Dragonball Z: The Catalyst
Act II:
Chapter 24: The Saiyan Ginyu War Part III
Her legs were getting tired.
"A great evil approaches here, Bulma. You must flee while you can. I fear it is no longer safe. Travel towards the Dragon Balls, all will be well."
And she'd done that. Her jet cycle had taken her for miles, but there was one unfortunate fact: her jet cycle no longer worked. Not only had she started to run low on fuel, but the local wild life apparently thought it was food.
And now here she was... running.
Behind her two huge legs pounded against the ground, gaining on her. All she could do was run; there was nothing else to do. Why couldn't she fly, like Goku or Krillin!?
Maybe if I just close my eyes, he'll disappear!
The giant dinosaur, certainly did not disappear when she turned around, hearing him again.
"Why me?!" she finally screeched.
It was then however, the dinosaur fell to the ground, his body painfully flopping.
"Raditz!" she heard a voice shout. That sounded like Krillin. "Did you have to kill it!?"
"Bah. I can't stand being around you idiots. Don't kill people. Don't kill blood thirsty dinosaurs. Don't kill our enemies. I'm never taking advice from you fools," was shot back.
Within a second, Bulma found the large Saiyan landing in front of her, grabbing her arms.
Fear spiked through Bulma's heart as she struggled for a moment. Then, as if remembering entirely that Raditz was in fact on their side, she stopped.
"We're leaving; do you have the Dragon Radar?"
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There was a chuckle from Vegeta as he looked over to Turles. The two of them now walked through the halls of Frieza's ship. The guards were absolutely terrified of Vegeta, and clearly not intimidated at all by Turles.
"We've got Vegeta and a third class Saiyan. Be warned, Vegeta is highly dangerous!" Guards reported to one another.
With each word, it was clear his cohort was yet more furious, even if he was trying to keep it quiet.
"I don't see why we haven't killed all these fools yet, Vegeta."
"They know where the Dragon Balls are, obviously."
Great, he's so mad he might pull a Nappa and kill these idiots before we find out what we need.
Feeling one guard make his move, Vegeta snapped his arm up and slammed the back of his fist into the guard's helmet before his attack from behind could even connect. Even if it had connected, the difference in their powers was astonishing.
The others all seemed to freeze, looking terrified of Vegeta.
Finally, Turles clearly had enough. Grabbing one of the guards, lifting him into the air and snapping his neck clearly calmed him down some. Especially when the guards jumped back from him now as well.
"Ah, that's better," Turles said, clearly enjoying being feared.
Vegeta gave a small laugh in response.
I suppose third class warriors are always desperate for respect. To think, he's almost as powerful as I am. They are dramatically more terrified of me, it must just infuriate him.
Finally however, they reached the bridge.
"Dragon Balls, where are they?"
It was a simple question for simple henchmen. Vegeta knew he had to keep these things short, otherwise he may end up harming their fragile minds.
"W-w-we'll nev-never t-t-tell you. Long l-l-l-ive L-l-lord Frieza!"
Those were the most self assured words Vegeta ever heard.
"Turles, would you mind grabbing one of them for me? I think we should torture-"
There was a bright flash of purple instead, the wave blasting down the hallway as dozens of soldiers died in an instant, in fact, the remaining crew. This meant they couldn't interrogate them for more information, because they were all a pile of burnt bones and ash.
You stupid idiot! As stupid as Kakarot! Worse than Nappa!
"You idiot! Now how will we find the Dragon Balls?!" Vegeta snapped, justifiably angry.
"Perhaps you could go outside and look for them, Vegeta," Turles responded harshly.
Now he's ordering me around?! Who does he think he is?
The two Saiyans sneered at one another. No Dragon Balls, no idea where they were, no one left to question, and all the blame to be pointed at one another. The once productive alliance was looking increasingly frail in only moments.
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It'd been the longest flight of his life and his heart had raced the entire time. The first obvious reason was they were now flying towards the seven Dragon Balls. The second reason was because he was going to lose his mind if Bulma didn't shut the hell up!
"Put me down right now! I don't want to go near that stupid space ship over there! I dont't-"
"SHUT UP!" echoed loudly across dozens of miles of Namekian scenery. Gohan and Krillen looked back nervously at their Saiyan counterpart as Bulma looked finally, terrified.
If I have to deal with being around this woman another minute, I'm going to kill her, or myself. And I am inclined to want to live at this point. Maybe she ran across Frieza. Yes, that's it... she clearly was out on her own and got into an argument with Frieza and he killed her. Kakarot is stupid, he might buy that.
