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Son Ranma
Written By: Tellemicus Sundance
Co-Authored by: Fiori75
#11: Corralling the Colts
December 1, Age 761
Somewhere in the Southern Archipelago
It was almost two months since that fateful battle he'd had against his brother, the mystery Saiyan, and the Namekian. Things were going both better and worse for Raditz and his traveling companion now. On the one hand, they were traveling at far more efficient speeds now that Ryoga had learned and quickly mastered the art of flying with his ki. Plus, in a rather ironic bit, Ryoga managed to get lost far less often when traveling in the air. Raditz's working theory on that was that the higher elevation granted him a wider field of vision and an easier time to spot landmarks he was familiar with. He could and did still managed to get lost from time to time when he got distracted, but Raditz quickly reeled him back in with a commanding bark. A habit he had sadly been forced to develop after traveling with the young man for such an extended period. But on the other hand, Raditz's scouter was still losing its batteries each time he was forced to power it up. And without his scouter pointing him in the right direction, neither of them would've had the first clue as to where to go.
At the moment, the pair of them were flying at a relatively low altitude over a wide archipelago, scanning each of the islands they passed for any signs of life. Well, it was more Ryoga scanning them than Raditz. Raditz was only just beginning to grasp the concept behind the ability to sense ki without a scouter, having been studying Ryoga for the past while exercising it. But his sense of awareness was nowhere near Ryoga's just yet.
As they were moving on from their latest island, Ryoga glanced over at Raditz. "Where are we going? This doesn't look like Mt. Paozu."
"You'd know that how, considering your curse?" Raditz couldn't help countering back with a quirked brow.
"Well, we haven't passed the Amazon village," he stated back simply.
"And what's so special about these Amazons?"
"They're fighters and they live near Mt. Paozu."
That statement got Raditz pondering for a moment. It sounded familiar for some reason. Like he'd seen a place that fit that description somewhat well recently. And when the memory of that rowdy pitstop village with the high power levels he'd found on that first day came up to the forefront of his mind, he blinked slightly. 'Is he talking about that one village I found? Those people did have comparatively high power, unlike the rest of this planet. Could it really be that easy?' But after a moment of contemplation, he shook his head and refocused on the task at hand.
Tapping his scouter briefly to verify the distance and direction, he snarled in growling frustration at the weakly flashing battery icon. 'Dammit, that talk with the Prince really sapped the battery! The scouters weren't meant for such long-distance communications without a spacepod.' Quickly pushing that thought aside, he switched off the scouter again as he minutely adjusted his course with Ryoga following a few moments later. As he did so, Raditz decided to…enlighten his comrade. "Right now, we're searching for someone."
"Who?"
"Someone who likely has a better lay of the land than either of us," Raditz grunted in frustration. 'If that Namekian can also sense ki, then this is going to be one frustrating chase!'
Ryoga glanced over at Raditz with a look of annoyed resignation. "If you had a compass in your eyepatch there, we might not have gotten lost."
Oh, the effort it took Raditz not to yell at or attack the fool was immense. Though, he did compromise with himself and threw the young man a dark glare before refocusing his attention forward. As he did so, he once again started a familiar chant to himself. 'Mustn't kill the Earthling. Must not kill the Earthling. He's the only one I know who knows where to find the whelps and the woman.' But, sadly, that rant was becoming increasingly more difficult to heed as his frustrations mounted.
With loud grunts of exertion, two tall figures in identical fighting gis clashed against each other in a savage brawl. Piccolo was busy fighting a clone of himself to refine his technique while also testing out new combo attacks he'd envisioned. The spar had been going on for the better part two hours now and he finally starting to reach his limit. With a final cry of exertion, Piccolo punched through the stomach of his doppelganger. But rather than fall back and die or fade from existence, the clone dissolved into a green viscous liquid that was instantly absorbed back into Piccolo. Despite the return of the remainder of his clone's ki to him, Piccolo staggered back and dropped to a knee, panting in exhaustion.
"Hey, I found some wild carrots over here, Hayato!" a faint but happy voice called out.
Both out of curiosity and an attempt to distract himself from his exhaustion, Piccolo glanced towards where he could hear the voice. With his keen hearing and eyesight, Piccolo was able to make out the three forms his fledgling disciples. The runt of the litter, Gohan, was bouncing up excitedly from a patch of dense grass, waving his cousin over beckoningly. That cousin, the leader and undisputed alpha of the trio, looked back towards him from his fishing spot on a rock next to a river with an equally excited look. Most kids would've been repulsed at the idea of eating vegetables. But these kids were Saiyans, with the appetites to match. And after been close to starving several times in their first few weeks out here, all of them had developed a very healthy appreciation of food in all its forms.
"Really? That's great, Gohan!" Hayato called back. "See if you can find some seeds or seedlings! We can start growing our own vegetable patch back at the cave!" Gohan nodded excitedly as he dropped back to the ground to start collecting and searching.
"Hm…should I or shouldn't I?" the blue-haired fighter of the trio was muttering to himself.
The tyke was easily the most fearless little scrapper of the trio (or any child of that age Piccolo had ever seen before) who loved to fight and train. And he was calmly demonstrating his fearlessness now as he was standing literally at the feet of an enormous tyrannosaurus. Without even a shiver of fear, he stood well within biting distance of the drooling beast as it too stared down at him. Instead, the boy was staring up at the beast with the gaze of a shopper at a supermarket, casually contemplating if he wanted to indulge in dinosaur meat for lunch or not. The more understandable, if a bit amusing, thing Piccolo could see was that the dinosaur was also shooting the scrapper a similar look of contemplation, whether the little bite-sized snack of the child was even worth its time. But the interesting thing was that the scrapper's lack of fear wasn't undeserved, nor was him considering eating the tyrannosaurus all that surprising. Piccolo had seen the boys dine on similar creatures, like wolves, bears, and any other predator that attacked them, several times in the past few weeks.
Standing back to his full height as he'd regained his breath and his exhaustion waned, Piccolo turned to more fully watch the interactions of the children. Due to his goal, solitary lifestyle, and even when accessing his father's memories, Piccolo hadn't seen too many interactions between children that didn't involve either fighting, running in terror, begging for life, or dying gurgles. So, watching how the trio of toddlers went about their days was a very interesting distraction for the green demon, when he had the time to spare to watch it.
Suddenly, a familiar aura washed over Piccolo's senses. Spinning around with a horrified look on his face, he stared off into the distance. He couldn't see the Saiyan yet, but he could definitely sense his rapid approach! 'Dammit! He's onto us! Why'd he have to find us now?! We're nowhere NEAR ready! The boys have only just gotten the hang of the survival training and I think I'm finally starting to see some progress in my own training. But we're still not ready!'
Just as he was about to turn and rush over to the boys and flee, he sensed something else. It was smaller than Raditz's presence, but still very strong and surprisingly familiar. It was a presence he'd come across several times before out in the wastelands. The wanderer had always confused him because he always detected him entering and leaving the wastelands near him at random intervals. 'It's him. That wanderer. What's he doing with Raditz?' One was perpetually lost and the other had a professed desire to kill all life on the world. And while he suspected that the man was rival of the Son brothers, the man should've been more interested in fighting an aggressive Saiyan than apparently partnering up with him.
Deciding that this minor mystery was a waste of time, Piccolo spun around and sprinted off towards the boys. His sudden appearance among them caught all boys by surprise, causing them to yelp in surprise or fright. But he didn't give them any time to respond or question him. He swept the alpha and scrapper up in one arm while his second arm shot out at length to grab the runt by the front of his gi before rapidly retracting, yanking the child towards him.
