There was a tense silence as the two brothers stared the other down, nought but the sound of a whistling wind through the grassy field. The wind, at times, carried the scent of Krillin's burnt flesh past their nostrils but neither of the Saiyans paid attention to it. Kakarot shut his eyes softly.
He quickly sent a telepathic message which breached the dimensional barriers, reaching the Other World. 'King Yemma it's me, Kakarot, earth's guardian. A soul will have just reachedthe Check-in station, a human martial artist called Krillin. Please give him permission to train with King Kai.' He felt Krillin would need some way to pass the time while he waited to be revived, and besides dying in defence of the earth was a death deserving of raised a brow at his sibling's curious behaviour.
Yemma's reply was swift enough 'Oh very well. I'll have an ogre usher him to Snake Way.' he replied. In an instant, Krillin's body simply...vanished. Much to the shock of Tien and Yamcha.
"You two, please stay back. This is a...Family matter, apparently." Kakarot said, glancing from the two humans back to his long-haired brother. Popo hopped off his magic carpet and started checking Tien and Yamcha's wounds, doubtful they had any major injuries.
Raditz scanned over his brother for a moment and then scowled suddenly "Where the hell is your tail?" he asked, now suddenly noticing it's absence.
"Got cut off a long time ago by Master Kami after a little incident with a full moon." Kakarot replied lazily "Not that I miss it. Damn thing was always getting in my way." Plus there was the obvious weakness of being grabbed by the tail, but Kakarot decided to stay silent on the matter. If need be, it'd be his trump card in his battle with Raditz.
"Hrmph, you just keep disappointing me. Failing to kill these humans, siding with them as their guardian, losing your tail...To think I once wanted you at my side in a battle to claim another world for the Planet Trade." Raditz grunted, entering into his brutish fighting stance. He shot forth like a bullet, yelling at the top of his lungs and swinging a punch at Kakarot's head.
The younger Saiyan narrowly caught his brother's fist, the force behind the blow sending him skidding him back a few inches. 'Strong...fast too! But he's unskilled as hell, I'll have to use that to my advantage.' Kakarot thought to himself.
Raditz shot his other hand out, but Kakarot ducked and quickly spun in with a roundhouse kick, his leg smashing into Raditz' side. The tall Saiyan gave a loud howl of pain, skidding slightly and touching the cracks formed in his chestplate "Well then...My little brother is stronger than I expected. No doubt this 'Master Kami' had a part to play in that." Raditz grunted.
He dashed at Kakarot and kneed his sibling in the face, sending him spiralling upward. With his massive speed, he shot up and punched Kakarot into the ground which smashed into a crater on impact. But it didn't slow him down long, as Kakarot quickly flipped onto his feet just as Raditz was prepared to divebomb his younger brother. "Yeah, it was. He did alot more for me than the Saiyan race, who abandoned me out here!" Kakarot yelled defiantly at his brother.
"Abandoned? No no. Our race is near dead Kakarot, our home planet destroyed by a meteor shortly after your departure. Only four of us left alive that I know of." Raditz remarked. For a brief moment, Kakarot glimpsed sadness in Raditz eyes.
Only for a moment though.
Raditz dashed forth, swing an arm down in a failed attempt to smash Kakarot's skull, while the younger Saiyan swung a sideways chop at Raditz. The strike was quickly blocked, but it did succeed in shattering Raditz's gauntlet and the ground beneath their feet.
The elder brother's knee shot up and caught Kakarot in the chin, sending him soaring up into the blue sky. He flew after the younger Saiyan, and the two aliens started clashing in the sky. They started exchanging fast pace blows in the sky, each landing powerful strikes on the other which shook the ground beneath them. Sometimes they moved so fast they completely vanished from sight, and from the look of things they were dead even.
Well, Krillin was dead. He certainly didn't expect that to happen when he woke up this morning. And he certainly never expected that the afterlife looked quite like this. He was in some sort of palace floating above an infinite sea of yellow clouds, and the bald monk found himself in a queue being ushered by strange oni's in business attire toward a desk. He seemed to be the only normal looking person as everyone else in the line was a strange smoky whisp.
The bald monk was soon before a massive wooden desk, made out of some special mahogany by Krillin's reckoning, with a positively gigantic red Oni in a purple suit behind it. The tag on the desk gave the hulking celestial entity the name of 'King Yemma' so Krillin figured he'd just go with that name and hope it was right.
"You're Krillin, right?" Yemma asked, lazily tapping his pencil against his crimson chin and not bothering to look up from his notepad. Krillin merely nodded in response, beads of sweat glistening on his bald head. "Kakarot asked me to send you on to Snake Way for training with King Kai. The path his treacherous, I should know, but you should be able to make it. Just don't fall off the path or you'll fall into hell." Yemma explained.
