~Chapter 14: The Saiyans~
I've been through a lot. I've seen foes that destroy entire planets. I've seen friends die and myself been slain. I've had enemies with unbelievable power. Through it all, however, the battle against the Saiyans is still what I remember the most. It's still the one that comes back to me in my dreams.
It was late in the morning on November 3rd, 762, when the Saiyans hit Earth. I felt it when they landed. I wasn't anywhere near them, but the mere presence of their enormous power hit me like a bright lamp shined in my eyes. I knew immediately what had happened. It filled me with fear and even a kind of excitement. The day that I'd spent the past year in fear of and in preperation for had finally come. I'd already suspected that since the sky had gotten dark earlier that day, meaning that Goku had returned to life. My heart was racing. I felt an even larger surge of ki shortly after their landing. That was probably their initial attack on Earth. Right upon landing, they unleashed a blast that utterly destroyed East Capital City, killing hundreds of thousands of people in the blink of an eye. I did think it was odd that all of the smaller ki surrounding them suddenly vanished, but I had no idea...
I felt them moving toward two large sources of ki - one of them felt like Piccolo, although it was much more powerful than I'd ever known Piccolo to be. I took off my weighted clothing and headed there too. It wasn't far from my location, so before long I found the source that I was looking for. Sure enough, it was Piccolo, and with him was a kid who also had a lot of power, obviously Gohan. I landed right next to them. At first, they thought I was a Saiyan, but Piccolo recognized me. Piccolo and I traded verbal jabs. As nervous as we were, we felt a kind of confidence. I guess it came from how much our power had increased. Of course, that power increase was nothing compared to what would come. If I'd been as powerful as I am now when Nappa and Vegeta came to Earth, I could have handled them both alone without any trouble. That's to say nothing of how powerful Gohan has gotten.
Back on subject, though, I also had the chance to talk to Gohan a little. He looked very different than he had when I'd seen him over a year previously, both physically and in attitude. It reminded me of Goku when we'd been kids. He recognized me after being reminded, and he seemed excited that I'd be helping him fight. Apparently Goku had spoken fondly of me to his son, which was nice of him, but he'd also used the word "short" a lot. Argh. I also started to pick up the hint from Gohan that Piccolo wasn't quite so evil anymore, but before we could get any deeper into it, the Saiyans arrived. I felt almost swept over by their ki. It felt not only strong, but evil, almost demonic. It made me nauseated. They landed in front of us and we did our best to face them. One of them was large, bald, and muscular, and the other one was smaller(still taller than me - isn't everyone?) and looked confidently smug. Both of them wore the same strange armor that Raditz had worn. For a while, we just stood there and faced each other. We did our best to look formidable.
The saiyans seemed amused with us. They obviously knew that we were much, much stronger than the normal inhabitants of Earth, but still far weaker than them. I think that the term they used to describe us was "mighty ants". That's appropriate, I suppose - it was more or less what I felt like. The Saiyans called each other by name a lot, so we quickly learned who they were. The big one was Nappa and the smaller one was Vegeta. Nappa was loud and rough and he talked a lot of trash, but from his manner toward Vegeta it was obvious that Vegeta was more powerful and in fact had Nappa utterly in his thrall. They talked about Raditz for a bit.
"Looks like that one is a Namekian," said Vegeta. "It isn't so strange that Raditz was beaten, then." Nappa nodded in agreement. The revelation that Piccolo, too, was an alien came as a shock to all of us, especially Piccolo himself. I admit that I never really thought he was human, so it made sense, but it was surprising nonetheless. I was even more surprised, though, when they went on to reveal that they knew about the dragon balls. That was the real reason that they came to Earth, according to Nappa. "Why else would we bother with this dump?" he said. "Hand them over!" Piccolo refused and took a fighting stance, and the battle had been initiated. I took a stance and raised my ki, but I didn't power up all they way. I heard Nappa read our power levels - all around 1000, but it wasn't our maximum. Vegeta was a bit smarter than Nappa, though, and he seemed to realize that we weren't showing our true power. For effect, he tossed his scouter aside.
Nappa followed his lead. "You're right, Vegeta," he said, "That pathetic weakling Raditz probably got himself killed by relying on the scouter's numbers." Suddenly, we were petrified. "Weakling"? How strong were they, that they would consider Raditz, who had beaten up Goku and Piccolo together, a weakling? I could feel my sense of hope starting to slip away...