"Mr. Piccolo?!" the runt yelped, but Piccolo ignored him.
Once he had all three in his arms, Piccolo launched himself off into the air
"NO!" the scrapper yelled out, quite upset. "MY LUNCH!" It would seem that this was the tyrannosaurus's lucky day, being able to live to hunt another day.
Focusing, Piccolo quickly began suppressing his ki while speeding rapidly so lowly across the ground and between the trees in an effort to remain out of the tracking duo's line of sight.
"What's going on, Mr. Piccolo?!" the runt called out frightfully, torn between staring at the ground that was passing by under them at frightening speeds or staring up questioningly at his captor.
"Yeah?!" the alpha demanded in confusion. "Where are we going now, you big brute?!"
"Yeah?!" the scrapper yelled, flailing his arms and legs angrily, hitting his siblings just as much as he was Piccolo. "What's so important that we had to miss my lunch?!"
"We're being hunted," Piccolo stated bluntly. There was no point in hiding this fact from them. In fact, it might even help to focus and motivate them in the coming days if this became a regular thing. That much more reason to get them to start taking things seriously. 'Although, I suppose that also means that I need to start their training a bit earlier than I'd intended too.'
"Hunted?!" the runt yelped. The fear and confusion clear on his face.
"By who?" the alpha asked, staring up at Piccolo with narrowed eyes that were far more observant and showed more cunning than what Piccolo figured was normal for any other toddler of a similar age. This one was clearly quite bright. But Piccolo kept himself focused on his task, not giving anything away.
"Is it Mommy?!" the scrapper asked, his hostility subsiding momentarily as he and the runt joined the alpha in gazing at Piccolo questioningly and with budding hope.
"No, it's Raditz," he answered bluntly. "The guy who killed your dads." A slight lie, since Raditz had only killed Ranma, but it was close enough to the truth.
"LET ME AT HIM!" the scrapper demanded, once again flailing angrily in an effort to break Piccolo's grip on him. Not even seeming to care or maybe not having noticed that they had been flying over the ocean for the past few minutes. "I'M GONNA BREAK HIM LIKE THAT BEAR LAST WEEK!"
"No!" Piccolo barked, snarling down at the boy as he was forced to put more effort into holding him. The brat's strength had definitely grown remarkably since coming out here. But despite all of that growth, it was still nowhere near enough. "You're not strong enough yet, Scrapper!"
After a moment, the little tyke froze before he and the other two looked up at Piccolo again in confusion. "Scrapper? What?"
Against his best efforts, Piccolo felt his cheeks darken into a deeper green than normal as embarrassment swept over him. He hadn't meant to voice the nickname for the boy like that! Resolutely not meeting any of the boys' gazes, he instead forced himself to focus on flying again. Thankfully, their confusion had caused the boys to stop fighting his grasp. And then he spotted his salvation up ahead, a new island! As they drew closer, the boys also spotted the island and started immediately sizing it up, trying to see if there were any resources available for them to make use of.
Upon landing on a rocky outcropping that overlooked the majority of the large desert island, Piccolo unceremoniously dropped the trio to the ground. He ignored their startled yelps and cries as he barked out, "From now on, it would seem that I need to a closer eye on you three if that lunatic is looking for us. Meaning, I can't leave you to your own devices anymore. You'd best prepare yourselves, brats. Tomorrow, we're going to start the serious training ahead of schedule!"
"Dammit! We must've just missed them!" Raditz snapped, frustrated as he stood among the scattered trinkets of the small camp they'd found moments ago. 'Dammit! I knew it! That Namekian must be able to sense power levels like Ranma had been able to! This will make the hunt more difficult!'
The Saiyan glanced over at his companion as he was poking through the camp, pulling a few very basic tools and food items. In fact, the thing he was most interested in was the large burning firepit and spit that had been set up and had a pair of caught giant fish that were clearly about to be gutted and cooked. Raditz stared long and hard at the fish for a moment before resolutely looking away.
"Well, I guess we should press on," he muttered to Ryoga as he reached to tap his scouter back on. But before he could he even touch the thing, a pair of entities shared among them decided to speak up – 'GGGRRRRWWWLLLLLLLLL!' – and what powerful and vocal entities they were! Both Raditz and Ryoga froze as ravenous hunger swept over them.
Looking up at Raditz as he grabbed the fish and pulled out a large serrated knife from somewhere, Ryoga grinned at him. "Okay, but after lunch!"
"…" A slight blush lit up Raditz's face as he glared angrily down at his stomach. "Yes, after lunch."
"Well, at least whoever we're looking for was kind enough to leave most of their supplies behind," Ryoga said, already getting to work at gutting the fish. "But these aren't going to be near enough for both of us."
Raditz nodded in agreement. He had realized quickly that the accursed human's appetite was a match for his own. This curiosity had only compounded Raditz's growing interest in this world and its people. The more time he spent around Ryoga, the more like Saiyans these Earthling humans seemed. From Ryoga's matching appetite to the warrior sect of their society and their curious fighting abilities to their comparably similar appearances. During their first few weeks together, the two of them had even gotten bored enough to share some of their childhood stories to pass the time. Raditz found that he could sympathize with Ryoga quite easily in his struggle to compete with and best his archrival, Son Ranma. It was such a Saiyan-like motivation and his drive to get stronger really struck a chord in Raditz, causing Raditz to really start respecting the Earthling for the first time (though that did little to alleviate his aggravation with Ryoga's directional curse). Raditz had started finding himself wondering numerous things about humans. Did they all eat as much as a Saiyan? If that was the case, he could better understand why Kakarot thought he was one of them. And that was only one question of a growing list of questions that he was building.
As Raditz was turning away and looking around the immediate area for any animals, a loud crash sounded behind them. Looking behind them, the two traveling companions found themselves staring up at the drooling face of a tyrannosaurus rex. From the hunger in its gaze and the amount of drool it was secreting, it was obvious that it had decided that these two would make a much more fulfilling meal than the comparative snacks that the three younger ones would've made. It roared at the two of them, clearly hoping to make them flee in terror of its mighty voice and larger stature. After all, there was nothing more fulfilling than dinner after a wild chase!
"Oh look!" Ryoga said, slight excitement in his voice as he and Raditz stared up at the dinosaur in hunger. "Steak!"
"I love steak!" Raditz agreed, grinning as he shot up and delivered a powerful kick to the tyrannosaur's neck, killing it. It was dead before it even hit the ground. Clearly, the tyrannosaurus had made the last mistake of its life just now.
"Hey, catch!" After placing the two fish on the spit over the fire, Ryoga tossed a large sawblade towards Raditz. Raditz didn't need to ask, catching the saw and getting to work on gutting the dinosaur while Ryoga went out to collect the wood needed to make a larger fire to roast the larger kill. Despite himself, Raditz chuckled slightly in resigned disappointment. 'It'll be a real shame to depopulate this world. The food options are UNBELIEVABLE!'
January 3, Age 762
Snake Way
The wind was whistling past his face as it had been for the past three months as Ranma watched the winding trail for Snake Way shoot by underneath him. On his back, a loudly snoring Goku was resting from his most recent over-use of ki and flying. Though it was impossible tell because of the monotonous landscape and the lack of any sunrise and sunset to mark the passage of time, Ranma was pretty sure that the two of them had been getting a lot stronger because of their continuous use of ki. Again, it was impossible to tell how long it took them to wear out, but it felt to Ranma like they were able to fly for longer periods of time now than when they'd started.
