A faint breeze blew over the deserted land. The clouds sailed over the black sky. As the clouds moved, they provided a shadow for the sleeping warrior. Slowly, he woke up. For a minute or two, he wondered where he was. After he remembered what transpired, he rose from the rocky ground.
Just as he got up, a painful wave washed his entire body. He released a soft groan and a curse. His right shoulder seemed dislocated. Luckily, it wasn't anything major. It was something he could deal with and fix. However, his thoughts shifted to something else. He raised his left hand and pressed a tiny button on the scouter.
"Vegeta, Nappa, Kakarot! This is Raditz, can you hear me?"
No response. Annoyed, he smacked the thing and tried again. The result was the same. "Damn it! Useless piece of trash!" He removed the device and threw it on the ground.
This wasn't good. With his scouter malfunctioned, he had no way to contact his companions. He had only one option. "Tch, I can't hear any explosions. Maybe they're waiting near the pods." While holding his right arm, the long-haired warrior flew off.
His hair danced on the wind as he approached the destination. The space pods weren't that far from the place he woke up. He couldn't but wonder for how long he was asleep. If it was more than a day, he would receive another lecture from Vegeta. And that was the last thing he wanted. He didn't know if he could keep his mouth shut anymore. The tall Saiyan closed his hands as he thought of the prince. He snapped out of his thoughts quickly when he spotted the pods, but something was strange.
He touched the ground and rushed to the pods. His eyes were wide open when he noticed two were missing. "Those bastards! They left us here without even confirming if we're still alive!" Raditz clenched his teeth and growled.
This was it. He had enough of those two. His fist trembled as he leaned against the pod. "The moment I raise my power, I'll kill them! I can't stand them anymore!" The Saiyan's scream rang over the valley.
They left him behind like a piece of trash. He had done so much for them and this was how they repaid him? His black orbs quivered as the image of laughing elites flashed before him. Consumed by tremendous anger and hatred, Raditz turned around and slammed his dislocated shoulder against the pod.
Sweat dripped from his chin as he moaned. He surpassed the pain and shook his head. The muscular warrior moved the thoughts of Vegeta and Nappa aside and focused on a more important matter. In front of him were three pods, which meant his brother and nephew are still here. Unlike those two bastards, he needed to find Kakarot and Gohan. However, it would take a lot of time because his scouter broke.
He bounced from the pod. Ready to leave when he remembered Gohan wasn't wearing a scouter when they came here. The Saiyan turned around and opened his nephew's pod. Just as he thought, the green device was on the seat. He picked up the thing and adjusted it on his face.
After he pressed the button, the device came to life. "Kakarot! This is Raditz! Respond if you're alive, idiot!" No reply. Irritated, he kicked the ground. "Tch! Can't anything go with no problems, just once!?" He walked away from the pods and tried again.
"Kakarot! Gohan! Answer me, damn it!"
He could only hear static noises. Raditz was about to give up when he heard a faint sound. It lasted only for two seconds, but it was enough. Kakarot and the boy were alive, and that was the only thing that mattered. Now, he had a reason to search for them. Wasting no time, the Saiyan blasted into the sky. The first location on his mind was the place where he and Kakarot were last time together.
The pods breached the planet's atmosphere and crashed on the ground. While the doors lowered, three soldiers emerged from the building and saluted. They remained still as statues, drops of sweat dripping from their chins while the warriors walked out of the space pods.
Vegeta paid them no mind while Nappa could smell their fear and just chuckled. "Hey, grunts! Take the stuff from my pod and hand it over to Freeza!" Upon hearing his voice, the soldiers did as they were told.
The elite Saiyans walked into the building and left the soldiers to deal with the treasure from planet Zoon. While they walked through the illuminated hallway, every single warrior moved out of their way. Nappa wore a smirk on his face all the time. The bald warrior loved how everybody feared them. He shifted his eyes to the short prince who paid no attention to anyone.
"How about we grab something to eat? After fighting those guys, I'm hungry."
For once, he agreed with his colossal companion. "Hmph, fine." He uncrossed his arms and moved across the hall.
They were a few steps from reaching the cafeteria when a familiar figure walked in their direction. "My, my! Already back from planet Zoon?" The voice belonged to Zarbon, who wasn't alone.
The pink warrior snickered at Vegeta and Nappa. "Hey, isn't your group smaller than usual? What happened to that weakling Raditz and those new monkeys?" His gruff voice annoyed the huge Saiyan, but Freeza's loyal soldier just focused on Vegeta.
These morons ruined his mood. The last thing he wanted was to speak to them. "Hm, they were too weak and died on planet Zoon. No significant loss." He felt no remorse in losing those three. While the brat showed some potential, it was useless now that they died. And he had no use of weaklings who couldn't even walk on a planet with high gravity.
"That's cold, even for someone like you. It's no wonder Lord Freeza prefers you over other soldiers."
Vegeta ignored that and took a step forward. "Whatever. Do you need anything else? If not, leave me alone, Dodoria." He stirred his orbs away from those two and passed by them when they moved away.