Vegeta, who seemed to be having a great time, suggested that they should test our power. Nappa produced a small vial filled with some tiny seeds that he said were for 'Saibamen'. He put them in the ground and covered them over slightly, then sprinkled some water on them. Almost immediately, creatures began to emerge from the ground. They looked disgusting and alien and fearsome, and I could feel their tremendous power. There were six of them. It was terrible to think that they could produce such creatures just by sticking some seeds in the ground. They started to advance on us, but stopped as we all sensed strong kis approaching. Tenshinhan and Chaozu landed near us, and Yamucha came right after them. They joined the line with Gohan, Piccolo and I. I felt hope return. The six of us, standing there and facing the aliens, were the Earth's defense. There's a pride in defending an entire planet, and it was definitely present in us. We felt strong, and I thought that maybe we could actually stand a chance of winning, especially with Goku still on his way. It's always better to die feeling optimistic, right?
Vegeta, noticing that there were six of us, suggested that we fight the Saibamen one at a time, one-on-one, for a game. Piccolo got really angry at this suggestion, but I made him calm down. I think that we were all angered by the fact that, with the fate of the world on the line, they wanted to play games, but I realized that it might actually save us. The more we delayed the actual fight, the more time Goku would have to arrive. The Saiyans were far stronger than we were that day. Even when Goku did finally arrive, he was weaker than Vegeta by quite a bit. The only thing that saved our lives that day was arrogance. The Saiyans didn't even consider the possibility of losing, and overconfidence like that has brought about the fall of many strong men.
Tenshinhan was the first to fight one of the Saibamen. He handled the creature easily. The Saibaman did try a really weird attack on him, though - its head actually opened up and squirted out an acid that sprayed so far that I had to dodge it. It was nasty stuff - it dug a trench in the ground. Before long, though, Tenshinhan had the creature down. Our unexpected power seemed to make Nappa nervous, but Vegeta only seemed entertained. I heard Nappa mumur something about the Saibamen each being as strong as Raditz, which shows you that all of our training really did make us much stronger. We started congratulating Tenshinhan, but the thing started to get back up. Tenshinhan prepared to face it again, but suddenly Vegeta extended two fingers and the Saibaman just exploded. It turned inside-out. It was terrible to see. I just felt so disgusted, so filled with contempt for anyone who would do that to someone on their own side. All of us were shocked and horrified, and even Nappa seemed taken aback by Vegeta's cruelty.
"Vegeta.... why?" he said.
Vegeta just smiled at him, the most terrible smile I'd ever seen, and said that it would have been pointless to continue because the thing was already beaten. It seemed barely worth a thought to him, and the Saibamen were almost as strong as we were. We all started to realize just then just how horrible our situation was. I started to step forward to fight the next one, but Yamucha stopped me. He said that he would do it. I couldn't understand why Yamucha wanted to go instead of me. We both knew that I was the stronger of us two. I scanned Yamucha's eyes for a reason.
He spoke privately to me. "You've already been brought back by the dragon balls," he said. "You don't get another chance." Bless him, he was looking out for me. He stepped forward with an almost cocky gait and dared the Saibaman to attack him, and they engaged. They began to move so quickly that it was impossible to follow them with your eyes. As an observer of fights like that, you have to feel them instead of seeing them. After a while, it feels almost the same. Yamucha had more trouble than Tenshinhan, but he beat the thing and finished it off with a Kamehameha, imbedding it in the dirt. He landed, and he started to say something to us, when the Saibaman suddenly leapt onto him and clung to him. Yamucha didn't even have time to struggle before he was swallowed up in an explosion. The thing self-destructed. It was so unexpected and horrifying... it felt like I died along with Yamucha. When the smoke cleared, it was still raining parts of the Saibaman, and I could see Yamucha lying in the dirt. I was the only one who ran to him. I knelt by his side and felt him. He was dead, just like that. He'd only been with us for a couple of minutes, and he'd already been slaughtered like some animal. I felt my anger begin to build up. He'd taken the hit for me. He'd known that something like that was going to happen, so he took it in my place. I felt so angry that I could burst. How could this have happened? How could I break this to Pu'ar, and Bulma... despite all her act, I knew that Bulma cared about Yamucha, and little Pu'ar adored Yamucha so much, to think of how she would react to his death just broke my heart. I also thought of what Yamucha'd said to me at the lookout. He was a good man, I thought, with hopes and dreams and people who loved him, and now he was gone. I couldn't even think that we could bring him back with the dragon balls, because Piccolo was fighting with us and he was as likely to die as anyone. For a while I couldn't do anything but just sit there and fume.
Vegeta grinned at me. "Pick up your trash, little man," he said sarcastically.
Never, ever in my life, before or since, have I ever been so completely consumed by rage. I rose slowly to my feet. My teeth were clenched so hard that it hurt, tears were frozen in my eyes, and I could feel a vein bulging on my forehead. I stared at the Saiyans with the most intense look of hatred I could conjure. In that moment, I didn't even care about the Earth anymore. I wanted vengance. I wanted retribution. Those filthy Saiyan bastards were going to pay. I wanted to kill them. I remembered the Kakusandan. I'd developed it specifically for destruction. Then seemed like the appropriate time.
