Chapter Forty Seven
"Dammit Raditz! Would you pick up your feet and keep up?" The stern voice of Bardock snapped at his son. Turning around to snatch the boy's small arm, the low-class warrior pulled his son towards him with haste. "We don't have the privilege of time being on our side."
"Father," The soft voice of the six year old Saiyan called out as he was pulled, not forcibly but quickly, through the tattered streets of his homeworld. Still, he had so many questions. "Father, where's mother? Where are we rushing off to?" Raditz beckoned but to deaf ears.
The young Saiyan had only been napping in his home after training for not even a complete hour when his father, beaten and battered the same way he had seen him hundreds of times before, had arrived home. Awakened abruptly by his father slamming the door open, Raditz knew already that something was off. Putting some items into a capsule quickly before scurrying out of the door, his father simply demanded him to follow.
"Raditz, you're not a child anymore." The older Saiyan finally began after a few minutes passed of him walking with the boy through the rocky terrain. Slowing down so that he would be heard, Bardock sighed before beginning. "Everybody's expecting more out of you now that you're of warrior age. Things are going to be a little different after tonight."
Raditz's face flared slightly but almost instantly afterwards, the jovial Saiyan perked up as a smile poked across his face. Punching the air with his fist, the son of Bardock replied with a nod.
"You mean with Kakarot coming home?" The child asked, shaking his head. "I already told Mom – I'll teach him everything you taught me! His power level was only 2 but it doesn't matter. We'll make you proud."
Bardock laughed slightly, regretting it instantly as he felt his collapsed lung quiver against his ribcage. Grimacing as he reached a hand to the side of his chest, the Saiyan patriarch's head stung as another dreaded vision played through his head. Turning to face his son after swearing he had seen a much older Raditz, Bardock smiled faintly before responding to his oldest child.
"Yeah," He began, lying behind his smile. "We know you will, squirt. Just promise me something, my son." Bardock said, dropping to a knee to look his son in the eyes. If he was going to die soon, he wanted to get a final look at the boy.
"Anything, father." The boy retorted instantly.
"Take care of your brother." Bardock said as he pulled the boy into a hug. A second later, he used a wristband to wipe a single tear from his eyes and without listening for a response continued forward with a pondering Raditz following behind. "I'm going out on another mission tonight." He carried on with the caricature.
"You just got back!" Raditz began to defy, pouting sadly at the revelation. Crossing his arms across his chest and stopping in place, a temper tantrum was going to begin before Bardock spoke up.
"Ahh – what did I say about growing up!?" His father shot back with a finger. Ashamed, Raditz backed down with watered eyes. "Are those tears?" Bardock grunted in disgust.
Wiping his eyes, the young Saiyan shook his head with a pout. With a sheepish sigh, Raditz replied by tugging his father's heartstrings.
"It's just that we were supposed to do some training this weekend, you promised me." The six year old berated his father, pointing back the same way that Bardock had pointed at him with flared eyebrows. Instantly gritting his teeth together, Bardock was caught off guard when his son shot forward and hugged his legs firmly. "That and I was already missing you…" The boy confessed through snottied snorts.
"What do you say right when I get back, we let mom and Kakarot have a day to themselves and we go hunting?" Bardock told the boy, placing a hand on his head after seeing his son nod in nonverbal agreement. Knowing he was lying to himself and his son, the Saiyan pulled away awkwardly and pressed forward begrudgingly.
'I promise father.' The young Saiyan swore to himself and his father. Following behind his father with much more vigor, Raditz didn't know how much his fate was going to change but that day he made a promise that whatever his father saw in him, he would answer the call.
*FLASHBACK END*
Raditz could not believe his eyes at the sight of his younger brother. It had been close to 15 years since he had seen anything close to the uncanny strands of gravity-defying hair of his father. Using his forearms to wipe his dusty and water downed eyes, the World Champion made sure to double back and make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.
"Kakarot?" He said once again, seeing the same silhouette he'd seen through blurred vision. Maybe Piccolo had killed him and this was a state of limbo before his fate in eternity was decided.
Thinking himself the last Saiyan in existence for the past 15 years, Raditz was trying to formulate how what he was seeing was possible. He had been under the notion that Frieza had successfully wiped out his entire race that sick night. There had been several nights he had cried about the realization. In a world where magical wishes, murderous androids, and space emperors were abundant, it seemed that anything was possible.
"Release!" The Saiyan teenager let out without replying to the older fighter. Concentrating his energy more so than before, Kakarot's ki barrier shattered and entire shards of glass-like ki shot out around the boy and the two men he had saved.