Finally, Gohan, Raditz, and Krillin landed. Without much ceremony Raditz dropped Bulma on her ass, clearly still irritated with her whining in mid flight.
"Where are they woman?" Raditz demanded.
Bulma fumbled with the radar before looking back up at Raditz, then to Krillin and Gohan.
"I don't get it, they should be right in front of us."
Is the radar as defective as she is?
It was too close to the wire. He could sense Frieza in the distance and every moment they hadn't made their wishes were dangerous, especially with Frieza heading towards Guru's. In a strange way he actually was worried about the old Namek.
Nothing I can do about that now. What we need to focus on is these damned Dragon Balls.
It was then however, that Krillin walked over, stamping on some freshly dug soil with his foot.
"I'm willing to bet I know where they are."
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Arrogant bastard.
Turles clearly wasn't the most pleased. Without the Dragon Balls this entire plan was going to go to shit. Worse yet, Vegeta was giving orders, and not suggestions. Even right now he knew he was still stronger than Vegeta, though the scales were still relatively close.
They'd both made their separate ways to get cleaned up and changed. The Mark V armour was available to him now. It was supposedly offering more mobility for a mild sacrifice of protection; in reality, however, he didn't see the use. Their armour was flexible and he'd never been hindered by it. Instead, Turles opted to find elite class MK IV armour, thankfully with no damned pauldrons however.
The worst part was he missed his own armour, but he simply didn't have time to go to the Crusher. The black undersuit was different as well, covering his legs and arms, and coming with a set of gloves instead of gauntlets. At least the armour itself was black, though he found the golden plating to be irritating considering he'd come to find the badges of 'elite' soldiers repulsive. The number of 'elites' he killed was very, very high, the colour meant nothing to him.
Stopping in front of a reflective surface, Turles looked at himself, unable to help feeling as if someone familiar was staring back at him.
Strange, for a moment I could swear someone else was starring back at ... me?
The reflection had a scar, on his left cheek. By the time Turles blinked, the reflection staring back at him had returned to normal. A wave of relief washed over him.
For a second there, I thought I was going crazier than Kakarot.
Turning his head, scouter now reattached to his head thanks to Frieza being restocked by the Ginyu Force, Turles saw Vegeta in the doorway now wearing the very Mark V armour he'd rejected.
"There are several powers approaching. I think it's the brats and Raditz. What do you want to bet they know where the Dragon Balls are?"
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A child's laughter was in the air around them as Gohan and Krillin finished digging up the Dragon Balls, the two of them covered in dirt.
It was typical, human, lighthearted behaviour, and to be quite frank Raditz didn't feel the pressing need to indulge it at the moment.
"Gohan, Krillin," he said quickly, stepping over to the balls. "We need to summon the Dragon now."
"Yea, we don't have a lot of time," Bulma added. "Vegeta, Turles, or Frieza might get here, and then there could be big problems."
This was it. This was the moment of truth, the moment they would summon the Eternal Dragon. They would wish back everyone Vegeta and Nappa killed... perhaps even most of those he killed. It was an awkward moment, realizing that he'd be assisting in the revival of people he'd killed personally. They'd have to make sure that bastard Nappa didn't come back of course, but he was sure they could stipulate that.
Hah, I bet Violet will think I've grown a second head when I tell her all the shit she's dragged me through.
In truth, he knew he and his nephew were probably the two with the most to gain by this wish. His nephew would be pleased to see that Namek return, and he would be pleased to see Colonel Violet. Bulma had that fool Yamcha, apparently, but he doubted those two were going to stick together given how Krillin had described the two earlier.
Besides, who the hell would ever want to get stuck with Bulma?
Finally, Krillin braced himself.
Unknown to everyone else, two sets of Saiyan eyes watched from beneath Frieza's ship.
"I summon up the Dragon! I command you now hear my howl to make my wish come true!"
It was all very epic of course, or at least as epic as Krillin could reasonably try to make it sound, thrusting his arms into the air as they all waited for the balls to summon the Dragon.
Nearly a minute passed before Raditz realized, along with everyone else, something was very, very wrong.
"I thought you idiots had summoned one of these Dragons before!" Raditz finally snapped. "Where is it?!"
Krillin stumbled back, noting just how irritated, if not outright angry, Raditz was.
"I-I-I don't know, normally it just appears by now!"
"... there must be a password!" Bulma shouted, looking at the balls. "The Dragon must be summoned with some key words. If we don't find out what it is, no one can summon the Dragon!"
