Last time on Dragon Ball Z! For many years, Goku and Vegeta were considered the last two pure blooded Saiyans in Universe 7, but as fate would have it a few other Saiyans managed to survive. One of these Saiyans was named Tarble and he was the younger brother of Vegeta. His father, King Vegeta, exiled him from Planet Vegeta for being too weak and having too gentle of a nature unknowingly saving his youngest son from the destruction of Planet Vegeta and its people by the tyrannical emperor Frieza. From here, Tarble was sent to a remote Planet were he lived for decades in peace, until a pair of brothers by the name of Abo and Kado began to terrorize the Planet, causing Tarble to seek out his brother and his friends for help. But what if instead of landing on a remote Planet, Tarble landed on Planet Earth? How would his presence affect the Dragon Ball timeline? We find out now!
The Tale of a Forgotten Prince! What If Tarble Landed on Earth?
It is Age 733, and it has been a few days since the birth of the second Saiyan Prince, Tarble. Tarble is floating in an incubator while being watched by King Vegeta and a scientist. King Vegeta asks the scientist what his son's power level is, and the scientist tells him it's 100. King Vegeta lets out a loud "WHAT!" and grabs the scientist by his collar and demands to know what Tarble's true power level is. The scientist, with shaking hands, gives his scouter to King Vegeta so that he can check for himself. King Vegeta grabs the scouter, puts it on, and sees that the screen indeed says 100. King Vegeta stares at the screen for a few seconds before he takes off the scouter and crushes it with his hand, demanding to know how his own son can be so weak. He then stares at Tarble again and reasons that he is just a late bloomer and that in a few years he will be just as strong as his older brother, Vegeta.
(So because it was never stated what the average baby Saiyan power level was, I decided to make it 200, making Tarble look even more weak in comparison. I'm also having Vegeta's power level be 500 when he was a baby.)
We flash forward 4 years into the future and Tarble is fighting a Saibamen and is getting absolutely thrashed. King Vegeta and the same scientist from before are watching on, and the scientist tells King Vegeta that Tarble's power level has only grown to be about 125. King Vegeta sighs and looks over at Tarble who's being held up by his hair by the Saibamen. Right before the Sabiaman can finish Tarble off, King Vegeta dashes across the room and kicks the Sabiaman into a wall, killing it. Tarble smiles at his father, but before he can thank him, King Vegeta grabs Tarble by the throat and says " I can't believe that my own son, my own flesh and blood, is so weak that even a measly Sabiaman can knock him around. You are nothing like your brother Vegeta. If you were not my son I would have ended you years ago, but I will show you mercy and send you to a far away planet, where you can no longer disgrace our bloodline." With that, King Vegeta drops Tarble to the floor and walks away.
We then cut to the outside a few days later where some Saiyans are preparing a pod for Tarble to send him away to a distant planet. They place a suit of Battle Armor, a scouter, and a small amount of food in the pod. Tarble is standing next to his father who only looks at the Saiyans with a blank expression. When the Saiyans are done preparing Tarble's pod, King Vegeta tells them to "Leave us" and they do so with great haste. After they are gone, King Vegeta says to Tarble "Go". Tarble tries to say "B-but father-" but is cut off by King Vegeta who turns his head to Tarble and yells "GO"! Tarble quickly scurries over to his pod, gets in and the door shuts behind him. The pod then lifts up and begins to fly away and King Vegeta and Tarble stare at each other until they are too far away to see each other. After Tarble has left his eyesight, King Vegeta lowers his head, an unreadable expression on his face. As Tarble flies further and further away from Planet Vegeta, he starts to cry and begins to throw a tantrum. He slams his hands on the window and the controls, pushing all sorts of random buttons and eventually he accidentally throws himself off course from the remote Planet, and sets a new course for Planet Earth.
A few days later Tarble's pod crash lands at Capsule Corps, near Dr. Briefs laboratory. Dr. Briefs heads outside to see what the commotion is and finds a large white pod in a crater. He walks down the length of the crater and as he gets a good look at the mysterious object, the pod's door suddenly opens and Dr. Briefs is met with the image of a sleeping Tarble. The morning sun's rays hit Tarble's face which slowly stirs him awake. Tarble opens his eyes and jolts a little at the sight of this human, but calms down once he sees that Dr. Briefs isn't that different in appearance from him. "Who are you?" Tarble asks Dr Briefs. "My name is Dr. Briefs and I could ask you the same thing about you young man" Dr. Briefs replies. Tarble explains to Dr. Briefs everything that's happened to him up until this point, about how he's a Saiyan from the Planet Vegeta, and that he was too weak to stay there so his father sent him away to a far away planet. As Tarble finishes telling his story, he and Dr. Briefs hear a woman's voice ask what's going on. They both look up and see Panchy and a kid Bulma standing at the edge of the crater. Bulma slides down the length of the crater until she's in front of Tarble. As Bulma gives him a look over, she innocently asks him if he's a kind of monkey, which Tarble takes offence to due to a certain intergalactic emperor constantly calling his entire race that word. Tarble says "No' and defensively asks her if she's a kind of blueberry, to which Bulma in turn takes offence to. This starts an argument between the kids, which is broken up by the sound of Tarble's stomach growling. "Okay children that's enough, why don't we go inside and have some lunch?" say Dr. Briefs, to which Tarble readily agrees.