The lackluster explanation didn't make Krillin feel any better, particularly at the prospect of falling into Hell. Still, training would be a good way to pass the time while he waited to be revived. Surely the guys would take that Raditz jackass down, right? Right? "Well ah. I'll be on my way then." Krillin said nervously, scooching from the line and scanning around.
"Mister Krillin? This way please." A blue oni said, adjusting his spectacles before Krillin joined him, and then followed alongside him as he was led to this 'Snake Way.' How hard could it possibly be, Krillin asked himself.
When he saw it, his jaw very nearly hit the floor. Simply put, Krillin could see no actual end to this strange blue coiling path which did indeed look like a serpent. Getting to this Kai would be a challenge in itself, but then again that might've been part of King Kai's training "Just ah...Not that I'm worried anything, but just out of curiosity how long is this path?" he asked, sweat continuing to bead on the turtle students brow.
The blue oni scratched the side of his head in thought "Well, I don't know exactly...A million kilometres, I think."
Krillin almost fell over when the news hit him...Likely he'd be back on Earth before he was even halfway across. "Well I uh...Guess I better get started." Krillin mumbled, waving to the Oni as he sprinted past. He somersaulted over the giant snake head onto the winding long path. He supposed he should run rather than fly, get a bit more exercise...
The two purple ki blasts being fired from Raditz' hands seemed to swirl and merged into a a single beam which struck Kakarot in the chest and carried him down to the earth. They beam caused Kakarot to crash into a large plateau which was enveloped a large white dome, leaving a deep smouldering crater in the ground.
When the smoke cleared, Kakarot was breathing heavily and glancing at the burns on his white top which had burnt off more than half of it. He had some scorches and bruises on his exposed flesh too, but he looked no worse than Raditz did.
Both shoulderpads on his black and brown armour were completely gone, and the battle had destroyed his right breast. His tanned flesh and some dark purple welts on it and the strain of the battle was causing his breaths to hitch and heave "You should give up now Kakarot, it'll be easier that way!" he spat.
Kakarot glared in response, the shot forth so fast that he vanished from sight completely. His fist found Raditz' gut, causing the invaders eyes to bulge from his head from the force behind the punch followed by a shrill yowl of pain. Kakarot gave a loud yell and channeled his ki into one hand, delivering a powerful chop which sent Raditz hurtling to the earth. The invader managed to correct himself just in time, flipping along the grass and burying his feet into the ground.
'I thought as much. My ki is beginning to surpass his right now.' Kakarot thought to himself, detecting small fluctuations in his sibling's ki. 'The humans softened him up a bit for me, and I greatly appreciate it. Right now I have a small increase in energy over him, I need to press my advantage and put him down before he does something rash.' he added.
The two brothers flew at each other once more and met in mid-air, dodging at incoming punches and kicks. The back of Raditz' knuckle struck Kakarot in the ribs and pushed him back a few inches. Kakarot gave an irritated grunt in response and dashed at his sibling once more.
A powerful headbutt disarmed Raditz, sending him stumbling back a few feet. He thought he was seeing stars, that's how damn dense Kakarot's head was. He swung a clumsy blind punch out which was casually dodged by his sibling. Kakarot ducked under another swipe and delivered three rapid strikes to the long-haired Saiayn's abdomen, shattering his armour further and leaving more bruises.
The young Saiyan swung a kick, but Raditz grabbed him by the ankle and yanked him in, smashing his remaining gauntlet against Kakarot's ribs and shattering the gauntlet it on impact. Kakarot gave a sharp yell and was left briefly dazed by the blow to the chest.
Raditz clamped his fists together and swung down, smashing thm into the top of the young Saiyan's head and sending him downward "Damn you Kakarot! I will not lose to you! I'm tired of being a joke!" Raditz roared, purple lightning crackling along his body.
Kakarot had managed to get to his feet quick enough, giving a sharp gasp when he saw Raditz forming a crackling purple ki sphere in one hand. He pulled one hand back and channeled his energy into his pal, forming a blue sphere crackling with gold lightning "Time to put my Sparking Meteor to the test..." he muttered.
Kakarot's Sparking Meteor smashed into Raditz' Saturday Crash in mid-air, both blasts lighting the sky in shades of blue and purple. The ground quaked and rocked, and the heat of the two blasts burnt the grass below into ash. Popo, Tien and yamcha could only watch in shock as the two spheres crashed into each other, neither Saiyan giving an inch to the other.
Kakarot grit his teeth 'Ngh...Can't hold anything back at all, but...I don't want to kill him!' he thought, the force of the two clashing blasts causing his feet to dig deeper into the scorched earth.
