Chapter 4
East City
Over the skies of East City, two meteors streaked towards the ground. Inside the first one, a short man sat with arms crossed and a smile across his face. The second one was filled nearly to capacity by a mass of muscle, armor, and aggression.
"Ten seconds." the shorter man spoke.
"This is going to be fun." the larger man responded.
Moments later, the pods pierced a large skyscraper, popping out the other side and smashing into the ground at a shallow angle. The ground around them flew off in all directions, and bystanders were knocked to the ground by the power of the shockwave.
Dust filled the air alongside the sound of hydraulics. As the dust fell, and silence took its place, a man called out. "What the ..."
Replacing the silence was another shock of energy, dispersing the dust, and erasing the people. The large bald man in black and gold armor was hovering over the two pods. He chuckled as energy concentrated into his hand, and with the flick of his wrist the pierced skyscraper erupted first into flame, then nothing.
Around the world, the loss of hundreds of lives was felt by many individuals.
"Nappa, stop. What if there was a Dragon Ball there? You could ruin everything." The shorter warrior flew up to Nappa's eye-level.
The larger warrior quickly submitted. "Yes, Prince Vegeta, I apologize. I wasn't thinking."
"No, you weren't, you never have. That's why I do the thinking, Nappa. Now, let's see what the situation is." Vegeta turned his back on his subordinate as he flew up. He placed a scouter on his ear, activated it, and looked around. "We're not alone, someone else has a scouter here."
Vegeta smirked as he continued his search. "Three, four, five, no, six power levels, all over 1,000. No wonder Raditz was defeated. Heel, Nappa."
With that Vegeta picked a direction and rocketed off. 'Soon eternal life will be mine.'
Nappa flew close behind the prince. As they flew, Nappa took in the view, noting cities locations, and figuring out the quickest way to remove the infestation of lesser beings.
Remote island
On a large empty island, Piccolo and Gohan both looked northeast at the same time. Shock filled Gohan's expression as Piccolo clenched his jaw.
"Do you feel them, Mr. Piccolo?" Gohan asked.
Looking back at the boy, Piccolo chose not to answer. Instead he reinspected his surroundings. Sand and rock as far as the eye could see. Large boulders littered the ground, and small peaks reached hopelessly towards the sky.
"They're coming this way." Gohan unsheathed his staff. "Everyone is coming this way, actually."
'Where is it?' Piccolo threw a blast at a nearby boulder, reducing it to dust. 'No.' "Don't bother with your staff. I don't think it'll do you any good here."
"We won't find them in time, Mr. Piccolo. They're almost here." Gohan dropped the staff at his teachers suggestion.
Sensing an approach from behind, Piccolo glanced over his shoulder, distantly seeing an approaching blur. "Great, the cavalry is here."
A moment later Krillin, wearing an orange gi with Kami's insignia on the breast, touched down in front of the two warriors.
Krillin looked over Gohan and Piccolo, feeling them out. "Hey, guys, how's it going?" he sounded surprised.
"We're about to fight the two strongest beings to set foot on Earth, with a blind child and a half pint. How do you think we're doing." Piccolo looked down at Krillin. 'You better stay out of our way.'
"Yeah, I'm about the same. Gohan, how was your training?" Krillin approached his best friends son.
"It went fine." Gohan did not attempt to elaborate.
"You know, it's probably not safe for you to be here. The others are on their way, and you should really let one of them take you home before the Saiyans arrive." Krillin grabbed Gohan's hand.
Holding Krillin's hand in return. Gohan responded. "Just worry about yourself, Krillin." Squeezing harder, Gohan sent Krillin to his knees before releasing his grip.
"Yeah, okay, I can do that." Krillin rubbed his hand. 'What the heck has he been doing?'
"Ha, would you look at that." a voice from above. "The little guy got put in his place by a child. A Saiyan child?"
Vegeta and Nappa appeared and floated to the ground.