Piccolo gasped in shock as his energy wave detonated from the sudden burst in energy. Blocking the shrapnel with mighty green arms, the demon king flared his aura vigorously as he noticed the new opponent. As the light from the flashes of ki dimmed and revealed his unscatched foes, the sinister grin on the Namekian's face stretched even more so as he flashed his yellow fangs –noticing the insignia inscribed on the young warrior's white gi. So this was the best that his other half could do?
"So, the frail geezer sent out one of this planet's inhabitants to complete what he couldn't?" The green demon snickered, his orange aura vibrantly flaring around his giant body. "And a child at that." Piccolo added harshly while rolling his eyes. At his side, the demon king's clawed hand sparked and cackled wildly as he prepared another powerful ki attack.
Anticipation filled the warrior's eyes as he sensed the power in not only his other half's errand boy but also in the long-haired brat from before. Still, he had wasted so much time on the siege of the planet that he was getting sidetracked. He may have been in his younger body, but the wiser being he had grown into was still as fresh in his mind. Piccolo knew that it would be best to finish them off quickly and continue to his next conquest before things got out of hand.
"Daimao, you're going down." Kakarot screamed at the demon. Surging his energy wildly at the demon king, the newly appointed Guardian quickly shot an arm out at his foe. As a clear flame danced in the young Saiyan's hand, the younger son of Bardock swelled ki into his palm and shot three small beads of ki at the demon king. "You've killed so many already… you're crazy thinking that the people of Earth would let you rule their planet!" He added as the attacks switched from clear to a faint blue color mid trajectory.
"They are cowering at what me and my minions have done to those who try to resist!" The Namekian warrior spat, almost popping a vein, at Kami's apprentice. "Once I crush their puny Guardian child… they will have no choice but to be subordinate or they too will fall and this planet will be barren like a blank canvas to whatever I see fit." Piccolo grinned sinisterly.
On the defensive, Kakarot's foe hopped backwards to give himself an extra second to react. As the small beads hit the Namekian, they popped like small firecrackers but with his sensitive hearing, Piccolo was impaired enough to throw off his reflexes. Acting off of rage and instinct however, the demon king wildly shot his hand out and returned it by preparing to launch a disastrous energy attack out at his foes.
"Are you crazy, you savage! That'll blow the entire city up!" The Guardian of Earth screamed as he saw the power in his foe's charging attack. Almost twice the size of Piccolo's body, the magnitude of destruction that such an attack could cause to the Earth's crust was devastating to think of.
Moving quicker than Raditz could keep up with, Kakarot shot forward with resurged vigor. Seeing the sociopathic warlord raise a green arm to attack but nimble enough to avoid a desperate attempt to strike, the Saiyan boy disappeared and reappeared right outside of his opponent's peripheral.
Before Piccolo could release an earth-shaking energy beam to level the countryside, Kakarot attacked with a downward chop that moved with such speed and elegance that the entirety of the demon's forearm was sliced cleanly off of his body – much to the astonishment of every other beholder including the demon king himself.
'The bastard was going to blindly attack with another of those powerful ki attacks.' Raditz thought to himself, watching in sheer disbelief at the speed and technicality that his younger brother moved with. With such power, Piccolo could have caused an insane amount of damage to whatever the attack struck.
Hearing a thud on the ground seconds later, the older Saiyan warrior was left without words as he saw the severed hand of the demon king sitting motionless in a pool of purple colored blood.
'Kakarot stopped that by chopping his arm cleanly off with his bare hands — who is this imposter in my brother's body?' The tailed martial artist pondered internally, still not completely sold on the fact that he was seeing a dead boy walking. Add in the fact that Kakarot was actually faring well against the demon king and Raditz was at a complete loss of words.
"R–Raditz," The feeble voice of Tien Shinhan let out through his injuries, dried blood still making a trail from his nostrils to his chin. Turning to face the battered human, Raditz reached into his pocket and felt for the final senzu bean that Korin had given him. Though he knew the human was strong, it was surprising to the Saiyan that the triclops was still conscious. "T-That kid… are you guys familiar?" The triclops questioned the raven haired alien fighter.
"I'm not sure but I think he's my dead brother," Raditz said, sounding as crazy as he thought he did. Hoping that he wouldn't regret it afterwards, the Saiyan slipped the small bean into the crane student's mouth and forced it down the beaten Earthling's throat. "Did that sound as crazy as I think it did?"
