Chapter 3: Roots
Piccolo watches from afar in horror at the sight of Gohan, who has begun to grow uncontrollably with hair covering his entire body, completely decimating the cliff he was standing on from the sheer size he has grown to.
Great Ape Gohan begins to rampage throughout the countryside, launching ki blast after blast from his mouth at whatever he could find in his path, until he notices Piccolo staring at him, who to Gohan seems simply like another target to destroy.
Piccolo is forced to take a blow from the Great Ape, thinking he could easily be able to handle such an unintelligent transformation, however poor misjudgement caused him to be crushed into the ground, causing several injuries to populate his body.
Piccolo growls in frustration, thinking 'What am I supposed to do in this situation? He's too dumb to recognise me yet too powerful to stop. There must be some simple way to stop him…' Piccolo continues to think, before quickly opening his eyes and dodging to the right as fast as he could as the ground next to him explodes from another energy blast.
The Namekian begins to fly up into the sky, realising that he could get a better view of Gohan, while also being able to dodge attacks much easier. Whilst he continues to dodge the multiple swatting attempts from the Ape, Piccolo continues to think.
'Surely he has some sort of weakness. Everyone has one, even if he's a Saiy-' Piccolo cuts off his thoughts before realising that Raditz' weakness was his tail, which he explained was the strength and weakness of a Saiyan.
Piccolo begins to power up an energy attack in his right hand. Realising that hitting the tail of the Ape could be a difficult task, Piccolo begins to manipulate the size of his arm and stretched it out towards Gohan, going in different directions to distract the mindless Ape. Piccolo finally reaches a point in which he would easily hit and blow the tail off at, stabilises his arm with his other and shouts "Explosive Demon Wave!" releasing a massive energy shot which completely blows off Gohan's tail, immediately shrinking him down to his original size who falls to the ground, peacefully asleep.
The Namekian decided to check Gohan, seeing as though he did just blow off one of the most sensitive parts of a Saiyan, only to be greeted by a sleeping child. Piccolo is annoyed at how the child just went from an uncontrollable rampage to falling asleep as if nothing just happened. Before leaving, Piccolo leaves the boy with some clothes and a sword using the Magical Materialization ability. He also made sure the clothes have heavier weights than he first thought about adding, still slightly annoyed at being crushed by the child previously.
When Piccolo was finished, he knew he needed more answers as to how to deal with a saiyan, with two coincidentally being not too far away. With that, Piccolo flies off into the sky towards Kame House.
"667, 668, 669" Bardock counts, doing light exercises in the form of push ups, waiting for Raditz to regain consciousness so that he can finally begin to properly train for the upcoming battle.
Night has fallen by now, with the residents of the Kame House stopping Bardock from going outside, not really giving him a specific reason as to why, but it hasn't stopped him from training, so he didn't really mind staying indoors and continue doing some exercises.
Suddenly some shouting can be heard from downstairs, which Bardock decides to check out. He was getting bored of doing a few hundred press ups anyway.
"Quit your gawking old man, I'm here to speak to the saiyans" can be heard from the front room as Bardock finally get's down the stairs, only to be greeted by a massive green alien who looks like he just took a massive beating.
"Nice to meet you too big green" replies Bardock with a small smirk, to which Piccolo gives a deep scowl towards, before loosening up slightly and finally asking what he came here for.
"The child just went on a massive rampage throughout the countryside not too long ago, and I don't have any time to be babysitting the kid so give me information about Saiyans, just so I don't have an annoying monkey on my hands again" growls out Piccolo, which brings an annoyed on Bardock's face, only to slowly realise what the Namekian was saying.
"Did he transform into an Oozaru" asks Bardock, which Piccolo responds to by giving a quick nod. "Does this planet a moon" Bardock continues to asks his questions, which Piccolo gives another nod to.
"What does a moon have anything to do with this?" Piccolo growls at the stupid question, or to him it seems dumb, before Bardock continues;
"The moon is the trigger to causing the transformation, with training Saiyans can control themselves while in this state, however in very rare occasions with even further training Saiyans can completely take control over the Great Ape form and stop themselves from undergoing the transformation"
After finishing his explanation, Bardock asks one final question; "How did you stop the kid?" while setting his face into a serious expression and making eye contact with the Namekian.
"I blew his tail off. I would've blew up the moon, but there is no point anymore. I assume you have full control over the form, otherwise I'll have to deal with you too" Piccolo answers, which left Bardock pissed off that his grandson's tail was removed, however he begins to laugh instead at the final remark Piccolo made.