Nappa landed in front of Vegeta. "With Raditz dead, we could use the extra power. With where he is now, he may be as strong as me some day."
"What do you say, boy. Will you join us? You've grown strong here, but with us, you will realize what true strength is." Vegeta punched his open palm, sending out a circular shock wave perpendicular with the ground.
"I would never join you, not if I were the last person on Earth."
"Remember, boy, never say never." Vegeta cracked his knuckles. "Also, what if you are the last person on Earth? We can make that happen, slowly. Make you watch as we vivisect everyone you care about, and force you to join us."
"You couldn't make me watch anything, I'm..."
Piccolo snapped his fingers. "Gohan, we don't share with the enemy."
As the tension grew three more players landed behind Krillin.
"Great, that should be everyone of note on this planet then." Vegeta announced as Tien, Yamcha, and Chiaotzu greeted Piccolo, and introduced themselves to Gohan.
While Tien told Chiaotzu to stay behind everyone else, Yamcha stepped up, shaking in his boots. "That's right, we don't need anyone else to take down the two of you." he pointed at Nappa.
Nappa, entering the space between Vegeta and the Earthlings, ignored Yamcha and addressed piccolo. "So, what's a Namekian doing on Earth?"
"A what?" Piccolo asks. "I don't know what that is."
"Green skin, antennae on your head, and I bet you drink a lot of water, don't you? You're a Namekian, from Planet Namek." Nappa stopped his approach. "Not only did Kakarot lose his memory, but this slug man did too."
"It must be contagious." Vegeta mocked. "Let's not spend any more time here than we have to. If they refuse to show us their Dragon Balls, I have another idea." 'If a Namekian is here, where the Dragon Balls are rumored to be, there might be some truth behind the wishing orbs legend after all.'
"All right!" Nappa cheered. "You heard the prince. Give us your Dragon Balls, now, or die."
"We'll never..." Yamcha started.
"I don't care about you, weakling. Nappa, plant the Saibamen. Let them thin out the crowd." Vegeta instructed.
Obediently, Nappa pulled a sack of beans from his chest plate. Teasing them out of the sack one at a time, he pushed six beans into the ground.
"Are we really going to let them do this?" Yamcha turned on his team.
"Do you think you could stop us?" Nappa responded as he poured liquid from a crystalline vial over the hopes. Once emptied, Nappa crushed the vial in his hand, letting the glass dust fall to the ground.
A moment later, sprouts tipped in ivory began to appear, two pairs, around each hole. Quickly they spread apart, and wrinkly green heads popped out between them, followed by torsos, arms, and legs.
Soon a squad of six green monsters barely up to Krillin's shoulder in height stood in front of the Saiyan invaders. Red eyes scanned the Z-Fighters.
"Alright, each of these Saibamen is about as powerful as Raditz. Who wants to die first? Come on, raise your hands. You'll only have to fight one of them." Vegeta waved the Z-Fighters forward. "Three-eyes, come meet your death."
Tien exhaled sharply at the insult, but walked in to No-Man's Land and a Saibaman came to join him. Closer and closer they both prowled, only stopping when they were toe-to-toe.
Tien swung at the creatures head, and it ducked under the swing. Pushing off the ground, it sent Tien into the air with a jaw cracking upper cut.
Jerking his knee up, Tien landed a rock shattering blow between the Saibaman's legs.
"Low blow." Yamcha cringed.
With its hands occupied soothing its soar jewels, the Saibaman couldn't block the left punch from above. Landing on its knees, the Saibaman quickly bounced back, tackling Tien off his feet.
Forcing his ki out, Tien hovered in midair with the Saibaman on his waist, ripping into his back with its claws. Putting a finger to the creatures head, Tien countered. "Dodon Ray!"
Tien failed at drilling through the creatures skull, but he did daze it and send it flying off.
Safely distant, Tien reached behind himself, feeling the nearly a dozen gouges ripped into him. 'That's probably going to leave a scar.' he thought as he reassumed his stance.
