Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Dragonball Z.
Bardock's story
Chapter 9: New team?
Returning to normal after Tarro's death wasn't easy for Bardock and his crew. But they started going back to training together. The inherent love for fighting helped them all. It didn't take long for the training sessions to become fun once again but occasionally the knowledge that someone was missing from this fun would be like a black cloud hovering of over them. Tora, of course, found it the toughest to carry on without his brother but even he was making progress. Fasha quickly moved on from her heartbreak and was back to her sassy self and the friendship between Tora and Bardock got stronger. A few weeks after losing Tarro, the team were finally ready to go back out assignments. For any other race, this would be a bad idea so soon. But for a band of saiyan warriors it was fine.
To mark the occasion, Courne, who had inadvertently fostered Fasha and Borgos as well as Bardock, got the four young saiyans brand new amour. Since becoming a team, the four young saiyans had been wearing the same black, white and gold armour complete with the armour over the shoulders, the sides of the legs and the crotch and with boots and wrist armour. Now, they were all wearing different colours and different styles. Tora's had the full works, shoulder armour, armour over his crotch and sides of his legs, boots and wrist armour except it was light blue and darker blue. Fasha had the main body armour with just one shoulder strap. It was suited for her feminine figure with no armour over her legs, except for knees pads, and was black and gold. Underneath the armour, she wore a pink leotard. White gloves and boots finished off the outfit. The main body armour for both Bardock and Borgos just had straps over both shoulders with matching boots. However, Bardock's had armour over the sides of his legs. Bardock's was green and dark blue while Borgos' was mostly dark blue with gold straps and light blue middle. Both had long spandex pants and Borgos had dark blue wrist armour. Bardock swapped his wrist armour for a pair of red sleeves, along with a pair of red leg warmers. With each saiyan now wearing their own individual style of amour, they had a clean slate to start taking on assignments again. However, another big change was yet to shake up the team.
This fateful change began a few days after the team's first mission after Tarro's death. They were all sat together at a diner, stuffing their faces after a fun training session. They were laughing and joking with each other, the main joke being Bardock ending up in a healing pod after getting knocked out by flying piece of debris, courtesy of Fasha, during that first mission back.
"It was the look on your face, Bardock," Tora laughed loudly, "You looked so funny!"
"Oh, thanks Tora!" Bardock exclaimed, "Don't ask me for sympathy when it happens to you!"
They laughed harder, unaware that they were getting an unexpected visitor. They were being approached by a saiyan they'd never met before, one who clearly didn't want to be there.
"Hey," He shouted over the noise.
The four saiyans quietened down and looked at their new arrival. He was a big guy, not tall but very round. His hair was neat compared to Bardock's and Tora's, like a bowl, and he had a thin moustache appearing.
"Which one of you is Bardock?"
"Me," Bardock replied, standing up, "why? Who are you?"
"The name's Shugesh, I've been assigned to your team."
The whole team fell in to stunned silence. Bardock could feel Tora stiffen beside him.
"What?" Bardock asked, stiffly.
"Commander Nappa has assigned me to your team after I left mine."
Bardock glared at Shugesh as the larger saiyan glared back. But as much as Bardock didn't want to believe it, he could see the truth. Shugesh was there to take Tarro's place.
"Bardock, he can't be!" Tora exclaimed, "Listen buddy, we don't need another fighter on this team."
"Yeah, we're fine," Fasha snapped, "So be on your way!"
Shugesh just snarled at them as they glared back. The atmosphere was getting tense by the second. But eventually, Bardock got out of his shock.
"Listen, Shugesh," He said firmly, "We weren't informed of this so I going to see Nappa right now."
"What am I to do?"
"I don't care."
Leaving the four pissed and confused saiyans in the diner, Bardock set off to find Nappa.
However, when Bardock finally found the balding commander, Nappa was typically unhelpful.
"I don't care if you don't want him Bardock," He growled, "Shugesh has to go somewhere and your team needs another man."
"What about his own team?" Bardock asked.
"He was taken off his last team after he deserted them on Planet Roma."