'I hope the boys, Shampoo, Ukyo, and Chichi are all alright,' Ranma thought for the umpteenth time. He was really worried about them. He had been killed before the battle concluded and what Goku had told him of what happened up to his death hadn't been promising. Yes, their sons exhibiting such phenomenal strength was great news, but they were still so young and untrained. Plus, Piccolo was still injured and probably quite drained from using his new finishing technique so much. He'd be easy prey for Raditz, no matter how badly injured the Saiyan might've become after taking those hits from the boys. And King Yemma had been equally unhelpful as well, only saying that by the time that boy of the Son brothers had arrived for judgment that Raditz hadn't yet been killed. The unease of not knowing what happened, how that battle had been resolved, and what the aftermath was had been like red-hot poker jabbing at his mind for the past three months. Unable to do anything about it, Ranma instead used that uncertainty as added fuel to boost his speeds even more. 'If Raditz is still alive and hurt any of my friends and family, I swear I'm gonna kill him next time I see him!'
A particularly loud snore from Goku broke Ranma out of his brooding angst. "Wooow…fried rice…shriiiiimp…teriyaki…Chiiiiichiiiii…"
"Heh, even in your dreams, eh?" Ranma mumbled to himself, doing his absolute best to not drool like he was sure his brother was. After all, Goku wasn't the only one starving. A pair of thunderous roars from their stomachs only further illustrated the point. Shaking his head in a desperate manner to get his mind off food (which was almost as hard as not thinking about his family these days), Ranma refocused on the stone path below him. In doing so, he saw something up ahead that almost caused him to stop, gawk, and/or drop Goku out of surprise.
"GOKU!" Ranma yelled back at his brother, excitement racing through him as he put on a final boost of speed. "WE'RE HERE! We're actually here this time!"
Startled awake, it took a few seconds for Goku to get his bearings. Looking ahead as Ranma dropped down to Snake Way briefly to let his brother go, Goku's face lit up like Ranma's as he saw what had him so excited. Laughing out excitedly, Goku leapt up in the air with a cheer before racing towards the final stretch with Ranma hot on his heels. "Alright! We're finally here! Hoo-hoooo!"
Finally reaching the end of the road, Goku looked around excitedly. He wasn't sure what he was looking for though. Maybe a floating building, a dojo, a palace like Kami's Lookout, anything really. But as he gazed around, all he could see was the same endless horizon of fluffy yellow clouds and lilac-colored sky. "Wait, is this some kind of bad joke? There's nothing here!"
"Goku, I know you're not that bad at sensing ki," Ranma chastised lightly, sending a knowing grin at his brother. Seeing Goku's confused stare, he gestured slightly upwards with his thumb.
Taking the hint, Goku looked towards the sky while also extending his ki sense as far as he could. In doing so, he quickly located not only a surprisingly large power overhead, but also what looked like a very tiny planet. The world couldn't have be more than 500 meters in diameter. And though it was too far to make out any particular details, he could faintly see what looked like a stone pathway that ran the circumference of the planet, bisecting it into halves with both sides covered in simple green grasses.
"Wow, that's a small world!" Goku commented lightly before shooting a smile. "Come on! Let's go!"
Ranma nodded as they both leapt up as high as they could before taking flight, racing towards the planet with excited gazes. As they drew closer, more details became obvious to them. "Wow, it kinda reminds me of Mt. Paozu. A cozy little place to live and train, eh?"
"Yeah, you're ri-urk! AAAAHHHHH—!" Goku cried as he and Ranma suddenly felt their ki flight get interrupted and they soon found themselves face-planted into the surface of the small world with mind-numbing force.
Marshalling their ki to strengthen their muscles to their absolute maximum, both brothers heaved as hard as they could. It felt like someone had strapped massive weights down upon every inch of their bodies. Heck, even breathing was difficult! It took nearly five minutes and with more effort than was expected for them to eventually push themselves unsteadily to their feet and heave themselves upright.
"Jeez…this is…heavy!" Ranma grunted between clenched teeth, turning his gaze over to see how Goku was doing. Much to his chagrin, Goku seemed to be handling the intense gravity a slight bit better than himself. At least he was able to stand up somewhat straighter. "You…okay?"
"Yeah, but…this is intense!" Goku grunted back. "Man, you…have to be…super strong just to…live here!"
"How can…anyone live in a…place with this much…gravity?!" Ranma couldn't help asking, lifting his head painfully to try and look around.
"I know…" Goku agreed as he too started looking around again. "There's a house… That's got to be…where King Kai lives."
"Right," Ranma agreed as he started taking slow, heavy steps forward. "Okay, just…one step…at a time."
Slowly, painstakingly slowly, the duo began to trudge over towards the house on the horizon. The house might've only been maybe a dozen or more paces away from where they'd 'landed' on the planet, but those dozen paces had never seemed so far away as they did now. Ranma did briefly contemplate using his ki to fly over there but considering just how much effort he was having to exert with it just to stand up, flight didn't seem possible for the time being.
As they drew nearer to the house, Goku suddenly stopped and looked off to the side, his nose sniffing loudly.
"Goku! No!" Ranma grunted, already knowing what had made his brother stop. There was only one thing in the entire universe that could distract Goku from the possibility of training. And considering they were on a time table, Ranma wanted as few distractions as he could get.
"I thought I smelled something yummy," Goku said, blatantly ignoring Ranma as a line of drool trickled down his chin, eyes locked onto the apple-like fruit of a nearby tree. "Food!"
"Goku!" Ranma called, trying feebly to catch his brother before he wandered off. But even without the intense gravity slowing him down, there was no way Ranma could've caught him. Goku had essentially been fasting for upwards of three months now, the longest he'd ever gone without food in his entire life (or death, as the case might be). So, with his stomach almost literally roaring like a tyrannosaurus and food well within sight, Goku was now a Saiyan on a mission and now amount of talking was going to sway him from his goal!
"Fine! Go…stuff your stomach…ya black hole! …More training for me!" Of course, second thunderous roar filled the air, betraying Ranma's own hunger. But, again, he gamely ignored it for now. Once he'd managed to get King Kai to agree to train him so he could get strong enough to protect his home and family, then and only then would he start begging for food!
Reaching the door and lifting his arm, Ranma knocked slowly upon it, straining with all his might. "Hello! Anyone home?!"
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" a nasally voice called from inside. As Ranma feebly stumbled back a step, he could hear the footsteps of someone moving around inside as easily as someone back on Earth. The door opened easily, revealing the short, stout form of a blue man with almost bug-like antenna. Stepping out of the house, the person smiled up at Ranma as he slid into a casual stance. "Hi there, I'm King Kai. Who are you?"
"I'm Son Ranma," Ranma stated, bowing as low he could without toppling over. Pointing off to the side, he added, "And that's my brother, Son Goku."
King Kai's expression was unreadable as he stared at Ranma for a long moment. For the briefest second, Ranma thought he saw a flash of something akin to disapproval cross the rotund Kai's face. But it passed so quickly it left Ranma wondering if he'd just imagined it. Looking to the side, King Kai's expression changed to something approaching bewildered. Following his gaze, Ranma felt a sweatdrop of embarrassment slide down his temple as he saw Goku imitating a brown, chubby monkey.
"Goku! Quit making a monkey of yourself, come over here and say 'hi' to King Kai!" Ranma yelled out as he looked away from Goku, hating how he was feeling weirdly embarrassed for Goku's antics. 'Then again, someone's gotta be since he probably isn't.' His embarrassment was made worse when King Kai broke out into a series of snorting chuckles and giggles, covering his mouth to keep from laughing out loudly.
