In a small house not too far from the humble abode Tarble had called his home for 14 years, a young child, barely over the age of 12, was left wrapped up in blankets by the fireplace. After being unconscious for hours, he awoke to the smell of something cooking in the kitchen.
"Mmmm. What's cooking?" he asked aloud, to no one in particular, as he rubbed his eyes and got his bearings. A young girl could be heard from the kitchen, tugging at the skirt of an older woman.
"Mama! Mama! He's awake!"
The old woman, who had evidently been cooking prior to the boy waking up, was pulled out of the kitchen by her energetic daughter, to find that, indeed, the frostbitten child seemed to be awake, and not too worse for wear considering his circumstances. The boy turned to the pair of them, confused.
"Wait a second, where am I?" he asked, having come back to his senses for the most part.
"You're in Jingle Village!" the young girl replied. "My name's Yuki. What's yours?"
Goku nodded before grinning slightly.
"Name's Goku!" he replied. "Jingle Village, huh?" He reached into his pocket for a familiar device, and upon pulling it out, fiddled with it for a minute. "Hm...looks like the ball's a good deal north. Should be able to just walk on over and get it!"
"Wait a minute...what's this about a ball?" the older woman asked.
"The Dragon Balls! I've been looking to find my grandpa's old four-star ball, so I've been searching for them! When you grab all seven of them, you can summon a magical dragon who'll grant any wish!"
"And...you say one of these 'Dragon Balls' is around here?" the older woman continued nervously.
Goku nodded. "Looks like...ten miles north," he said, holding up the monitor of the Dragon Radar for the villagers' inspection. The older woman's eyes widened as she examined the location displayed on the screen.
"...That's Muscle Tower," she replied, horror in her voice, as her daughter likewise grew concerned. Goku, however, cocked his head in confusion.
"Muscle Tower? What, is it shaped like a muscle, or-?"
The window into the living room shattered, a bullet piercing through Goku's hair and into the wall as shattered glass was scattered about the floor.
"All of you, out of your homes, now!" a soldier bellowed from the outside, leaving Yuki and her mother to cower in fright. Goku, however, was more annoyed than anything else, rushing out the door to confront the soldier, who jumped back in surprise.
"What's the big idea, shooting at someone like that?" Goku asked angrily. The soldier didn't respond, however, as he and his fellow soldiers in the square were left frozen in terror.
"Oh God...there's more of them!" the soldier cried frantically, sending the soldiers into a panic. "Kill it, quickly!" Without any further ado, the leading soldier shot Goku in the face, the rifle bullet doing little more than bouncing off of his forehead and leaving a painful welt where it struck. The others moved to charge the boy with bayonets, machetes, and various other weapons, some of them hoping to flank him from behind and grab the end of his tail. However, Goku was far too fast for them to catch as he disappeared from sight, only to reappear where the furthest had been some time before. Goku cupped his hands together and let out a low powered version of his signature technique.
"Kamehameha!" he cried out, firing off a ki blast from his hands and enveloping all of the soldiers. With little power behind it, the beam was just enough to blast them all backwards, singing off parts of their clothes and damaging their weapons as they all slipped into unconsciousness. Goku sighed deeply, satisfied they were all defeated, before turning to Yuki and her mother with a smile.
"Man, these Red Ribbon guys sure are jerks, huh?" he asked to no one in particular, while the two looked at him in awe alongside other villagers who cautiously left the relative safety of their homes to investigate the noise.
"Incredible..." Yuki's mother muttered. "He's strong, just like him..."
Goku was left puzzled by the people's reaction, but shrugged and checked his Dragon Radar again. "Well, that was kinda fun, but I should probably head out to this tower and grab the Dragon Ball now." With that, he began to head off, before Yuki stopped him.
"Wait!" she called out, causing him to turn around. "B-before you go, you should know: those army guys are holding some of our people!"
Goku's eyes widened slightly. "Who?"
"Our chief," one of the villagers elaborated. "Not to mention the family of an older boy, Tarble, who's very much like yourself. The soldiers took them to ensure that he'd work with them."
Goku nodded slowly, lost in thought. "'Like me?' What do you mean by that?" Goku asked.
The villagers paused for a second, unsure how to answer, before Yuki's mother spoke up. "Well, he's remarkably strong, and he has a tail, just like yours." This more than anything else piqued Goku's interest. He'd long ago grasped that humans didn't have tails, so he'd figured he was different from normal humans somehow-a one of a kind oddity. But, to hear that someone else like him existed was definitely exciting. The village kids quickly piled on.
