Chapter Two: The Passion of War
Goku slowly stepped towards the people he had known since childhood. Bulma, who had first discovered him in the woods, brought him along on her adventure for the Dragon Balls, shown him the world. Krillin, his long time best friend, who he had trained with, whom he had grown up with. And Master Roshie, who had been his mentor, his guide.
And yet none of them had told him what he considered the single most important thing about his origins. To keep a secrete like this from him? That he was found in a space pod. That he had changed into a horrible monster because of his tail?
"Goku you can't be serious," Krillin was speaking rapidly, his words seeming to run together, "after everything we've been through, you can't...just can't turn on us like this."
"We were only trying to protect you Goku," Master Roshie added, "we didn't think you had a real need to know about it."
"Well you thought wrong old man." Goku spoke calmly. Then he turned his head and spat on the ground. "And to think...I considered you people my friends."
Goku balled up his fists and continued walking forward. Behind him Raditz watched intently, his hand on his chin. He was pleasantly surprised that Kakarot was responding the way he was. Then again, he did have the blood of a Saiyan in him. He was bred to fight, always wanting to be stronger. It was in his genes.
Goku suddenly sprang into action. He had quickly made his decision on who to attack first. Perhaps back when he was a child Master Roshie would have been the more dangerous opponent, but years had passed and Krillin had likely surpassed their master. Goku leapt into a flying kick and nailed Krillin dead on in the forehead. His young friend failed to make any kind of defense and he was sent flying back, crashing through the wall of Roshie's house.
Bulma shrieked and threw her hands over her eyes in shock. Master Roshie growled. "Goku...you..." but he cut himself off. The old man knew that reasoning was past them. He also knew well that Goku may have been weaker then him before, but as a man he was stronger now then Roshie even was in his prime. And his prime had long come and gone.
"Ka..." Roshie began chanting the words for his signature move, "Me..."
Then in a flash Goku was behind him. "You taught me that one, do you think I'd give you time to use it?" Goku asked. He grabbed his old master from behind putting him in a powerful headlock. He squeezed and the old master started thrashing violently around trying to escape the death grip. Yes indeed, Goku was far stronger then any of them could have dreamed.
Bulma was suddenly at Goku's side raining a barrage of slaps and closefisted punches on him.
"Bug off bitch!" Goku snapped and delivered a backhand to the blue haired woman. She was sent sailing back through the air and smashed up against Roshie's house. She hit with less force then Krillin had though, and instead of blasting through the wall she bounced off it and landed face first on Master Roshie's concrete porch. Goku turned his attention back to his old master too late to avoid the toss Master Roshie delivered. He threw Goku over his shoulder and leapt back to catch his breath.
Goku caught himself before he could hit the ground and flipped back into a standing position. "Not bad old timer, " he said grinning, "you still have fight left in you."
Roshie was breathing heavily. His neck was already beginning to bruise from the tremendous pressure that had been applied, the swelling all too obvious. "Guh..guh.." he began choking out. "Goku..."
"Can you hurry this up brother? I don't really have the time to sit here all day and watch you play with these fools, " Raditz called out.
Goku held his arms out putting his hands together. "Ok bro," he said easily, then turned his attention back to Master Roshie. "I'm going to kill you with your own attack."
"Why Goku, why?" Roshie managed to choke out.
"Because you lied to me my whole life maybe?" Goku said getting angrier all the time he spoke, "you and the others...playing around it like I was some big dumb thug...get me to do all of your dirty work and then YOU ALL REAP THE REWARDS!"
"It's never been like that!" Roshie shouted.
Goku squeezed his eyes shut. "SHUT UP OLD MAN!" He bellowed and then, "Ka...Me...Ha...Me..."
Raditz's scouter suddenly beeped. Goku's power had just raised by 100. A small increase, but given that his power was only at 320 it was almost a two fold increase.
"HAAAAAA!" Goku screamed and unleashed a wave of blue energy from his hands. Master Roshie made no attempt to dodge or stop the wave. He invited it openly. In those last seconds of life he felt that everything he had ever done was a failure. He had let down his greatest student, who he too had loved like a son. The Kamehameha Wave washed over him and his body disintegrated.
"Not bad Kakarot!" Raditz chirped, obviously impressed, "I misjudged you, you're not the weakling I originally thought. With the proper training you could become a great Saiyan warrior."
"You know its strange." Goku spoke slowly, "I thought I'd feel terrible remorse for killing them...my friends...but you know what?" Goku turned to face Raditz and he was wearing a smirk, "I feel better then I have in a long time."
"That's because," Raditz spoke returning the smirk, "you have the blood of a Saiyan running through your veins."
Goku walked over to Master Roshie's house. Bulma was laying on the ground weeping, her face pressed against the ground, her arms over her head. Krillin was laying on the floor in Master Roshie's house, having crashed completely through the wall. Goku could sense a faint Ki emanating from him, and knew he was not dead yet.
"Kill him." Raditz spoke from behind.
"While he's still out?" Goku asked.
"That's right. Why give him the chance to try for a revenge? He's not a worthy opponent, finish him off."
Goku nodded and stepped through the hole in Master Roshie's house. He stood over Krillin and stared down at him. "Did you see me change into the monster too?" Goku whispered, "wouldn't you think a friend would tell me something like that?" Not waiting for an answer Goku knew Krillin was currently incapable of delivering, the Saiyan stepped on his neck and pushed down. He felt the bones snap beneath his heel.