"Deal with me too? Heh, we'll see. As far as I can remember, you're not able to stand up to Raditz by yourself, nevermind me" Bardock states, which causes Piccolo to deepen his frown, however he knows that the gap between them is just too big. He knows that with the training he's putting himself through he will be able to catch up to the Saiyan soon though.
"Hmpf, I'll be coming here for sparring matches every month, better training" grumbles Piccolo before turning away towards the door, leaving the Kame House and returning to the area he left Gohan in.
"Not very social is he?" Bardock jokes, looking towards Roshi.
"Heh, hard to believe he was a king in his past life" Roshi states, returning back to the TV while also leaving Bardock confused with his last statement.
One Month Later
Bardock and Raditz can be found going through their now day to say training on an island not too far off Kame House, which they have also established as their home since they both didn't feel that comfortable living with people who were still weary of them and still thought that they were dangerous. Bardock however has begun earning the trust of Master Roshi over the past month, taking a few lessons from the experience martial arts master, and has now adopted the weight training Roshi had put Kakarot through when he was younger. While the bright green turtle shell looked and felt weird to Bardock, it had made him improve drastically. This also caught Raditz' interest, who also began using the shells for training, slowly making improvement and climbing to Bardock's strength.
Adjusting to his current situation was very difficult for Raditz. Accepting the fact that his father is back and his long term goal is to defeating Frieza was hard, however the warrior slowly started to come about and realise that following the emperor was wrong, and he should stand together with his father to one day be free of Frieza's grasp.
The task of defeating the arriving Saiyans was much easier for Raditz to agree to, mostly because Vegeta and Nappa always looked down on him, which infuriated Raditz to no end, so teaming up with his father, brother, the Namekian and the Earthlings was an easy decision, even if everyone but his father were complete weaklings.
Currently, Raditz was intently trying to figure out how his father has grown to be so powerful for a low class saiyan. At this point, he should be at Nappa's level, but not even close to Vegeta, who are both high class fighters who have power which Raditz wishes he could achieve. Yet his father stands at their level like it's nothing.
"Father, spar with me" Raditz asks. While knowing he will get beaten, he knows he has gotten much stronger over the past month, however he has began to feel power radiating off his father, making it so that he doesn't even need to use a scouter anymore. It is still useful to have one since he hasn't got full control over the new found power however.
"Alright, a quick fight should be perfect before Piccolo arrives" Bardock says, stopping after his 57th lap around the island and taking off the turtle shell off his back.
Raditz also drops his shell and frowns as he drops into his stance. He has also begun feeling out the Namekian's power too, which is lower than his own, however he has a feeling that Piccolo has been hiding his power somehow, as every once in awhile he can feel random spikes of energy coming from his direction. Plus, Raditz has heard that Namekians have strange powers that they utilize in battle, which might make him a formidable opponent.
Bardock drops into his own stance and closes his eyes. The time traveler has also learned of the power to sense out other living beings, however he can control this power much better than Raditz, and can easily compare his own strength to his son's. This allows him to drop his overall power level to be closer to Raditz' level, making it fair for the younger Saiyan while also giving Bardock a bigger challenge.
Bardock snaps his eyes open, and the two fighters stare each other off, waiting for the first move to be made, only for the both of them to charge in at the same time. Both fighters connect with their forearms against each other, before separating again.
Raditz quickly springs off the ground when he lands, flying forwards and punching Bardock with his left, only for Bardock to get his guard up, making a noise that is quite similar to a gun being shot when the punch connects with Bardock.
The younger fighter continues to create a combination of punches and kicks which are all blocked by Bardock, however he barely gets his guard up in time as he cannot find a good time to launch his counterattack.
A possibility finally arises when Raditz interlocks his hands to create a overhead hit, however this gives Bardock enough time to charge in and elbow Raditz in the stomach with his right arm, doubling Raditz over in pain. Bardock then backs up from his opponent, who is still bent over from the pain, grabs Raditz' head and throws it onto his knee, causing a horrible noise to be heard from the impact.
Raditz backs away as quickly as he can, lightly touching his nose, only to discover it to be broke, which greatly pisses him off.
"I asked for a spar, not a fight! You broke my damn nose!" Raditz yells in frustration, to which Bardock responds with a small chuckle.
"Stop whining and get stronger you big baby. I'm already holding back a great deal because of how weak you are, and at this rate there would be no point in you fighting when we go up against the other Saiyans in nearly one year!" Bardock taunts, adding visible veins onto Raditz' forehead, who bolts after Bardock, absolutely pissed off by the comment being placed on top of the fact that his nose was just broken.