Something inhuman bubbled up in Raditz's stomach as he sneered down at the Dragon Balls. Great, this was just perfect. Now they had the seven Dragon Balls, all the risk and none of the benefits!
It was then that two powers began to rapidly approach. His eyes narrowed in the direction they were arriving from.
"Bulma, Krillin, Gohan, find cover," the order came from Raditz. "I will deal with this."
Within a few moments, Goku and Burter landed in front of them. But if Raditz hadn't known better, he'd have sworn he looked more like Turles.
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Wheezing, Goku floated in the air. To anyone who saw him right now, they'd assume he was none other than the nefarious Captain Ginyu.
I need... I need to get back to the others... before its too late.
Just like Raditz had tried to warn him, Vegeta and Turles had bailed out almost immediately. It'd been easy to deal with Ginyu and Burter, until of course, they swapped bodies. Ginyu had maimed himself first too, which hadn't helped.
Now his body was heading towards them, and they had no idea.
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"Kakarot," Raditz greeted, his eyes narrowing on the smirking figure.
"Goku!" Krillin grinned, walking out next to Raditz.
"Wow, I bet you whipped that Captain Ginyu's butt really bad huh?" Krillin laughed.
The awkward tone "Goku" responded with told Raditz yet more that something was wrong. His body language was all wrong, his eyes were wrong... and the big blue bastard grinning behind him was yet more, wrong.
"Krillin, step back," the older Saiyan warned.
Ginyu looked up towards Raditz, noting the look on the other Saiyan's face.
Krillin looked back as well, a confused look on his face.
"Why, what's wrong?"
"That is not Kakarot at all," Raditz remarked. "Kakarot doesn't stand like that, talk like that, or wear a scouter."
Ginyu started to chuckle.
"Very astute of you to notice, my long haired Saiyan friend! But soon you'll get to see the full extent of my new body's power! Burter!"
Strike a pose behind him the huge Blue Alien shifted his arms up and bent his knees. "Burter!"
Doing a strange spin, before flexing one leg out and having his arms assembled in a strange position, the Captain spoke up.
"Now its time to face the wrath of the Ginyu Force! Introducing the new and improved Captain Ginyu!"
"Tell them what time it is Captain," Burter sounded almost embarrassed to say the line, the blue monster having a red tint across his face.
"It's time for you to die!"
Eyes went cold on Raditz. It didn't take much imagination as to what had happened. Kakarot's body was stolen by this thief, and very likely killed immediately after. The brother who seemed impossibly strong, the one who he imagined as a Super Saiyan, was dead because of this brutish low brow moron. A slave of Frieza's had killed a legend, a legend who was the brother he'd slowly started to look at as an example of strength and even inspiration.
I will avenge you Kakarot. I will do what I must to help your son and woman. Though I'd much prefer to send the woman to see you I must admit.
Anger finally started to brim out of the Saiyan's face as his eyes continued to intently look at Ginyu. From behind Gohan jumped out.
"My father! What did you do to my father!"
"I took care of him already, kid!" he laughed.
I'm going to kill you, slowly.
Raditz felt himself beginning to unleash his energy. The world around them began to tremble, the Dragon Balls themselves vibrating, before the entire ship next to them shifted violently. The waves of the local water splashed violently back and forth as the clouds in the sky seemed to shift. The sky itself seemed to darken, the clouds themselves swirling above Raditz before finally a huge blue aura burst from his body.
The three scouters watching this began to blip and beep with the information coming in. Numbers began to compile as dust began to wrap around Raditz in a small cyclone.
The look on Ginyu's face was priceless as the Saiyan warrior glared down at him.
"No way. 80,000... no wait. 90,000."
The look on Ginyu's face continued to pale as the number continued to climb.
"Wait! Not another one of you!" Ginyu cursed furiously, closing his fist before opening his palm, unleashing a huge energy blast. A purple light overtook the three warriors in front of him, before the source of the light froze in mid air, Raditz's body now almost burning with power.
Swiping his arm up towards the sky, the bolt went flying towards the stars, leaving Ginyu staring in disbelief.
"Captain!" Burter shouted, looking terrified. "Its reaching up over 120,000!"
Ginyu clearly started to calm himself. Dust began to circle around him as well, a golden aura burning from the edges of Goku's body as he competitively started to power up his new body. Energy sundered through the ground around him, causing Burter to step back as his own scouter started to beep again wildly.
"Captain-"
"Shut up Burter!"
"But Captain! Your power level... its only 25,000!"
Ginyu blinked upon hearing this. His face suddenly paled as he realized the disparity between himself and his opponent. Raditz's fist slammed into his face within seconds of this realization..