I shot the Kakusandan at them, putting so much energy into it that I might have fainted if I hadn't been driven by rage. It was an enormous blast, and all of my friends got as far away as they could. The Saibamen tried to do the same. The Saiyans didn't move. I directed the blast into the air and it exploded there and seperated into smaller blasts, one for each target, just like I'd practiced. The blasts hit the two Saiyans and the four Saibamen, except for one that managed to escape. The explosions were pretty sizable and threw up a lot of dust. The Saibamen that were hit were all reduced to pieces. That was the first time that I ever really took a life, but not the last. For a moment, I almost felt better. Creating explosions really takes the agression out of you quickly. Tenshinhan, Chaozu, and Gohan were really excited, they thought that I'd won the battle. If only it could have been that easy.
The Saibaman that I missed tried to attack Gohan, but Piccolo zipped in front of it. He grabbed it, punched it, and then threw it into the air and wiped it out with a single blast even more powerful than my Kakusandan. It was pretty shocking, but for a moment I paused to think - had Piccolo just saved Gohan's life? It began to occur to me that something might have changed in Piccolo in the time that he'd been training Gohan. I didn't have very long to think about it, though, because that's when Vegeta and Nappa emerged from the cloud of dust. They were completely unharmed. My Kakusandan had barely even managed to get them dirty. It was just unbelievable. I'd used my full power, and they weren't affected at all. Nappa said that he'd kill us all himself, and Vegeta agreed. That's arrogance saving us again there. Nappa was far stronger than us, but we could barely manage to present him with somewhat of a challenge. If Vegeta had fought us from the start... Well, it would have been no contest. Nappa began to power up. As he did, we were just swept over by the extent of it. We'd never thought that it would be so much... Finally, I understood the horrible truth of what Saiyans really were. They were terrifying. They were invincible.
I hate the Saiyans. I just have to say it, I'd be lying if I said otherwise. It isn't the individual Saiyans that I hate - after all, Goku is a Saiyan, and even Vegeta has proven that he has the capacity to be a good person. But the race itself - Saiyans have the ability to become infinitely powerful. That's just wrong, and it terrifies me. Also, they have that terrible instinct - the warrior instinct, they call it. It's disgusting. I've seen it make Goku, the most heroic and noble person I've ever had the honor of knowing, arrogantly and callously endanger innocent lives for the sake of sport. Fortunately, that instinct doesn't seem to be present in non-pure Saiyans - all of the half and quarter-Saiyans I know exhibit no such tendencies, and they're good people. I'm certainly not one of those crazy people who have been on about this ridiculous anti-Saiyan campaign lately, "Earth for Humans" and all that rubbish. Still, I'm glad that Frieza massacred the original race of Saiyans. It's a terrible thing to say. It feels like a black mark on my soul to feel that way, but I mean it. It's wrong of me, but I can't help myself - I'm glad they're dead. I'm really sorry to anyone that that offends.
By the time Nappa was finished powering up, he was surrounded by a crackling yellow energy. It was the first 'ki flare' - a visible flame-like aura - that we'd ever seen. His was small and weak compared to others we'd see, but it was enough to instill great fear in us. He was so much more powerful than us that I felt like a fool for ever believing that we had a chance. The only chance we had left was that Goku had gotten very powerful and that he'd get there to help us. Where was Goku?
Nappa screamed and charged at Tenshinhan. We all tried to stop him, but he was too fast. He swung a punch at Tenshinhan, and he tried to oppose the blow, but it was hopeless. Tenshinhan's hand was taken straight off. I'm serious, It came off clean from just a punch. Tenshinhan screamed and blood came spurting out of the wound. "So this is it," I thought, "This is the end." Nappa tried to strike the death blow to Tenshinhan, but he barely managed to fly out of the way. Nappa just flew after him and pounded him down to the ground. I couldn't stand to watch anymore. I ran to help Tenshinhan, but Nappa laughed and flung a blast at me that threw me aside. I was lucky to escape being blown to pieces. The blast made a hole so deep that you couldn't see the bottom. It's still there today, over 24 years later.
