Chapter 2 – New Arrivals
Vegita looked around the Lookout, saw nothing out of place and snarled. "Shit! Where are they? They should be here by…" he stopped, his senses screaming at him. A high power level had just arrived on Earth. It was big, and Vegita easily recognised it as Brolli. Looking up, he saw everybody else looking in the same direction that he had sensed the reading. "You feel that, Kakkarot? He's here!" He pointed a sinewy finger, "And finally I shall be rid of you, once and for all!"
"I thought you had more honour than that, Vegita!" Goku snarled.
"You question ME about HONOUR?!" the Prince shot back.
"I tell you what, Vegita, howsabout when I meet Brolli, I tell him you said 'What kind of stupid moron is named after an anti-precipitation device?!'"
"O-o-oh! Big word, Kakkarot! Now tell me what it means. Come on, I'm sure Brolli is waiting!"
Goku snarled as Vegita just grinned, his back still exposed to the other Saiyan.
"DAMN YOU VEGITA!" Goku yelled, tensing his muscles, then leaping. Vegita turned, the grin vanishing as Goku's fist sped rapidly towards his face. He grimaced, expect the worst, then opened one eye when the worst was yet to happen. Goku hung in the air, mid-leap, the fist barely millimetres from his eyes. He backed off; looking at Goku's maddened expression, the body heaving as Goku took deep breaths to control his rage.
"Why, Kakkarot, I hope you were not about to strike me just then," sneered Vegita, covering up the relief he held inside with the ever-present sarcasm. Goku just placed his feet on the floor and drew himself up to his full height, bearing over the little man.
"Don't tempt me!" Goku retorted.
"Don't push him, Vegita. You won't like it!" Came Piccolo's deep voice as Gohan and little Goten stepped forward, standing behind their father.
"So! It's the Son family! United they stand," Vegita drawled, "unconscious they fall!" And with that final comment, Vegita powered up and flew off, leaving the Lookout behind him as he sped away over the lands. Moving forward, Trunks gave both Goten and Goku an apologetic look, then blasted off after his father, calling on him to wait up.
"That man really has a fire-cracker up his ass!" Piccolo snarled, stepping forward to stand beside Goku, his fists clenching so hard that the muscles is his arms shuddered. Goku turned and looked at his green-skinned friend.
"Well, that's Vegita for you. And by the looks of things, young Bra is going to turn out just like him, except for the hair. Oh, and the high forehead. And she won't have a…"
"That's enough, Goku. We get the picture," the Namek warrior said. Krillin decided now would be a good moment to cross over to where his buddy was standing, staring after Vegita and Trunk's trails.
"Woah man! Get a load of HIM! Boy, he mustn't have had sex for over a YEAR to be that cranky!" he said, hand son hips. Goten sniggered at the comment and clasped his hands over his mouth as his shoulders shuck.
"What is it, Bro? Gohan asked, looking down at his kid brother.
"Krillin said 'sex'!" Goten said, before bursting out into more laughter. Goku and Krillin just laughed as the others rolled their eyes.
Videl crossed over so that she was standing next to her fiancé. "Hey Gohan," she asked, "What was all that about this Brolli guy, and what's so scary about him?" Gohan turned and looked at her, gazing deeply into her eyes, then took a deep breath.
"Well, you see, it's like this…" he begun, but stopped, snapping his head around. "Hey! Guys! Do you feel that?"
Tomatta stood in a small grassy field, bordered with a prickly hedgerow and a line of trees lining the eastern edge. His rage-filled face became that of confusion, and he stood casually, large arms dangling by his sides, though he stayed Super Saiyan, just in case. "What the…" he breathed, turning around and taking in his surroundings. Several small children were standing several yards away, behind him and to the left, one of them holding a ball.
"Hey, mister… Where'd you come from, huh?" Tomatta just looked at them, and started to walk away. The gravity felt light, not as heavy as his home planet… well, he called it his home planet. He knew he was not from there. He was the only person there who didn't have pale-blue skin and orange eyes. When he had first turned into an Oozaru, the people somehow managed to subdue him, the story of how it happened still remained a mystery to him, and when he awoke he'd had his tail removed.
"Hey, mister!" The kid's tone took on a snarl. "I SAID! Where did you come from!" Tomatta turned and glared at the boy. "Shut it, boy! Show some respect to your elders." The kid smirked and looked at his friends, who grinned back.
"Yeah? Fuck you! I don't have to give you jack-shit, faggot!" The kid said, throwing the ball at Tomatta's face. Without blinking, the Saiyan swept his arm around in a blurred chop that sent the ball hurtling out of sight and over the horizon. "You bastard, that as my ball!" Tomatta gave the boy his full attention, then turned away, walking off towards what looked to be a traffic-route. He climbed down an embankment, ignoring the child's irritating complaints and proceeded to cross the road, not bothering to stop and wait for the traffic to diminish. The result was that several cars swerved to avoid him, causing a large pile-up on the road and a lot of confused faces. One angry woman leaned out of the car window and shouted at him, waving an angry fist.
