Chapter 10
Nappa and Raditz stepped out of the large passenger ship to a new world. Three years on the grey Planet Freeza 53 made Planet Freeza 65 look absolutely gorgeous. The buildings were whiter. The air was fresher. The soldiers stood straighter. It was exactly what the two Saiyans needed: a warrior's paradise.
"Do you think the training rooms really come equipped with massage parlors?" Raditz asked, eyes shining.
"I think you eat up too many stupid rumors. This is a military base, not a spa." As someone who relaxed by fighting, Nappa couldn't care less.
Since they had spent most of their time away in the field, Nappa and Raditz only had one suitcase between them: a bag containing spare battlesuits, workout clothes, and a package of Raditz's favorite lime soda flavored toothdrops. At the last minute Nappa had thrown in Vegeta's royal and prince rings and instant ramen alongside his own.
"Having your entire civilization turned to space dust has its advantages," Nappa remarked, seeing the size of their fellow passengers' bags. "At least we get to travel light."
"Ha ha," Raditz said nervously, trying not to think of home. "Maybe you shouldn't joke about our planet. I mean, at this rate... Saiyans are going to be extinct in ten years."
"Forget about whatever happened to Vegeta, kid," Nappa said, irritated. "We finally made it off 53... and we're not just anywhere. Look around. This is Lord Freeza's main planet. We're in the big leagues! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
"... It's really cool," Raditz admitted. "But Kiwi's been here for months. And I'm just here because you brought me with you."
"And don't you ever forget it," Nappa said cheerfully, making his way off the landing pad. "You're lucky. I've already gotten you farther than you ever would have come on your own. Maybe I'll even make you into a decent warrior."
"I'd be happy if you just let me fight more," Raditz said, hurrying to catch up. "You are going to... right?"
"Sure," Nappa said easily. With the higher-caliber missions they were going to be tackling, there would be more than enough fights to go around. "Hell, I might even need your help." Even somebody like Nappa could see the wisdom in having a partner. Raditz wasn't bad company once you got to know him.
"Man, this is going to be great! Why didn't you hit 5500 points sooner?"
"Raditz, I already told you that I didn't know—"
A spaceship smashed against the landing pad that Nappa and Raditz were walking across, crushing them both in an instant.
"Mmf." Nappa grunted, benching the ship off them. It happened too fast for him to be startled so he reverted to his default state: being cranky. Great. Everyone would remember him and Raditz as the two idiots who got hit by a spaceship five minutes after they landed on the planet.
It certainly was an unusual spaceship. About two or three times the size of a combatant's pod, it was a perfect sphere, reddish brown, and covered in spikes. It was impossible to tell where the opening was, especially since Nappa had sent it rolling when he pushed it away. Whatever the craft was, it wasn't part of the Freeza Force. A circle near the top peeled away from the ship and its lone rider climbed out.
If the fat, pink, spiky-headed alien expected some sort of welcome, he certainly didn't get it. Other than the Saiyans, the landing pad was now deserted.
Raditz's teeth chattered and his tail got bushy. Unlike Nappa, being used as a landing pad had given him quite a turn. "Hey, bubblegum skin! Watch where you park your stupid lychee next time!"
There was a tense moment of silence as the alien's pink face got even pinker... but he decided killing a few of Lord Freeza's soldiers wouldn't make the best first impression. Without a word, the fat alien pushed past Nappa and Raditz.
The two Saiyans watched him stomp off. "That sounded like something Vegeta would say," Nappa mused.
"Yeah, well, someone's gotta take his place. You're too old and bald. Who was that guy?"
"No one important. I'd recognize any senior officer. Maybe he came to beg Lord Freeza to spare his planet, I dunno."
"Let's go!" Raditz said, already distracted. "I wanna pick my room before we eat, and it's almost time for supper."
*⁂*⁂*
A screen lit up in the dark room. At first it showed nothing but a grey wall, but after a few seconds a square-jawed man pushed himself up into frame. His face was alert, waiting for the person watching the screen in the dark to speak.
"My dear Mr. Qaarst. Being on the small side myself, I have a certain sympathy for your situation. But surely even you would be able to float a few feet off the ground by now, yes?" The voice drifted from the center of the room, relaxed and carrying a hint of a smile with it.
"It's just the way us Lilliputians do things, Lord Freeza. I don't mind having to get up on a stool to make a video call, especially since these meetings are few and far between."
"And what do you think that says about your performance, hmmm?" The smile grew more evident, even as Qaarst paled. Or perhaps because of it.
"W—well, at least you don't get any trouble from us at 53. I could name several bases that haven't been so clean, uh, functional..."