After I recovered, I looked around - someone was missing. I couldn't see Chaozu anywhere. At first I thought that he'd been caught in the blast, but then I heard shouting. I looked up and found that he was clinging to Nappa. The clinging reminded me of how the Saibaman had clung to Yamucha. Oh, lord. I realized what he was going to do. I heard Tenshinhan scream, "Chaozu! No! You can't!", but he did. Chaozu exploded. To see Tenshinhan's eyes... I don't think that there's any greater pain than that. It's probably how I would feel if someone killed 18. Just indescribable pain. The worst of all was that Nappa was completely unharmed. Chaozu had given his life for nothing. The despair just seemed to increase with every passing second. Of us all, only Piccolo managed to keep his wits about him. He had turned out to be our leader in a way. He related a quick plan to me. I still didn't trust Piccolo - hell, that's an understatement, I hated him - but at that point, I was ready to do anything he told me.
We carried out Piccolo's plan as Nappa charged at Tenshinhan again, a confrontation that we knew could only end in Tenshinhan's death. Before he could get to him, Piccolo came up at Nappa's side and hit him hard, sending him over to where I was waiting. He came flying at me, and I hit him with all of the strength that I had, sending him flying toward Gohan. The plan called for Gohan to fire a ki blast at him then while he was disoriented, but Gohan froze. He was paralyzed by fear. The poor kid, he was only five years old. Piccolo and I tried to make up for it by firing our own blasts at Nappa, but by that time he'd recovered and he dodged them. Our assault had injured him slightly, and he came at us to attack, but Tenshinhan tried the last trick he had and fired his best Kikouhou at Nappa. The force of the blast was enormous, and it blew Piccolo and I aside. That one actually managed to hurt Nappa a bit - some of his armor had broken off, and he was bleeding - but not much. Tenshinhan had put his entire life force into the blast, and although I was far away, I saw him die. He lived just long enough to see that Nappa was unharmed, and I saw him give up hope just before he fell to the ground. First Yamucha, then Chaozu, now Tenshinhan. Who was next? Probably me, I figured. It was a nightmare. All of the training we'd done, all of our hopes, all of the Earth's best - it was for nothing. We were all dying, and it was happening so very quickly. I screamed aloud for Goku to arrive. I fully expected to die within the next few moments.
Nappa came flying at Piccolo and I. Futile as it seemed, we prepared to try our best to fight him. Before anything could happen, though, Vegeta told him to stop. We all stared at him in utter confusion.
Nappa was like an impatient child. "B-but... Vegeta!"
"What's your hurry? I just want to ask them something," Vegeta said, and he turned and faced us. "This 'Son Goku' that you keep calling desperately for - is that Kakarotto?"
"Y-yeah..." I managed.
Vegeta smiled in disbelief, and he actually started laughing. "Your only hope is Kakarotto? He couldn't even beat Raditz! What good is he?" That got us going. All three of us launched into a furious testament to how strong Goku had become, and how he'd arrive and defeat them. Vegeta was so amused by our faith that he said they'd stop and wait for three hours for Goku to arrive. Chalk one more up for arrogance there. Nappa was so infuriated that he almost attacked us anyway, but when Vegeta yelled again he stopped dead in his tracks and whimpered out an apology. Obviously we'd been right before - Vegeta's power far outstripped that of Nappa. I shuddered at the thought.
Three hours crawled by agonizingly. The saiyans sat off to the side and talked about something I didn't really catch. Piccolo chewed Gohan out for freezing earlier. I wanted to run, or fight, or do anything but just sit and wait to die. I kept watching the skies, hoping that Goku would come and save us. Yet, I kept hearing something that the Saiyans had said echoing over in my head - "If you're so sure he's coming, where is he?" I was beginning to wonder that myself. I know now that he was probably traveling down the Snake Road, which according to legend is 1,000,000 kilometers long, so I guess the delay is understandable. Three hours gave me a lot of time to reflect, perhaps more than I'd have liked. The deaths of my friends, especially Yamucha, kept playing over again in my head. I started to see myself in those same visions. To distract myself, I tried to scan the faces of the others to see what they were feeling. The Saiyans seemed to be having a grand time. Gohan was frightened, but he still seemed determined to win. Piccolo was anxious, but also determined. He'd undergone quite a metamorphosis - The Great Demon Piccolo was now Piccolo, Defender of the Earth.
As long as they seemed, the three hours came to an end. Vegeta declared Kakarotto to be a coward, and Nappa began to approach us. I felt like I was commiting suicide. Piccolo had one more plan, though - While I distracted Nappa, Piccolo would grab his tail. If he could do that, then Gohan could attack and destroy Nappa. I'd forgotten about the whole tail thing. We did seem to have some small hope left. The plan seemed to go pretty well. I distracted Nappa with a Double Tsuihikidan, and Piccolo got ahold of his tail. However, that's when things went wrong. Having his tail squeezed didn't seem to weaken Nappa at all, and he hit Piccolo, who fell like a ton of bricks. It was then that I really despaired. It felt as if all of the fight had left me. It seemed like there was really nothing left but to lay down and die.
