Chapter 21 – We are the gang!

"Shall there be truth between us, as two men? Not as friends, but as equals? There is an offer you will get rarely, Roland. Only equals speak the truth; that's my thought, don't. Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of regard. How tiresome!"

Stephen King (The Gunslinger - The Dark Tower, #7)

"Battles that last five minutes spawn legends that live a thousand years."

Stephen King (The Dark Tower - The Dark Tower, #7)

If there was one thing that was irritating Vegeta in this new alliance with Raditz, it was the admiration he showed for his newfound brother. His repeated praise for Kakarotto's marksmanship and speed made him dislike the boy without even knowing him. Vegeta used to be praised as the best gunslinger in the gang. Even being the best, he had heard all his life that he "almost" shot like Bardock.

Now someone was coming along who not only shot like Badock but had already wiped out some of the best shooters in the gang, and it stirred him up against the Raditz's brother. One day he wanted to confront this Kakarotto guy to put his talent to the test.

But Vegeta knew Raditz had more than simply admiration attaching him to his brother: he liked the idea of his brother being a free person, someone who could have a normal life and not gang up and rob and kill for a living. That story about the beautiful girl from Oozaru had reminded him of his brief history with Bulma. He had never really been interested in any woman until the girl with the blue hair, with her cheerful and carefree boldness, had caught his attention.

If he had grown up free, he might never have met her. But it was impossible not to think about how everything that had happened in his life had led him down a tortuous and lonely path. And at that moment, the two of them had only one thought:

To put an end to Freeza's gang and kill their tormentor. To put them both out of their misery.

The gang had more than 100 men, it was true, but most were there only because they were afraid to leave because Freeza threatened to kill anyone who left, although it was illogical for those of little importance to be so afraid of him, who didn't even know the names of any of them. He manipulated them by limiting resources rigidly: weapons, ammunition, horses. All of this was controlled and watched over, and only the elite outlaws, less than ten, had access to them freely. The others had to try to stand out somehow and live off the leftovers to make numbers. It was intimidating to have a gang of 30, 40 men at each cattle theft. But little of what was achieved with the pack crimes was of benefit to everyone.

In the rigid hierarchy of the gang, fear was the main component. Freeza had a legendary reputation, and many young men with no prospects joined the group. And that's who Raditz was betting on. He was the only one of the elite who walked among them, talked to them, sang with them at parties, was admired and loved by them like none of the other "major bad guys." On the other hand, Vegeta had never been a popular guy in the gang, but he was feared. If the two of them together wanted to, it would be easy to turn the tables on Freeza, using against him his main weapon: the gang.

The night was falling when they approached the farm gates. From then on, they would indeed be traitors to the boss, and the success of their strategy depended on actually gaining support for what they intended to do. They disguised their horses among bushes outside the farm and entered on foot, together, as soon as it was dark.

The gate to the ranch had Freeza's symbol painted on the door: a lizard, like the one he had tattooed on his chest, over his heart. A white salamander, an animal he admired because even if many pieces of its body were cut off, it was capable of regenerating itself. Raditz looked with hatred at Freeza's symbol and, using his knife, made a deep carving, breaking the salamander in half. According to Freeza, only then could the salamander die by separating its vital organs or cutting off its head.

"Let's kill that wretched lizard today," said Raditz.

"Don't forget that first, we have to conquer the gang..."

The hierarchy of the gang became clear as you entered the huge farm. There, far from the house, were those who just accompanied the gang, who had no great talents and were not very important. Often hungry, they helped in raids and fenced cattle to be stolen. Few had their own horses, usually thin and old animals. They were seen as disposable by Freeza. But they felt protected on the farm, so none would leave.

They had no houses; they lived in makeshift tents precariously. They received the smallest rations and seldom really earned any money. They were lost there and were easily co-opted by Raditz, who promised to change things for them - even though he knew he was unlikely to change anything in those miserable existences. Even if they were just going away, they were already helping more than by standing against them.

Silently he approached the second group, who lived in the shanties around the big headquarters. They were more difficult to convince. But he had his strategies. Vegeta followed him, amazed at how quickly the others adhered to Raditz's proposal. Vegeta soon concluded that the oppressive way Freeza kept the gang generated dissatisfaction and revolt in his men, who were only really loyal because of the fear of being hunted and killed if they left the gang. Raditz's proposition was good enough to make it worth the risk.

