He didn't care about most things anymore, not since the death of all the people he had cared about at the hands of that monster or his minions. But he continued to serve him, knowing he wasn't yet strong enough, knowing that it was only because he had begged and groveled that he still lived, but even the dishonor that had brought him meant little in the face of his all-consuming desire for revenge.
Meanwhile, on a highly advanced satellite orbiting above the planet the warrior was headed towards, a heated discussion was taking place.
"Listen Clark, I know how the boy makes you feel, like you've been violated, but that doesn't change the fact that you're the closest thing to family he's got", the masked one said.
"Oh you know? How is it exactly that you know Bruce? You picked your son, it's like they stole a piece of me to make that thing though", the other said, this one unmasked, standing in stark contrast to the other, wearing blue and red instead of the black and grey of the masked one.
"He's a boy Clark, not a thing, I guess the 'super' part isn't describing your personality", he replied.
"Look who's talking Batman, you're not exactly Mr. Personality either", Superman retorted.
"Well at least I-", Batman began.
"Wait, do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"That sound, like there's some sort of a ship or a meteor headed for the Earth," Superman said.
"No, the sensors aren't picking anything up, and if this is you trying to change the subject it's not working", Batman replied.
"No, I'm serious Bruce, there's something coming, and it's coming fast."
Batman, still angry that their conversation had been interrupted by something he was sure was made up, angrily went to check the computers, and was faintly surprised that Superman had been right, there was a reading, still very faint that seemed to show an object headed towards the planet.
"Can you calculate the trajectory Bruce?" Superman asked, concern creeping over his face.
"Give me a second", Batman responded, and began tapping on the keyboard in front of him.
"Christ", Batman said.
"What Bruce? What's wrong?"
"It's headed straight for the kids."
"Look mommy what's that?" a young boy asked, tugging on his mother's hand and pointing towards the sky.
His mother peered up and saw what looked to be a shooting star streaking across the sky.
"I think it's a shooting star sweetie, remember to make a wish", she said, smiling at him as she began walking again, taking his hand.
As the pod began its final descent onto Earth, its inhabitant began to wonder about what the quickest way to conquer this planet would be. He knew it would have been so much easier if he had his team, but they along with everything else, had been taken from him and there was no way to bring them back. He decided that he would do what he usually did: start with the strongest and work his way down. The computer flashed a warning onscreen in large red letters: BRACE FOR IMPACT. His last thought, before the pod landed, was 'What kind of an idiotic name is "Happy Harbor"?'
"Ha, too slow Artemis", the boy laughed, his yellow and orange suit blurred from the speed at which he was moving.
"That's what you think Wally", the girl, wearing a green costume, retorted, before swinging around and sticking her leg out, tripping him.
"Aw no fair", he whined, as a box stating "Kid Flash: Fail" flashed next to his head as he lay on the ground.
"Anything's fair in a fight", Artemis replied, the condescension evident in both her voice and smug smile.
"Haha you got owned Kid", came another voice, this one belonging to a boy dressed in red and green, with his face obscured by a domino mask.
"Indeed you did Wally", came a second voice, this time that of a blonde boy with black eel-like tattoos running down both of his arms, before disappearing behind a sleeveless red top.
"Dudes!" Wally said, a slight blush coming to his face, ashamed at having been embarrassed in front of both his best friend as well as the rest of his teammates. 'Well most of the rest of my teammates', he thought. 'Robin and Aqualad are here and so is Artemis obviously, but where are Superboy and Miss Martian?' The answer to that question could be found in Superboy's room, but more specifically on his bed.
'Oh Connor', the green-skinned girl thought as her lips were pressed onto the black-haired boy's, unconsciously projecting it into his mind.
'I heard that', he thought back, back causing her cheeks to turn a deep shade of red, and causing him to smile and kiss her more deeply than he had been. As he started to slide his hand up from the small of her back, a computerized voice announced throughout the cave that Batman had just arrived at Mount Justice through one of the Zeta-beam teleporters.
Batman's voice boomed, "I want all members of the team in the main hall. Now."
They could tell from the tone of his voice that this was clearly not optional.
"Let's go Connor, before he gets mad", Miss Martian said.
"When is he not mad M'gann?" Superboy asked, sarcasm dripping from his words.
