Fighting Back
Sunday morning, pretty much everyone had slept in. The morning was quiet, aside from Raditz and Goku's conversation about the previous night. Raditz knew Frieza just as well as Vegeta did, and told Goku that they were idiots for going over there. Raditz called Vegeta, knowing he would need help.
"Vegeta, it's Raditz."
"Yeah, Raditz. What do you want?"
"You know why I'm calling."
"Your idiot brother told you everything, didn't he?"
"He didn't have a choice after last night."
A moment of silence, then "Mind your own business, Raditz."
"Just get over here today so we can discuss the job."
Vegeta hung up, but Raditz knew him well enough to know he'd be over their house later. He looked at his brother, who wore a face of both concern and confusion. "Vegeta's coming over." Raditz told him.
"Raditz, what kind of jobs does Vegeta do for Frieza?" Goku asked demandingly.
"Listen, Kakarot, I don't think I should talk to you about that right now. Vegeta will be pissed if I'm talking about his business." Raditz said evasively as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"Then what have you done for Frieza?" Goku asked, raising an eyebrow. He realized that his brother must have had dealings with the guy in the past for how familiar he seemed to the situation.
"The guy is a criminal, Kakarot, a scary one. He's got people all over the place, and the cops can't touch him." Raditz complained, a hint of anger showing.
"You didn't answer my question, Raditz." Goku pressed.
Raditz hung his head and sighed for a minute, then looked up, frowning at his brother. "Frieza needed some muscle to deal with nonpaying customers. When we started going to Wakusei High, you could say Dodoria and Zarbon were…recruiting." Raditz said with a slight shrug. Goku was attentive and waiting for the rest of the story. "So…we wanted to buy some pot, you know, give it a try, but we didn't have the money. They saw we were strong and could handle ourselves, so they offered to give it to us in exchange for beating up a couple of guys. Only, it was more like beating them to within an inch of their lives." Goku's eyes widened in surprise. "Dodoria and Zarbon went with us on the first job to make sure we did just what they wanted. At first we refused, but they threatened us, saying we could be on the other end of something like this if we weren't careful. So, we beat the hell out of the guys, found out one of 'em died in the hospital." Raditz paused and looked at his brother warily as he waited for a reaction.
Goku looked sympathetic to Raditz, and though he was disgusted with what they did, he could see they had no choice at the time. "But why go back to Frieza after that? Why didn't you just stop buying from him, or pay with money after that?"
Raditz chuckled darkly. "Apparently we did a good job. Frieza especially took a liking to Vegeta because he seemed to be able to cut off that nerve. He could do horrible things to people, and walk away as if it was nothing. Frieza likes finding people when they're young, and he wasn't going to let Vegeta go easily. He refused to take money from us, and there's really no one else selling stuff in our area, he's got his own little monopoly going. We didn't buy anymore drugs for a while, so we managed to stay away from Frieza. But then, somebody mysteriously found a bag of drugs in Nappa's car at the school parking lot, and he was arrested. Zarbon came to the school and told Vegeta that if he did another job for Frieza, Frieza would get Nappa out of jail, clear his name. That's how the bastard works, and we just can't seem to get away from him." Raditz lamented. Before Goku could speak, Raditz became alert to something and shushed him. They heard a faint knocking sound and followed it to Goku's bedroom window. They opened the window to see Vegeta, looking bored and annoyed. They opened the window and Vegeta climbed in, careful not to disturb Bardock.
"I've been knocking at that window for the last five minutes. What the hell have you two been doing?" Vegeta asked in a hushed voice.
"Why didn't you try Raditz's window?" Goku asked.
"I knocked on his first! Don't you two pay attention when someone says they're coming over?" He growled at them.
"Actually, you didn't…" Raditz said. Vegeta growled and clenched his fist in Raditz's face.
"Shut up! Sometimes you're as bad as Kakarot." Vegeta rubbed his head in irritation at the two brothers.
"So what does Frieza want?" Raditz decided to ask after a moment of silence.
Vegeta sighed. "Same thing he always wants."
"So when are we doing it?" Raditz inquired further.
"We're not." Vegeta said, changing his expression to a smirk as he looked like he was up to something.
"What?!" Raditz fought to keep his volume down at his surprise. "Have you lost your mind?! How can you expect to get away with that?" Raditz was clearly terrified of the idea.
"Fuck Frieza. I'm done taking orders from him. Dodoria and Zarbon are wimps compared to me, and they can't come to school with weapons." Vegeta did seem to have it figured out, as he knew Frieza's way of doing things.
"Hold on!" Goku said, his first time speaking up in a while. "Those guys are going to come to Mt. Paozu High?!" Goku asked, feeling protective of his school and classmates. "Why wouldn't they just go to your house to find you?"
"Don't worry, I can take care of them myself." Vegeta said proudly as he crossed his arms. "And think about it. If they came to my house, that would be suspicious to anyone that sees them. They definitely wouldn't want to make a scene by causing an incident there. But at school, they are just maintenance workers, and there are so many people there, they can easily blame someone else for a student being brutally beaten. Not that that's going to happen."
"Okay, let's just say you beat Dodoria and Zarbon, what happens after that?" Raditz asked, feeling frustrated now with Vegeta's suicidal plan.
"I'm not sure." Vegeta admitted. "I've never seen Frieza work without those two flunkies."
"Vegeta…" Raditz started, slowly shaking his head.
"Stay out of this, Raditz. You too, Kakarot. Frieza is my problem, I'll deal with him myself." Vegeta said confidently, and at that decided to leave, climbing back out the window and heading home, hopefully his absence unnoticed by his parents.
Raditz and Goku looked at each other. Vegeta might be fine with facing Dodoria and Zarbon, but what about Frieza? Raditz and Goku were worried for their friend. Goku was even more concerned about any innocent people getting involved in this with it being dragged into their school. Vegeta climbed back into his own bedroom window and laid on his bed, looking forward to getting some revenge against Frieza's henchmen.