Climbing out of one of the smaller cave holes, Radditz took in a deep breath of fresh air. The entrances really weren't that small, but with Radditz' size if they were a little larger he would have appreciated it. Dusting himself off, he looked across the horizon and saw the small sun was almost completely set. _Gods, I'd better hurry up before it gets dark._ Radditz moved to another hole in the ground then looked at the sun again, "Dammit." Instead of crawling into the hole he held out one hand and charged a beam of ki. Blasting it into the entrance he felt the earth rumble lightly before the beam split into half a dozen smaller ones that came out the exists on the other side of the cliff. He heard a muffled scream, his tail bristling he dove into one of the holes crawling toward the muted sobbing.
This tunnel was slightly smaller than the last, Radditz grunted and cursed his broadness as he struggled toward the end of it. A dim light was shimmering at the exit of the hole that dropped into a cavern. Radditz dropped, landing in a ready crouch and looked around the muted room and saw the source of the noises and he was sure there would be no fight with this one. Walking over to the downed body, Radditz leaned over it and prodded it with his shoe. It rolled over and proved itself to be male, and barely alive. The race lived in the under ground tunnels and they'd adatped to the dim light, frequent digging and close quarters. They were squat creatures and rather thin, three fingered hands that were curled and thick clawed. Radditz looked down at the pale thing once more before stepping on its spine. Straightening as much as possible in the confines of the cavern, Radditz looked around to make sure there were no others. Sure that there were no others cowering in the corners he struggled up one of the tubes toward the surface to find the wind in a frenzy and throwing up dirt in clumps.
"Fuck!" Covering his face with one hand he scurried out of the hole as dirt bit into his skin. He punched the button on his scouter and found the location of Vegeta and Nappa, quite far off. The wind howled as it passed above the holes and was moving dunes of sand several feet at a time. _I'd better get my ass out of here..._ He put an arm across his face and attempted to fly above the storm and found it near impossible, the sand and wind seemed to be blowing through the entire atmosphere. _There's no way I'm getting to Vegeta through this..._ Sighing, Radditz attempted to get to the Prince anyway using his scouter to keep him on track after gusts would push him slightly off course. The going was rough and slow, Radditz grew steadily more annoyed as he was continually blown off track, he growled at the sand storm as it pulsed around him. A sudden violent gust blew the scouter from his head, gasping he reached for it but missed and watched as it was sucked up in the swirling vortex of the storm. "Awwwwww FUCK!" He stopped in his trail and looked around him in vain, he couldn't even see the ground.
***
Vegeta watched in awe at the swirling dust plumes in the distance then looked at Nappa who was laying on the ground looking at the large sun as it began to set. _I guess the goon is good for something._ Vegeta watched the dust in its evil dance and began to worry for, the M.I.A., Radditz. He'd never known Radditz to be careless with his time or his duty, but being stuck in a storm like this could very well be his doom. "Nappa." Nappa sat up and looked at Vegeta who was still perched atop his pod. "Where do you suppose Radditz has gone off to?"
Nappa shrugged his huge shoulders, "I don't know. He should have been back by now." Vegeta nodded slowly and chewed thoughtfully on his bottom lip, the only sign of his inner worry (or annoyance). Vegeta stood atop the pod and poked his scouter, it chirped and flashed and locked on a large ki some distance away. It wasn't moving though, just sort of floating in one spot. Frowning, Vegeta floated gently up until he was level with Radditz.
"Nappa, I want you to wait here for me, I'm going to find Radditz. If I haven't returned in twenty minutes, I want to you get into your pod to wait out the storm and find our bodies before Freeza shows up." Nappa looked at Vegeta in an incredulous manner but nodded his concent and watched as Vegeta took off toward the thick of the storm and dissappeared in it.
Vegeta couldn't see a thing in the riled dust except for the small scouter window that clicked down the distance to Radditz. Hanging onto the scouter with one hand he moved as quickly as he dared through the mass, dirt bitting into his face and neck. Grunting he made slow but steady progress, only veering off slightly on three occassions. Suddenly everything was quiet, he could see the ground, no sand was flung at him. He blinked in surprise and turned around, looking up into clear skies he looked ahead of himself and saw a swell of a dirt wall coming toward him..._The eye of the storm._ Vegeta braced himself for the blow of the coming wind and was thankful he had. It hit like a cement wall, flinging him some distance before he gained his composure. Pressing the button on his scouter, and much to his surprise, Raddtiz was a few yards in front of him. "Raddtizu?!" His voice was swallowed up in the noise of the storm. Growling he moved as quickly as he could toward the bleep on his screen. "Radditz god dammit!" _If this thing is right I should be right on top of him..._ A hand grasped his leg and without thinking, Vegeta shot a beam of ki at the intrusion. The hand slackened then retightened joined by another as the person heaved themselves up his body. Radditz head emerged from the sand, he grinned up at Vegeta as he saw the look of recognition cross the Ouji's face. Radditz took a tentative hold of Vegeta's tail as they headed back out of the storm, Radditz following close behind Vegeta seeing only the Ouji's tail in his firm yet gentle grasp.