--END OF CHAPTER FOURTEEN--
I've been through a lot. I've seen foes that destroy entire planets. I've seen friends die and myself been slain. I've had enemies with unbelievable power. Through it all, however, the battle against the Saiyans is still what I remember the most. It's still the one that comes back to me in my dreams.
It was late in the morning on November 3rd, 762, when the Saiyans hit Earth. I felt it when they landed. I wasn't anywhere near them, but the mere presence of their enormous power hit me like a bright lamp shined in my eyes. I knew immediately what had happened. It filled me with fear and even a kind of excitement. The day that I'd spent the past year in fear of and in preperation for had finally come. I'd already suspected that since the sky had gotten dark earlier that day, meaning that Goku had returned to life. My heart was racing. I felt an even larger surge of ki shortly after their landing. That was probably their initial attack on Earth. Right upon landing, they unleashed a blast that utterly destroyed East Capital City, killing hundreds of thousands of people in the blink of an eye. I did think it was odd that all of the smaller ki surrounding them suddenly vanished, but I had no idea...
I felt them moving toward two large sources of ki - one of them felt like Piccolo, although it was much more powerful than I'd ever known Piccolo to be. I took off my weighted clothing and headed there too. It wasn't far from my location, so before long I found the source that I was looking for. Sure enough, it was Piccolo, and with him was a kid who also had a lot of power, obviously Gohan. I landed right next to them. At first, they thought I was a Saiyan, but Piccolo recognized me. Piccolo and I traded verbal jabs. As nervous as we were, we felt a kind of confidence. I guess it came from how much our power had increased. Of course, that power increase was nothing compared to what would come. If I'd been as powerful as I am now when Nappa and Vegeta came to Earth, I could have handled them both alone without any trouble. That's to say nothing of how powerful Gohan has gotten.
Back on subject, though, I also had the chance to talk to Gohan a little. He looked very different than he had when I'd seen him over a year previously, both physically and in attitude. It reminded me of Goku when we'd been kids. He recognized me after being reminded, and he seemed excited that I'd be helping him fight. Apparently Goku had spoken fondly of me to his son, which was nice of him, but he'd also used the word "short" a lot. Argh. I also started to pick up the hint from Gohan that Piccolo wasn't quite so evil anymore, but before we could get any deeper into it, the Saiyans arrived. I felt almost swept over by their ki. It felt not only strong, but evil, almost demonic. It made me nauseated. They landed in front of us and we did our best to face them. One of them was large, bald, and muscular, and the other one was smaller(still taller than me - isn't everyone?) and looked confidently smug. Both of them wore the same strange armor that Raditz had worn. For a while, we just stood there and faced each other. We did our best to look formidable.
The saiyans seemed amused with us. They obviously knew that we were much, much stronger than the normal inhabitants of Earth, but still far weaker than them. I think that the term they used to describe us was "mighty ants". That's appropriate, I suppose - it was more or less what I felt like. The Saiyans called each other by name a lot, so we quickly learned who they were. The big one was Nappa and the smaller one was Vegeta. Nappa was loud and rough and he talked a lot of trash, but from his manner toward Vegeta it was obvious that Vegeta was more powerful and in fact had Nappa utterly in his thrall. They talked about Raditz for a bit.
"Looks like that one is a Namekian," said Vegeta. "It isn't so strange that Raditz was beaten, then." Nappa nodded in agreement. The revelation that Piccolo, too, was an alien came as a shock to all of us, especially Piccolo himself. I admit that I never really thought he was human, so it made sense, but it was surprising nonetheless. I was even more surprised, though, when they went on to reveal that they knew about the dragon balls. That was the real reason that they came to Earth, according to Nappa. "Why else would we bother with this dump?" he said. "Hand them over!" Piccolo refused and took a fighting stance, and the battle had been initiated. I took a stance and raised my ki, but I didn't power up all they way. I heard Nappa read our power levels - all around 1000, but it wasn't our maximum. Vegeta was a bit smarter than Nappa, though, and he seemed to realize that we weren't showing our true power. For effect, he tossed his scouter aside.
Nappa followed his lead. "You're right, Vegeta," he said, "That pathetic weakling Raditz probably got himself killed by relying on the scouter's numbers." Suddenly, we were petrified. "Weakling"? How strong were they, that they would consider Raditz, who had beaten up Goku and Piccolo together, a weakling? I could feel my sense of hope starting to slip away...