The green-haired warrior smirked as he stared at the short prince. "Don't leave the station, Vegeta. I'll inform Lord Freeza of your successful return. I'm sure he'll like to hear from you what happened on Zoon." Zarbon and his spiky-headed companion chuckled as they walked away from the Saiyans.
Nappa glared at their backs and snarled. "Those bastards! I swear, I'll kill them one day!" The old warrior clenched his teeth and closed both hands strongly.
Unlike his towering companion, Vegeta hid his emotions well. "Let it go, Nappa. They can talk about whatever they want, but we'll have our moment one day. You can count on that!" His tail stirred around the waist as he tried not to think about how much he wanted to kill those two.
He searched for them for two hours already. There was no sign of them. His black hair swayed behind him as he floated above the ground. He looked all over the place. The only thing he found were corpses and trails of blood. He flew away slowly and inspected the area from the sky.
His orbs shifted left and right. "C'mon, where are you!? They should be here somewhere!" The Saiyan lowered a bit and moved forward. "Kakarot, show yourself! Give me some sign already!" He raised his voice so they would hear it over the scouter.
Two minutes later, yellow letters appeared on the small screen. "Oh! There's a low power level coming from that direction! That must be them!" Raditz increased his speed and flew to the west.
Half an hour later, he reached the location where the signal came. However, there was no sign of his younger brother or nephew. Confused, Raditz descended to the ground. He walked around and searched for those two until he stumbled upon something. The long-haired warrior glanced down and saw how shattered the ground was.
He dropped on his right knee and figured the signal arrived from below. "They're down here! Just what happened that got them buried alive?" His questions would get answered later. Now he needed to dig those two out.
Raditz placed a hand on a stone and released a grunt. The Saiyan pulverized the boulders. With the rocks out of the way, he jumped into the dark ravine. He continued to fall until he noticed his younger brother and nephew at the bottom. Using his aura, he illuminated the place. He picked up both of them and flew out.
He dropped them on the ground and smacked his brother's face. "Wake you, Kakarot! You almost had me search the entire planet because of you two!" His growl worked because the wild-haired Saiyan pushed him away.
"Ah! Shut up already! I'm awake!"
Kakarot tried to shift into a sitting position, but couldn't do it. "Damn it! I forgot about this gravity!" It wasn't only that. His wounds got in the way as well. "Gohan! How's he doing?" He clenched his teeth and tried to see his son.
Raditz was already taking care of it. "He's fine. I'll let him sleep." However, their injuries needed patching. Thankfully, it wasn't anything severe. He could deal with it.
The younger warrior released a sigh. "Good…" Finally, they were out of that dark place. He was sure they would die down there if they spent any more time under the rocks. "What about the mission? Where are Vegeta and Nappa?" His orbs drifted to Raditz. He almost forgot about that.
Just by hearing their names, Raditz's expression changed. "Tch, those two left without us. They thought we died… Bastards didn't even bother to search for us!" He squeezed his fist hard as the scowl on his face surprised Kakarot.
While he shared the same thoughts as his older brother, he noticed something was different. Raditz seemed strange, different from usual. He wondered what happened to the man after they separated. However, he would ask later. Now, they needed to figure out what to do.
"What about the pods? Don't tell me we're stranded here, with no means to leave the place!"
It relieved him when Raditz shook the head. "That's good. With them thinking we're dead, we can leave whenever we wish to do so." Kakarot released a soft chuckle that lasted only two seconds because he needed to cough.
Raditz blinked, confused by his brother's word. "Huh? What do you mean? You plan on staying on this rock!? Don't be ridiculous! Why would you want that!?" He yelled at Kakarot, who simply smirked. The older warrior couldn't understand why would anybody want to stay on this empty planet.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before talking. "Well, I can use this opportunity to grow stronger! I'm sure this heavy gravity will help me to reach a new level! I can feel it!" Despite the pain and harsh pressure, Kakarot lifted his arm. "We can train with no interruptions! Nobody will boss us around! And once we're done, we can leave this rock and fly wherever we want!" He closed his hand tightly and laughed.
The long-haired warrior raised both eyebrows. This surprised him. The thought of using this unexpected predicament to their advantage never crossed his mind. It was a good idea. Unlike Kakarot or Gohan, he couldn't depend on gravity to grow stronger since he was used to it. But training with these two and fighting could do him good.
He couldn't but grin and release a loud laughter and shocking Kakarot. "Very well! Let's do it, Kakarot!" The Saiyan rose from the ground and removed the broken armor. "However! You'll teach me everything you learned on Earth! I want to have it all! Anything that'll give me an edge over them!" Raditz's eyes were wide open. Scorching flames danced in his dark orbs as he squeezed the fist.
Kakarot didn't know how to respond. He wasn't used to this new side of him. "And one more thing… Once we leave this place, we must return to the Freeza Force. The pods have tracking devices in them." The young warrior cursed, but quickly got over it. It didn't matter. They will get back there and act as if nothing happened. He could already imagine their shocked faces when they return.
The end of Chapter 10! I tend to repeat myself, but I apologize for taking another time off and postponing the updates. This time I wrote notes for the remaining chapters so that will help me... I hope! Anyway! Thanks for still reading this and as always, sorry for bad grammar! Be careful and strong everyone!