***
Nappa watched as the storm grew closer, the wind had picked up at the pods' landing sights and Vegeta had less than five minutes before he would combine the shielding power of the three pods to make a small hemisphere impenitrible to the wind and sand...as well as Vegeta and Radditz. Nappa paced the small area between the pods, fingering the buttons on the pods' remote control. Time was against Vegeta and Radditz, but he didn't want to close them out for fear the Ouji would return a minute too late. He used his scouter to survey the area and found the blip of Vegeta headed back to camp, this was all Nappa needed. Walking toward the nearest pod he opened the pod door allowing the tracking light to blink into the coming dusk. Following suit with the other two pods, he prepared to start the sheild as soon as the Ouji landed. He sat down in front of one of the pods covering his face on occasion from the bristling wind that swept up gobs of dust.
Vegeta could see bits of clear sky after the wind would die down slightly before picking back up at an enormous rate. _That's a good sign._ Fighting his way through the sand storm toward nowhere, he wasn't sure where Nappa was exactly, but for the time being he didn't really care. A faint blinking caught his attention and he strained to see through the layers of sand to see exactly what and where it was. Again, a small prick of light penetrated the storm and Vegeta grinned momentarily, _Good job, Nappa._ With a sudden intent and an actual destination just ahead of him, Vegeta picked up the pace leaving Radditz to cling to the Ouji's tail at the sudden jolt.
_So close..._
Nappa grinned and stood waving manically at the outline in the swirls of dirt and began the punch up procedure, it would take two minutes to warm up, but by then Vegeta should land. But he was wrong, they landed early. Vegeta landed in the middle of the pods with Radditz directly behind him. Nappa dipped his head in respect before continuing the protocol. Vegeta turned to Radditz watching as he shook pounds of sand from his thick hair. "And where and the hell were you?!" Vegeta's worry was all but forgotten as he let into a rave.
Radditz wiped some of the grime from his eyes with the back of his hand but only managed to cover them with more sand. "Ouji, I was doing a clean up detail. There were some left alive." Vegeta grunted and sat heavily onto the ground, tucking one leg under him and crossing his arms over his chest. "Ouji-sama I do wish to thank you for risking your life to save mine. Now as much as ever I am forever indebted to you." Radditz settled on one knee, placing his fist over his chest and bowed his sand saturated head. Vegeta let out an inaudible sigh before turning his attention to Nappa who was still messing with controls.
"Nappa! What's taking you, that storm isn't going to wait for you!" Nappa snapped to attention and mumbled something to himself, Vegeta took no offense and decided to let it pass either way since the poor fool seemed to be doing his work dilegently. With a wide grin and a loud laugh, Nappa pushed a final button and a shot of blue light burst from the open doors of each pod, meshing and entwining to form a perfect capsule for them to wait out the storm. The area that it covered wasn't exactly large, but it was still better than sitting in the cramped pod for however long it took the storm to pass, and with each pod recycling the filthy air they could survive for better than a month if they needed to.
Vegeta nodded his approval to Nappa before peeling off his gloves and tossing them into the closest pod. He felt terribly grimy and disgusting, usually after a battle he was covered in the sweat of himself and every opponent he had faced, including body fluids and earth, most of the time the planet had a surface stream to clean up in, but this dirt ball called a planet had nothing of the kind. Vegeta pulled the remainder of his armor from his body, throwing it into a pile and toed off his boots. Radditz, he noticed, was still crouched in respect; Vegeta laughed and put a hand on Radditz shoulder before pushing him over. A quick look of surprise crossed Radditz face as he fell backward landing harshly on his tail. Surpressing a yelp of pain, he growled and began rubbing vigerously at the bruised spot. Vegeta smirked as Radditz glared at him, "Don't be so upset, Radditzu. We're going to spend alot of time in close quarters as this passes, no need for pent up agression, eh?"
Radditz nodded and sat tenderly, slowly wrapping his tail around his waist he leaned onto a rock, crossing his thick arms behind his head and stared up into the storm that now covered their bubble. It was quite a sight. The sand danced across the covering in small tornadoes that seperated and connected now and then showing a clear patch of sky that was a hazy purple as the largest sun set. He sighed contentedly, they were all far from Freeza and other harm and had this little bit of time to just relax and watch the storm pass by without actually being in it.