Raditz didn't expect the elite group to buy into his plan, so he wouldn't even bother talking to those who lived in the big house. With Ginyu's gang totally decimated, Dodoria and Nappa dead, there were only Apur, Tagoma, Shishama, Garana, Sorbet, Litt, and, of course, Zarbon, who was injured, left in Freeza's elite.

The first part of the plan had gone well because of the dissatisfaction of the less fortunate in the gang, but it would be difficult to continue from then on. It was quite dark when Raditz and Vegeta approached the armory. In this small barn, Freeza had all the ammunition available for the gang's crimes stocked, as well as the dynamite obtained in the first robbery of the tunnel excavation for the railroad extension.

Apur kept an eye on the armory, which was fine by Raditz since he was a tremendous idiot. The armory was very close to the big farmhouse, and it was difficult to get closer without being noticed if someone was on the porch. But it seemed that luck was on the boys' side because when they came ducking through the bushes near the big house, they saw that there was no more surveillance out there.

Raditz knew that there was only one thing to be done. He suddenly stood up from the middle of the bush throwing his knife, which cut the air with a hiss before wedging itself to the throat of Apur, who brought both hands to his neck and took two steps forward, unable to speak, but making strange guttural sounds. Raditz ran up to him and just slashed his windpipe, causing him to stagger forward, dying with his face in the soil, soaked by the blood that came copiously down from his throat.

Vegeta approached and said:

"Good throw, but if you missed, we would be lost."

"I never miss, at least not from that distance," replied Raditz, laughing.

"Silence, moron. Let's go find the key." - said Vegeta, already looking for the barn's key in the dead burglar pockets.

About an hour later, in the large farmhouse room, Tagoma said to Sorbet:

"Do you hear that?"

A rhythmic clamor, reminiscent of the sound of drums, surrounded the large farmhouse. Tagoma and Sorbet looked at each other, and the latter said:

"Go and call Zarbon."

Zarbon appeared in the room from Freeza's room and asked what was going on. Tagoma pointed to the door and said:

"I don't know...it looks like something with men."

Freeza's lieutenant opened the door, reaching the balcony. A shot passed over his head, and the bullet broke a pane of glass. He jumped, alarmed when it happened, but he was even more scared when he looked to the yard.

It was not the whole gang. When Raditz broke into the armory and called them to get the ammunition, he said that whoever wanted to go was free to desert and never pursued. Much of the humbler men of the gang left carrying their chronic hopelessness, but now, without any fear. Every man who chooses to stay received at least a new gun and ammunition. Radiz and Vegeta distributed almost all in the armory, except the explosives, for security. However, the two of them took a few sticks of dynamite for a "surprise" for Freeza.

So, all the remnants of the crowd surrounded the house. Some men were holding torches, and others pointing their weapons directly at every door and window of the house. There was no way to escape without passing through one of them. They were rhythmically tapping their feet on the floor without saying anything, and that was the sound that sounded like primal drums claiming their never-split share of the cake, and it had been Vegeta's idea. He and Raditz were standing in front of the front door of the house and staring at Zarbon as he came out perplexed and intimidated by the steady, rhythmic sound the foot-tapping produced.

Suddenly, Vegeta raised his hand, and all the men became quiet.

"Zarbon!" Vegeta shouted, in a harsh tone of voice, "We don't want you but your boss to come. Call Freeza to duel Raditz or me. He can choose."

"Have you gone mad?" asked Zarbon, shocked. "How dare you challenge the boss? Have you forgotten who he is? He can kill you both and end this conspiracy right now!"

"He'll have to kill the whole gang then," said Raditz, "because now we are the gang. And we have challenged Freeza's tyranny. He killed our parents, enslaved us for years, as he enslaves these men, and we demand that he pay with his life, as we made the other traitor pay."

Zarbon immediately understood that they had somehow discovered Nappa's treachery and had killed him. And now they wanted to kill Freeza. And they were the first to actually challenge him cleverly. It wasn't a sneak into the room, an attempt to shoot in the middle of a firefight. It was a clear challenge of the best marksman and the fiercest fighter against the gang's head in front of all the men. Freeza would put everything at risk if he accepted the challenge and would look like a coward if he didn't. He needed to buy time for the boss.