Jaw chattering, the Saibaman gathered energy in its hands. Throwing one ki ball, then another, it danced from foot to foot. Quickly regathering energy, it continued the energy barrage.
Putting up a cross guard, Tien took the shots head on. Fighting against their force, he slowly walked towards the source of the assault. Widening his guard, he performed a hand sign under the cover of the exploding energy. "Tri-Beam, ha!"
A powerful beam ripped out of Tien's hands and raged towards the Saibaman. Being unable to sense energy, and not seeing anything in front of it aside from the extremely bright presence of energy, the Saibaman failed to notice the oncoming attack and took it head on.
The twitching husk fell limply in front of Vegeta. The Saibaman's eyes were still open, looking around. It painfully reached up towards the shorter Saiyan.
With a quick blast, the Saibaman was destroyed. "I am surprised, but not impressed." Vegeta said, lowering his hand.
"You didn't need to do that. He didn't need to die." Tien turned on the Saiyans.
"All work and no play makes Vegeta a dull boy." Vegeta teased. "Scarface, you're next."
Yamcha stepped forward, as did a Saibaman. Keeping their distance. Yamcha and the Saibaman began to circle each other.
"Let's see if this yappy dog has some bite." Nappa chuckled to himself.
"I'm not a dog, I'm a wolf!" Yamcha responded.
The Saibaman lunged at Yamcha, but was met by a knee, followed by a chop to his side, regaining the distance between them.
"Wolf Fang Fist!" His hands glowed with energy as Yamcha charged the Saibaman. With a series of punches and claw-like swipes, Yamcha got the creature off his feet and into the air. Finishing with a double-palm strike, the Saibaman went flying, embedding his body in to a large boulder.
"See that, Tien? If you don't screw around, these things are nothing." Yamcha began walking back to his sides gathering area.
"Watch out!" Tien prepared a Dodon Ray in an instant, but fired it too slowly. The beam went harmlessly behind the attacker. The downed Saibaman rushed Yamcha, grabbing on to his back.
"Hey, no! Get it off me!" Yamcha reached back, securely grabbing the creatures leg, but unable to loosen its grip around his neck.
Its eyes began to go from red to orange to yellow, as its skin climbed the color spectrum as well.
"Looks like that mutt is getting put down, eh Vegeta?" Nappa elbowed his superiors ribs. "Get it, because-"
"Shut up, Nappa." Vegeta snapped.
Nappa snapped his arms to his sides, spine straight, eyes forward. He was still chuckling, and biting his tongue in an attempt to keep silent.
Sinking its claws in further, the now-white Saibaman gave out one last cry as it turned its body into pure energy, leaving a hole in the ground as wide as Yamcha was tall. This would have been an easy comparison to make if Yamcha's body wasn't completely spread out over the battlefield.
"Nappa, remove the trash from my battlefield."
"Yes, sir!" Nappa threw a ball of energy into the air. Exploding into a shower of energy, the light sought out and destroyed the gory chunks of one of the strongest warriors on the planet.
"Yamcha! No, Yamcha!" Tien fell to his knees. "Why?"
"He lost. His life had no value. His death had no value. His corpse had no value." Vegeta taunted the Z-Fighters. "If you die, what does it matter if your remains are destroyed?"
"You monster!" Krillin pointed at Vegeta.
"If that is all it takes for you to call me a monster," Vegeta raised his chin "Then you'd hate to see me if I got his disgusting chunks on my boots."
"Enough of these games!" Krillin pulled back his fist.
Punching forward a sphere of energy split into quarters and spiraled towards the remaining Saibamen. Three of the creatures dodged left, the last dodged right. Three of the creatures were vaporized, the third escaped behind a row of nearby boulders.
"Now that wasn't very sporting." Vegeta chastised Krillin as he and Nappa strode forward. "Now Nappa here is going to get his hands dirty, aren't you?"