"He can shoot lasers out of his hands!" a young boy exclaimed excitedly.
"And fly through the sky!" Yuki added.
"He threw a tank into a mountain!" another girl proclaimed.
"He took a shotgun shell right to the face!" another boy added on, each piece of information further exciting both the children and Goku, who began grinning widely at the prospect of potentially fighting such an evidently strong and capable foe.
"Alrighty! I'll be sure to bring all of your people back safe and sound!" Goku said, determination shining in his eyes as he took off at top speed towards the tower, intent upon seeing this interesting person for himself.
General White held the Dragon Ball in the palm of his hand, watching how the light from the window reflected off of it. The doctor from before stood in a shadowy corner of the room.
"Heh. That dumb android was more clever than I gave him credit for," White remarked.
"I must apologize for my creation's behavior, General. It has severely hampered our efforts," the doctor replied, but White brushed him off.
"Ah, so you messed up the programming a bit. It happens. You've always got the next model to work on, right?"
The doctor nodded. "Even so, it is still a most regrettable setback."
"Well, in any event, it's done now. I'm taking the ball to headquarters first thing tomorrow, once the boys have cleaned house."
The doctor nodded. "If it's not too much to ask, I would like your permission to remain here, and examine the boy more closely."
White considered this, murmuring to himself. "Ever since that incident with Silver the other day, I'd say that's a good idea. But...the brat would be pretty useful in helping to grab the rest of these things."
"Of course, were he removed from his family's proximity, he may feel less inclined to cooperate in our efforts."
White nodded. "A fair point." After a moment he sighed. "I suppose you can have him for a while, but I'm warning you: the boss will be expecting something to show for all of your troubles."
The doctor smiled widely, his perfectly white teeth making for a terrifying visage in the shadows of the corner.
"Ohoho, believe me...it will be well worth the effort."
Meanwhile, Tarble sat meditating in his chair, the clamp having been active around his tail for hours, before he heard a familiar set of footfalls coming down the stairs and quickly sat up. Murasaki walked into his chamber nonchalantly, as if the boy hadn't beaten him and his brothers into submission only a month before.
"Good evening, Tarble. I trust you're well?" the ninja asked with mocking politeness. Tarble simply scoffed, causing the ninja to chuckle. "Well, I just thought you should know that we finally located the Dragon Ball we've devoted ourselves to finding for so long."
Tarble tried to look unconcerned, but it didn't quite work. "Is that so?"
"You'll never guess where we found it," he replied cheerily. "That traitorous piece of scrap metal had apparently located it before any of our men. He'd hidden it in his quarters along with a bunch of other trinkets." Tarble growled slightly as Murasaki continued. "It's probably our fault, really. Somebody must have mentioned the Clean House Protocol within earshot."
Tarble began to pale slightly as the ninja said the words, causing him to grin at the boy. "Clean House Protocol?"
"Oh, I'm surprised you haven't heard of it!" Murasaki replied. "Well, not too much to tell there. Let's just say...the Army doesn't like leaving witnesses."
Tarble's eyes widened slowly as he put it all together, before his fists began shaking violently. "All those men...the women and children...you're..." After a few seconds, Tarble's rage exploded, to the point where he didn't even register the clamp coming down upon his tail.
"YOU BASTARD!" he cried out angrily as he lunged at Murasaki, his weakened state allowing Murasaki to narrowly dodge his attacks before replying in kind, nicking him across the cheek with his sword and causing him to fall to the ground.
"Given your attachment to those pathetic people, I'm going to do you a favor and restrain myself from speaking of this," the ninja said coldly before sneering at the boy. "Just count your blessings that the ones we're holding here are safe and sound. After all...you're going to be with us for a long time." Murasaki laughed maniacally before the two of them heard a loud crash. Seconds later, a klaxon rang out throughout the base, and a transmission cut in through the communications terminal in the corner of the room.
"This is Private-ah, hell, what was it?! Uh, Cream? Y-yeah! Private Cream, to base! We're under attack by a child matching the description of the fugitive! Our weapons aren't doing anything against him! Please, we must have immediate assista-!"
The transmission cut out as quickly as it began, signaling that the intruder had silenced Cream unexpectedly.