Swallowing the bean in a single bite, Tien was slow to raise to his feet and saw the look of concern on his accomplice's face. Cursing himself for his injuries as he saw them begin to heal themselves, the three-eyed man critiqued his savior for the risky strategy once he saw Raditz release the empty bag to drift away with the wind.
"Not that I'm not appreciative but you should have saved that for somebody that could actually stand against that guy like you or this brother of yours." The triclops argued, aware that the final senzu had been given to him. Scratching his shaven head, Tien wasn't trying to sound unappreciative but continued nevertheless. "It does feel nice not to be choking on my own blood and feeling a piece of my spine in my stomach but was I worth the last one?"
"It doesn't matter now so stop feeling bad for yourself." Raditz demanded the Earthling warrior firmly. Tien actually had some heart, he had been just as diligent in finding and getting rid of the demon king as Raditz himself had been. Either way though, the senzu bean had already been used and there was no going back on the deed however badly things ended because of it. Now all that he could do was survive as he had done so many times before.
Turning their attention back to the fight, the Saiyan told his friend. "Piccolo's down to one arm and Kakarot and I have him on the ropes. You focus on crowd control – we don't need anybody within two miles of this city as long as Piccolo's still kicking!"
"I'm trusting you to end this before he levels this side of town." Tien said, demanding the champion to finish the long fight that they had begun. Turning to fly away afterwards, the crane student added on. "I'm going to clear the city and then find Chiaotzu. He's with your friends right? Which way do I head from here?"
"Go west towards the Mt Paozu region and then follow the river to the ocean." Raditz answered while pointing before watching the triclops hover as he began his journey. Making sure to salute the three-eyed man before he left, the Saiyan flashed a friendly smile. "Train hard, Shinhan. You'll be getting that rematch you still want one day."
As the silhouette of Tien faded into the sky, Raditz turned to the crippled demon king and then to his brother. To his surprise, Piccolo wasn't screaming in agony and it seemed as if the Namekian was hardly phased by the missing limb. Grunting angrily at a constant pace, the demon king's nose and mouth pulled into an ugly snort and his eyes were peeled on the green stump as he concentrated his ki internally.
"I know it's hard to come to terms with, but at least you have another one." The maned alien warrior taunted his demonic foe. "It's fine – I'm sure you'll HANDle it fine though." He added, his younger brother silent but observant and focused on the other side of the clearing that was their battlefield.
"GAAAAAAAH!" Piccolo groaned loudly as his energy surged out and green trails of sweat ran down his arm. Gritting his fangs and noticeably strained from his efforts, the demon king brought the stubbed arm upwards to where it now faced the youngest child of Bardock. "You insol– insolent bug. T–This is far from over!" The demon king said between exasperated grunts still concentrated on the task at hand.
Suddenly, the demon king cried out one final time as his arm began to rebuild itself from its base. As green cells multiplied fruitfully, Piccolo strained stressfully as an entire forearm was recreated almost instantaneously. Grimacing at the disgusting sight, Kakarot and Raditz watched in horror as the Namekian warlord regenerated from his freak injury using some of his power. In the span of just three seconds, a fresh green and muscular arm dangled from the demon king's socket, drenched in a layer of lime colored sweat.
"Now you've done it, foolish child!" The monster spat through his teeth, his newly spawned fist clenched and pointed at the two Saiyans in uncontained rage. Knowing the two fighters capable enough to hold their own against him, Piccolo's cool was lost and he quickly knew that he'd have to be at his best if he wanted his conquest to succeed. One wrong step and his head could be the next thing to be dismembered!
"Look at him, Kakarot. He's mad." Raditz said to his brother, dropping into a stance ready to fight. Knowing that they'd have to either beat the Namekian to a point that it couldn't recover from or annihilate it completely, both of them felt their reflexes intensify as Saiyan blood boiled in excitement. Looking over to the younger fighter, Raditz smirked arrogantly at the focused fighter. "You did save me and Tien back there so I guess I'll leave you to fight him first. Show me what you're capable of brother." He said much more primitively while dropping his guard and spectating the match bound to begin.
"Fine. Have fun watching then," Kakarot replied, falling into his own battle stance too as a sky blue aura cackled around his body. He reached backwards and threw the cloak from around his neck to the ground. Laughing slightly, with Saiyan genetics fueling his attitude, he knew that Kami would have a fit if things somehow backfired and the Namekian and he did meet again at the Lookout. "Piccolo, you heard him! We're giving you a fair chance –don't disappoint either one of us."