Bardock froze, stunned.
"He's a deserter! Then, I definitely don't want him!"
"Tough! You will do as you are ordered, you low level trash bag!"
Bardock desperately wanted to argue some more but Nappa was much bigger and out-classed him by far. Nappa was the Commander of the saiyan army, elite. Bardock didn't stand a chance against him. So reluctantly, the young saiyan warrior went to walk away.
"Hey! I'm not finished!" Nappa barked.
Bardock stopped and turned around. Nappa promptly gave him his team's next mission and orders to leave immediately. So, begrudgingly, Bardock went to collect his team, including Shugesh.
When Bardock told Tora, Fasha and Borgos that Shugesh was on the team whether they liked it or not, they started protesting loudly, practically shouting in Bardock's face.
"Hey! I don't like this either!" He snapped, "But we've got no choice!"
The rest stopped and stared at Bardock almost begging him to say it was a joke, but it wasn't. So, with no word to Shugesh, they all climbed in to their pods and set off. The planet they were sent to was the planet of Besgloth. There was a very large population here but they weren't very strong so the saiyans were pretty confident.
"Ha, piece of cake," Shugesh gloated.
Tora turned to Bardock, "Keep that bastard away from me," he warned, "Or, I'll kill him."
Bardock sighed heavily. It was bad enough that no one wanted Shugesh there but now he had to keep an eye on his best friend.
However, the internal problems with the team soon got worse. The five saiyans were deep in the thick of fighting with the Gloths and were quickly ploughing through. For a few hours, the team forgot that there were problems within the group. Until it all went wrong. Bardock was charging through small group of inhabitants, easily taking them all out. It wasn't long before he had just six brave ones left ready to attack, armed with spears. Of course, such measly weaponry was nothing for Bardock. But as he went to tackle them, something knocked him back in to the ground. Suddenly, before the young warrior realised, the six residents were throwing their very sharp spears at him. Tora spotted his best friend in trouble.
"Bardock!"
As he charged over, Tora launched a massive energy wave that obliterated the aliens in one blow. He carried on running until he reached his friend. A huge percentage of Bardock's armour was either cracked or had disappeared. Blood covered his bare flesh and there were a few wounds on his body, mostly severe cuts from the sharp edges of the spears.
"Bardock! Are you ok?"
"Ha, no… not really, Tora"
"Hold on Buddy."
Bardock then passed out. Tora pulled Bardock's arm over his shoulders, supported his weight and carried him back to the pods. But there was still a large number of Gloths left so Tora couldn't leave. He helped Bardock in to his pod and sent it home, sending a message to Planet Vegeta. He stood for a few moments as he watched the pod disappear.
"Don't you die, Bardock," Tora warned, "I don't think I could cope, not after everything."
Once the pod was gone from sight, Tora returned to work.
After a long, rather painful ride back, Bardock's pod landed on Planet Vegeta. The landing crew ran out to open the pod and drag Bardock to the nearest recovery centre. The young warrior was stripped then shoved in to an empty healing pod, hooked up to the necessary wires and had an oxygen mask stuck over his face. Plenthor watched over him as he recovered. As he watched, Malaka walked in to assist.
"How is he, Plenthor?"
"He'll be ok now," Plenthor replied, "I just can't work out what happened. Besgloth isn't a particularly dangerous planet, so how did a warrior of Bardock's power end up like this?"
Inside the pod, Bardock faintly heard the question. 'Trust me, I'm still asking that myself.'
It still didn't make sense. How did he end up in the dirt with the Gloths throwing spears at him? Then, the fight replayed in Bardock's mind, more slowly this time. As he approached the trembling Gloths, a shadow came closer. Bardock recognised the shape of the shadow, it wasn't his own. It was Shugesh! He flew in Bardock's way and knocked the young saiyan leader out of the sky.
'That bastard!'
But, inside the pod, there was nothing Bardock could do about Shugesh right now. But something had to be done.
So what's Bardock going to do now? Well, we know the end result, but how did they get from this to that? Wait and see.