"Huh?" Goku said, looking over towards Ranma and spotting the blue figure. Quickly straightening himself up and pointing towards them, he asked, "Oh, that's King Kai? That makes more sense. But then, who's that?"
"That's Bubbles, my pet monkey," King Kai said as he regained control of himself. As Goku trudged up next to Ranma, King Kai looked between the two searchingly as his antenna started twitching and moving about for a few moments. Then he started humming to himself as he looked down at the ground, causing Ranma and Goku to look at one another in confusion to what he was doing. As they returned their gazes to the strange being, he lifted his gaze up at them again. "I see, so that's what happening. Quite a mess will be waiting for you two when you get back home."
"What?! You already know what's going to happen?!" Goku asked, quite shocked.
"No, but I can make educated guesses based on what I do know," King Kai countered, holding up a finger to illustrate his point. "For instance, that Saiyan warrior you two fought is still very much alive and trapped on Earth."
"WHAT?!" both brothers yelled, very distressed. "Piccolo wasn't able to kill him?!"
"What about Gohan, Hayato, and Kouma?! Our families and friends?! The earth?!"
"Calm down!" King Kai ordered, causing both to freeze as they reined in their fears and emotions. "Yes, the Saiyan warrior Raditz is still alive. But don't worry, he isn't going around destroying everything and killing people. It seems that he received a transmission from one of his colleagues out in space, the former monarch of your race, Prince Vegeta. It seems that he and the other Saiyan had been listening in on everything that happened during your encounters with Raditz. Raditz has since been ordered to locate and collect your sons in preparation for their arrival. And when they heard that there might be the possibility of a female Saiyan on Earth, it really piqued their interests."
"What? Why?" Goku asked.
On the other hand, Ranma quickly pieced it together with a look of disgust, horror, and anger drifting across his face. "No! No, he won't! Shampoo is MY wife! There is NO WAY I'm gonna let him lay a finger on her or any of my family!"
"But that's not the only reason they're going there," King Kai continued, watching Ranma's simmering anger closely for a moment. "It seems that they are also interested in examining the fighting potential and prowess of your two's sons. As I'm sure you're both already aware, your sons all seem to possess a potential that far exceeds anything that the previous Saiyan race was capable of. They are coming to see the extent of that potential and to see if crossbreeding with the humans of Earth might produce similarly powerful half-breeds."
Ranma and Goku both had looks of concern, uncertainty, and anger as they tried to work through these revelations. King Kia allowed them a brief moment to think on things before he cleared his throat loudly and focused his attention squarely on Ranma. This time, that look of disapproval had returned and utterly unmistakable for anything else. "Speaking of which, you have some explaining to do, Son Ranma. There were only supposed to be four Saiyans left. The dying embers of a once-monstrous race. Why have you doubled that number?"
For a moment, Ranma froze, feeling very strangely like a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar. A feeling that was only compounded more as he felt Goku glance between the two of them in confusion. "Ah…how do you know about that?"
"You think the Kais don't pay attention to the wishes used on those 'Dragonballs' of yours?" King Kai counter-asked. "We need to make sure that someone doesn't wish themselves to be made into gods or something equally ridiculous like that after all."
"Wait, you made yourself a Saiyan?" Goku asked, focusing upon Ranma. "When was this?"
"When me and the girls went after the balls on our own that one time," Ranma answered easily.
"Wait, does this mean that you're really-really my brother?!" a look of dawning glee on his face as a wide smile rose up.
"Yes, Goku, that's the important part," King Kai stated in a clearly exaggerated sarcastic tone. "Not that he just doubled the amount of a race who once almost destroyed an entire galaxy while 'looking for a good time'!"
"Yehee!" Goku cheered, throwing his arms up in joy. If he'd been able to, Goku would've also been jumping for joy as well. "Ranma's my brother! Ranma's my brother!"
Despite the seriousness of the conversations they'd been having, Ranma couldn't help the small smile from crossing his face as Goku's easy acceptance. However, the third of their number was nowhere near as pleased as Goku. Materializing a lead mallet in his hand, King Kai smacked Goku upside the head, sending him crashing to the ground with a severe grimace of agony on his face. As Goku painfully pushed himself back to his feet, King Kai returned his disapproving gaze upon Ranma. "Explain. Now."
Ranma shrugged nonchalantly. "Don't see what's there to explain. I wanted to be Goku's brother and I wanted to always get stronger."
"That explains you," King Kai snarked. "But what about the other three?"
"Well, my wife and her grandmother also wanted to get stronger and I might as well have offered it to my rival so that he'd have the same advantages that I have," Ranma said simply, completely unrepentant of what he'd done and not seeing what was wrong with it. "Otherwise, he wouldn't really be my rival after a while."
"That's it?" Now the look of disapproval on the Kai's face faltered, changing to something that Ranma couldn't quite identify. "You all just wanted to get strong?" He raised his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose in annoyed exasperation. "And because of that, you just re-released evolution's greatest 'fuck you' to the rest of the universe just to get stronger?!"
"I don't see what the problem is," Ranma said, crossing his arms somewhat indignantly as he gazed down on the Kai with a slight glare. "There's only me, Goku, Ryoga, Cologne, Shampoo, and Kouma, isn't there? I might not know much about biology and genetics, but even I know that that's not enough to make a viable population, right? …Well, not without some REALLY weird fetishes."
The look on King Kai's face as he gazed at Ranma started out as disbelieving exasperation. But then realization of something struck him and his expression turned to that of resigned exasperation instead. "You don't know."
"Know what?" both Ranma and Goku asked.
"You have no idea what Elder Cologne plans to do with the Dragonballs when they're all gathered together again, do you?" King Kai asked, his knowing gaze bouncing between the two.
"Huuh?"
"How do you think she's been able to convince so many others of her people to come from your own universe to here?" King Kai asked, focusing his question on Ranma.
"What's he talking about?" Goku asked, glancing at Ranma.
However, Ranma didn't answer as his mind was racing, trying to piece together the answer from the hints that King Kai had been giving them. It didn't take long. "Wait, do you mean…?"
"That's right, Ranma," King Kai said, though his tone was anything but congratulatory. "She's planning to make every single member that's migrated over into a Saiyan with one wish. Congratulations, you've doomed your world, the galaxy, and the universe."
"We won't let that happen!" Goku snapped, his gaze fierce and resolved.
"And what happens when you're both dead, and three generations later, the Saiyans still have the instinct to fight?!" King Kai demanded. Seeing their looks of confusion, King Kai sighed heavily. "Fine, allow me to explain a bit of the Saiyan origins on their homeworld of Planet Vegeta." And so, King Kai revealed to the two of them what had happened several hundred years ago. Of how the Saiyans had crash-landed upon Planet Plant and started building their civilization anew. Of how they came into conflict with the original inhabitants of the planet and the eventual genocide of that race, the Tuffles.
Once King Kai finished telling them this story, he gave them a hard stare as he asked, "So, how are you sure this fate won't happen to the Earth after you're both gone?"
Ranma and Goku were silent, as they had been throughout the retelling. Then, slowly, they turned and shared a firm glance between each other before they returned to their gazes upon the Kai.
Kami's Lookout
Same time…
"Remember, you must follow the natural channels of ki within the body," Kami coached softly, watching with budding pride at his two apprentices.