"You won't hear me complaining." Nappa cracked his neck from side to side before stretching his arms wide.
"Bring it. You'll be sorry. When Goku gets here he'll beat you both." Tien put up his guard.
"Oh, really? Then I guess we'd better just kill you all now." Vegeta drew power into his fist, purple contrasting sharply against the blue sky and brown dirt.
'That energy, its familiar.' Tien and Krillin shared a thought.
"No no, no, that won't be necessary." Krillin sputtered.
Sensing an attack from behind Gohan twisted left. The last Saibaman's hand, claws forming a razor-sharp wedge, went through where the boys head was a moment ago.
Piccolo went to snatch the creature out of midair, but was too slow. Gohan had already drawn energy into his hand and thrust it through its chest. A half-moment later, the battlefield was once more littered in gore, more green than red this time.
"Woah, Gohan. Just... woah." Krillin gaped. "Where did that come from?"
Gohan relaxed. "It tried to kill me, what did you expect me to do?"
Vegeta burst into laughter. "Of course, even being only half a Saiyan, the boy still has the instincts. Boy, I warn you now, you may be more powerful than our formerly weakest member, but do not let that go to your head. Nappa here has nearly 4 times as much battle power as the Saibamen. And I myself have 15 times the power."
To prove his point Vegeta flared his aura, not much, but enough to make the Z-Fighters flinch back. "Now, Nappa, I'm done here. Have fun."
"Alright!' Nappa punched his open palm and pointed at Tien. "You're first."
In a flash, Nappa had approached Tien. The shockwave of his motion knocked Piccolo, Krillin, Gohan, and Chiaotzu back. Grabbing Tien's head in one hand, Nappa delivered a series of blows to the bald man's chest and stomach.
With a twist and the snap of a wrist, Nappa sent Tien into the air.
Tien failed to inhale, but was also relieved. The assault was over and he was flying. His eyes weren't focused, but he knew the sound of rushing air when it filled his ears. As the wind quieted, he grew confused. With effort, he noticed that he was flying, but not under his own intent, and that what he was really doing was falling back towards the ground.
He wouldn't hit though, he noticed. A nice man was coming to catch him. A fist drove into his stomach which knocked sense back into him.
As blood and spit fell from Tien's open mouth, he grabbed Nappa's fist. Pushing his energy in to his hands, he tried to blast off the beast's fist. The energy exploded, surrounding them in a ball of light.
When color returned, Tien wasn't surprised to find Nappa's lips inches away from his ear. "Nice try, but this is how it works."
Grabbing Tien's left arm, Nappa began to spin, forcing it to be fully extended. Quickly he summoned ki into his arm. No, his hand. No, just the side of his smallest finger. With a quick downward chop, and the release of his grip on Tien, the arm flew away, detached from the three-eyed warrior as continued flying to his side.
Quickly reacting, Nappa grabbed Tien's right ankle. "See, that's how you disarm someone."
Tien gasped. "Not original."
Weakly he spat blood in to Nappa's eyes.
Blinded and enraged, Nappa swung Tien overhead, pitching him to the ground. Following the trajectory, Nappa landed on his feet beside the hole created by Tien.
"Choke on it." Nappa snarled as he began pulling ki from his torso and into his throat.
"No, I won't let you hurt him!" A voice rang in Nappa's ears.
Swallowing the energy, Nappa turned around. "Huh?"
No one was behind him. Turning back to Tien he heard a trickle of liquid behind him.
"Nappa, it marked you as its territory. I guess you work for it now." Vegeta barked with laughter.
Nappa threw his hand behind him and could barely brush his fingers against Chiaotzu's clothes. Feeling the stream of urine down his back, Nappa gave up on attempting any kind of civility.
Spotting a boulder, Nappa threw himself at it, twisting at the last moment to crush Chiaotzu against it. "Get off, insect!"
"No, this ends now." Chiaotzu began glowing blue as he spoke. "I'm sorry, Tien, but I can't watch you die."