"No need to splutter around like that—you do too much of it already. Take it as a bit of constructive criticism. Besides, you have good news for me today."
Qaarst looked relieved. "Yes, I sent a few soldiers your way who are ready to join the Central Force."
"The Saiyans?"
"How did you... Yes. Yeah, that's them."
"What is Vegeta's power level? Evidently it's over 5,500 by now."
Qaarst glanced offscreen nervously. "Sir... I only sent Nappa and Raditz. Vegeta ran away months ago." Freeza went silent and Qaarst had the strange feeling of being on the end of a dead line, though he could still see the Master's outline on his screen. "I could send out a unit to find him and bring him back," Qaarst offered.
Freeza idly thought of the tracking device planted on every spaceship in the Force. He wondered if the Saiyan Prince destroyed his. He somehow doubted it. "No, thank you. I won't hold you responsible for Vegeta's escape, nor his recovery." Freeza's silhouette shifted as he tilted his head. "Someone's at my door. You're dismissed."
The comm screen went black as the lights flicked on, one by one. The doors slid open to reveal an unfamiliar pink alien. Freeza blinked. He had been expecting Zarbon, not a surprise. Let us see how long this surprise can keep itself alive.
"Lord Freeza." The fat stranger dropped to his hands and knees in a deep bow. "Forgive me for coming with no notice."
Freeza's lips twitched. "Hmm... you're doing well so far."
"What?"
"Nothing. What's your name?"
"Dodoria, sir."
"I see. A Zibethian, are you?"
"Yes, sir."
"And what business do you have coming here? You understand, of course, what it means to waste my time."
"I'd like to enlist in the Freeza Force."
Freeza took a few steps toward Dodoria, peering at him through slitted eyes. "Asking me for a job? Well. You're either too stupid to know who our recruitment officer is... or you believe you have something special to offer me."
A single bead of sweat ran down Dodoria's cheek, but he kept his eyes fixed on Freeza's. "My power level is 17,300. I don't think I'm suited to basic training."
Freeza clapped softly in approval. "Indeed. The course isn't designed for someone of that level."
Perhaps ten seconds passed. Freeza was obviously supposed to speak next, but he wasn't saying anything. Dodoria's face was blank—it was hard to tell what he was thinking. Maybe he wasn't.
"You're quite the stoic," Freeza mused. "Of course, a great brute like you couldn't afford not to be. You know you don't have the cleverness to persuade me, so you just close your mouth and hope for the best."
Dodoria didn't say anything to that, which made Freeza laugh.
"There's always a place here for strength," Freeza said at last. "My, my. I think your powers just about equal Mr. Zarbon's, Mr. Dodoria. Welcome aboard."
Dodoria couldn't help but smile widely at this. "Thank you, Lord Freeza." He remembered those two Saiyan punks on the landing pad. "What's my rank?"
"You may be on the strong side, but I'm not putting you too high up. Show me what you're capable of first."
"Can I assign missions? Just this once... I have a few people in mind."
Freeza tilted his head. "Why not? No harm in sneaking a mission or two while your position's still up in the air, is there?"
"No, sir." Dodoria rubbed his hands together. Should he give them a boring mission or a dangerous one? Or both? He hoped there was one like that.
Once Dodoria had been sent away with instructions to the mission room, Freeza lingered, too self-satisfied to go just yet. He always enjoyed reading new people, he was never wrong. Who knows? If this one's brains were worth anything, Freeza could have two Zarbons in just as many years!
*⁂*⁂*
Raditz hopped out of the spaceship. "What's wrong, Nappa? Are you gonna be sick?" The surface of Planet Kaimon was so soft and elastic that Nappa and Raditz's ship had bounced 200 feet in the air instead of crash-landing the normal way.
Nappa screwed his eyes shut tightly. Yeah, I'm sure it looks that way, he thought. "No..."
"Aw, what's wrong? You've been in a bad mood ever since we got this mission. Is it 'cause we're working under Dodoria?"
"No..." Nappa said tersely.
Raditz lowered his voice confidentially even though they were the only people for miles on the vast, spongy plain. "You miss Vegeta, don't you. I do too. This is the first mission we've done without him."
"Eh? Who cares about that? This was supposed to be our first decent mission! Instead we get an errand! Are we even allowed to kill people?"
Raditz thought back to their instructions. "Ummmm... 'This is meant to be the quiet recovery of a possible ally to the Freeza Force. Soldiers should not seek out unnecessary conflict, as the native Kaimonese are an IGRIS-in-pending.' Oh shoot! We have to be really careful, Nappa. If we screw this up..." Raditz shivered.