"...Those men were on the second floor," Murasaki muttered, before making up his mind, heading upstairs and only bothering to release Tarble's clamp when he was safely out of Tarble's immediate range. The P.A. system in the room flared to life as White relayed instructions to the Saiyan.
"Don't forget what happens if you step out of line, freak!" he bellowed before shutting off the line, leaving Tarble alone to face whoever this "fugitive" of theirs was. He reluctantly readied his fists, wondering at the kind of power that the assailant possessed, when the boy in question leapt over the last few stairs and landed in the room with a flip...and leaving Tarble completely speechless.
Goku looked around until his eyes fell upon an older boy who, just as the villagers had said, had a tail, albeit one that seemed to be bound by a strange device. He took note of his unimpressive height and build, yet concluded that it was too early to draw conclusions on his strength, particularly if what the villagers had told him was true. He waved to the boy, grinning widely.
"Hi! My name's Goku! Are you Tarble?"
Tarble, however, simply sat there examining him, looking over every detail.
"The Saiyan growth spurt is around age 16 or 17, so he can't be my age. But...that light...I saw it a year after I came here, so if that was his pod, he would've been 3 when I was 4, and I'm 17 now. Unless...he was never incubated? That would make him 12 or 13...far more plausible. But why would he never be incubated? Even the poorest of Saiyans can afford it-it's government subsidized!"
"Uh...hello?"
"He clearly discarded his armor. That garb...reminiscent of martial arts outfits I saw in a movie once. Is he part of a martial arts school? But he must be a long way away from his masters in that case. And he seems so...cheerful. Why isn't he fulfilling his mission?"
"Okay, I'm a little creeped right now."
"If he's part of a school, he obviously hasn't killed his masters, and I doubt a martial arts school would tolerate him traveling the world and cleansing the populace. So he isn't fulfilling his mission...perhaps he's similar to me? Except...he also looks like he's itching for a fight. Curiouser and curiouser..."
Goku, having more than enough of the awkward silence, pulled out his Power Pole and swung wide.
"Power Pole Extend!" he cried out, only for the extending pole to be caught at the last second before it hit Tarble's face. Without missing a beat, he tossed it back, sending it spinning towards Goku as he barely managed to duck. The pole embedded itself into a monitor, leaving Goku unarmed. Tarble sighed as he looked over Goku further.
"There's a lot I want to ask him...but that'll have to wait."
With that, he took off flying towards Goku, making sure to limit himself as he attempted to swing a punch at him. Goku, still being unable to react even as Tarble held back, was sent flying into another monitor. Goku got back up with a groan.
"Man...this dude sure hits hard," Goku thought before brightening up at the prospect of a good fight. He kicked off the ground and attempted to land a hit on the boy, who seemed to be unable to react to it as he too was sent flying into the wall, breaking more monitors. The boy staggered up to his feet, apparently too slow to respond to another kick which sent him back into the wall. Goku paused to allow Tarble to get up again, but Tarble instead was left standing, hunched over as if he was barely restraining something. Goku took a step forward out of concern.
"Hey, are you-?"
"HYAAA!" Tarble cried as he let out a massive kiai, powerful enough to send shockwaves throughout the room which annihilated every monitor and mic on the floor, as well as power lines throughout the base. Goku was sent sprawling backwards by its explosive force, landing hard on a wall. As his head spun, Goku struggled to focus onto Tarble quickly flying towards him and landing by his side.
"I think I knocked out the microphones. The next floor is higher up-we should be able to speak freely," Tarble began, holding out a hand to Goku, who took it with some confusion. "Of course, they might have a tracker on this clamp thing, so I'd suggest continuing to fight while we talk."
Goku nodded, the plan making sense, and the two rushed at each other, sparring.
"So, what does that clamp do, anyway?" The question surprised Tarble somewhat.
"You mean you were not aware of your weakness, either?" Tarble asked, to which Goku cocked his head in confusion. "Well, when something presses down on the end of our tails, it cuts off the flow of ki from the rest of our body, rendering us weak and susceptible to attack."
Goku nodded. "Oh, yeah, I know about that! I've known since I was a kid!"
After another moment of fighting, Goku asked another question. "I'm guessing you can't just rip it off?" Goku asked, tilting his head towards the clamp. Tarble shook his head.