From here, Tarble is taken in by the Briefs as he really has no other place to go. As thanks, Tarble helps Dr. Briefs around the lab, using his enhanced strength to move around large machines and materials, and even letting Dr. Briefs study his biology. During the first few months of staying with them, Tarble sees a full moon and transforms into an Oozaru, but is able to control it more due to being trained in the form once or twice before he left Planet Vegeta and due to having royal blood. Tarble flies off to a mountainous area where he stays for the rest of the night so he doesn't scare any of the citizens in West City. He's found by Bulma in the morning who, after having the Oozaru transformation explained to her by Tarble, makes him a special pair of sunglasses that block out the moon's Blitz Waves so that he doesn't have to worry about transforming anymore. Tarble enjoys his new life, not having to worry about fighting, conquering, and getting stronger, and not being ridiculed for being too weak.
We now jump to the beginning of Dragon Ball with Bulma driving through Mount Paozu to find the Four Star Dragon Ball. In this timeline, she's driving around with Tarble who's sort of acting like her bodyguard/overprotective best friend. Tarble comes with her thinking that it would be fun to get out of the city and travel the world, and to have adventures with his friend. Tarble, being more attentive than Bulma, sees Goku up ahead and stops the car before she hits him. Tarble gets out to check if Goku is okay, but Goku, thinking that Tarble is a monster, attacks him. He throws a punch at Tarble's face, which barely fazes him. Goku, shocked, tries to throw another punch at Tarble, but this time Tarble catches the punch and pushes Goku back saying that he doesn't want to fight. Goku is puzzled by this, saying "But aren't you guys monsters?" Tarble says no and tells Goku that he's a Saiyan and Bulma's a human. Goku is confused about what a "Saiyan" is and Tarble rephrases and says tha the's an alien from another planet. Goku is a bit concerned when he says this, wondering if he's an evil alien, but just then Bulma leans out the window and yells for Tarble to hurry up and get back in the car so that they can continue their search for the Dragon balls. Goku asks if she is his friend, and Tarble says "Yeah, she is." Goku then decides that Tarble is okay, reasoning that if he's friends with a human he can't be all that bad. Goku then invites the both back to his house for dinner, which Tarble quickly says yes to.
This scene plays out the same as it did in the original, with them making it to Goku's house, Bulma finding the Four Star Dragonball, and Goku refusing to give it up. As usual Bulma tries to seduce Goku, this time offering Goku a kiss instead of a look up her skirt since Tarble's there, though he's still a little grossed out. Although he does get a laugh out of Goku rejecting Bulma's offer. Tarble stops laughing when he sees that Goku has a tail just like his. He nervously asks Goku "Hey, is your tail real?". "Yep, sure is" Goku replies and Tarble is shocked and confused. He had no idea that they had sent a Saiyan to Earth. He is even further confused about why Goku acts like he doesn't know what a Saiyan is. Tarble asks "Hey, why did you lie to me and act like you didn't know what a Saiyan is?!" Goku is confused by this as he really didn't know what a Saiyan is, and that's when he sees Tarble's tail. "Hey you have a tail just like me!" Goku says. "Yes, because I'm Saiyan and you must be one too" Tarble replies. Goku gives Tarble a shocked and confused look before yelling, "What?! You mean I'm some kind of alien just like you?". Tarble confirms this and goes on to tell Goku what Saiyans are, explaining that they are a warrior race of aliens, but decides to leave out the part about them conquering planets. He also explains to Goku that he landed in a pod at mountains instead of being left there, just like his pod landed at Capsule Corps. Goku stands there for a few seconds, processing all this new information and after a while just shrugs his shoulders not really being bothered by the fact he's an alien, even thinking it's kind of neat.
(I'll be honest, I don't know exactly how kid Goku would react to finding out he's a Saiyan, but he is a very carefree kid so I feel like he wouldn't dwell over that fact too much. Plus even when he found out about being an alien when he was an adult he didn't really care, although this was probably because he had to worry about getting his son back, but my point still stands).
Tarble is a little taken back by this, being shocked that he's getting over this so quickly, but before he can go on any further, Bulma jumps into the conversation saying that she wants to get back to the search for the Dragon Balls. Bulma asks if Goku would like to come with and help look for the Dragon Balls. After some convincing Goku agrees to tag along and the three hop into the car and continue their search for the Dragon Balls.
And that's the first part of my What If Tarble Landed on Earth?! I was inspired by MasakoX and other Dragon Ball youtubers who do What ifs so I'll be writing in more of that style.
See you next time for Part 2 of What If Tarble Landed on Earth?!