"Yeah, maybe..." Nappa's eyes wandered to a far-off complex. "Let's just get this over with."
*⁂*⁂*
The two guards stood awkwardly outside the makeshift cell. Even after weeks of this, they still felt out of place.
You'll have to forgive them. This was, after all, the first time the people of Kaimon, soft as the surface of their planet, had a prisoner.
"What's he doing?" the shorter guard whispered to the fatter one.
"S—still the same thing."
They didn't know how much longer they'd have to guard. The rules for deciding the prisoner's fate were still being written.
Past the cell door into the darkened room, Ronji could hear every word the guards were saying. He supposed it was only fair that they were afraid of him. He had, after all, taken half the Capital City's population hostage and almost blown up the king's palace. And he still hadn't gotten what he wanted...
Ronji sighed deeply and shifted in his seat. He gave his rescuers five more hours to get here, otherwise he'd have to think of an escape plan. But for now, he was content to stare into his glass. The creamy milk that it contained was, to Ronji's newly-changed mind, both a symbol of hope and one of failure.
*⁂*⁂*
Close by, Nappa and Raditz had arrived at the complex. It was actually more of an atrium, with a fashionable mosaic of metal, concrete and glass for walls. The front doors swung open easily. "Is that... cake?" Raditz whispered to Nappa. Nappa nodded. One step inside, and both Saiyans' sensitive noses had picked up the smell. They were in some sort of lobby. A woman at a desk had just noticed them. She was obviously Kaimonese, with tea-colored skin, fluffy hair, and two-foot-long donkey ears. She had barely stopped herself from tipping off her chair.
"C—can I help you?" she called to them in Universal. It had been a long month for all of Kaimon, even without Freeza sending thugs over to hassle them... "If this is about the test results, we've already told you people—"
"That's not why we're here," Nappa interrupted. "Ever heard of a guy called Sanji?"
"Ronji," Raditz corrected.
"Yeah, that. Ronji. We need to borrow him. Um. Not forever, maybe, but for a while at least—"
"Take him! Take him!" the woman cried, jumping up from her desk. "Take that diseased terrorist off into space and make sure he never comes back. He deserves to be put down. Like a dog."
"That's a member of the Force if I've ever heard one," Raditz muttered.
"Take us to him," Nappa said. "And you better not be lying. If you're just wasting our time, I'll kill you myself."
The Kaimonese woman swallowed nervously, but gestured for them to follow her. They headed down to the basement. The building they were in was, of course, Kaimon's biggest Spongecake Gallery. After the woman had quietly led them to two guards, she scurried away. There was no way she was spending another minute in that damned room.
Nappa tried to peer past the guards into the glass cell, but the lights were off. Oh, real spooky. "That Ronji guy is in the cell, right?" he asked the two guards. They looked to each other, then nodded timidly. "Let us in."
"We can't."
Who cared about the instructions. Nappa was ready and eager to do what it took to get this over with quickly. "Then you'll die."
"You don't understand!" the shorter guard squeaked. "We can't. There's a timelock on the door and it isn't set to open until next week."
Nappa shoved the terrified guards to the side and examined the glass door. A playing card sized LCD screen was attached at eye height. "This is supposed to keep anything locked? I could tear through this on an empty stomach." Nappa was more irritated than amused.
"Yeah! So could I!" Raditz didn't want to be left out.
"That ain't gonna happen, glutes-for-brains." The voice came from behind the cell door, soft-spoken and bored.
Even if Nappa had heard, he still blasted the door with all his 5500 points. No effect. "You're a complete knucklehead, aren't you," said the voice behind the door.
Nappa and Raditz attacked together, each at full strength. No effect. "You're both idiots. I don't remember specifying to Freeza that my rescuers shouldn't know how to tie their own shoes," said the voice behind the door.
"What do you know about this stupid lock?" Raditz huffed. "Maybe third time's the charm."
The mysterious Ronji stepped into the lit part of his cell. His prisoner's tracksuit was wrinkled, his ivory white hair messy, and his long ears drooped. He was holding a full glass of milk, strangely enough. "I invented and crafted that 'stupid lock' with my bare hands. It's basically tempered klangite. I doubt even Freeza could break it." Ronji yawned and slowly slid down the wall to the floor. It had been a long day.
"You made it? You can't call us stupid when you've locked yourself up! How'd it happen? Were you testing it to make sure it works?" Nappa asked scornfully.
"Tell them, Fort," Ronji said, back against the wall.
"Which one of you is Fort?" Raditz asked.