"Choosing to take me on alone will only lead to your demise, vile child!" The green warrior said begrudgingly as an orange aura flared wildly at his side. Instantly readying himself to pounce, Piccolo taunted. "And don't think I will owe you the pleasure of mercy once your brother is slain!" He directed to Raditz before charging the other Saiyan at full power.
From the sideline, Raditz watched as the much larger green monster threw itself at Kakarot. Cutting the distance in the span of milliseconds to attack, Piccolo swung his fist wildly at where the Saiyan boy had been standing previously. Nimble enough to dodge the Namekian's giant slap without much effort, Kakarot rolled forward and found an opening behind Piccolo.
"Nice try but that won't work on me!" Piccolo's pint-sized opponent bantered at him, reeling back a hand in retaliation to attack the demon. Following his punch with a jumping kick, Kakarot found his foot in Piccolo's grasp. As both titans stood frozen it seemed, daggers were glared as god and demon locked eyes with one another.
"Ha, I got you!" Piccolo howled, using his brute strength to force Kakarot's head into his large knee. Doing it twice before he saw the boy's eyes roll back in his pupils, the demon king prepared to do so again until Kakarot regained focus and brought both hands up to catch the demon's blow.
"I'm not impressed, brother." Raditz commentated from the sideline. Though just trying to get Kakarot's survival skills to kick in, he wasn't going to jump in just yet despite it seeming as if Piccolo had the slight edge in this fight. "Jumping around like a ballerina won't beat him. It's just a waste of your energy." He coached the younger fighter.
"Heh –I'm just getting started," Kakarot retorted as he and Piccolo stood at a stalemate. With the demon king's knee still in the palms of his hands, the Saiyan expelled ki outwards into a kiai cannon with enough pressure to stagger both fighters backwards. Shooting back almost instantly with a flip, his brother saw ki cackle at the younger Saiyan's shoe.
"Not quite!" The demon king spat, just barely side stepping out of the way of a lethal attack in a bladed kick tore at the air just barely out of the Namekian's personal space. Skidding across the floor from his momentum, Piccolo felt a faint pain across the right side of his face and raised a hand to feel for damage. Tensing slightly at the touch of a thin but deep scar, the great Namekian warrior licked the blood from his finger as a grin crept on his face in a bitter yet sadistic fashion.
"What are you, a monster?" questioned Kakarot, off put by the horrid warrior's sick showing. Smiling with some purple blood still stained on his fangs, Piccolo merely snickered maniacally at Kakarot's pleas.
The green demon, driven insane with his back on the ropes against the two Saiyans, wildly burrowed his feet into the granulated ground below him and sank a few inches as ki swelled through his blood and into his muscles. Piccolo let out a predatory growl as his body began to swell to almost twice its original size.
"A monster? No –I am much worse than that! I am a demon!" growled Piccolo, much harsher than before. Now in his Great Namekian state, brute strength and rage combined into a lethal force on Piccolo's end as he shot from the ground and towards the young warrior with fatal intentions. "And king of them at that!"
Kakarot threw both of his arms across his chest to block the aggressive attack, the Namekian's much larger stature making for both an easier target size-wise and a harder one to counter. As Piccolo neared his target, the demon king threw a shoulder forward just as his opponent readied himself to absorb the strike.
Feeling the force behind Piccolo smash into his block, Kakarot's back tensed as the momentum of the titan slammed both of them through a nearby building and through the floorboards of whoever's home they had destroyed.
"This fight isn't over until only one of us stands!" The demon spat while rock tore apart as two very durable bodies collided through it. Grasping the Saiyan's shoulder, Piccolo pulled the newly empowered guardian into striking distance while reeling his free hand backwards into a fist.
Kakarot's chin snapped upwards as the giant fist slammed into his face. Bracing his neck for the impact, he grumbled and nearly blacked out. As the much larger demon clawed at him like a primal beast, Kakarot maneuvered himself so that both of his feet were planted on the green monster's chest. First protecting his shoes with a thin but concentrated layer of energy, the son of Bardock followed by quickly channeling as much ki as he could with the time given into his legs.
"It's my duty to protect the Earth from threats like you!" Kakarot screamed as he saw an energy beam form at his soles. Pushing off of the demon king to save himself from being within blast range, just as a buildup of cobalt colored ki sparked to life within inches of Piccolo's scowl. "Take this! Flakami Flare!"
As Piccolo's eyes shot to life at the brilliant display of both combative skill and ki manipulation, his face burned as he tried to lean out of the way with the fractions of a second that he desperately had needed. It hurt like hell if Piccolo had to describe the unbearable pain. Staggering backwards from the might of the attack, the demon king raised both of his giant hands to his face in reaction to the pain of even just barely being scathed by Kakarot's godly blast.