"Might as well relax boys, the ship should be here soon enough. I'm going to get some sleep." Vegeta looked at the two, Radditz nodding and Nappa looking at him blankly. The bubble of light and layers of dust made a comfortable ambiance of heat. Vegeta curled himself into the fetal postition and wrapped his tail snuggly around his knees and fell into a light slumber.
This tunnel was slightly smaller than the last, Radditz grunted and cursed his broadness as he struggled toward the end of it. A dim light was shimmering at the exit of the hole that dropped into a cavern. Radditz dropped, landing in a ready crouch and looked around the muted room and saw the source of the noises and he was sure there would be no fight with this one. Walking over to the downed body, Radditz leaned over it and prodded it with his shoe. It rolled over and proved itself to be male, and barely alive. The race lived in the under ground tunnels and they'd adatped to the dim light, frequent digging and close quarters. They were squat creatures and rather thin, three fingered hands that were curled and thick clawed. Radditz looked down at the pale thing once more before stepping on its spine. Straightening as much as possible in the confines of the cavern, Radditz looked around to make sure there were no others. Sure that there were no others cowering in the corners he struggled up one of the tubes toward the surface to find the wind in a frenzy and throwing up dirt in clumps.
"Fuck!" Covering his face with one hand he scurried out of the hole as dirt bit into his skin. He punched the button on his scouter and found the location of Vegeta and Nappa, quite far off. The wind howled as it passed above the holes and was moving dunes of sand several feet at a time. _I'd better get my ass out of here..._ He put an arm across his face and attempted to fly above the storm and found it near impossible, the sand and wind seemed to be blowing through the entire atmosphere. _There's no way I'm getting to Vegeta through this..._ Sighing, Radditz attempted to get to the Prince anyway using his scouter to keep him on track after gusts would push him slightly off course. The going was rough and slow, Radditz grew steadily more annoyed as he was continually blown off track, he growled at the sand storm as it pulsed around him. A sudden violent gust blew the scouter from his head, gasping he reached for it but missed and watched as it was sucked up in the swirling vortex of the storm. "Awwwwww FUCK!" He stopped in his trail and looked around him in vain, he couldn't even see the ground.
***
Vegeta watched in awe at the swirling dust plumes in the distance then looked at Nappa who was laying on the ground looking at the large sun as it began to set. _I guess the goon is good for something._ Vegeta watched the dust in its evil dance and began to worry for, the M.I.A., Radditz. He'd never known Radditz to be careless with his time or his duty, but being stuck in a storm like this could very well be his doom. "Nappa." Nappa sat up and looked at Vegeta who was still perched atop his pod. "Where do you suppose Radditz has gone off to?"
Nappa shrugged his huge shoulders, "I don't know. He should have been back by now." Vegeta nodded slowly and chewed thoughtfully on his bottom lip, the only sign of his inner worry (or annoyance). Vegeta stood atop the pod and poked his scouter, it chirped and flashed and locked on a large ki some distance away. It wasn't moving though, just sort of floating in one spot. Frowning, Vegeta floated gently up until he was level with Radditz.
"Nappa, I want you to wait here for me, I'm going to find Radditz. If I haven't returned in twenty minutes, I want to you get into your pod to wait out the storm and find our bodies before Freeza shows up." Nappa looked at Vegeta in an incredulous manner but nodded his concent and watched as Vegeta took off toward the thick of the storm and dissappeared in it.
Vegeta couldn't see a thing in the riled dust except for the small scouter window that clicked down the distance to Radditz. Hanging onto the scouter with one hand he moved as quickly as he dared through the mass, dirt bitting into his face and neck. Grunting he made slow but steady progress, only veering off slightly on three occassions. Suddenly everything was quiet, he could see the ground, no sand was flung at him. He blinked in surprise and turned around, looking up into clear skies he looked ahead of himself and saw a swell of a dirt wall coming toward him..._The eye of the storm._ Vegeta braced himself for the blow of the coming wind and was thankful he had. It hit like a cement wall, flinging him some distance before he gained his composure. Pressing the button on his scouter, and much to his surprise, Raddtiz was a few yards in front of him. "Raddtizu?!" His voice was swallowed up in the noise of the storm. Growling he moved as quickly as he could toward the bleep on his screen. "Radditz god dammit!" _If this thing is right I should be right on top of him..._ A hand grasped his leg and without thinking, Vegeta shot a beam of ki at the intrusion. The hand slackened then retightened joined by another as the person heaved themselves up his body. Radditz head emerged from the sand, he grinned up at Vegeta as he saw the look of recognition cross the Ouji's face. Radditz took a tentative hold of Vegeta's tail as they headed back out of the storm, Radditz following close behind Vegeta seeing only the Ouji's tail in his firm yet gentle grasp.