"I will talk to him!"

He turned his back on the two traitors and heard Raditz's voice:

"ZARBON! "

The other turned around, almost startled, and Raditz said:

"Tell that coward that we are prepared for any of his dirty games. And after I kill him, I'll kill you, you bootlicker son of a bitch!"

Zarbon rushed into the house, panicked, and found Freeza very, very calm. The others were equally terrified, and Freeza asked:

"Are we surrounded?"

"Yes. You can't face all the gang like this."

"And I won't. We must gain time. Tagoma?"

"Yes, boss."

"Go there and offer to fight for me."

"But, boss... I... I'll never be able to shoot like Vegeta..."

"If you prefer, I'll shoot you right here. That's one less to disturb me..."

The man stepped out cautiously and suddenly was hit by a shot to the forehead and fell down in front of the door, his eyes open and a hole in his forehead proving that Raditz and Vegeta were not bluffing.

"Vegeta took this one," shouted Raditz, "but the next one is mine. Whoever walks outside the door, and it isn't you, Freeza will meet the same fate. Make up your mind."

An hour passed. The men were not budging, and Freeza didn't seem willing to go outside the house. Raditz began to get irritated and said to Vegeta:

"I'll go in and get it over with soon. The men will soon get impatient."

"No, you won't," replied Vegeta, "don't be stupid or impulsive. If you enter now, you will be killed when you open the door. If you die, all these guys will be gone in less than a minute, and I'm dead the next. In this case, the advantage is with them."

"And what do you intend to do to reverse this advantage?"

"Do you really want to know? I will use a strategy, which you don't know."

"And what will it be, Mr. Strategist?"

He looked at Raditz and then gave a wry half-smile. Then he walked over to one of the men holding a torch and asked him for it. Then he stared for a while at the house. It was an old hacienda-style house. It had a flat roof in the middle that was supported by wooden beams. He threw the torch, which immediately fell on the central beam, and since the torch was made of cloths soaked in tar, which is flammable but hard to burn, there was soon a small fire in the roof.

He then took out a dynamite stick that he had put in the back pocket of his pants and said:

"The best strategy," Vegeta said, "is to force them out. Or kill them all at once, inside. PROTECT YOURSELVES!" he said, showing the dynamite to the men, who moved away from the house a little, but without abandoning the siege. Vegeta looked at the point where the flames were getting higher and threw the dynamite there.

It didn't take even two seconds for a violent explosion to shake the ground and collapse the ceiling right there, right at that point. The timid flames immediately turned into a raging fire.

"THERE'S ONE HERE!" shouted a voice from the other side, followed by a hail of gunfire. But Raditz and Vegeta had no time to think about who had come out the back. Soon Shishama and Garama came shooting blindly out the front door, and one of the two hit a man, who fell, dropping the torch he was carrying to the ground.

Vegeta had no trouble shooting the two, but Litt followed them, running toward Raditz with his gun in hand. Since marksmanship was not his strong suit, he needed to get closer to hit him, but he had lost the surprise factor. Before he entered the safe distance, Raditz shot him. The man fell and began to crawl.

"Zarbon, Freeza!" shouted Vegeta "do you choose to burn to death like cowards or fight like men?"

Zarbon came out, shielded behind a table he passed through the door before setting it aside on the balcony in front of the door and shooting, almost hitting Vegeta in the leg. He fired a second and third time, but Vegeta ran, shooting toward the table and forcing Zarbon to take cover behind it. Vegeta jumped on Zarbon, crouched behind the table, and punched him in the face. The two rolled across the floor, punching each other. Just then, Raditz decided to enter the house and ran to the balcony.

Then, the door opened, and Freeza and Sorbet came out. Raditz pulled out his knife and started at Freeza. Sorbet, a notorious coward, dodged them both and ran towards the armory.

By now, the farmhouse courtyard had turned into chaos. The men who had not been hit by gunfire had mostly left the siege. Some decided to settle their differences with fellow gang members right there, and there were duels and fistfights all around.