"Both of them. One's Fat, the other's Short. Fort. Calling them individual names is more than they're worth. I tried it the other way around for a while, but they took my food away until I stopped. Now tell them. Quickly please, I'm losing patience."
Short's eyes flicked nervously to Ronji's form stretched out on the ground. "Um, well, Ronji usee. We had to lock him up before he hurt anyone."d to be our planet's leading scientist until recently, when he... went insan
"You forced my hand. I only had one simple request."
"What's that?" Raditz asked curiously.
"Never mind, just get me out of here." Ronji's voice hardened. Curiously, this made the two guards tremble and take a small step towards the exit.
"How?" Nappa yelled. "According to you, this lock is impossible and I'm not waiting a week for it to time out."
"Swipe your finger back and forth across the screen for fifteen seconds and a question will pop up. Answer it correctly and the lock will open."
Fat nearly had a heart attack. "You programmed a cheat into your lock without telling anyone?! You're in trouble."
"What's wrong with a little creative license on my part? Besides, there's nothing any of you can do. These idiots are strong, and nothing'll stop them busting me out of here."
"Trying to bust you out, you mean," Raditz said. Nappa's face was reddening.
"'What's the average length of a Lilliputian dining table?!'" Nappa exploded. "Who the hell knows that?"
"Relax, big guy. Just lean real close to the lock and whisper, 'It's after eight.' That'll switch the question over to your home planet."
"It's after eight."
What is the twelfth line of the Saiyan poet, Shaques', most famous poem?
A few seconds of silence.
"Are we supposed to know that?" Raditz asked.
Ronji started to talk, spluttered, then closed his mouth. His head fell to his chest, limp. "You don't know? Even though it's asking you about your own race, you don't know?" Suddenly Ronji was pressed up against the glass, screaming his head off, getting spit and somehow blood all over the place. "IF YOU DON'T GET ME OUT OF HERE IN FIVE MINUTES I'M GOING TO KILL EVERYONE ON THIS SIDE OF THE PLANET INCLUDING YOU SAIYAN SCUM."
Nappa let out a harsh burst of laughter. "'I'll kill you,' says the intellectual. I think you'll find," he said, cracking his knuckles, "that I'm not so easy to lock away."
"Me too!" Raditz piped up.
Ronji deflated and log-rolled across the floor of his cell to the edge of the darkness. He reached in and took out a glossy black marble. "Know what this is?"
Everyone squinted at it as Ronji grinned and put on a pair of shades. "Hey..." murmured the shorter guard. "Isn't that a—"
Ronji flicked the marble. The last thing anyone saw was a flash of light. Saying it was blinding didn't do it justice. The light screamed louder than Ronji had.
Nappa and Raditz were on the ground, heels of their palms digging into their eyes. Never had either Saiyan gotten so close to death so quickly. For twenty agonizing seconds their muscles locked as fuzzy spots the color of dried blood drilled holes through their brains. Once they were finally able to shakily get to their feet, they saw that the guards were dead. The whites of their eyes were hidden under a film of red. Blood leaked out their ears.
"Fort is no more," Ronji said. "You two were tough enough to survive the initial flash, but it was your reflexes that saved you. Expose your eyes to this light for a second or more, and losing your eyesight would be the least of your concerns."
"Are you doing an infomercial?" Nappa growled, giving his head a quick shake. "More importantly, what the hell was that?" His tail tightened around his waist. He didn't like that Ronji was wearing sunglasses. He wanted to be able to see his eyes.
Ronji held the marble carefully between his first finger and thumb, letting it catch the light. "A spark bomb. It's a Kaimonese invention that's been around forever. On contact with any surface, they cast light. We use them in the spongecake mines. Of course, I made a few changes in my version."
"Man, you Kaimonese aren't bright," Raditz said. "Getting yourselves locked up, leaving prisoners with deadly weapons..."
"Oh, the only thing they left me with was food," Ronji said. He looked around. "I guess I can turn the lights on..." A soft glow filled the cell, illuminating stacks of snacks. It was mostly spongecake, great bricks of it, but there were a few vegetables lurking here and there, along with some cheese, crackers, and ham. "It was awfully convenient for everyone, shutting me away here in the Gallery's galley. They don't have to bother with bringing me anything, and I get the materials I need to make a spark bomb."
"Well, nice job killing those civilians," Nappa said. "But I ain't gonna be taken down by any bright light."
When Ronji took off his shades, Raditz wasn't the only one who wished they stayed on. Even by Saiyan standards, the look in Ronji's eyes was crazed. "I didn't want to kill you. That's why I tapped it. Muscleby, you have... hmmm... two and a half minutes to answer the question before this li'l marble goes cracking against the wall. And guess what? When that happens, covering your eyes won't save you."