If it was a choice between saving the earth and something else, he'd always choose to save the earth, he promised Kami as much when he took up the staff.
Kakarot gave a high pitched roar and pushed in as much ki as he could muster. The Sparking Meteor smashed through Raditz' Saturday Crash, quickly closing in on Raditz rapidly. The elder brother gave a howl as the blast struck him, enveloping him in a thick black explosion. He fell to Earth through the smoke with a crash, the majority of his armour completely blasted off and his skin covered in burns.
But the small rising and falling in his chest signalled that he was indeed alive.
"Fuh...finish me off Kakarot..." Raditz croaked out weakly, balling his fists into the dirt. Kakarot staggered over to his sibling and stared down at his weak form.
"What are you waiting for? He killed Krillin, he was going to kill everyone else! You can't let him live after that!" Yamcha yelled getting up to his feet and swaying slightly in a woozy fashion.
Kakarot glanced from Yamcha to Raditz and back again before quietly shaking his head "Krillin can be brought back with a wish from the Dragon Balls...Raditz, you're my brother, and that's why I'm going to show you mercy." Kakarot said. Quite frankly the fact that his brother survived the sparking meteor was a shock in itself.
Raditz looked up shakily, the scouter on his face heavily damaged but functioning from the look of things "Th...Thank you Kakarot." Raditz said weakly.
Then a voice from nowhere cut in with 'Siding with your weakling brother? Hmph, I should have known you'd turn traitor eventually Raditz.'
Raditz went white, and his eyes widened in terror "V-vegeta, no, you don't understand-!" but he was cut short by this unseen 'Vegeta' character.
'Save it loser. Nappa and I will teach you and that traitorous low class brother of yours a lesson when we get to Earth. And getting a wish from those 'Dragon Balls' will be wonderful too.' Vegeeta added. Kakarot could almost imagine the smirk on the face of this arrogant fool he'd never seen before.
Raditz rapidly reached up and tossed his cracked scouter off his ear, trembling in terror "No no no..." he muttered, continuing to tremble.
"Well, we have a mutual foe now." Kakarot remarked. Raditz shot a glare at his brother "You have no idea how strong they are you little half-wit! Nappa is at least three times more powerful than me, and Vegeta...He's more than ten times my strength." Raditz grunted out.
Kakarot seemed undeterred "Then we train and get stronger. This planet is mine to protect, even against the most hopeless of odds." he said sternly, standing up. Raditz was surprised...but he supposed if his only other allies were coming to murder him, he only had his brother to side with.
It was at that moment that a large yellow plane burst through the clouds with a Capsule Corp logo on it's side. As Bulma piloted the craft, she glanced out to see Kakarot staring up at the craft, her face instantly turning pink "He's...certainly had a growth spurt..." she mumbled to herself, quietly landing the craft. She jogged out to see Tien and Yamcha approach her boarding ramp "Ah, so good to see you guys are...wait, where's Krillin?" she asked. Their expression gave her the answer she needed, and she glanced to her feet "Oh..."
"It get's worse I'm afraid." Kakarot said, hoisting the injured Raditz onto his shoulder. "Two more warriors are coming to threaten the Earth it would seem." he remarked, carrying Raditz onto the plane past Bulma. He set his sibling down on a bench and then glanced to the heiress "Would you be so kind as to bring my brother to a medical facility of some sort? He'll need to be stabalised so I can go get a Senzu Bean for him." he said. "You remember me, right? I'm Kakarot." he added, extending a hand out to her.
"Ah, I remember alright. I'm Bulma." the turquoise haired girl replied, slowly shaking the hand that seemed to swallow her own in size.
Kakarot smiled sweetly at her, before becoming serious and looking to Yamcha and Tien "Your friend Krillin is currently training in the Other World, so it'd be best not to wish him back straight away. For now, I need you to find the strongest power levels around and bring them to the Lookout for training. If these two are as strong as Raditz says, then we'll need all the man power we can get." he explained. Tien and Yamcha nodded in response.
"Well, actually." Bulma said, cutting in abruptly "You might find my father's training room more useful, especially now that he's so close to perfecting the gravity shifting technology." she explained.
"Very well." Kakarot said, giving a grunt and sitting in one seat on the ship "Meet up there and training will begin ASAP."
A/N: Next chapter, the training begins. Who will Tien and Yamcha find to aid in the defence of earth?
Power Levels:
-Raditz (fatigued): 855
-Kakarot (Fatigued): 883
-Saturday Crash: 1010
-Sparking Meteor: 1035
-Raditz (Badly injured): 15
-Kakarot (Heavily Fatigued): 140