Vegeta, who seemed to be having a great time, suggested that they should test our power. Nappa produced a small vial filled with some tiny seeds that he said were for 'Saibamen'. He put them in the ground and covered them over slightly, then sprinkled some water on them. Almost immediately, creatures began to emerge from the ground. They looked disgusting and alien and fearsome, and I could feel their tremendous power. There were six of them. It was terrible to think that they could produce such creatures just by sticking some seeds in the ground. They started to advance on us, but stopped as we all sensed strong kis approaching. Tenshinhan and Chaozu landed near us, and Yamucha came right after them. They joined the line with Gohan, Piccolo and I. I felt hope return. The six of us, standing there and facing the aliens, were the Earth's defense. There's a pride in defending an entire planet, and it was definitely present in us. We felt strong, and I thought that maybe we could actually stand a chance of winning, especially with Goku still on his way. It's always better to die feeling optimistic, right?
Vegeta, noticing that there were six of us, suggested that we fight the Saibamen one at a time, one-on-one, for a game. Piccolo got really angry at this suggestion, but I made him calm down. I think that we were all angered by the fact that, with the fate of the world on the line, they wanted to play games, but I realized that it might actually save us. The more we delayed the actual fight, the more time Goku would have to arrive. The Saiyans were far stronger than we were that day. Even when Goku did finally arrive, he was weaker than Vegeta by quite a bit. The only thing that saved our lives that day was arrogance. The Saiyans didn't even consider the possibility of losing, and overconfidence like that has brought about the fall of many strong men.
Tenshinhan was the first to fight one of the Saibamen. He handled the creature easily. The Saibaman did try a really weird attack on him, though - its head actually opened up and squirted out an acid that sprayed so far that I had to dodge it. It was nasty stuff - it dug a trench in the ground. Before long, though, Tenshinhan had the creature down. Our unexpected power seemed to make Nappa nervous, but Vegeta only seemed entertained. I heard Nappa mumur something about the Saibamen each being as strong as Raditz, which shows you that all of our training really did make us much stronger. We started congratulating Tenshinhan, but the thing started to get back up. Tenshinhan prepared to face it again, but suddenly Vegeta extended two fingers and the Saibaman just exploded. It turned inside-out. It was terrible to see. I just felt so disgusted, so filled with contempt for anyone who would do that to someone on their own side. All of us were shocked and horrified, and even Nappa seemed taken aback by Vegeta's cruelty.
"Vegeta.... why?" he said.
Vegeta just smiled at him, the most terrible smile I'd ever seen, and said that it would have been pointless to continue because the thing was already beaten. It seemed barely worth a thought to him, and the Saibamen were almost as strong as we were. We all started to realize just then just how horrible our situation was. I started to step forward to fight the next one, but Yamucha stopped me. He said that he would do it. I couldn't understand why Yamucha wanted to go instead of me. We both knew that I was the stronger of us two. I scanned Yamucha's eyes for a reason.
He spoke privately to me. "You've already been brought back by the dragon balls," he said. "You don't get another chance." Bless him, he was looking out for me. He stepped forward with an almost cocky gait and dared the Saibaman to attack him, and they engaged. They began to move so quickly that it was impossible to follow them with your eyes. As an observer of fights like that, you have to feel them instead of seeing them. After a while, it feels almost the same. Yamucha had more trouble than Tenshinhan, but he beat the thing and finished it off with a Kamehameha, imbedding it in the dirt. He landed, and he started to say something to us, when the Saibaman suddenly leapt onto him and clung to him. Yamucha didn't even have time to struggle before he was swallowed up in an explosion. The thing self-destructed. It was so unexpected and horrifying... it felt like I died along with Yamucha. When the smoke cleared, it was still raining parts of the Saibaman, and I could see Yamucha lying in the dirt. I was the only one who ran to him. I knelt by his side and felt him. He was dead, just like that. He'd only been with us for a couple of minutes, and he'd already been slaughtered like some animal. I felt my anger begin to build up. He'd taken the hit for me. He'd known that something like that was going to happen, so he took it in my place. I felt so angry that I could burst. How could this have happened? How could I break this to Pu'ar, and Bulma... despite all her act, I knew that Bulma cared about Yamucha, and little Pu'ar adored Yamucha so much, to think of how she would react to his death just broke my heart. I also thought of what Yamucha'd said to me at the lookout. He was a good man, I thought, with hopes and dreams and people who loved him, and now he was gone. I couldn't even think that we could bring him back with the dragon balls, because Piccolo was fighting with us and he was as likely to die as anyone. For a while I couldn't do anything but just sit there and fume.
Vegeta grinned at me. "Pick up your trash, little man," he said sarcastically.
Never, ever in my life, before or since, have I ever been so completely consumed by rage. I rose slowly to my feet. My teeth were clenched so hard that it hurt, tears were frozen in my eyes, and I could feel a vein bulging on my forehead. I stared at the Saiyans with the most intense look of hatred I could conjure. In that moment, I didn't even care about the Earth anymore. I wanted vengance. I wanted retribution. Those filthy Saiyan bastards were going to pay. I wanted to kill them. I remembered the Kakusandan. I'd developed it specifically for destruction. Then seemed like the appropriate time.