"They told me it was strong enough to withstand my maximum power," Tarble replied. "Plus, if I tried to remove it while the cameras were active, they would go ahead and kill the hostages."
Goku nodded, thinking for a second, before a thought struck him. "But...if you weren't going to do it because they could see you all the time...would they need to make it strong enough so that you couldn't rip it off?"
Tarble was confused for a second before his eyes went wide, accepting Goku's blunt logic. He suddenly stopped their sparring match and flicked his tail, the clamp moving along with it until it was at a suitable position. Then, he leaned down and tore at the clamp bindings with all of his power, easily tearing it off and causing him to wince in pain. He looked at it wordlessly for a moment before growling angrily and crushing the device in his hands, turning it into little more than a ball of scrap metal.
"Well, if they don't know I've rebelled yet, they definitely will now," Tarble remarked. "We need to hurry."
"Don't need to tell me twice!" Goku replied as he and Tarble took off at maximum speed up the stairwell.
Meanwhile, White growled in frustration before barking orders into a walkie talkie.
"The freaks are working together! Little monkey bastard called our bluff! Get the hostages up to the roof and into the chopper, now!"
These instructions laid out, White angrily put on a winter coat while the doctor stood by patiently, picking up the Dragon Ball in his hand and examining it for a few seconds.
"Hm. A regrettable situation, but at least you are responding to it rationally," the doctor replied, tossing the ball to him. White caught it angrily.
"Wouldn't have had to if you could have made a tougher restraint."
"To be fair, I only had so long. You will not believe how much I had to inject into that young man to put him under."
White simply growled. "Whatever! Come with me."
The doctor smiled. "Not to worry. I have...alternative transportation prepared. Good day to you, General."
The general scoffed before stomping off to the emergency exit, heading out to the roof where his helicopter awaited. Gero, meanwhile, walked calmly down the hall and down the stairs into the chamber above Murasaki's forest chamber where Android 8's quarters had been. After opening the door, he was about to step inside when he heard a loud noise behind him. One of the Murasaki brothers, the same one who had first exploited Tarble's weakness, landed with a thud just inches away from him. He turned himself over with a supreme effort and looked up at the doctor.
"Doctor! Doctor, please, you have to help me escape! Those freaks-they came out of nowhere they moved faster than I could see and I don't know how to stop them I-!"
The doctor leaned down and plucked a stray hair from the ninja's sword, evidently cleaved off at some point, and examined it closely.
"Ah...this must be from the other one," he remarked, while the ninja looked on in panic as he heard a distinctive thud from below. The doctor walked away with the hair, leaving the ninja to frantically move towards the open door.
"Doctor, please!" he called out, but the doctor had already moved to close the door. When the ninja reached for his coat, the door shut, crushing his fingers and leaving him to cry out in agony. He got up and tried to open the door, clutching his broken fingers, but found it had been locked behind him. No sooner had he realized this than he heard a whoosh of air behind him, and turned around to see Tarble floating at the top of the stairs.
"Oh no...no, no, no, no, no, NO-!" the ninja cried out before Tarble rushed towards him and knocked him unconscious in a single violent blow, leaving a dent in the door, before continuing onwards alongside Goku, who had to struggle to catch up to him on foot. Meanwhile, the doctor walked through the android's old quarters until he came upon what appeared to be an ordinary wall with symbols on it. He pushed down on some of the symbols, and the wall parted to reveal an elevator to a subterranean level of the complex. As he stepped in, he began to hum an old song he'd loved in his youth, the doors beginning to hiss closed as he finished the song aloud.
"If I only had a heart..."
The two Saiyans raced up the stairwell through the 5th floor, before Tarble came upon the 6th, Goku lagging behind. When he flew in, he saw to his frustration that nobody was there, and that all that remained was a walkie talkie. He turned around towards Goku just as he too ran into the room.
"White's fled, which means he's probably taken the hostages and this 'Dragon Ball' with him," Tarble explained. "Let's see if we can't go up to the top and intercept-"
"Drop 'em!"
White's voice cut in on the walkie talkie, triggering the control room's voice activated controls and opening a trap door directly beneath Goku and Tarble. Tarble managed to float in order to avoid falling in, but his surprise meant he was too late to save Goku as he fell into the pit below. For a moment, he considered going after Goku, only to hear the sounds of a helicopter motor starting up. Tarble grimaced before powering up fully.