Freeza tried to grab Raditz's neck as he always did. He had a tourniquet grip on his hands and could practically break windpipes with his bare hands. But Raditz was used to Freeza's game, having watched him kill more than one man that way, and managed to grab him by the arms before he could reach him, using the advantage of his much larger size. He spun Freeza over his head and threw him into the center of the courtyard, saying:

"Nobody touches that bastard because he's mine!"

Raditz drew his knife and ran towards Freeza, catching up to him before he could draw his weapon (and he only shot well with his left hand). A sharp stab hit Freeza's flank, and he screamed. After all, he was not used to being hurt by anyone. From then on, the fight was all about Raditz's attempts to hit him and Freeza's attempts to grab his revolver and take distance.

Raditz then picked up a torch that some man had dropped and struck Freeza in the side of the head. Raditz advanced again, knife in hand, ready to kill him.

In the meantime, Vegeta was punching Zarbon, who was out of ammunition. The gang's lieutenant was doing everything to avoid being hit by any more punches. Vegeta was already preparing for the coup de grâce when Zarbon did what he had agreed with Freeza earlier. He stood up, looking like he would run away, but instead, he picked up a torch from the ground and ran into the armory.

Vegeta didn't follow him because he understood what he would do.

"Run," he shouted, "the armory is going to explode."

In the chaos that followed, with men running from side to side, Raditz held the knife to pierce Freeza, who was already wounded in the face and abdomen, but the explosion that shook the farmhouse knocked him to the ground.

Freeza then ran, knowing that it was better to run than to die since he had no more supporters, even if he killed Raditz and Vegeta, which he couldn't in that state. Raditz went after him, but Freeza mounted the first horse he saw in the farmyard before he could get near him.

The animal scoped, still agitated by the explosion, but he managed to overpower it. Raditz still tried to shoot him, but it was useless. Even with a burn on his face and a stab wound to his flank, Freeza rode off into the darkness, and Raditz running on his feet, could not reach him.

Raditz sighed and turned to the courtyard to +saw that there were many men dead. Three at least had died in the explosion from being too close to the armory. Vegeta had a bruise below his eye and was staring, arms crossed, at the damage. About twenty men regrouped around Raditz as if waiting for an order from the one they figured would be the gang's new leader.

"Are we going after him?" asked a young man.

"He can't be far away, and neither can that damned Sorbet, who ran off into the woods," said a second man, who was blind in one eye.

Raditz stared at the men. They were some of the wretched people who followed Freeza, lit by the flames that engulfed the farmhouse full of hope that he would give them something to obey. People stand full of expectations of being part of something, a new gang, maybe. Unfortunately, everything of value in that place had burned up with the house or exploded with the armory, and a new gang there would be impossible.

"We're not going after them," said Raditz. "It wouldn't be worth it anyway. There's nothing else here worthwhile. You should all leave and try a new life far away from here, without fear of being killed by a madman like Freeza."

The men looked at each other. Indeed, they had each gained at least one gun and boxes of ammunition that Vegeta and Raditz had taken from the armory. There were horses scattered around the farm. Many could be picked up by the survivors. Raditz looked thoughtfully at the house and saw that the room where he was sleeping with Nappa and Vegeta was not yet on fire. Without much thought, he went to the door of the house and ran inside. Vegeta stared, thinking that he was a madman. A little after, the room window opened, and Raditz came out with a bottle in his right hand and his guitar in the other. Vegeta shook his head and rolled his eyes in disbelief. Raditz came before him and said simply:

"A man has to value what he loves. I wasn't going to let my guitar burn in there." he uncorked the bottle, took a sip, and gave it to Vegeta, who took a sip and passed it to another man.

"Drink the last of the Freeza gang's whiskey," he said, watching Raditz walk away.

The house was still burning, and the men were throwing the Freeza's loyal men corpses into the fire. Raditz walked among the remaining men and saw the bodies of the dead men who fought in their side. He called the remaining men together and said they had an obligation to bury the loyal dead ones the next day. All the survivors settled down to sleep in the huts, including Vegeta and Raditz. They had not talked about what they would do from then on.

The next day they began to dig fifteen graves for the dead, and Raditz noticed that a boy of about eleven, whom he had not seen the day before, would not leave the body of a short, thin man. He understood that he could only be the boy's father. All the men were being buried, but Raditz avoided picking up the body of that man.