I shot the Kakusandan at them, putting so much energy into it that I might have fainted if I hadn't been driven by rage. It was an enormous blast, and all of my friends got as far away as they could. The Saibamen tried to do the same. The Saiyans didn't move. I directed the blast into the air and it exploded there and seperated into smaller blasts, one for each target, just like I'd practiced. The blasts hit the two Saiyans and the four Saibamen, except for one that managed to escape. The explosions were pretty sizable and threw up a lot of dust. The Saibamen that were hit were all reduced to pieces. That was the first time that I ever really took a life, but not the last. For a moment, I almost felt better. Creating explosions really takes the agression out of you quickly. Tenshinhan, Chaozu, and Gohan were really excited, they thought that I'd won the battle. If only it could have been that easy.
The Saibaman that I missed tried to attack Gohan, but Piccolo zipped in front of it. He grabbed it, punched it, and then threw it into the air and wiped it out with a single blast even more powerful than my Kakusandan. It was pretty shocking, but for a moment I paused to think - had Piccolo just saved Gohan's life? It began to occur to me that something might have changed in Piccolo in the time that he'd been training Gohan. I didn't have very long to think about it, though, because that's when Vegeta and Nappa emerged from the cloud of dust. They were completely unharmed. My Kakusandan had barely even managed to get them dirty. It was just unbelievable. I'd used my full power, and they weren't affected at all. Nappa said that he'd kill us all himself, and Vegeta agreed. That's arrogance saving us again there. Nappa was far stronger than us, but we could barely manage to present him with somewhat of a challenge. If Vegeta had fought us from the start... Well, it would have been no contest. Nappa began to power up. As he did, we were just swept over by the extent of it. We'd never thought that it would be so much... Finally, I understood the horrible truth of what Saiyans really were. They were terrifying. They were invincible.
I hate the Saiyans. I just have to say it, I'd be lying if I said otherwise. It isn't the individual Saiyans that I hate - after all, Goku is a Saiyan, and even Vegeta has proven that he has the capacity to be a good person. But the race itself - Saiyans have the ability to become infinitely powerful. That's just wrong, and it terrifies me. Also, they have that terrible instinct - the warrior instinct, they call it. It's disgusting. I've seen it make Goku, the most heroic and noble person I've ever had the honor of knowing, arrogantly and callously endanger innocent lives for the sake of sport. Fortunately, that instinct doesn't seem to be present in non-pure Saiyans - all of the half and quarter-Saiyans I know exhibit no such tendencies, and they're good people. I'm certainly not one of those crazy people who have been on about this ridiculous anti-Saiyan campaign lately, "Earth for Humans" and all that rubbish. Still, I'm glad that Frieza massacred the original race of Saiyans. It's a terrible thing to say. It feels like a black mark on my soul to feel that way, but I mean it. It's wrong of me, but I can't help myself - I'm glad they're dead. I'm really sorry to anyone that that offends.
By the time Nappa was finished powering up, he was surrounded by a crackling yellow energy. It was the first 'ki flare' - a visible flame-like aura - that we'd ever seen. His was small and weak compared to others we'd see, but it was enough to instill great fear in us. He was so much more powerful than us that I felt like a fool for ever believing that we had a chance. The only chance we had left was that Goku had gotten very powerful and that he'd get there to help us. Where was Goku?
Nappa screamed and charged at Tenshinhan. We all tried to stop him, but he was too fast. He swung a punch at Tenshinhan, and he tried to oppose the blow, but it was hopeless. Tenshinhan's hand was taken straight off. I'm serious, It came off clean from just a punch. Tenshinhan screamed and blood came spurting out of the wound. "So this is it," I thought, "This is the end." Nappa tried to strike the death blow to Tenshinhan, but he barely managed to fly out of the way. Nappa just flew after him and pounded him down to the ground. I couldn't stand to watch anymore. I ran to help Tenshinhan, but Nappa laughed and flung a blast at me that threw me aside. I was lucky to escape being blown to pieces. The blast made a hole so deep that you couldn't see the bottom. It's still there today, over 24 years later.
After I recovered, I looked around - someone was missing. I couldn't see Chaozu anywhere. At first I thought that he'd been caught in the blast, but then I heard shouting. I looked up and found that he was clinging to Nappa. The clinging reminded me of how the Saibaman had clung to Yamucha. Oh, lord. I realized what he was going to do. I heard Tenshinhan scream, "Chaozu! No! You can't!", but he did. Chaozu exploded. To see Tenshinhan's eyes... I don't think that there's any greater pain than that. It's probably how I would feel if someone killed 18. Just indescribable pain. The worst of all was that Nappa was completely unharmed. Chaozu had given his life for nothing. The despair just seemed to increase with every passing second. Of us all, only Piccolo managed to keep his wits about him. He had turned out to be our leader in a way. He related a quick plan to me. I still didn't trust Piccolo - hell, that's an understatement, I hated him - but at that point, I was ready to do anything he told me.