"I must admit, you impress me child!" The demon snarled as he turned to face the Saiyan he was locked in battle with. Just as soon as the burn mark left by the attack had come into view, the strange ability of Piccolo and his people took its course as fresh green cells replaced the nearly incinerated flesh. "But it'll take more than that to best me! I've had your lifetime's worth of training tenfold and then centuries of isolation on top of that – I will not settle for second or third place." He hissed at the boys hubristically. 'This is my moment. Kami has had his for far too long!' Piccolo swore to himself, green with prowess.
Charging back at his foe, the demon king cleverly reeled his leg back in an attempt to open his opponent's guard. Just as quickly as the son of Bardock shot forward with an uppercut intent on intercepting his large fiendish foe, Piccolo's body faded to an afterimage.
"He shouldn't be able to move like that at the size he is!" Kakarot exclaimed in shock, scanning the environment for the sadistic warrior.
Now nearly the size of some of the towering structures that had once populated Capital City, it had seemed that while this new mass did grant the demon king more power behind his physical blows, as if defying the laws of physics themselves, Piccolo was still able to move with the breathtaking speed he showed at his original size.
Reappearing outside of the Saiyan's view, Piccolo growled ferociously as he lifted his leg up. Attempting to step on the smaller warrior, the angry Namekian ruthlessly kicked and stomped his way through several crumbled buildings in the general area that hadn't already given way through the force of the battle. Although it seemed, from the spectator of their battle, as if the crazed Namekian was trying his best to strike Kakarot, the smaller and more nimble fighter was using a combination of superb flying maneuvers and keen reflexes to stay just ahead of the green behemoth.
Much like a fly, Piccolo swat at the guardian flying around him hoping to find an opening. Missing the first attempt to smack Kakarot out of the sky and then feeling as a ki blast burnt through fabric and singed his back, the demon king gritted his teeth and wildly threw three ki blasts in the general direction of the clever fighter.
Seeing the determined Saiyan dance out of the way of the energy projectiles, the battle-hardened demon instantly grimaced. Cleverly enough though, he reached forward and managed to grab the boy in the midst of evading the final ki blast. Now in Piccolo's grasp, Kakarot yelped in pain as he felt his skeleton be squeezed in the tyrannical overlord's claws.
"I don't want to just waste a warrior of your talent," Piccolo said in between victorious laughter and squeezing the life out of his opponent. Letting the boy fall to the ground before grabbing him by the back of his head, the demon king carried on sinisterly. "Let me offer you a deal, child. Kill your bothersome brother and then I will grant you not only a spot in my empire but a way off of this planet before I destroy it." He offered.
Letting a mouthful of blood leak from his mouth, the younger warrior laughed sheepishly before grimacing as Piccolo's claws dug slightly into his scalp. His new uniform now tattered from the battle and his feet dangling more than ten feet off of the ground, Kakarot remained with the same smile on his feet that he had entered the brawl with.
"You can't think I'd ever join you, do you?" The Saiyan said, confused by the offer. Panting from the beating that the titan had placed on him, Kakarot only hoped that this wasn't how he would go out. Seeing the boy begin to look forward at Raditz, Piccolo's sneer curled into an evil grin.
"Who was to say I was offering you the deal?" Piccolo retorted to Kakarot, tossing the Saiyan to the ground in front of him.
Turning his attention to the spectator of their match, the demon king shrunk down to his original size and offered a friendly but sinister smile to the older Raditz. "I've made the job easy for you. Kill the child and show me that you will make a good henchman for me." The demon spat prejudicely to the Saiyan champion. Holding a hand outwards while he spoke, Piccolo added. "Or I will do it myself and then dispose of you."
"You're going to have to be fast enough to do it before I get to you then!" The older Saiyan growled in anger as the demon overlord stood just meters away from him with his hand to Kakarot readying a ki blast.
"Let's leave it to fate then!" Piccolo smiled, licking his lips as he glanced down at the nearly unconscious Saiyan boy. Reeling his foot back and kicking the limp body up towards his brother, the demon king cackled victoriously as he saw Raditz move to catch the boy.
"Catch!" The demon king taunted as a golden beam formed in his hands and exploded from the green palm at the two fighters.
Power Levels
King Piccolo: 850
800 (after regenerating)
900 (full capability of Great Namekian if not for speed loss)
Raditz: 725
Tien Shinhan: 500
Kakarot: 800
840 (without weighted cloak)