He saw himself in that boy, standing before the body of his dead father, aimless and not knowing what to do. He didn't like the idea of being indirectly responsible for that. Vegeta noticed and called him:

"Worried about the boy?"

"Very much so. I didn't know there were children here."

"Freeza probably didn't know either."

"That cowardly bastard ran away. But I really hurt him like no one before!"

"Zarbon slowed me down. I should have shot Freeza."

"We both made mistakes at some point. But now it's done."

The two approached the boy and carried his father's body to the grave. The boy watched, with dry eyes, as his father was buried in the last of the fifteen shallow graves. When it was all over, Vegeta walked away, as if it wasn't up to him, but Raditz called the boy over and asked:

"Do you have your father's gun?"

"Yes, sir," he said, with respectful reverence.

"And some money?"

"Not much.

- Can you get to Oozaru?"

"I don't know, sir. I don't have a horse."

He scratched his head. Then he remembered something and called him to a separate, half-hidden stable at the back of the farm. Challengin, a huge white horse with a long black mane, which until the day before had belonged to Freeza, was quietly eating hay. Raditz then took a few dollars from his pocket and gave it to him, saying:

"That and the horse is the most I can give you, kid. Take it and see if any of the rest of the gang is going to Oozaru. When you get there, look for a man named Vermod at the variety show and tell him that Raditz sent you. He can make you his apprentice. He is the grumpiest clown I have ever met in my life, but I think he will like you."

"All right, sir," the boy stared at Raditz with his big gray eyes that looked a little lifeless. He carried the horse to look for others going to Oozaru, and then Raditz remembered to ask:

"What's your name, boy?"

"Jiren, sir!" he said.

"See you around, Jiren."

Raditz and Vegeta walked to their horses quietly, saying nothing. Maybe it was time for each to go their separate ways. Suddenly Raditz asked:

"What are you going to do?"

"What I know how to do. Steal, commit crimes. I find it hard to change on the verge of turning thirty."

"True. I still have some money left. Where do you plan to go?"

"I don't know, anywhere but New Sadala or West Sayan."

"We could stay right here in Vegetown. Don't you own your father's farm?"

"Not anymore. The government expropriated it when my father died with no children to inherit. They thought I was dead and Tarble had been adopted. And my father was a criminal."

"Well... and stealing dynamite from the railroad?"!

Vegeta gave a cynical laugh and said:

"Are you proposing partnership?"

"It's worked out pretty well here, don't you think?"

"True."

"What do you say then? Better than robbing stagecoaches."

"You are protecting little brother," said Vegeta debauchedly."

"No, I am preventing you from dying."

"I'm sure I can shoot better than this Kakarotto guy."

"One day, maybe you will prove it."

The two laughed and left the farm. Now they were the gang.

And somewhere, however, Freeza was trying to survive his injuries and find out where he went wrong, already thinking of revenge.

But first, he would need to get back on his feet.

Notes:

1. Thus ends the legendary Freeza gang. Has the invincible one been vanquished? We'll know one day, I guarantee it. We're not even halfway through the story, if you ask me... for now, however, let's lose sight of Vegeta and Raditz, who will be leaving for another adventure.

2. Without Zarbon's sacrifice, Freeza would have been killed by Raditz. Can he get someone as loyal to him after that defeat? What about another gang? Is that even possible?

3. Imagine how much Freeza wants revenge after that.

4. The quotes in this chapter came, like many others, came from "The Dark Tower" series. The first one being one of my favorites of the whole series, certainly the best in the first book, and is said to the gunslinger by the fateful man in black when they finally meet. The second is said at a sad moment in the second book, right after the death of a character I like very much.

5. I always wanted to write a revolution. And that's what I did when I set the whole gang to defeat Freeza's tyranny!

6. Since this is not a multiversal reality, I took the liberty of putting our friend Jiren as a boy in the story. And I quoted Vermod, not forgetting that he is a clown - the most random thing about the gods of destruction is that they are very interesting and have amazing visuals. I wanted to play with that...

7. In the next chapter, "The Summer when Freeza disappeared," we will learn what the consequences of the end of Freeza's gang will have on Goku's life. And we will have a long-awaited wedding.