"Alright, I'll keep you busy!" Goku declared with a resolute face as he dashed up at the jaw of the Great Ape and delivered a high kick upward aimed at the beast's chin. The titan's crimson eyes blinked and the monster flinched from the impact but no signs of considerable damage tipped Goku off that his attacks might have been at all effective.
Never having been one to give up or stop halfway, the young Saiyan vanished and threw a straight cross to the center of the Great Ape's nose before kicking a pair of times to each of the monster's nostrils. The Great Ape emit an uproar of torment but Goku was no longer there. Jabbing across the beast's eyes and the space in between then with a quick flurry of punches. Once Goku noted how his fists may as well have been wet rags smashing against stone, the martial artist improvised a swift spin kick to the ape's right eye and threw a wayward Ki blast to the left.
Once he thought he had the monster on the ropes, Goku appeared over the Great Ape's head and smashed at the top of his transformed father's belfry. What he had foreseen to be a decisive smash that would knock the monster flat was instead just a dull thud that appeared to piss the monster off more than anything else. The Great Ape thrashed around, throwing mad fists about.
"Damn! I must have spent a whole lot of Ki taking down that big guy from before. Guess my body's been out of the loop of using Hot-Red…" Goku grunted to himself, looking perplexed at his situation and to what any possible solutions to his problem might have been. "At least it doesn't look like you're too sharp in this form. I'd be in trouble if you actually knew how to fight…"
A flash of blinding white caught Goku by surprise. The roar that came from the jaws of the titanic creature only reached him once he had been caught inside the deluge of the beast's mouth blast. Great Ape Bardock was spitting fury in the form of supercharged Ki at the same time as he thrashed about looking to wreak havoc. Hearing his own cry as if he was listening to it beside him from some other place felt odd and disorienting. Had it not been for the searing pain, Goku might have bought in to the idea that he was dead.
Vociferous, high pitched blasts resonated throughout the devastated, rocky battlefield. This breath of raw power that took Goku down was only one of his father's outbursts of wrath. He had to move. If he didn't, he'd die for sure. Goku opened his eyes but there was no light, his vision was playing tricks on him. The last time he had his eyes opened – all was white, now things were dark again even when his eyes were opened in an attempt to escape the shade. It was only when the crushing weight of the Great Ape's hammering slam hit Goku and crushed him into the rocks below that the Saiyan realized he's been found and smashed.
A smash, a pair of stomps… Even if Goku could neither hear nor feel the Great Ape monster's rampage, his experience, and skill in martial arts allowed him to imagine the unskilled and mindless body of his enemy as clearly as if he'd have been able to see it. The Great Ape wasn't resolute with smashing Goku either. It lacked the proper focus even for this simple task, its fury was reserved for the world that hosted it and not one particular person that it saw. Goku's end might not have been in any way more satisfying to the beast than the devastation of a nearby pillar of bedrock.
That might have been the only reason why Goku found a chance to breathe through the relentless beatdown and get back to the fight.
"Hot-Red!" Goku yelled out, emitting a prideful blaze of red Ki from his body as his skin took a deeper shade of pink and his sweat seemed to heat up to the point of boiling. The Saiyan raised his left fist and launched himself toward the monster, hoping that he could somewhat lessen the tremendous difference between their powers.
If was of no use, the titan swatted his hand and knocked Goku aside like an annoying gnat. The martial artist could barely deal with his own grunts as his busted ribs made even translating his pain difficult. Using Hot-Red was the absolute worst idea. It served as a nice clutch tip of the scales against an opponent just barely stronger but it only hastened Goku's collapse when there was no hope in the first place.
The sky over his head turned dark. Goku hustled to move from the shadow of the titan's foot but his body felt powerless and broken. He had hoped to put up more of a struggle but his father's dumb move had put not only him but the entire planet in jeopardy.
"Hmph… So Planet Earth is the pathetic rock that Bardock and his goons chose to hide in?" a mocking tone that could have only belonged to a bulky man spoke up. Oftentimes the short, spiky-haired Saiyan found his companion's voice irritating but this time Prince Vegeta had to agree with his partner – Planet Earth did not sound like the sanctuary he'd be choosing for his hideout.
"Fat good it did them. From the sound of it, the pricks got themselves wiped out," Vegeta cursed. When he took the assignment from Lord Frieza to eradicate a troublesome platoon of scoundrel Saiyan rebels that plotted against his father he had viewed the task as being far more than it turned out to be.
"Come on, let's hurry up to that abandoned wreck and give them the finishing blow!" the ever-impatient muscle-head tempted Vegeta.
"Patience, Nappa, something doesn't feel right. Bardock might be low-class trash, just like his deserter of a son, but he must have chosen this planet for a reason. There aren't many records of it in our database and there are only passing mentions of it being under the Galaxy Patrol's protection. Why would he choose to land there right before heading off to Planet Vegeta?" the Saiyan Prince sat there and stared through the porthole of his pod at the vastness of space leading up to the planet where the rebellious Saiyan filth hid.