Nappa leaned forward and bashed Chiaotzu again.
'No, Chiaotzu, don't do it, we'll find another way!' Tien mentally screamed.
Nappa leaned forward again, but halfway on his backswing, he found himself curling into a ball around Gohan's fist.
With his other hand Gohan grabbed Nappa's neck and jerked him off balance.
As Nappa struggled to get his feet under him again, Piccolo rushed behind him, ripping the explosive pest off his back and throwing it back to the other large bald man.
"Your fights with us now!" Piccolo brought an energy ball in to Nappa's back, shattering his armor and leaving the man naked aside from black briefs.
Releasing the energy from his stomach, Nappa sent out an explosive wave. Gohan and Piccolo fell back.
Now focusing the energy, Nappa spat a beam of power at Piccolo. As the energy faded, showing Piccolo forced back but unharmed, Nappa threw himself at the Namekian.
A flurry of fists and feet were almost evenly exchanged between the two as Vegeta scouter beeped.
"4,200?" Vegeta tensed. "Nappa, be careful, he was hiding his energy, he's nearly as powerful as you."
Further beeps warned Vegeta of Gohans rising power as well.
Jumping into the brawl, Gohan landed a sharp punch to the back of Nappa's head. Spinning around, Nappa backhanded the boy to the ground, before catching a powerful hit to his lower back. Grabbing the foot, Nappa pulled Piccolo in front of him and powered up his finger once more, and swiftly removed Piccolos arm as he did to Tien.
As Nappa began to boast, a blast hit him from behind, burning his back. Turning and facing Gohan again, Nappa threw the arm at the half-Saiyan, followed by a series of energy blasts.
Barely sensing the arm but feeling the blasts approaching, Gohan danced backwards, dodged to the side and expertly evaded every explosion.
"You shoot like a blind man!" Gohan taunted.
Seizing the useless attack, Nappa once more pulled energy into his throat. As he released the mouth beam, an interlocked pair of fists crashed down on his head, smashing his jaws together, and blowing his front teeth through his lips and to the ground.
Spitting out blood, Nappa spun around once more, not taking the time to note that Piccolo had both arms still. Throwing his fists powerfully and recklessly, Piccolo was unable to take advantage of the several openings he was leaving.
Instead, Gohan locked his legs around, Nappas neck and raised his hands above his head. Focusing his energy Gohan growled. "Masenko."
Vegeta's scouter beeped again. 'If you die here, you don't deserve to live.' he thought as he watched the number pass 4,500.
Without hesitating, Nappa reached up and grabbed Gohan's hands. With all his energy, he pulled the boy off of him and into a crushing bearhug.
"I didn't want to kill a Saiyan, but you didn't give me a choice." Nappa tried to speak, but his words came out a garbled mess, accompanied by thick blood. Holding Gohan between him and Piccolo, Nappa began pulling energy into his throat again.
Gohan struggled against the man's grip, smashing his head back to his chin, trying to crush his tail and kicking at his nearly-exposed crotch, but Nappa held tight. Gohan felt the energy concentrating above him and frantically waled against the immovable object.
With instant regret, Krillin formed and threw an under-powered Kienzen at the giant.
"Back!" Vegeta shouted at Nappa.
Not noticing the incoming attack but automatically obeying his prince, Nappa threw Gohan towards Piccolo and forced himself backwards. The disc flew between the two grapplers, inches between the pair.
'I could have used the boy as a sKaim's lookhield.' Nappa thought.
"Do that again and you die." Vegeta appeared in front of Krillin. With a swift kick, he had the monk kneeling in front of him. Turning to face the fight once more, he planted his feet in Krillin's now prone form.
Nappa angrily gestured towards Krillin. However, with Vegeta standing on him there was nothing he could do.
Bringing his attention back to Gohan, Nappa grabbed for him, attempting to continue the hold.