"Hey, you crazy son of a bitch! Watch where you're going the next time, huh?" Tomatta ignored her and kept on going. This only made the woman's temper flare even more. "Hey! Listen to me, you stupid bastard! I said listen to me! Freak!" That was it, Tomatta had been insulted by these pathetic weaklings for the last time. With a flick of his finger, he sent a pillar of energy shooting up from the ground and through the woman's car. The area where the centre of the pillar hit vaporised, the rest started melting slowly as the woman screamed in agony, flailing her arms as molten pieces of flesh dropped from her skeleton. The angry mass of tooting horns stopped as they watched the scene. The tall, bulky man with a large array of golden, spiked hair on his head wearing some sort of outlandish costume. He had his elbow resting at his waist, forearm stretched out towards the car, index-finger raised to the sky, and the burning hulk of the car before him, a tall column of crimson energy flickering up like a pillar of fire. He turned away, letting his finger drop, and the pillar dropped with it. He set about his way, leaving the scene of devastation behind him as he continued on his way.
A green haze swept over the city as a woman and a small child were deposited on skyscraper rooftop. She looked at the child, her son, the one she called Fru after his birth, and looked around her. They had been in a ship, a large prison vessel with reinforced bars shielded with a reflective energy. Now they were free, on a planet, transported there by a green bolt of lightning that had penetrated the security shield and picked them up. Fru looked up as his mother then stood up off the floor. His hair was similar is shape and size to Goku's, whereas his mother's hung down her back, covering the tail that she wound around her waist belt-fashion.
"Mother, what happened?" he rasped, taking time to look about at the new landscape. "Where are we?"
"I do not know, my son, but I do know this has got to be better than in that damnable prison cell!" Fru nodded. He remembered being seized when he was younger, maybe the age of four or five, and his mother fighting the captors off with a feral intensity, her hair twisting and curving as she defended their home from the warriors of Lord Frieza. "But I know that without a Scouter, we will not be able to tell the power-levels of the people on this world. I don't even know if King Cold rules here."
"If he does, and if Frieza comes looking after us, I'll destroy them mother! I'll…"
"Hush, my son. Do not talk of such matters. Nobody can take on King Cold, or that damnable Lord Frieza."
"But Mother! He must pay for destroying our home!" Fru snarled, clenching his fists and tensing his muscles.
"Yes. Yes, he must. And someday, he will. But for now, let us concentrate on finding out where we are, and what brought us here." Fru looked saddened by the absence of battle, so his mother softened up and gave him a smile. "And then we will battle."
She landed hard, hitting the tarmac of the road back first. She lay there, catching her breath momentarily before sitting up. What she saw astounded her. Tall building stretching up into the sky, metal wagons hovering in the air all around her, stopped, some had crashed into each other and had dents gouged into their sleek surfaces. People, people looking like her, but with funny hair, staring at her with amazement. A man rushed over to her after climbing out of his wagon, offered her his hand. She looked at it suspiciously and looked the man. "Gee, lady, are you okay?" he asked.
"Meh naames't note-uh Gee, boot in-uh facten Cukumbri. Im'st fine, thanking-thee, gute sir." She took his hand and stood up, almost pulling him down as he helped her up. Her accent was odd, English, but seeming German at the same time, there were also touches of French in there, and could there also have been Scandinavian there too? The man frowned at her voice, discarding it as just a foreign accent. Her clothes looked odd, old looking, in the sense that they didn't belong to this century. Not even this millennium. At a push, he would have sworn that they were like those that would be worn around the thirteenth century. Again he frowned, puzzled by this odd concoction of voice and outfit. He led her by the hand to the pavement, making sure that she was indeed okay. He checked her out, made sure she had no cuts or bruises anywhere. He checked her pulse, her breathing, and even the dilation of her pupils. Then, just to make sure she okay he took her to a fast food bar and watched with astonishment as she wolfed down burger after burger before moving onto the pizzas. She devoured whole 14 inch, deep-pan pizzas one after the other as if they were no more than mere morsels of food. He paid for the meals (a cost of over five hundred dollars!) with his credit card paid her into a hotel with an all-you-can-eat buffet, as he decided it was the least he could do.
After all, he had just knocked her over.
Another green flare, this time high in the sky, leaving a man hanging there against the clouds. He looked about himself, looking where this flare had taken him and grimaced. It was too green for his liking, not the suburban planet he had conquered for his king Vegita all those years ago. He held his tail belt-fashion around his waist and just hovered in the air, arms folded over his chest as he thought.
"Well, Maylon, another planet, another conquest." He said to himself as he hung in the air, contemplating his fate. "I wonder if this planet is even inhabited? Oh, what FUN if this planet was fit only for beasts and insects! What a mighty conquest it would then be!" he growled. "If only I had my Scouter with me!" In rage, he aimed a large energy blast down to the ground beneath him, smiling as it ploughed into the grass, soil rock, sending up white-hot rock vapour. He ended the blast a moment later; happy with the destruction he just caused. He turned about and headed in a random direction, ready to explore this strange new world, filled with more green things than he could fire a Kai blast at. "Oh well, Maylon", he thought to himself, "better get a move on."