Batman stood in front of the team, the expression on his face more serious than usual, if that were even possible.
"Roughly half an hour ago, Superman and I were sitting guard duty on the watchtower, when we picked up signs of a ship of some sort headed towards the area just north of Happy Harbor, we managed to take one very blurry picture of it before it crashed in a heavily wooded area", he said, turning towards the holographic screen behind him and indicating that the picture be brought up. It showed a perfect sphere a little larger than a person, with what appeared to be a hatch with a window on the front.
"What is that?" Robin asked, his natural curiosity getting the better of him as he examined the strange craft.
"That is exactly what the team is going to find out", Batman replied.
"It certainly doesn't look like any sort of spacecraft I've ever seen", Miss Martian said.
"Me neither", Wally replied.
"Yeah Wally? And what exactly do you know about spaceships?" Artemis asked, disdain clearly evident in her voice.
"Uh a lot obviously Artemis, more than you ever will", although it was apparent that this was another of his half thought out plans to impress Miss Martian.
"Enough", Batman said, annoyance creeping into his tone, "You will check out this ship and you will report back to me on your findings."
"Understood", said Aqualad, who was almost always the voice of reason among his somewhat hot-headed teammates.
The team began preparing, with Robin checking his utility belt and wrist computer, Artemis making sure she had a large and varied supply of the trick arrows she used, Aqualad checking the water level in his pack to ensure that he could use his water-bearers, and Wally checking to make sure he had enough candy bars stashed in the secret compartment on his arm. Superboy and Miss Martian meanwhile had gone off to check on her bio ship, which they planned to use to travel to the pods location.
The warrior emerged from his pod, stepping into the enormous crater it had caused, and stretched, looking around. He had landed in a forest, the impact flattening a huge number of trees. 'Well', he thought, 'let's figure who the strongest being on this pathetic planet is.'
He flew straight up, and looked south, where his scouter, essentially a tiny computer fitted around his ear, with a piece of transparent green glass extending in front of his left eye, that acted as both a way to measure the strength of his opponents, and allowed for communication with his superiors picked up a large reading.
"6000", he said to himself, "well maybe this will be a little fun."
The warrior settled back down to the ground, deciding that the area his pod had cleared would be the perfect area to meet this foe.
"There it is!" Kid Flash exclaimed, still keeping up his façade of interest in the spaceship.
"Setting the bio ship down in that clearing", Miss Martian said, guiding the ship down a safe distance from the crater.
"Be on your guard everyone", Aqualad commanded, "We have no idea who or what could be in that ship."
"Let's just get to it", Superboy said, still obviously upset about his time with M'gann being interrupted.
They moved carefully towards the crater, which was about 300 feet away from where the bio ship had landed.
"It looks like there's a person standing down there", Artemis said as they neared the lip of the crater.
"Yeah and he is wearing some weird clothes", Robin said, laughing a little to himself.
"Hello", Aqualad called, "We are heroes from this planet. Who are you? What is your mission here? Are you peaceful?"
To the team's surprise, the figure in the crater began laughing, almost hysterically, as he flew to the edge where they were standing.
Finally composing himself, and straightening out to his full height, the figure, dressed in what seemed to be armor, the armor itself being a sleeveless black and green shell with two guards covering the sides of the thighs, over a pair of black pants, this in addition to the red wristbands and headband that he wore, smiled.
"Peaceful? You're not quite so lucky boy. My mission? I am going to conquer this planet, systematically murdering every single one of you. And my name? Well ordinarily I don't tell the people I'm about to kill, but you seem nice enough", he said, and smiled again.
"Call me Bardock."
Author's notes: Soooo uh just to give some backstory here that I didn't want to give before the story on the off-chance it would have ruined the "surprise" for some people, Bardock led his rebellion against Frieza, but instead of just tossing the Death Ball at him, Frieza decided to spare him, just to show how much more powerful he was. Planet Vegeta was still destroyed and all that, and I chose to interpret Akira Toriyama's "Earth" from Dragon Ball Z as a completely different planet than the one we live on, because it's you know, completely different. But let me know what you think, tell me if there's anything I need to improve on or you hate it or whatever, constructive criticism is appreciated but if you're just going to be like "omgggz ur story is s000 bad nevar write agen", just keep that shit to yourself, it's pointless. Thanks for reading!