"They got their asses kicked, maybe they planned on taking some vicious creature from this planet and sick it on your father?" Nappa wondered. He wasn't usually one for bright ideas though this one was somewhat likely, given that they were dealing with someone as mentally impaired as a low-class Saiyan.
"It seems far too simple of a plan, my father is not the kind of warrior that would fall before some space monster from a faraway planet. He is a king of the space-conquering race of elite warriors. Even low-class garbage like Bardock can deal with vicious space monsters, following that chain, my father is the king of handling such matters. Do not insult the king again by suggesting otherwise, Nappa," Vegeta replied with a calm demeanor. He couldn't outright deny the validity of Nappa's theory though he had a hunch that he was way off. There was something… Something Bardock wanted from this place and it felt like rushing to a battle naked to enter this planet without knowing what that sought-after treasure was.
"S-Sorry, Vegeta… I didn't mean it as an insult, I meant it that Bardock would think that your father couldn't handle some scary monster just because he has trouble handling it, you know?" Nappa tried pacifying the situation, knowing full-well how sudden Vegeta's outbursts were and how deadly were the results. Lord Frieza had always intended Vegeta's squad to be a five-man squad just like the Ginyu Special Squad though Vegeta has killed everyone but Nappa when he felt offended or challenged. "T-That's right, didn't Raditz try to flee to Earth that one time? I think he tried convincing us to go with him too…"
Frankly, Vegeta couldn't quite recall if that was the case or not. He had killed many would-be partners but Nappa and it wasn't like Nappa was in any way special. It was just that Nappa had managed to maneuver around getting blown up and somehow ended up being useful once or twice and saving his life just when Vegeta's trigger hand got itchy. Just like now… Vegeta couldn't even recall Raditz's name, just his dirty face and final moments when his vessel blew up. By Vegeta's own hand, of course. Nappa did sound quite confident in his memory though, he'd have not suggested something false like that when Vegeta already warned him about treading very thin ice.
"That's right, that's what it was, Earth. He wanted to pick up his little brother… What was his name?" Nappa wondered. It was at times like when Vegeta had to stare at Nappa's boulder-like head being in out of its depth like at the grueling task of thinking that the Saiyan Prince regretted the technological advancement of monitors in spacecraft.
"The records appear to list Earth as an unimpressive planet that's not worth the attention of dedicated expansion. No planet on the entire system possesses any valuable minerals and most minerals found on Earth are found it greater quantities much closer in that same system. Locals possess pathetic battle powers and there are no considerable beasts known to reside on the planet. Hmmm… It appears to have a full moon cycle of around thirty days," Vegeta noted, scanning through the records as a boring and undetailed wall of text was more engaging than staring at Nappa's face.
"I see, so Bardock had hoped to enlist his other son to his troupe of losers and then use the full moon to shake off any pursuers. That's if he even realized that we've been following them around since they last left Planet Vegeta!" Nappa laughed out to himself.
"That's true, Bardock's second son must be an even greater piece of trash than Raditz was due to being sent to such a far-off, pathetic planet and Bardock will get nothing from transforming against other Saiyans," Vegeta closed his eyes in disappointment. He didn't expect much from a low-class warrior such as Bardock and yet he was still very much frustrated by the lackluster strategy his prey displayed.
"Although, if they all gang up on us as Great Apes, it might get heated…" Nappa shrugged to himself, thinking out loud.
"Nappa, you dolt, a Saiyan's battle power is multiplied tenfold when they transform. To suggest that the lot of them would pose any challenge to us whatsoever in their transformed states is to say that they'd pose a challenge in their base forms. Are you threatened by a handful of low-class waste of Saiyan blood?" Vegeta fired a sharp glare toward the monitor, aiming it at his partner who became flustered at that suggestion.
"S-Sorry, Vegeta… I didn't think about that…" Nappa tried excusing himself. "Hmmm… Oh, look at that… What a hasty spaceship, I wonder where it's rushing off to. I wasn't aware this sector had such busy space traffic…"
Vegeta wanted to scold Nappa for trying to distract him but he did note the remarkably fast vessel as well. Not to mention the turbulence that it created from passing by them which shouldn't have been possible, except for cases of plasma turbulence. Still, there was no way for them to catch up to that vessel in Attack Balls.
"That cheeky bastard…" Nappa grumbled from the shakes and quakes in his own pod. "It better not be hurrying to Earth, for its own sake!"
A royal mixture of sharp colors blitzing over its head seemed to catch the Great Ape's attention. Before it could lash out and strike at the arriving Upa, the new Kami of Earth raised his hands up toward the artificial ball of energy over the head of the titan and clenched its fist, as if grabbing hold of it from a considerable distance afar.
The Great Ape roared and shook, trembling and wrestling against an invisible force as its size began to shrink down and reduce while a powerful crystalline aura imbued Upa. Yamcha and Puar stared at Kami looking mighty impressed by the way in which the planet's guardian dealt with something as colossal and significant as a Great Ape monster.
"How did you do that?" Yamcha wondered.