"I'm sorry! I'll come back for you when I can!" Tarble called out to the shut trapdoor, hoping that Goku could hear him somehow, before taking off and smashing straight through the window. When he emerged into the snowy skies, he had to squint to spot the helicopter about to take off at the very top of the tower. Nevertheless, a quick burst of speed found General White within his line of sight, who had evidently been holding a gun to Sagi's head.
With a cry of anger, Tarble flew at top speed towards White, tackling him out through the helicopter and onto the platform. Pinned by a Saiyan far stronger than him, White's only chance was in exploiting Tarble's weakness, which he managed to do with his free hand while the boy was consumed by rage. With a start, Tarble realized what was happening to him, and White took the opportunity to take hold of Tarble and headbutt him in the face. With the Saiyan off of him, White had some room to maneuver, pulling out a remote, before Tarble was upon him again, tackling him to the ground once more.
"Stay. Down," he said fiercely. White, however, simply chuckled.
"So...you're finally on top, huh, monkey boy? What did you think was gonna happen after this, huh? Thought you could just take us all out, get the wish for yourself, maybe bring that walking pile of scrap metal back, go back to living happy ever after with your fake family?" White laughed in between bouts of pain. "Let me tell you something I learned a long time ago, kid-never delude yourself with optimistic fantasies. The real world is a cruel, harsh, unforgiving place. And it doesn't want to give you a happy ending. You know why? Because every little thing you care so much about? It can be taken away in the blink of an eye."
He pushed the button down on the remote a second after Tarble noticed he held it, and within another second, explosives rigged within the helicopter went off, consuming the entire vehicle in one massive blaze of glory. Tarble looked off at the smoking remains in shock, while White simply sneered.
"Just. Like. That."
Tarble's eyes filled with tears as he identified the burnt out remains of the village chief, Suno, and Sagi. He couldn't even find the words to express everything that was going through his head, and thus simply resorted to simple disbelief...and a word he'd never spoken aloud before.
"Mom...Suno...Suno, Mom, please, don't...don't-!" Tarble choked up for a second, letting out a strangled cry before breaking down completely, falling to his knees as tears clouded his vision. The next moment, however, he was overcome by a rage greater than any he had ever experienced. His cry of anguish accompanied a dramatic rise in power, the resulting kiai sending out shockwaves powerful enough to shake the entire building, and sending White off of the platform and falling to the ground below. Registering this, Tarble had just enough presence of mind to take off down the tower and catch White before he died against the snowy ground below.
"Wha...why would you-?" White asked, which was as far as he got before Tarble slammed his head into a wall. After several repeated hits, each one delivered with greater intensity, a voice within Tarble's mind, small and faint in light of his immense rage, told him that the man would likely die if he slammed him against the wall once more. With a few seconds of hesitation, Tarble tossed the defeated general to the ground unceremoniously, his blood beginning to seep into the snow and the Dragon Ball in his pocket rolling to the ground. Still enraged, Tarble fired off a ki blast in a random direction to quench this newfound thirst to inflict damage of some kind. After a few moments, he had calmed down enough to look back upon the general's body, and recoil in horror.
Forced to cope with what he had just done, Tarble was thankfully spared too much additional trauma by a sudden Kamehameha tearing through the structure, allowing a cold breeze to blow into the 5th floor. An inhuman shriek gave way to silence, then to the sound of a massive ice sculpture shattering. Within minutes, Goku had made his way back into the sixth floor of the tower, and then eventually made his way to the roof and spotted Tarble below. After climbing down with the help of his Power Pole, Tarble tried his best to explain the situation to Goku.
"He...he made it to the roof, but I tackled him to the ground. He grabbed my tail, then pushed a button and...and..." Tarble paused as Goku started to connect the dots, in his own simple way.
"Your family?" he asked simply, to which Tarble nodded before breaking down crying all over again. Goku swiftly moved to comfort the older boy, despite having no knowledge of how to proceed.
"I-I just, I-the thought of losing everyone, I just snapped, and-and before I knew it, I..."
Goku nodded again. "Hey, it's okay. He was a big jerk, he deserved it!"
"B-but I came so close to-!"
"But you didn't, right? It all worked out. Although...we should probably take him to one of those...what do you call them again?"
"...Hospitals?"
Goku snapped his fingers. "There you go! Those are the places!" His attention then fell upon the ball lying in the snow. "Oh! And you got the Dragon Ball too!" He picked it up and examined the number of stars on the ball, before looking away, disappointed. "Ah, dang it! It's only the two-star ball."