Kami stood at the threshold of a small side room that had been converted into an impromptu hospital and classroom. Kneeling next to a pair of special mannequins that had a complex series of lines engraved into them were Ukyo and Chichi. Both of them were holding their palms the dummies as a soft ki washed out from them and across the mannequins. The ki filled the engraved lines with a soft green glow as it traveled up and down the lengths of the body. Whenever they made a mistake or allowed their ki to drift out of the preset lines, there would be a small cry from the mannequin as the area where it happened flared red. Those incidents had been common place when they'd started this training, but now only occurred a handful of times a day.
The two young mothers were presently learning how to use their ki to heal people. Unlike what was required with the fighters of the team, the two budding healers didn't need immense fighting power but perfect ki control. The Guardian of the Earth was somewhat surprised by these two. Given their martial natures and upbringing, they seemed to possess a natural skill at the difficult art of healing. Once they'd figured out the trick of healing, they had started growing in leaps and bounds.
"Very good," Kami stated, judging that the lesson had run its course. "That's enough for now. Go rest and recover. We'll pick up again in an hour. Tomorrow, I think I'll let you practice on one of the less-wounded fighters."
"Thanks, Kami," Ukyo said, nodding towards him as she and Chichi stood up. As they exited the room, Ukyo caught the calculative look in Chichi's eyes. "What's on your mind, Chichi?"
Startled from her thoughts, Chichi shot Ukyo a slight deer-in-the-headlights look before she relaxed. "I think I now know what I want Gohan to be when he grows up. A doctor."
Ukyo chuckled slightly as she already caught onto Chichi's thoughts. "Right. And after you teach him how to use this ki-healing technique, he could become a world-famous miracle doctor that all of the high-paying jobs and influential people will flock to. That way, he, his wife, and future children will be set for life, right?"
"Exactly!" Chichi chirped with her eyes sparkling in excitement over her cunning plan for her child's potentially bright future.
"Well, it is a new exercise for using his ki, so I guess Goku probably wouldn't throw too much of a fit over it," Ukyo mused as they exited the palace and walked off to the side. Ukyo dropped lightly down to sit upon the tiled floor and rested her back on the palace's wall alongside Chichi as they watched the intense sparring session that was happening between Shampoo and Cologne.
Both women were little more than blurs of speed as thunderous explosions echoed across the open air of the Lookout's massive courtyard. Though she couldn't see much of the action anymore, Ukyo was able to glimpse a few split-seconds of fighting and it seemed that her co-wife was giving as good as she got. Then, abruptly, it came to an end when Cologne dropkicked Shampoo in the face and sent her crashing to the ground with a pained cry. Cologne landed lightly on the ground and watched her slowly recovering descendent try to pick herself up. Though it might've seemed that she was humoring Shampoo because of her obvious exhaustion, Ukyo could somewhat see that the youthful Elder was barely controlling her own breathing and shivering body as well.
"Get up, Shampoo!" Cologne barked harshly. "We're not done yet!"
"I know…I know," Shampoo groaned back as she finally managed to push herself over so that she was lying on the ground, propped up on her elbows.
"Wow, that was hard," came a pained and exhausted voice from inside the palace. All four women turned to watch as the male fighters stumbled outside. Krillin and Yamcha even collapsed to the ground gracelessly, chests heaving rapidly for air. Needless to say, their training in the Pendulum Room was proving to be very, very harsh.
"Do we really have to train this hard?" Mousse complained as usual. Although, to his credit, he was every bit as exhausted and torn up as the rest of the fighters were. "Surely they can't be as challenging as that!"
"Of all that, and probably more," Cologne replied.
"How would you know?!" Mousse challenged immediately, glaring with all of the intense dislike he possessed for the Elder. "Have you ever fought a Saiyan before?!"
"Boy, I've been fighting one the entire time I've been here," Cologne said bluntly as she gestured towards Shampoo, who was finally starting to push herself back to her feet. "Why do you think her boys have tails?"
"What? But I thought that was because of Ranma," Krillin interjected, though he remained on his back from exhaustion.
"In Hayato's case, yes," Cologne acknowledged with a nod. "In Kouma's case, it's from both."
"Does that mean you're a Saiyan too?" Tien asked slowly with a narrowed gaze. He remembered quite well all of the times that Shampoo and Mousse called this woman her great-grandmother. It didn't seem farfetched to ask, especially given that appearances could be deceiving.
Cologne shot Tien a rather smug smile. "Indeed. It seems that you're the smartest one on this tower."
"Huh? Wait a second!" Yamcha spoke up, pulling himself up into a seated position on the floor. "That Raditz guy said that there were only four left in the galaxy!"
"And to the best of his knowledge, he was probably right," Cologne said, nodding to the young man's point. "But there also seems to be something on this planet that can give people whatever they want."
"I see, so that's what you used the Dragonballs for," Tien murmured.
"The dragon's what?" Mousse asked, looking Tien with a perplexed expression.
However, Mousse's question was ignored as Kami walked over from the side. "I had wondered what he'd wished for even after he'd removed his curse."
"So, wait, does that mean you knew that Goku was an alien already?" Yamcha asked, very puzzled.
"No," Shampoo said, finally speaking up. "Ranma wished that he could be Goku's brother in truth rather than spirit. And with Goku always getting stronger, Ranma offered that courtesy to me, grandmother, and one other – "
"Wait, wait, wait!" Krillin cried out, jumping to his feet with wide eyes. "Are you saying that there's another Saiyan that's wandering around on Earth, aside from Raditz?!"
Cologne, Shampoo, and even Ukyo all chuckled at the word 'wandering'. This confused the fighters for a moment before Cologne clarified. "Wandering is right. That fool wouldn't be able to find north even if he had a map, compass, and clear and precise directions." Dawning looks of realization filtered across all of the Dragon Team since all of them had bumped into the aforementioned Lost Man on several occasions, even fought him a time or two.
"Hold on a second!" Mousse yelled I fast-growing anger. "That bastard let Ryoga become stronger and not me?!"
As Ukyo and Shampoo bristled at the blind duck's insinuation, Cologne quickly spoke up in an effort to stave off a fight. The rest of the fighters just watched with slight confusion. Although they'd been training alongside him for a while now, none of them had really managed to learn anything about Mousse's past relationship with the Son family since neither he nor they wanted to talk about it. So, the strange antipathy they could sense between him and them was somewhat confusing since they didn't have any context about it.
"Don't be a fool, Mousse!" Cologne barked out. "Before he'd made the wish, you'd tried to kill him several times. And although he probably would've been able to forgive that, you also kept getting in the way of him and his wife. However, at this point in time, I might reconsider such things. And, in fact, might extend the courtesy to more than just the people of my village." The glance she shot towards the Dragon Team made the hint of that statement all-too-obvious for all of them.
"No," Yamcha spoke up as soon as he figured it out. "We're saving that wish to bring Ranma and Goku back."
"Aahhh, but we don't need to use these Dragonballs," Cologne said as she pulled out the magic compass from a ki-pocket. "This is a magic compass that could point us towards and bring us to the things we want most, even if it's in another dimension. We could use the balls of another world instead."
"No!" Tien barked out, looking absolutely insulted and borderline angry. "I am human! I am proud to be human! I'm NOT going to throw my humanity away just for strength!"