"Bulma said that destroying the moon would also reverse the transformation of the Great Ape. It appears that the same applies to removing the artificial moon from the sky and, seeing how this artificial moon is just a variant of a Ki Ball, I'm absorbing it. Bulma made it out to seem like these monsters must need a very specific amount of lunar light at a very specific frequency. Just absorbing a bit of this artificial moon appears to do the trick…" Upa explained himself.
"That's right! I managed to prevent the Saiyan from transforming by blocking off the Ki Ball's light!" Puar exclaimed.
"I guess I'd better get ready, you might be able of absorbing Ki but I'm still a more reliable martial artist than you, Upa. Let's see just how tough this final remaining Saiyan is…" Yamcha punched his own open palm, causing Puar some concern.
"Don't get cocky, Yamcha-sama, this must be the strongest Saiyan out of them all," Puar warned his lifelong friend.
"Hmmm… He appears to be in no condition to fight in his human form…" Upa observed as he directed his carpet down to the devastated battlefield.
"On the other hand… I'm glad he's all tuckered out…" Yamcha's fighting spirit quivered as evidenced by him shaking from the destruction all around him. "Wasn't this place supposed to be all glaciers, freezing ocean and blizzards? What happened to this place?"
"This location did indeed host a calamitous battle. It will take years to fix the planet. Those Saiyans do not appreciate the job of a Kami at all, makes it all the more pleasant to kick them off my planet," Upa observed as he took a sharp look at the beaten Saiyan before him.
"H-Huh… Look at this guy, what the heck's his deal!? He looks just like Goku!" Yamcha pointed at Bardock's semi-conscious body that seemed to be in so much pain that it overrode the usual haze of consciousness that a Saiyan went through after reverting from the titanic Great Ape transformation.
"Maybe they are related?" Puar wondered. "Goku would feel really down if he hurt his relative, probably. He grew to be great friends with Chayote, after all…"
"This is odd…" Upa's glance shifted around. "I do not seem to feel Goku's Ki anywhere. You guys take it from here, pick this guy up and take him to the God Temple. There is something that I need to check…"
"Huh…" Yamcha turned to Kami but Upa was no longer there when the martial artist turned his head in his direction. The sudden realization that he was in charge made Yamcha's jaw drop and it took plenty of plushy jabs from Puar to snap out of his trance and get Bardock's broken body onto the flying carpet and head to the God Temple.
"Hmm…" Upa leaned over a white, ethereal cloud and examined it. The poor soul wriggled and shuffled about, looking frightened by the fact that this odd young man was taking such an interest in it just after it suffered a tragic experience that sent the poor fellow to the waiting line to the Check-In Station in the first place.
"Ah! Upa!" a squeaky yet familiar voice reached the troubled Kami, the young man jumped up and ran up to the little cloud that yelled at him.
"Son Goku!?" Upa freaked out.
"Yo!" the soul seemed chipper for someone that was waiting to be filtered at the line to the Check-In station. "Sorry, I seem to have kind of died! I don't suppose you can help me out a little here…?"
Upa took his crossed tomahawks from his back and clanged them together, emitting a jolt of Ki that enveloped the soul of the unfortunate Saiyan and restored him to his body, albeit with a halo over his head. It was an ethereal accessory that greatly amused the Saiyan who kept swiping over his head in an attempt to smack if or, at the very least, touch it.
"So, the Saiyan ended up killing you…" Upa shriveled up. "That's bad!"
"Huh? Oh… Yeah, I guess… It's too bad, Chi-Chi's gonna be really mad!" Goku scratched his head. It took him a while and a half to realize that his wife was the least of his worries at the moment.
"That's not what I meant. It's really bad timing that you died now. I picked up more impending threats, just like the Saiyans that crash-landed today." Upa crossed his arms.
"More Saiyans!?" Goku freaked out. "Damn! They're probably really tough too. They might not be with my father either. This is so bad!" the recently deceased martial artist began trekking in place, almost as if he tried to burn enough calories to sport himself back to life. "Are you sure that nothing can be done about this?"
"Well… Korin did tell me he sent Yajirobe off to gather the Dragon Balls. With some luck, he'll be done before the Saiyans arrive but… I'd rather not ask the Divine Dragon to bring you back yet," Upa scratched his chin.
"Huh? Why not?" Goku made a pouty face. "The longer I'm dead, the madder Chi-Chi will get…"
"Well, if we use the Dragon Balls and bring you back now, then the Dragon Balls will turn to stone for a year, meaning we won't be able to bring back anyone that this new batch of Saiyans kill," Upa pointed out.
"Oh, that's right, that's good thinking, I guess…" Goku waved his lips about, wondering how he felt about this quandary.
"Our luck isn't completely rotten though, it seems like Chayote would arrive before the Saiyans," Upa nodded, having the entire battle plan all scoped out now in his head.
"Just what is the meaning of this!?" a gigantic, red ogre sporting a pair of impressive horns bawled over the two, shaking his fist over his head and scaring the pair that wasn't aware they've reached the front of the line already.