From behind he heard Bulma scream and turned to see her trying to quickly crawl away towards her helicopter-contraption she had arrived in. Goku smiled and calmly walked over her.
"You know, Bulma," Goku began, "ever since I first met you, I always thought you were a spoiled rotten bitch."
"Please Goku...no...please" Bulma was sobbing as she continued to crawl away.
"I always wanted to tell you," Goku continued, "well now I will."
Goku opened his hand and pointed it palm-first at the blue haired girl. "I HATE YOU!" he screamed and unleashed a small concentrated ki blast. Bluma shrieked in agony as her body exploded spewing her limbs and entrails about Roshie's island.
Raditz was in an uproar about this, laughing out loud; literally slapping his knees. "Good one Kakarot! You are indeed my little brother!"
Goku actually joined in the laughter. As bizarre as it seemed, after a life time of protecting innocent people, Goku was thoroughly enjoying killing them now. The two Saiyan brothers laughed on together, while Gohan lay unconscious, oblivious to the whole thing.
Suddenly Goku spun around and looked into the sky at the same time Raditz's scouter beeped. The two brothers looked into the air and saw Piccolo floating there staring down at them.
"Piccolo!" Goku screamed.
"Ah, the Namekian slug i ran into earlier." Raditz said smirking.
"Goku! I see this alien scum has found you," Piccolo shouted, then he looked across the carnage before him, "and I see you were helpless to save your friends too."
Goku smiled. "Figures" he thought to himself, "Big and bad Piccolo stops being tough when a new threat comes and challenges him. I bet he came here to beg for an alliance."
Piccolo flew down to the ground and landed between Raditz and Goku. "Listen Goku, we don't have a lot of time to discuss this, so here is my proposal: Lets work together to stop him, its the only way."
Goku nods and smiles, as he looks at Raditz he gives a single wink. "You're right Piccolo. Looks like we have no choice but to join forces."
Raditz smiled radiantly, catching on to Goku's little game. "Hah, so now the green slug is teaming up with you? Oh my, I can hardly contain my fear." Raditz began laughing.
"GO!" Piccolo shouted and charged straight at Raditz.
His knee approached Raditz's face rapidly then stopped cold inches from striking the Saiyan warrior. Piccolo looked over his shoulder in shock to see that Goku had grabbed his leg and stopped him.
"Goku what is.." Piccolo began, but didn't get very far.
Raditz delivered a crushing uppercut to Piccolo with such force that his body flew on without the leg Goku was gripping. Startled, Goku dropped the severed leg on the ground and stared at it in disgust. Piccolo landed on the ground and rolled around screaming in pain.
"Goku! What...are...you...doing!" He hisses.
"Aim for his head brother." Goku spoke calmly, "he can't regenerate if we fry his brains."
"Don't you think I know that about his kind brother," Raditz said smiling and pointing a finger at Piccolo. "We Saiyans are an expert on killing if on nothing else."
He powered up an energy beam and fired it. At the last second something lit up in Goku's eyes and he lunged at Raditz.
"WAIT RADITZ NOT YET!" Goku screamed.
Alas, he was too late to stop the blast. Piccolo's head glowed for a second then vanished leaving nothing but a limp body behind.
"What was that all about Kakarot?" Raditz sneered, he turned to face Goku, "having second thoughts already?"
Goku shook his head, "Damn I can't believe I completely forgot!" Goku kicked up a small clod of dirt, "now the Dragon Balls are gone along with him!"
"The Dragon's Balls? What are you talking about?" Raditz said looking confused.
"Never mind." Goku replied shrugging. "Long story I'll tell you later."
Raditz nodded. They surveyed the carnage together. Krillin lay, still death-twitching, his neck grossly crushed. Master Roshie was nothing more then a mere burn mark where he had been standing when the Kamehameha wave struck him. Bulma was literally laying around the house...in pieces, and Piccolo was a headless body slumped over itself.
"So, will we be going to join the other Saiyans sometime soon?" Goku asked calmly.
"In time...first you have a mission to fulfill Kakarot. Since I'm such a nice older brother I'll help you." Raditz spoke smiling.
Goku turned to him questioningly, "I already have a mission?"
"You truly are forgetful brother," Raditz laughed, "the mission to eradicate the life on this world?"
"Oh yeah, haha" Goku laughed, scratching the back of his head, "that mission!"
Raditz gestured towards Gohan, who was still sound asleep.
"We'll be taking your brat with us, he may prove valuable to us, if you can manage to un-train the spoiled softness you've undoubtedly instilled into him."
"Don't worry," Goku said, "Gohan is a real trooper. He'll get over it, especially since his mother won't be there to baby him any more."
Raditz nodded at Goku and then flew up into the air. Goku kneeled down and scooped up his son and stepped towards Nimbus cloud. He wasn't at all surprised to see that he could now step right through the cloud. His heart was no longer pure, and it was useless to him. Goku evaporated the living cloud with a small wave of Ki. Then he floated up towards his big brother.
They exchanged looks and Raditz gestured with his head a "follow me" and flew off into the sky.
"Man, what a wild day." Goku spoke to himself, then flew after his brother, laughing along the way.
Author's notes What will Goku do next? Does he have the guts to kill off the human race, including his own wife. And if he does, what adventures await him if he joins the rest of the last Saiyans. To get these answers and more stay tuned for the next chapter of DragonBall E.G.