"Ha!" Cologne barked out laughingly. "Pride in your race is worthless! All that matters in the coming battle is how strong you are! And humans simply cannot match Saiyans! For example, you know as well as I do that when a person breaks a bone, that bone is forever weakened as a result. So many small, incremental injuries build up over time. And, even though the person is still in the prime of his life, the warrior or sportsman will have to retire to prevent themselves from becoming truly crippled or even dead! Saiyans don't have that limitation! When those broken bones are healed, they become stronger than they were! That is why the Saiyans are often reputed to be potentially one of the strongest of the universe!"
If Tien had looked insulted and angry before, he was positively livid now. Chiaotzu just looked remorseful as he glanced between Tien and Cologne. Krillin and Yamcha both looked flabbergasted, having not truly understood the exact differences between Saiyans and humans (aside from the whole tail transforming trick). Ukyo and Shampoo just looked at the ground with annoyed and resigned expressions on their faces since they could already see what Cologne was trying to do here. Chichi looked surprised and thoughtful, cocking her head as she contemplated these revelations. On the other hand, Mousse looked torn between seething fury that his hated enemy had gained such a tremendous advantage and hopeful cunning as he tried to figure out a way that he could gain such power for himself.
After giving them a moment to gather their thoughts, Cologne continued, "Mark my words. When the two hostile Saiyans arrive, it shall be myself, Shampoo, Ranma, and Goku who'll deal with them."
At that, all of the Dragon Team took offense. But it was Mousse who voiced his displeasure first. "Didn't you bring me here to train and help defend the world?!"
"If you recall, I referred to you as a 'meat shield' to defend the real fighters," Cologne pointed out bluntly. She ignored Mousse's bristling as she turned back to the others. "Now, why don't you lot get back to your playfighting while Shampoo and I finish up our training for the day? Shoo-shoo!" She even accentuated her final command with a casual wave of her hand, as though she were an aristocratic lady trying to order an unliked servant to leave her presence, before walking back out towards the more open area of the courtyard. Shampoo shot the group an apologetic look before hurrying after her grandmother to continue their sparring.
With a loud snarl, Tien spun around and marched back into the palace with a determined gait in his steps. Their exhaustion forgotten in light of Cologne's demeaning speech and the new revelations they'd learned, the rest of the fighters were just a few moments behind him, tempers hot and determination refocused. Their destination was the dreaded Pendulum Room that they'd only just exited mere minutes ago.
It was as the men were walking away that Kami shared a brief look with Elder Cologne and nodded. Harsh though her words may be, he couldn't deny that she had also spoken the truth. Her words had also pushed the fighters to train all the harder, even if it was only to prove her wrong. It was an interesting tactic. An attack to their pride as warriors when compared to his own attempts at instilling purpose to them as Earth's greatest and only defenders. It would not have been a method he'd choose, but he couldn't deny its effectiveness on his students.
Perhaps they would stand more of a chance against the Saiyans than her words seemed to indicate?
January 9, Age 762
Southern Wastelands
It was near midnight and the pair of hunters were close to their prey. However, despite their best efforts, they still couldn't quite find them. It had been a dogged game of cat and mouse. But one that was finally, if slowly, starting to come to an end as they were drawing unerringly closer to their goal. Where once they might've been several dozen miles away, they were now less than a kilometer, despite the prey's constant movement.
Floating somewhat lazily through the air, the two warriors stared down at the ground below them with narrowed, focused gazes. Their prey had long since abandoned the islands of the southern sea for the more plentiful hiding places of the continent. With his now budding ki-sense that he'd learned through observation and practice, Raditz was taking a much more active role in the search than he had been. Although his scouter was near-dead at this point, he still kept it on for familiarity's sake than anything else. Nearby his…dare he say it 'friend', Ryoga, was staring searchingly through a small woodland, seeking out any life essence therein that were even a slight bit higher than the common wildlife of the area. This was admittedly a more difficult task than one might've expected since dinosaurs were quite prominent in this area, who possessed substantially stronger ki than more other animals, a perfect place to hide in.
Once sure that the woodland held nothing more than what was expected, Ryoga finally looked up at Raditz. He needed to ask a question, and it had been gnawing at him for weeks. However, he'd tried not asking out of an understanding that his companion wasn't in the mood for idle chitchat due to his mood being almost perpetually dark and brooding. It was a mindset that Ryoga well understood from his teenage years, so he knew that to ask even a slightly personal questions would go over well. But, now, he just couldn't stop himself any longer.
"I've been with you for a while now," Ryoga started slowly, calmly. "Could you tell me who these people you're looking for are? And why you're looking for them?"
"We're looking for my nephews," Raditz answered shortly, remaining focused on his search.
"Why are your nephews running away from you?" Admittedly, with how hard of a man Raditz could be at times, Ryoga wasn't about to judge the kids wanting some space from him for a little bit. However, that didn't explain why this search had gone on for so long.
"Because they were kidnapped," Raditz barked out. Even if he didn't know it, that was honest truth, if not the whole truth.
Ooohh! Now that made much more sense! "So, we're trying to rescue your nephews?"
"Yes! Yes, that's exactly it!"
"Well, when we catch this kidnapper guy, I'll hold him down while you kill him," Ryoga offered with a slight grin.
That suggestion jarred Raditz out of his single-minded focus enough to cause him to look up at the strange young man with an unreadable expression. "…Mighty kind of you… But if we continue like this, it could be weeks more before we catch up. And I don't trust that we split up because we don't know that you'll not teleport to the other side of the planet."
"Heheh, yeah, that'd be a problem when trying to herd to a location," Ryoga admitted, a sheepish expression on his face. "Got any other ideas?"
Before Raditz could answer one way or other, the area was suddenly brightly illuminated in a pale white light as the moon emerged from behind some clouds. Glancing up at it through the lens of his scouter, which worked to shield him from the blutz waves, he stared at it for a long moment before he looked back down at Ryoga. "A bad one."
"How bad?" Why did that sound somewhat ominous?
"General destruction of the area to force them out of hiding," Raditz admitted.
Ryoga blinked slightly. "How is that a bad idea?"
Raditz blinked as he stared at Ryoga, before a wry grin spread across his face. 'Truly, it'll be a right shame to purge this planet.' Without answering immediately, he instead reached up, unclipped his scouter, and tossed it to Ryoga. "Don't wander off too far. I'm about to transform into a giant monster and destroy the landscape."
"Can you define 'giant'?" Ryoga asked as Raditz turned to look up fully at the full moon. Not receiving an answer, he tried again, "No, seriously, define 'giant.' Are we talking T-Rex-big or Godzilla-big? Cause if it's…"
Ryoga trailed off he watched Raditz start to spasm and grow. His tail unfurled from his waist he rapidly started growing dense black fur all over his body. His face morphed into that a giant ape as his eyes literally turned red after his irises faded. After just a few moments, the monster that had once been Raditz had transformed into a beast that the size of several stories-tall buildings, still curiously dressed in his badly cracked armor. Dropping down to ground below with a thunderous crash, the monster ape let out a huge roar of triumph as it raised its massive arms into the air.
As the monster turned and started indiscriminately crushing, blasting, and kicking everything within sight, Ryoga remained floating high overhead while muttering to himself, "Ah, Godzilla-big."
Not too far away from where their hunters were, Piccolo and his three burdens were busy setting up yet another temporary camp. This one was located inside a cave in a small rocky mound that Piccolo had blasted into existence. Now, the green demon was standing off to the side with a fierce scowl on his face and his arms crossed while the boys scampered about doing their usual chores to make it semi-inhabitable.