Sensing the approach, Gohan pushed Nappa's hand off course, latching on to his wrist. With a yank and a twist, Gohan was beside Nappa, separated only by a thick arm. Swinging a ki infused arm, Gohan avenged Tien.
Taking advantage of Nappas shock, Gohan delivered a hard left hook to his sternum followed by a kick to the stomach and a right haymaker to his cheek.
Piccolo came from behind, Special Beam Cannon charged. Launching the attack, he punched through Nappa's right shoulder.
"You're done, give up now and we'll make this quick." Piccolo demanded.
Wincing in extreme pain, Nappa faced Piccolo, considering his options. Reaching inside himself once more, he felt for his remaining energy. Finding himself lacking he snarled at the green man.
King Yemma's palace.
King Yemma sat behind his desk. Stacks of folders reached above his head as he quickly took one from the left, stamped it, and put it to the right.
Almost as quickly as the folders were stacked, a line of workers ferried them to the side of the room, where a sizable section of wall was hidden by the back log.
More ogres were coming to take care of the excessive work, but even the reinforcements would need back up, because once the wall was completely hidden, it was quickly uncovered by a mighty wind.
King Yemma pushed his hand down on the to do stack, trying to keep it from blowing over. All the rest of the paperwork was now scattered across the floor.
"What in the name of King Kai was that?" King Yemma bellowed.
"Sorry about that, I was going a little quicker than I thought, and I couldn't slow down in time." Goku, now standing on the far side of the large office from the entrance scratched his neck. "Hey, is Kami here? I really need to get back to Earth, now."
King Yemma took a moment to figure out what was going on. "Right, you're going to go fight the Saiyans that have been..." he stopped to think if it was wise to tell Goku about Yamcha.
"They're already on Earth?" Goku thankfully didn't pry.
"Yes, I'm afraid so." Kami walked through the entrance, carefully not stepping through any of the spirits that waited in line.
"Then why are we walking? Let's go!" Goku ran to Kami's side.
Kami touched Goku's arm, and in the blink of an eye, they were gone.
"Next time he's here, I'm putting him to work." King Yemma released the stack of papers from under his hand. "Double time, everybody. We need to get this place in order."
"We were already double time, sir." one of the many smaller workers informed him.
"Double the double time!"
Kami's Lookout
Kami and Goku appeared outside the palace in the sky, among the heavenly garden.
"Thanks." Goku stepped away from Kami before turning to the sky. "Flying Nimbus!"
"Be careful, Goku. These Saiyans are far more powerful than anything you have faced before." Kami warned.
"I know. I hate to say it, but I'm actually excited. I'm a lot stronger than I was, and I can't wait to see just how far I've come." Goku hopped on to the fluffy yellow cloud as soon as it appeared.
Concentrating he extended his senses. "There they are."
Goku pointed and the cloud took off, leaving Kami and a silent Mr. Popo behind.
"Do you think he can win?" Mr. Popo asked Kami.
"He's far more powerful than before, but he's still a long ways from beating Vegeta. Unless he's got a secret, I don't think he can." Kami walked to the side of the Lookout and sat upon the edge.
As he flew, Goku focused in on the battle taking place. 'Tien is hurt, but alive. Chiaotzu feels hurt, but surprisingly well. Hopefully, he's staying clear of combat. Piccolo, hurt and tired, but still maintaining his power. And, who's that? It feels like, me? Chi-Chi? Gohan? Gohan, is that you? You're incredible.'
Back on the remote island.
Beep beep. Vegeta checked his scouter. 'Closing in, 5,000? That makes three people who could beat Nappa.'
"Stand down." Vegeta snapped. "I need to finish this, now."
Before Nappa could land he heard Gohan shout behind him. "Masenko, ha!"
Orange filled his peripheral vision before the pain of his arms faded, and he was no more.
Authors note: Hey, guys, thanks for the reads, and please feel free to leave a review. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Author's note 2: Edited by StevenBodner on 4/2/2021.