Chapter 21

On a strange, winding road, a man wearing an orange gi with black spiky hair ran as fast as he could. The puffy, yellow clouds passed him quickly as he sped down what looked like a dragon's back. He panted heavily but couldn't stop no matter what. "Hang on, guys, I'm coming!"

Vegeta and Nappa landed in the mountains shortly after their arrival. They had seen where the three warriors had made camp and landed in front of them. They made their observations quickly, noting that one was a child, one was a Namekian, and the other was a girl.

The short one's eyes shifted over towards his comrade. "It appears that they've been expecting us."

Piccolo decided to take his chance. He stepped in front of Katrina and Gohan and clenched his fists. "What exactly do you want here?"

Vegeta's eye snapped towards the Namekian. "Ah, that voice. It was you who killed Raditz, wasn't it?"

Katrina's eyes shifted towards Piccolo. Who's Raditz?

He was one of the saiyans that came to earth before these two. Piccolo replied silently.

Nappa had remained quiet for the short amount of time but he finally spoke up. "Hey Vegeta, look at the girl."

Piccolo instinctively growled and tried to remove her completely from their sight, but Katrina was curious as to what they had to say.

"What about her, Nappa?"

"Look at her face. Are my eyes goin' bad or are those the markings of the Dark Clan?"

Vegeta took a good, hard look for the first time, then smirked. "Your eyes are fine, Nappa. Those are the markings...they'd have to be." Then his eyes lowered. Katrina could feel his gaze trace her body. "It looks like you've gotten rid of your tail, though. It was good thinking, but you still can't get rid of those horrible tribal markings of yours. You still stick out like a revolting sore thumb."

Piccolo's growls grew louder, but Katrina stepped out from behind him. "Do you know what I am?"

Vegeta eyed her harshly. "So she can speak!" He mocked. "Why girl, don't you even know what you are?"

"Probably not, since she hasn't started running yet!" Nappa laughed.

"It looks like you really are confused, and since we're here, we might as well tell you." Vegeta began. "You girl, are the last remaining member of an abomination known as the Dark Clan, or the Black Tailed Saiyans if you prefer. You were evolved from us, which should have been a great accomplishment. But instead, you were nothing more than a waste of flesh and blood! We banished you off of our superior planet, and then we destroyed the entire clan...or so we thought..."

"She looks young, so we probably missed a couple of them." Nappa added.

"Yes, well, no matter. Once we have those Dragon Balls and our eternal life, we can comb the galaxy for them." Vegeta turned his attention towards the three fighters. "So if you could just hand over the dragon balls, we could get started..."

"We'll never tell you where they are, you're just wasting your time." Piccolo answered, getting into the fighting stance that Gohan and Katrina had seen many times before. Gohan slowly shifted into his, his entire frame trembling.

Katrina eyes the two warriors in front of her. Her fear slowly sunk and her anger rose. Nothing is impossible. She thought, turning into her fighting stance. I have to stop them from killing Piccolo...at any costs...

"Why you slug! How dare you talk to—" Nappa was cut short when a few more numbers dazzled his scouter. Vegeta's was scanning as well. They looked up at the sky as three people landed down next to Katrina.

"I hope we're not too late to join in." Tien said. Yamcha and Krillin stood next to him.

Piccolo shifted his eyes towards the new group. "Glad you finally showed up. Are you here to watch the real fighters?"

Krillin laughed. "I wish that was why, but I'm here for a reason bigger than that."

"Well, if this is everyone, we can finally get started." Vegeta turned his head towards Nappa. "Bring out the Cultivar seeds, Nappa."

"You love to play games, don't you Vegeta?" Nappa replied as he pulled a small bottle out from underneath his armor. He took out the seeds and popped six of them into the ground, then sprinkled what looked like water on top of the seeds. Within a matter of moments, the ground where the seeds were planted began to bulge up, and six small creatures rose from the ground. They screeched at each other in a language that no one could understand.

"There. Six Cultivars for six warriors. Each of you can have one...for sporting purposes."

"Quit playing around and let's finish this!!" Piccolo replied. Katrina stared in shock at his response.

Surprisingly, Krillin spoke up. "No, this could work! Goku's not here yet!" Piccolo remained silent.

Tien, seeing the open opportunity, stepped up. "Fine, I'll go first."

Vegeta glared down at one of the cultivars. He kicked the one in front of him and ordered, "You take this one, and give him everything you've got."

The cultivar screeched loudly, as if to swear at the kicker, but these things were not as stupid as everyone thought. It knew what kind of power they had, so it quickly trotted forward towards Tien.

Tien smashed his firsts together and smirked. "Come at me."

Right on cue, the cultivar flew towards the three eyed man, screaming wildly. Katrina could feel Tien's energy rising as he threw his hand out in front of him and yelled. Almost instantly, the cultivar flew back from an invisible punch and landed a few feet in front of the saiyans.

It got back on its feet quickly. Tien was about to throw another when the cultivar's head split open and a green, steaming liquid shot out at Tien. He dodged it quickly, but the liquid continued on towards the other fighters.

Piccolo quickly grabbed Katrina and moved her out of the way. Krillin jumped to the other side as the liquid landed and instantly created a long crater wherever it touched ground. The ground sizzled afterwards.

"Acid..." Piccolo mumbled. "Strong enough to kill anything it touches."

Katrina couldn't help but stare at the sizzling ground where she had just stood. Overwhelming panic came over her, but it slowly faded as she realized that Piccolo was staring at her. She returned his gaze confusingly. His look was odd. It wasn't a scowl, which is what she expected and probably deserved, but it wasn't a smile either. It was a decisive look.

After a moment, his lips curled in a very small smile. Anyone else who was looking probably wouldn't have seen it, but Katrina certainly did. He reached out and squeezed her hand quickly, then returned his attention to the game.

Katrina watched him for another moment or two, then also continued to push her fear down to her feet.

The cultivar was coming at Tien again, but this time Tien easily elbowed it in the face. It flew backwards, and landed hard on the ground. It stayed still for a long moment.

Nappa was stunned. "How...how did that happen?!"

But Vegeta could only smirk. "It appears that we will be entertained after all."

"That's impossible, each of those cultivars has a power level of 1200, equal to Raditz!"

"But his power remains greater still." Vegeta replied. His eyes shifted to the cultivar, who was slowly attempting the stand back up.

Without a word, Vegeta pointed two fingers at the cultivar and it instantly exploded from the inside out. For that small instance, Katrina and Piccolo both sensed a tremendous, dark power come from the smaller saiyan. She caught Piccolo's hand fearfully as she gazed upon what used to be the shrieking cultivar. Now, it was only a pile of skin and insides.

"Completely destroyed with a gesture..." Piccolo mumbled unbelievably. An overwhelming silence entered like a harsh wind as the fighters individually realized what they had gotten themselves into.