"Scrapper, get the fire started! Alpha, go get some water! Runt, you're on first watch!" Piccolo barked out. Not out of necessity of them needing guidance at this point, but more as a means of trying to keep himself occupied. He was slightly happy at how quickly they all jumped at his orders, but he was unhappy at how this game had forced him to get closer to the sons of his enemies than he'd wanted.
They trusted him. They trust him to watch over them as they slept, which is something that he'd never have trust to anyone else if he'd ever sleep like they did. Still, the close proximity had improved their training more than if they had been left on their own. Already, he could see hints of his own style in their techniques and movements whenever they sparred together. Considering that they'd only ever seen him train by himself while using the Multiform Technique, it was rather impressive. And, as much as he hated to admit it even to himself, it gave him a sense of pride in knowing that he was leaving a mark on this world, creating his own legacy rather than inheriting one.
Glancing off to the side, Piccolo raised his brow slightly as he saw that Hayato (or Alpha as he'd taken to calling him) had stopped and was staring of into the distance near the cave entrance. The runt of the trio, Gohan, was also staring off at seemingly the same thing, but what made Piccolo curious was that Alpha should've already entered back into the cave by this point. Something strange was happening. Frowning, he glanced down at Scrapper, who'd just finished lighting the fire and gave a simple, "Stay here."
Approaching the other two, he called over, "What is it? What do you see?" Reaching them, he stared off at what had entranced them. "Oh, it's the moon. Why are you staring at the—?" Before he could finish his question, he suddenly felt the pair's ki start to fluctuate and grow wildly. His keen ears could hear the powerful drums of their hearts pulsing in their chests as their bodies began convulsing and changing and growing in size. Piccolo could only stare in bewilderment as he ducked back into the cave. "This is new."
After just a few moments, Runt and Alpha were roaring out bestial battle cries of rage and triumph that echoed across the landscape. Then, as if just noticing one another, they promptly turned and started bashing the other with their monstrous fists in a feral battle of dominance.
"Oh, that's not good!" Piccolo murmured to himself as he raced back, grabbed Scrapper by the back of his gi, and flew outside and high into the air. And he hadn't been a moment too soon as the small cave they had been in was crushed into rubble as one of the giant apes was thrown back and collapsed upon it. Maintaining his position high in the air, Piccolo watched as the two continued their battle, struggling to understand what was happening. "Scrapper, what the hell is going on?!"
Not receiving an answer, he looks down at the boy under his arm. "Scrapper?" Then he heard the same battle drum start beating inside the last boy's chest as his eyes went white and his body started changing right in Piccolo's arms.
"Oh crapbaskets!" Piccolo groaned as he quickly dropped the boy. Kouma landed on his feet, already full transformed into yet another giant ape and quickly inserted himself into the ongoing struggle of his brother and cousin. From the looks of things, the three of them were pretty evenly matched and were giving as good as they got. Piccolo could do nothing but stare as he tries to puzzle out what's happening and why. "Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit!"
Then, seemingly from out of nowhere, an even larger form dropped down from above. This giant ape was dressed in armor and shook the ground something fierce as it's massive former towered over the trio, showing a clear difference between a fully grown adult and the juveniles. The three boys all stopped their battle as they turned almost confused gazes upon the newcomer, who promptly threw up his arms and let out a huge, domineering roar, showing clearly and unequivocally who was the strongest present. However, none of the three were willing to submit and all immediately charged forward to challenge this stranger who dared tried to cow them! The big ape easily leapt up and dropkicked the center before clotheslining the other two.
Piccolo just stared at aghast horror as he watched the battle ensue. Seeing Raditz in a giant ape form had quickly helped him put the dots together and remember some of the tidbits of information he'd overheard at Kame House months ago. He remembered Raditz talking about Goku never being able to reach his full potential because he'd cut off his tail. Was this what he was talking about? This giant ape form was their full power and potential? If so, did that mean that to remove the tail would force them to return to normal? As much as he wanted to, he could test his frantic theory because the four Apes were moving around too much in that wrestling style clusterfuck they were engaged in. Meaning he had no clear shot to blast one of their tails just yet.
Just as Piccolo was regaining his bearings, he became aware of a second presence that had drifted up next to him as it said, "It's like watching Toho live."
Turning, Piccolo shot Ryoga a hard stare as he recognized him. "Wait, you're that lost idiot."
"And you're the weirdo who's always standing on mountains," Ryoga countered easily.
"So, you really have teamed up with Raditz?" Piccolo demanded.
Ryoga just nodded with a very angry expression on his face. "And that means you're the guy who kidnapped his nephews."
Even as Piccolo was registering Ryoga's hostility towards him, and the likely reason that he'd been fed lies by Raditz, Piccolo suddenly had an epiphany. Without another word towards Ryoga, Piccolo spun around as he gathered a large chunk of his ki, forming it into a powerful ball, and blasting it upwards at great speeds. It traveled so fast that the ki ball looked more like a beam with its trailing tail of ambient energy. But when it hit its target, the result was quite explosive. When the light of the explosion died down, so too had the pale light of the full moon as the entire satellite had been vaporized to dust.
Ryoga stared up at the now moonless sky with a look of complete confusion on his face. "The point of that was…? Cause that's not going to stop me from holding you down while he kills you."
"You don't know what's going on here, idiot!" Piccolo snapped as he turned his attention down to the four figures below. Sure enough, without the moonlight feeding their transformations, all of them were rapidly shrinking down and changing back to normal.
"I know enough," Ryoga countered. "You kidnapped my friends' nephews and blew up the moon. A weird direction to go in, but, hey, some people are just crazy."
Piccolo shot Ryoga a dirty glare at that statement. But in doing so, he was able to see that Ryoga was just running his mouth to cope with a weird situation. So, that being the case, the green demon decided to ignore him and dropped back down the earth. He took up a protective stance between the three unconscious, nude boys and the quietly chuckling Saiyan warrior. Ryoga was just a split second behind him, landing off to the side so that he could attack Piccolo from an angle that wouldn't endanger the boys. "So, you finally caught up to us, Saiyan."
"Saiyan?" Ryoga repeated quietly to himself. 'Why does that word sound familiar?' Like a freight train hitting him in the testicles, Ryoga suddenly remembered, as well as the implications that he'd been ignorantly helping a vicious space pirate began setting in. A younger, more impulsive Ryoga would've immediately attacked Raditz on the spot there and then. But now, older and wiser, Ryoga decided to take a figurative step back and watch what unfolded.
"Relax, green man," Raditz said, not seeming to notice his companion's faltering state. His attention was focused squarely on Piccolo. "I'm not here to fight you. I'm here for the whelps."
"Knew there was a reason you looked like Goku," Ryoga muttered to himself.
"And I'm just supposed to take your word for it?!" Piccolo snapped back as he started collecting ki into his palm.
In response, Raditz holds up his hand in a stopping gesture. It was equal parts a suggestion and a threat, and they all knew it. "How about trusting my own enlightened sense of self-interest, Namekian!"
"Namekian? What?" Piccolo asked, looking and sounding just as confused as Ryoga did. But after a moment, he shook off his confusion as he refocused on the more immediate problem in front of him. "…Explain yourself."
"Suffice to say, I'm likely as dead as the rest of this planet will be when Prince Vegeta and Nappa arrive," Raditz stated bluntly. "You see, I failed. I failed in my mission to recover my brother. And the Prince doesn't deal with failure very well. It's in my own best interests that you all stay alive and get stronger, which will help me survive when they get here?"
"Wh-WHAT?!" Piccolo gasped out, looking as horrified at the implications as Ryoga. "The other two Saiyans are coming here?! WHY?!"