Raditz sneaked a look at the guards' bloodstained faces. "O... okay, we'll get to work, sir!" He took two steps toward the lock then paused. "Um... what does 'Muscleby' mean?"
Ronji rolled his eyes. "Muscles, Baby. And you're not helping your case. Now wrack your tiny brain and open the lock!"
"Eeek...!" Raditz scurried over to Nappa, already glowering at the door.
"You seriously don't remember, kid?" Nappa muttered, a bead of sweat running down his temple. Raditz shook his head sheepishly. Nappa kicked Raditz in the stomach, smashing him against the wall. "Then your memory is wasted on you!"
"I—I'm sorry!" Raditz sobbed. "I've never even heard of Shaques before, honest!" He coughed and blood trickled out the corner of his mouth. This was how he was going to die. Nine years old, killed by a psycho Kaimonese over a poem.
Suddenly, Nappa's fists shattered the glass wall. "What, what?" Raditz cried. "Do you remember?"
"No... but I know who does. Vegeta. He read Shaques as part of his royal training. And then he ran off into space, completely useless to us."
"Please, Ronji, can't you just not kill us?" Raditz pleaded.
"Don't beg, Raditz," Nappa snarled.
"Ronjiiii... what's the point? You'll still be locked up. Kaimon doesn't even have space travel yet."
"The burst of light from my spark bomb will destroy the timelock. And you two brought a spaceship right to me when you came here," Ronji said easily. "You have thirty seconds." He rolled the marble around in the palm of his hand.
Now it was Nappa's turn to look to the dead and bloodied guards. Blood... Nappa had heard the poem before, and it mentioned blood, didn't it? Bubble and bubble for years in a pot. Something something to fight something something. But what was the twelfth line...
"Ten seconds." Ronji slipped on his sunglasses and Raditz covered his eyes. Nappa swallowed, his throat dry. The only drink in sight was Ronji's milk. Damn. He was going to have to die sober. Not drunk... drunk...
"Drinking salt-blood does nothing for thirst!"
With a beep from the timelock, Ronji's cell door swung open.
Nappa was expecting a snarky remark about Saiyan poetry, but Ronji only chugged the glass of milk and walked out the door.
"Now then, what are your names?" he asked brightly.
"... Hnh?"
"Your names. What are the both of you called? You did, after all, break me out of prison." They began to walk, with Ronji leading and the Saiyans trailing behind in confusion.
"Er... I'm Raditz and he's Nappa."
"And I'm Ronji. Nice to meet you. Now let's blow this cake stand."
Only when the trio was in sight of the ship did it occur to Nappa to ask Ronji why Lord Freeza wanted him.
"We Kaimonese may not have the luxury of space travel but we still get satellite TV," Ronji explained. "I know all about your master and your line of work. Lucrative and dangerous, isn't it? I can make it safer for all of you, and you can afford to give me what I need."
"What do you need?"
"What are you going to give us?"
Raditz spoke first, but Nappa's louder voice won Ronji's attention. But maybe Ronji just didn't want to answer Raditz's question. "I have a few ideas," Ronji said, feeling lighter with every step taken towards the Saiyans' spaceship. "But there's one that I'm especially excited about. It's a variation on your 'scouters', a way of making them simpler, less clunky, possibly even handheld..."
*⁂*⁂*
It had been raining steadily for days. The entire planet was in the middle of its yearly monsoon. It was annoying on the one hand... visibility was low and Vegeta couldn't remember what it felt like to be dry... but on the other hand, there was no lingering smell of blood to distract him.
Vegeta looked out to the gray horizon, taking a minute to catch his breath. He was surrounded by corpses and he could recall perfectly the fight that made each one. The fight. He had been right to leave. For his own two hands to be the ones that had reached into the water and pulled out his drowning spirit... it felt good.
Vegeta flicked his wrist and blood splattered on the ground. He found something poignant in the way he couldn't tell if it was his or not. That was how he knew it was time to get back to work—when he started getting all introspective. He looked up to see a beam of sunlight stream through the blue-and-purple clouds. It fell on an army, hundreds of feet away, slowly advancing. Vegeta knew it was for him.
Steam rose from Vegeta's body as his chi flared, evaporating the rain that fell on his shoulders and back. He stood still, deciding to let the armada come to him.
He had never been so happy in his life.
*⁂*⁂*
"I wish Vegeta was here," Raditz said as they began their long trip back to Planet Freeza 65.
Nappa tried to sound firm, but he couldn't control his thoughts. "He's not coming back."
... I hope.