Gohan stood at the edge of the Lookout, his attention flicking from one part of the horizon to the other. Another one, he thought to himself, and another. And another! Another one over there! Man! How many of these guys are there? "Dad, can you feel that?" he asked Goku, not looking back over his shoulder for an instant.
"Yes, son, I can. There's so many of them… I never guessed that this many had survived!" Goku said, also feeling the energy from the new Saiyans pouring into the world. So far, over fifteen had arrived, including Brolli, whose power level stuck-out like a skyscraper over houses and bungalows.
"Man! The power levels are so varied! Some of these guys are as powerful as Vegita, one or two even more powerful, then there Brolli. But, some of these dudes are pretty weak." Krillin said with his standard grin. Gohan smiled and looked down at the ex-monk.
"Yeah, Krillin. I bet even YOU could take out some of these Saiyans," he laughed. Krillin closed his eyes and smiled, partially turning away with a smug expression.
"Well, I AM the most powerful human on the planet!" he said, not noticing the expression of Videl's face. What he did notice was the laughing of his wife.
"HAHAHAHA! Krillin, sweety, Videl over there could best you with one hand behind her back," She stood there, smiling, hand son hips. The others burst out laughing, and Gohan knelt down, putting a hand on Krillin's shoulder.
"Buddy, I'm sorry to say this, but 18's right. Videl could kick your little butt one handed."
"Yeah, well you're just saying that because you want to get some action tonight, aren't ya!" Krillin scorned. Gohan blushed at Krillin words, his mouth opening and shutting a few times, thought only utterances came out. Videl, however, was going red with anger.
"Why you dirty minded, perverted, poor excuse for a man!" she raged, fists clenched tighter than ever, scowling in a fashion that reminded Goku of someone.
"Daddy, why does Videl look like mom?" he asked. Goku laughed, thinking, "That's who she reminds me of!" It was all Gohan could do to calm his girlfriend down as she strode heavily towards Krillin, who was still grinning with his eyes shut, unaware of this woman scorned heading his way.
"Gohan, let go of me, I said let go of me, damnit! I'm gonna crush his puny skull! I'll smash it under my boot!" She screamed, flailing her arms at Krillin. Gohan held on for dear life, trying not to let her near him, knowing full-well what she'd do if she ever caught hold of him.
"Huh?" Krillin said, opening his eyes and watching Videl, red faced and mightily pissed off. "Yikes!" he cried, a fist flashing close to his eyes. He ducked away walked backwards, moving to the relative safety of 18, feeling safe in her presence.
"Don't think that I'M going to stick up for you!" Came her voice from above. Krillin looked up into his wife's eyes as she looked down at him.
"What? Awwww man, why now?"
"We girls have to look out for one another you know. Girl Power and all that." She replied.
"Man, I hope for your sake Vegita never hears you saying that!" Piccolo interrupted. "He'd have your motherboard and use it in his toaster." Krillin laughed at the comment and stopped as he felt the toe of 18's boot in his back.
"Yeah, well. This all very fun to know, but we have a LOT of work to do. There are Saiyans popping up all over the Earth, and with this many on the planet, we never know WHAT will happen. If we fight Brolli here, well, chances are we're going to end up destroying our home." Goku said, getting serious and leading the Z Fighters back into the problem at hand. Everybody went silent. They knew he was right, and they knew that Brolli wouldn't hesitate to destroy the Earth if he thought that it would destroy Goku. Even if he went with it.
"So what do we do, Daddy?" Goten asked, holding onto his father's trouser leg, grasping one of the folds in his hands.
"First things first. We need to contact these other Saiyans, find out which one's can be trusted and find out which one's can't." Goku said, thinking briefly.
"No doubt Vegita is already out there doing that, using his title as Crown Prince to its full advantage," Piccolo added, stepping beside Goku, "and if that short-tempered bastard side's with Brolli, then we're fucked, boys and girls. Sorry Goten," he added, forgetting that the young Half-Saiyan was there. Goten merely smiled.
"It's okay Mr. Piccolo, I hear worse when I'm at Trunk's. Vegita and Bulma are ALWAYS swearing when they argue." Piccolo grinned and ruffled the kid's golden hair.
"I hope nothing happens, for the Kid's sake," Piccolo thought, then turned to watch Gohan, still wrestling with Videl who was still attempting to disembowel Krillin, who in turn was hiding behind his wife. "This little critter's already had to grow up most've his life without Goku around, and Gohan has already watched his father die once. That can't happen again… I wont LET it happen again!" He gritted his teeth and looked back down and Goten with that idiotic, care-free grin, then back up at the father, all serious looking and stern. "How uncanny the resemblance between these two, yet… how much Goku's changed since I've known him. I hope that nothing happens to him, I couldn't bear it if these two lost their father. Again."
So… the Saiyans are arriving and the Z Fighters are already starting to have problems dealing with the pressure, as well as Krillin's awful jokes. With Vegita wanting Goku's death once more, will he try and side with Brolli, or will his conscience prevail once more and cause him to stick by his Saiyan rival once again!
Find out next time… on Dragon Ball Z - Total War!