"It's because of these three," Raditz said, as he gestured down towards the toddlers with an almost respectful gaze. "Well, them and their possible Saiyan mother. You see, the existence of possibly the last remaining female Saiyan has piqued the Prince's interests for obvious reasons."
"Wait, they're coming for Cologne and Shampoo?" Ryoga asked, finally inserting himself actively into the conversation and earning the pair's questioning gazes.
"Wait, what? Two?" Raditz asked, looking surprised and even slightly startled. "Which one was the woman who birthed these two?"
"Well, they all actually had different moms," Ryoga answered, feeling kinda sheepish and uncomfortable for reasons he refused to contemplate. But he gamely ignored those feelings as he pressed on. "I mean, Kouma's mom, Shampoo, is a Saiyan but Hayato's mom is a human."
"Then, this one has to be from 'Cologne'," Raditz said, more to himself as he looked down at Gohan, knowing that he was his brother's son. The family resemblance was very strong after all.
But Ryoga just shook his head. "No, Cologne's over 300-years-old. All her kids are long dead, I think, maybe? But she is Shampoo's great-grandmother, many greats- actually. I forget how many."
Needless to say, Raditz was fast becoming utterly flabbergasted at these new revelations. "What? How? WHA-?!"
"That doesn't matter!" Piccolo barked, trying to get the conversation back on track.
Sadly, Raditz wasn't quite done yet. "B-B-But there's more Saiyans who survived than I thought!" He was so overcome by this revelation that he actually had to take a few steps away and take a seat on a nearby boulder, working frantically to sort this new information out. After just a moment, he looked up with an almost hesitantly-hopeful expression. "And Ranma? Ranma really was a Saiyan too?"
"Ranma is a Saiyan too," Ryoga corrected and acknowledged, his gaze narrowing slightly. "What do you mean 'was' though?"
"Cause this idiot killed him," Piccolo 'helpfully' supplied, trying his damnedest to not smile. Both at the situation they were in and the memory of it happening.
"Wh-What?! Killed?" Ryoga repeated, dumbfounded, horror-struck, and just not comprehending that such a thing could be possible. "As in…Ranma's dead?!" After a long moment, Ryoga's body started visibly tensing up, his ki spiking up tremendously as he turned an absolutely furious glare upon Raditz. "You…YOU BASTARD!"
As he was rushing forward to bury his knuckles into Raditz's throat, Piccolo suddenly jumped in and caught him in a Full Nelson. Despite all of his fury-enhanced strength, he was unable to break the steely grip of Piccolo who held him tight. "Calm down! He'll be back before you know it! Do you really think their friends will let him stay dead?"
Raditz looks up at Piccolo with a confused stare as Ryoga starts to slowly calm down. By the time Piccolo had judged Ryoga calm enough to release, Raditz's curiosity finally got the better of him. "What? What do you mean 'won't let him stay dead'? Dead is dead, him and Kakarot both!"
Piccolo just the confused Saiyan a knowing smirk. "Wouldn't you like to know. On this world, we have something that can defeat death."
"Defeat death?" Raditz repeated, looking torn between disbelieving and almost yearning. "That's…That's insane!"
"Insane or not, it's entirely true," Piccolo remarks. Even Ryoga nods in agreement now that he's really started to calm down.
Refocusing himself and trying to put that horrible revelation behind him, Ryoga shoots Raditz a look of anger and betrayal before clearly asking Piccolo, "Alright, so what do we do now?"
"Nothing, we need him," Piccolo growled out, also sending Raditz a slight glare.
"What do you mean 'we need him'?" Yeah, Ryoga was still pretty steamed at his former companion.
"Did you already forget what he just said?" Piccolo asked, sending a glare towards the simpleton. "There are two more Saiyans on their way here already. And I'm guessing that they are even stronger than him if he's already willing to try and work with us to help himself survive. Having another Saiyan on hand can only help us."
"But we don't need him," Ryoga countered, sounding almost childish in his exclamation. "We've got me right here."
Raditz and Piccolo both did a near-identical double-take as the implication of that statement hit them. Raditz gained a look of complete understanding that washed over him as the numerous clues and similarities between him and Ryoga he'd seen over the few months suddenly took on a greater meaning than he'd first thought. On the other hand, Piccolo just pinched the bridge of his nose in aggravation as he groaned out, "Of course, you're a Saiyan too. Just how many of you are on this planet?!"
Ryoga shrugged nonchalantly, not seeing what the problem was. "Me, Ranma, Shampoo, Cologne, Goku, and these three—FOUR, technically." He added that last bit while glaring over at Raditz.
"Oh, good," Piccolo said sarcastically before he turned serious again. "You at least can help me train these three. I'm not sure how hard I can push them without breaking them."
Raditz let out a loud bark of laughter at that. Even Ryoga looked somewhat amused, much to Piccolo's confusion. "Trust me, green man, breaking them is probably the BEST THING you could do!" Ryoga nodded in reluctant agreement.
At Piccolo's continued confusion, the pair of them sat down and explained the basic characteristics of Saiyan biology. Needless to say, by the end of the explanation, Piccolo was desperately torn between wanting to bang his head against a rock for twenty minutes, scream out 'BULLSHIT!', and just stew in unbridled jealousy. Thankfully, he was distracted from those thoughts as Raditz decided to throw him a bone and explain the true origins of his own race, the Namekians.
(Author's Note) Whoo! Don't know why, but this chapter really fought me. But I'm glad it's finally over. We're not pasted the 'halfway' point of the training arc of the Saga. So many interesting things happened in this chapter. I wonder which of them interested you guys the most?
The thing that's most pressing to me, as an author, is what you guys think of Kouma and Hayato. Do you like how their individual personalities are shaping up to be like? Any ideas for how I could 'improve' upon them? Or are they good enough as is because they're so young and relatively inexperienced?
That aside, I'm guessing that the thing that really caught most of your attentions was probably Raditz's apparent choice to switch sides. Admittedly, I had a lot of fun writing his parts in the story. Well, his and Ryoga's interactions, because they are so similar and yet so different in some ways. It was a very fun experience for me. But is Raditz being genuine or is this some kind of elaborate trap in a desperate bid to gain Vegeta's favor again?
Just how powerful are Goku and Ranma going to become now that they've got a 9-months to train with King Kai instead of the 6 that Goku had in canon, not mention they have each other as sparring partners as well to further push themselves against?
How well will the Dragon Team fair under Cologne's derisive fist and Kami's gentle hand? Can they make it through the training intact or will their wills be broken before the Saiyans even arrive? And will Akane EVER make it up onto the Lookout in time to join in with the rest of the team?
I guess the only way to know for certain is to read the next chapter. So, stay tuned for it!
Power Levels:
Raditz (age 30): 1,900, 19,000 (Oozaru)
Piccolo (age 9): 1,630 (with weights)
Shampoo (age 21): 1,050 (with weights)
Cologne (physical age 40): 1,050
Ryoga (age 21) 880, 950 (furious)
Goku (age 24): 760 (with weights)
Ranma (age 21): 760 (with weights)
Tien Shinhan (age 28): 520
Krillin (age 24): 510
Yamcha (age 28): 495
Mousse (age 21): 470
Yajirobe (age 26): 450
Akane (age 21): 400
Chichi (age 24): 350
Ukyo (age 21): 320
Kouma (age 3): 190, 1,900 (Oozaru)
Hayato (age 3): 180, 1,800 (Oozaru)
Gohan (age 4): 170, 1,700 (Oozaru)