***
Nappa watched as the storm grew closer, the wind had picked up at the pods' landing sights and Vegeta had less than five minutes before he would combine the shielding power of the three pods to make a small hemisphere impenitrible to the wind and sand...as well as Vegeta and Radditz. Nappa paced the small area between the pods, fingering the buttons on the pods' remote control. Time was against Vegeta and Radditz, but he didn't want to close them out for fear the Ouji would return a minute too late. He used his scouter to survey the area and found the blip of Vegeta headed back to camp, this was all Nappa needed. Walking toward the nearest pod he opened the pod door allowing the tracking light to blink into the coming dusk. Following suit with the other two pods, he prepared to start the sheild as soon as the Ouji landed. He sat down in front of one of the pods covering his face on occasion from the bristling wind that swept up gobs of dust.
Vegeta could see bits of clear sky after the wind would die down slightly before picking back up at an enormous rate. _That's a good sign._ Fighting his way through the sand storm toward nowhere, he wasn't sure where Nappa was exactly, but for the time being he didn't really care. A faint blinking caught his attention and he strained to see through the layers of sand to see exactly what and where it was. Again, a small prick of light penetrated the storm and Vegeta grinned momentarily, _Good job, Nappa._ With a sudden intent and an actual destination just ahead of him, Vegeta picked up the pace leaving Radditz to cling to the Ouji's tail at the sudden jolt.
_So close..._
Nappa grinned and stood waving manically at the outline in the swirls of dirt and began the punch up procedure, it would take two minutes to warm up, but by then Vegeta should land. But he was wrong, they landed early. Vegeta landed in the middle of the pods with Radditz directly behind him. Nappa dipped his head in respect before continuing the protocol. Vegeta turned to Radditz watching as he shook pounds of sand from his thick hair. "And where and the hell were you?!" Vegeta's worry was all but forgotten as he let into a rave.
Radditz wiped some of the grime from his eyes with the back of his hand but only managed to cover them with more sand. "Ouji, I was doing a clean up detail. There were some left alive." Vegeta grunted and sat heavily onto the ground, tucking one leg under him and crossing his arms over his chest. "Ouji-sama I do wish to thank you for risking your life to save mine. Now as much as ever I am forever indebted to you." Radditz settled on one knee, placing his fist over his chest and bowed his sand saturated head. Vegeta let out an inaudible sigh before turning his attention to Nappa who was still messing with controls.
"Nappa! What's taking you, that storm isn't going to wait for you!" Nappa snapped to attention and mumbled something to himself, Vegeta took no offense and decided to let it pass either way since the poor fool seemed to be doing his work dilegently. With a wide grin and a loud laugh, Nappa pushed a final button and a shot of blue light burst from the open doors of each pod, meshing and entwining to form a perfect capsule for them to wait out the storm. The area that it covered wasn't exactly large, but it was still better than sitting in the cramped pod for however long it took the storm to pass, and with each pod recycling the filthy air they could survive for better than a month if they needed to.
Vegeta nodded his approval to Nappa before peeling off his gloves and tossing them into the closest pod. He felt terribly grimy and disgusting, usually after a battle he was covered in the sweat of himself and every opponent he had faced, including body fluids and earth, most of the time the planet had a surface stream to clean up in, but this dirt ball called a planet had nothing of the kind. Vegeta pulled the remainder of his armor from his body, throwing it into a pile and toed off his boots. Radditz, he noticed, was still crouched in respect; Vegeta laughed and put a hand on Radditz shoulder before pushing him over. A quick look of surprise crossed Radditz face as he fell backward landing harshly on his tail. Surpressing a yelp of pain, he growled and began rubbing vigerously at the bruised spot. Vegeta smirked as Radditz glared at him, "Don't be so upset, Radditzu. We're going to spend alot of time in close quarters as this passes, no need for pent up agression, eh?"
Radditz nodded and sat tenderly, slowly wrapping his tail around his waist he leaned onto a rock, crossing his thick arms behind his head and stared up into the storm that now covered their bubble. It was quite a sight. The sand danced across the covering in small tornadoes that seperated and connected now and then showing a clear patch of sky that was a hazy purple as the largest sun set. He sighed contentedly, they were all far from Freeza and other harm and had this little bit of time to just relax and watch the storm pass by without actually being in it.
"Might as well relax boys, the ship should be here soon enough. I'm going to get some sleep." Vegeta looked at the two, Radditz nodding and Nappa looking at him blankly. The bubble of light and layers of dust made a comfortable ambiance of heat. Vegeta curled himself into the fetal postition and wrapped his tail snuggly around his knees and fell into a light slumber.