As Goku rummaged around for the Dragon Radar, Tarble asked him a question. "General White...he mentioned a wish?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah! When you get all seven of the Dragon Balls together, you can summon a magic dragon that'll grant any wish!"
"...Any wish?" Tarble asked, a slight kindle of hope burning in his heart.
Goku paused before his eyes widened. "Ohhh, that's a great idea! Shenron has a lot of power-he might be able to bring your family back to life again!"
"A-and Android 8, who died trying to save me! And everyone else that the Red Ribbon Army has killed!"
"Yeah! We can do it!" Goku said before thinking it over. "I-I mean, if you don't want to come along, obviously that's-"
Tarble held up a hand. "Goku...I swear to you, to whatever power that may be, that until all seven of those Dragon Balls are in my possession...I will have no other goal in life."
Goku spaced out for a second before nodding. "Cool! Well, then, why not head for the next-?" Before Goku could finish his thought, however, he got a good look at the Dragon Radar. "Oh, no."
"What? What is it?"
"The Dragon Radar isn't displaying anything! It must be broken!" Goku replied, exasperated, before brightening up again. "Fortunately, I know someone who can fix it!"
"And who is that?"
"Bulma! She's the one who built it in the first place!"
"Interesting. You know where she lives?"
"Hm...I think she called it West City?"
"Ah! I think I know where that is! I could take you there!"
"Well, that's nice of you! I would've preferred Nimbus, but since it was blown up by those Red Ribbon jerks, I guess you could just carry me there..."
Tarble decided not to bother to ask what a Flying Nimbus was, instead setting out on more important tasks. "Before we depart...there are some things I must take care of around here. Will you wait in the village until then?"
Goku nodded. "Sure thing!" Tarble nodded in turn, and solemnly took off into the sky, grabbing White's unconscious body and what remained of the hostages' corpses and carrying them by air to the village. Goku, meanwhile, spotted what appeared to be a Red Ribbon vehicle in the distance, and swiftly turned around, running at top speed towards it.
While some of the women treated the general's wounds and left him restrained, a handful of others were left with the task of laying the burnt, blackened remains of Sagi, Suno, and the village chief into wooden coffins in their one place of worship. At Tarble's request, air holes were poked into them, and although the people were skeptical about the power of these Dragon Balls, they nevertheless held on to that slight hope that the legend was true after all.
Of particular interest to Tarble, however, were the comments of an old man who appeared while they laid the bodies. When discussing his coming journey with some of the villagers, he mentioned this "Nimbus" of Goku's off-handedly, and the old man proceeded to describe what he knew about them. From what he said, it seemed unlikely that a Nimbus could be destroyed by conventional weapons.
"Hm...can only the cloud's owner summon it?" Tarble asked the man as they walked outside, several of the women dragging the general out behind them. He scratched his head before nodding.
"As far as I know, yeah. So, you'll have to wait for this Goku fellow to come back."
Almost as if he had summoned the young boy by his words, Goku arrived running at top speed, slightly exhausted.
"Alright, I'm back! Is there anything else you need to do?" Goku asked. Tarble thought the question over.
"Well, there was one thing that came up. Goku...have you tried calling your cloud?"
Goku cocked his head in confusion.
"It blew up. Why would I do that?"
"Old Man Hill seems to think that it's still out there."
"Hm...well, if you say so." Goku cupped his hands in front of his face as he called out, "NIMBUS!" After a moment, the faithful cloud could be seen flying over the horizon, before coming to a stop in front of Goku and Tarble. "Ha-hey, it worked!" Goku said excitedly, while Tarble simply smiled.
"I must say you have some rather strange equipment at your disposal, Goku." Goku simply grinned.
"I'll have to tell you how I got it sometime!" Tarble chuckled and placed a foot onto the cloud, only to find that it passed right through. Goku looked over at him, puzzled.
"Huh. The cloud lets anyone with a pure heart ride it-I was sure it'd let you on."
Tarble looked at his foot, unsure what exactly the cloud's rejection meant, before brushing it aside with an awkward chuckle. "I-I guess I'll just fly alongside you!"
"That works!" Goku replied, completely missing the tone shift.
Tarble nodded before looking over to the general. "It's not safe for us to keep him here. We'll have to drop him off at the nearest city. I'm vaguely familiar with its location."