We carried out Piccolo's plan as Nappa charged at Tenshinhan again, a confrontation that we knew could only end in Tenshinhan's death. Before he could get to him, Piccolo came up at Nappa's side and hit him hard, sending him over to where I was waiting. He came flying at me, and I hit him with all of the strength that I had, sending him flying toward Gohan. The plan called for Gohan to fire a ki blast at him then while he was disoriented, but Gohan froze. He was paralyzed by fear. The poor kid, he was only five years old. Piccolo and I tried to make up for it by firing our own blasts at Nappa, but by that time he'd recovered and he dodged them. Our assault had injured him slightly, and he came at us to attack, but Tenshinhan tried the last trick he had and fired his best Kikouhou at Nappa. The force of the blast was enormous, and it blew Piccolo and I aside. That one actually managed to hurt Nappa a bit - some of his armor had broken off, and he was bleeding - but not much. Tenshinhan had put his entire life force into the blast, and although I was far away, I saw him die. He lived just long enough to see that Nappa was unharmed, and I saw him give up hope just before he fell to the ground. First Yamucha, then Chaozu, now Tenshinhan. Who was next? Probably me, I figured. It was a nightmare. All of the training we'd done, all of our hopes, all of the Earth's best - it was for nothing. We were all dying, and it was happening so very quickly. I screamed aloud for Goku to arrive. I fully expected to die within the next few moments.
Nappa came flying at Piccolo and I. Futile as it seemed, we prepared to try our best to fight him. Before anything could happen, though, Vegeta told him to stop. We all stared at him in utter confusion.
Nappa was like an impatient child. "B-but... Vegeta!"
"What's your hurry? I just want to ask them something," Vegeta said, and he turned and faced us. "This 'Son Goku' that you keep calling desperately for - is that Kakarotto?"
"Y-yeah..." I managed.
Vegeta smiled in disbelief, and he actually started laughing. "Your only hope is Kakarotto? He couldn't even beat Raditz! What good is he?" That got us going. All three of us launched into a furious testament to how strong Goku had become, and how he'd arrive and defeat them. Vegeta was so amused by our faith that he said they'd stop and wait for three hours for Goku to arrive. Chalk one more up for arrogance there. Nappa was so infuriated that he almost attacked us anyway, but when Vegeta yelled again he stopped dead in his tracks and whimpered out an apology. Obviously we'd been right before - Vegeta's power far outstripped that of Nappa. I shuddered at the thought.
Three hours crawled by agonizingly. The saiyans sat off to the side and talked about something I didn't really catch. Piccolo chewed Gohan out for freezing earlier. I wanted to run, or fight, or do anything but just sit and wait to die. I kept watching the skies, hoping that Goku would come and save us. Yet, I kept hearing something that the Saiyans had said echoing over in my head - "If you're so sure he's coming, where is he?" I was beginning to wonder that myself. I know now that he was probably traveling down the Snake Road, which according to legend is 1,000,000 kilometers long, so I guess the delay is understandable. Three hours gave me a lot of time to reflect, perhaps more than I'd have liked. The deaths of my friends, especially Yamucha, kept playing over again in my head. I started to see myself in those same visions. To distract myself, I tried to scan the faces of the others to see what they were feeling. The Saiyans seemed to be having a grand time. Gohan was frightened, but he still seemed determined to win. Piccolo was anxious, but also determined. He'd undergone quite a metamorphosis - The Great Demon Piccolo was now Piccolo, Defender of the Earth.
As long as they seemed, the three hours came to an end. Vegeta declared Kakarotto to be a coward, and Nappa began to approach us. I felt like I was commiting suicide. Piccolo had one more plan, though - While I distracted Nappa, Piccolo would grab his tail. If he could do that, then Gohan could attack and destroy Nappa. I'd forgotten about the whole tail thing. We did seem to have some small hope left. The plan seemed to go pretty well. I distracted Nappa with a Double Tsuihikidan, and Piccolo got ahold of his tail. However, that's when things went wrong. Having his tail squeezed didn't seem to weaken Nappa at all, and he hit Piccolo, who fell like a ton of bricks. It was then that I really despaired. It felt as if all of the fight had left me. It seemed like there was really nothing left but to lay down and die.
--END OF CHAPTER FOURTEEN--