Raditz launched a right hook, which is dodged by Bardock who takes a step back. Raditz however knew this would happen, and continued along with his momentum, doing a 360 degree spin and launched a spinning hook kick towards the side of Bardock's face, which caught him off guard.
The kick connected with the side of Bardock's head hard, causing him to stumble to the side. Unbeknownst to Raditz, this blow caused Bardock to have another vision of the future, however this one seems strange compared to the rest. This vision shows something that looks like it could happen anywhere from now, to ten minutes later, as the vision shows Bardock fighting with Raditz, and it shows every move Raditz will perform in the fight.
Raditz does not stop, instead he launches a left roundhouse kick towards Bardock, who easily dodges the strike. Raditz briefly thinks that what just occurred was strange, as at one point Bardock was stood completely still, and the next he dodged his kick like he knew it was coming at him without Bardock looking up once. Nevertheless, Raditz continues, launching a ki ball with his right hand, which Bardock leaned towards the left to avoid. Raditz followed behind the ball and once it was dodged he launched a left hook, which Bardock blocked. The ease at which Bardock was doing this shocked Raditz. He could sense that their level of power was currently quite close, but this was beginning to become ridiculous.
Raditz continued, forming a combo of punches and kicks, however all strikes were either blocked or dodged, until Bardock finally decided to retaliate. This came in the form of Bardock grabbing the left straight Raditz threw, pulling him in, and headbutting him in the nose. This caused a tear or two to form on Raditz' eyes, as the pain from being unexpectedly hit on his broken nose caused him unimaginable pain. In combination with the tears, Raditz let out a small whimper, feeling completely humiliated by what his opponent just did to him.
Bardock was not finished just yet however, as he then threw an amazing right uppercut to his son's jaw, causing him to slightly lift off from the ground from the sheer power behind the blow, only for Bardock to use his incredible speed to seemingly teleport behind Raditz, wrapping his arms around his waist, and finishing him with a German suplex. This causes a sizeable crater to appear in the ground, which knocks Raditz unconscious for the third time in the past month.
Bardock lets go of Raditz and stands up straight and stares up into the sky, only to suddenly visibly jolt and look around and notice the state that Raditz was in.
'What happened?' Bardock thinks to himself. 'I remember fighting against Raditz, only to lose consciousness, or more accurately, feel like I fell asleep mid battle and began to dream what was about to happen' Bardock thought, trying to figure out what had just occurred.
'I could see what was happening, but I could also see what was gonna happen, like a ghost was replicating Raditz' moves?' Bardock continued to think, guessing to himself while trying to find an acceptable answer to what had just happened to him.
'Is it a byproduct of my ability to see into the future? Some sort of evolved ability which can see a few moments into the future instead of whole decades?' He continued to guess, only to be interrupted by the sudden arrival of Piccolo, since it's been one whole month after Piccolo declared that he would arrive every month to have a fight against Bardock.
"Having a family dispute?" Piccolo asks, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, which Bardock simply brushes off, slightly surprised that the big man would make a joke. But the straight face which Piccolo said the words with caused Bardock to think the Namekian probably didn't even realise his remark sounded more like a joke than an insult.
"No, just testing out a new ability, which I have no apparent control over, yet" Bardock states, while Piccolo gives a quick scan over the area and Bardock himself. Piccolo sees that Raditz is lying in a decently sized crater, making a really horrible bridge shape in which both his legs are making up the legs of a bridge, but his head substituting the other two legs to finish the bridge. He also notices that blood is surrounding the area around the younger Saiyan's head, which if not treated soon the defeated warrior would drown in a pool of his own blood.
Piccolo also notices that Bardock is bleeding quite badly from his temple, which makes him wonder if he's in any shape to fight in. Normally he wouldn't care what state his opponent is in, however he wants to test his full power against Bardock, who he requires to use his full power.
"If we're going to fight, I want you to be at your strongest. Just so I can feel even greater pleasure after I beat you." Piccolo grunted, with a grin slowly coming upon his face. "Heal yourself and the other one, then we can fight" Piccolo continues, who Bardock gives a sceptical look at, but agrees anyway and begins to drag Raditz out of the hole he was left in.
So Bardock gained a new ability huh? Well, he can't really control it, so who knows how much time passes before we begin seeing it again?
Anyway, thank you for the continued support on my story. Continue enjoying it and leave reviews and whatnot!
Power Levels:
Piccolo: 410
Great Ape Gohan: 700
Gohan: 7
Raditz: 2000
Bardock (Power Lowered): 2050