"Well, then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Tarble smiled. "Just...give me a moment to say goodbye, will you?" Goku nodded, and the villagers gathered around to hear him speak. Just as he was about to, however, he spotted a group of figures in the distance, one of whom looked almost exactly likeā¦
"Father?!" he cried out in surprise. Peng evidently saw him as well, for he quickened his pace just as Tarble flew towards him as fast as he could, wrapping him up in a fierce hug.
"Tarble! Oh, thank heavens!" Peng said in relief, before his expression darkened. "When Goku told me what happened to Sagi...to Suno, I..."
Tarble wrapped him up tighter, tears threatening to come out. "They told me all the men were going to be executed."
Peng nodded. "They had piled us all into a truck and were heading back to their base, but Goku stopped them in their tracks and freed us. What's more, he said that the two of you had beaten up every Red Ribbon soldier here!"
Tarble smiled slightly before sighing as Peng looked over his shoulder at the unconscious figure of the general. "Dad...after what he did, I-"
"I can imagine," Peng replied. "If I were in your place, you would've had to pull me away to stop me from breaking his skull in."
Tarble nodded, the tears intensifying. "I...I wanted to. I wanted to hurt him-to keep hurting him, for what he did."
Peng looked at Tarble for a moment before everything clicked. "You're worried about this temper Saiyans seem to have, huh?" Tarble nodded, before Peng placed a hand on his shoulder. "Well...at the end of the day, you are the only master of your own nature. You aren't defined by whatever common trend your people have. You have your own values, your own beliefs-lines you know that you'll never cross. And as long as you keep that in mind...I trust that you can keep yourself from crossing those lines. Okay?" Tarble nodded, letting his head rest in his father's chest for a moment before pulling away. "Now then...I believe you were going to say something?" He beckoned to the crowd, urging Tarble to address them. Tarble smiled and began to hover off the ground so he could be seen by everyone.
"Friends...family...neighbors. In the last fourteen years, you all have graced me with such kindness and respect, in spite of my origins. You have all taught me what it means to be a good person, and since my arrival, I have done my best to give back what I can as thanks. In the wake of this horrific event...I regret that I must leave you now. I must leave my home behind, the only place...I've really thought of as a home. As you know, I intend to seek out the artifacts the Red Ribbon Army is pursuing. It is my hope that, if the legend is true, their power may be able to right the injustices that have been committed here today by men like this." He gestured to the unconscious general before continuing. "But more than that...I made the Red Ribbon Army a promise. A promise that, should they threaten my loved ones again, I will end their organization with my own two hands. And I never break promises." This vow elicited a cheer from the crowd, who all shouted words of encouragement as Goku climbed onto his Nimbus with the general lifted up over his shoulder, while Tarble hovered higher above the ground. "I shall return when the Red Ribbon Army has been vanquished, and with all seven of these Dragon Balls in my possession! Until we meet again!"
The villagers cheered and called out encouragement, Peng's voice being the loudest among them in spite of his recent grief. Carried upwards by the villagers' belief in them, Tarble and Goku took off as fast as they could in the direction of the nearest city, the weight of the quest they had now undertaken making its influence known on both of their minds, and filling them with determination.
Whew! And done!
Wow, this one's a lot bigger than my previous chapters, but then again, we're finally getting into things! The two monkey boys' stories have collided, and we are now seeing the results of that collision firsthand! Let's see what happens over the rest of their story, huh?
Thinking I might hold off on power levels still, and I only got one review, so...
KakashiHatakeDFS says:
"i'm loving this already! have you come up with a schedule for release dates or is it just post-as-you-go?"
Post-as-I-go. I thought about scheduling it, but ultimately I figured it was already enough of a hassle maintaining the schedule for Hermit. It'd be far easier to simply work on it when inspiration strikes. Perhaps in the future, when things in my personal life are a bit more calm, I could consider some kind of schedule. If I did, it'd probably be bi-weekly on Sundays, alternating with Hermit. So every week you don't get Hermit, you get Forgotten Son. But, again, for now, holding off on setting that in stone.
Anyway, with all that said, hope you guys enjoy, have yourselves a fantastic night, and take care!
(Edit 7/8/19): After rereading early Dragon Ball, I realized Goku actually does know of his weakness, so I made a slight alteration to accommodate for this.