To Raditz, it was enough to know his opponent was weak. He'd enjoy killing Ginyu slowly.
I'll make this painful for you, Ginyu. I swear it.
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With a wolfish grin, Turles looked to Vegeta.
"Would you look at that? All those Dragon Balls exposed, with only Burter and the midgets squaring off over them."
Vegeta was equally amused, grinning to himself, before noticing the woman was with them as well. Scowling internally, he looked towards Turles.
"Tell you what Turles, why don't you go face Ginyu. I'll take care of Burter. We wouldn't want you to disappoint on that promise you made him earlier."
I'll take care of that idiot Burter, and then once we've killed off Ginyu and Raditz, this will be all over. I'll deal with those two idiotic midgets after that, and then we'll see what I need to do to preserve this supposed 'future'.
Appearing in front of Burter seconds later, Vegeta just crossed his arms.
"Hello Burter," he said with a cruel grin.
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Ginyu felt himself slam into a small mountain, the entire thing collapsing around him. It'd not been much of a fight from Ginyu's end so far. Several savage blows had utterly wrecked his body.
"You killed the most honourable man I've known, Ginyu."
A massive red bolt of energy began forming in Raditz's right hand, preparing to end the life of the Captain of the Ginyu Force, when in the distance, a new power was felt.
"I... I see you've managed to take care of business," Goku said, looking exhausted.
Below, Ginyu was having trouble getting up, breathing in heavily. Raditz had completely dominated him, completely taking him apart. To Raditz himself it'd been easy, fighting someone only 1/6th his strength. Even though Ginyu showed signs of improvement after a few moves, the simple truth was Raditz hadn't given him enough time to really expand on that. The body below was too battered to realistically continue the battle.
"Kakarot?" Raditz asked, looking at his brother in shock.
"Yea, like the new look?" Goku joked.
"You!" Ginyu breathed. "How are you still alive?"
It was then another massive power entered the scene. Raditz felt himself trying to grasp how huge it was, much bigger than his own by far. In fact... it was almost as strong as he'd felt... Kakarot's power being before?
Is it Frieza?
Appearing next to Ginyu, Turles kicked Ginyu into the sky and smirked as he did.
"I always keep my word Ginyu. Get ready to die," Turles announced.
Both Raditz and Goku's faces twisted into shock.
"No wait!" was shouted by both at once.
To Raditz, it was a realization that he could get Kakarot restored to his original body.
To Goku, it was a realization that Ginyu could steel Turles's body.
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A huge impact slammed into Ginyu's ribs, breaking several of them with little remorse. The fist which caused the hit still rested in his gut for a moment as the two hovered in the air. Grinning, Turles knew full well his opponent was defeated before the battle began, but he'd rather have Ginyu suffer.
Blood dripped from the mouth of his opponent before Turles decided to crack his elbow across his face, sending the Ginyu leader flying back towards the water. Then he appeared below him, spinning in the air, driving his knee into Goku's body's back. Ginyu coughed violently as blood came up, before an elbow slammed into his chest, sending him finally into the ground with a sickening crack.
"Turles! You have to stop! You'll kill Kakarot's body!" Raditz shouted.
"So?" Turles grinned. "From what I've heard, he's not much of a Saiyan anyway."
The look on Raditz's face said it all. They'd be fighting very shortly it looked like.
"Now brother, there is no reason to be so sad. I'm sure Kakarot will eventually start to enjoy Ginyu's body," Turles chuckled, turning his head down to Kakarot.
Instead however, he saw a man laying there in green plated trade armour, a red bandana around his head, and a scar on his cheek. His eyes were looking at him intently. For Turles, he felt himself step back in shock at the change of opponents, his eyes widening as he felt himself gasp.
What's happening? Why does he look like me? Who-
As soon as he blinked, the rasping, beaten body of Goku had returned.
What's happening? I don't understand.
"I thought there was a foul smell in the air. So you're the ones."
"Bardock, heh, you crack me up. We had some good laughs with your crew earlier too, you shoulda been there."
"You're right, I should have been there."
"Do you really think it would have made a difference Bardock, I mean, really?"
Turles found himself pacing over the ground, before rushing towards the air, giving an almost inhuman battle cry as he launched himself at Raditz and Kakarot. The two fighters braced themselves in the air, looking shocked at the sudden change of Turles's mood.
Turles stopped himself just before he could assault them, his body freezing in place.
"FRIEZA! Come out and fight me you coward!"
"No, nonono, what's happening?" Turles questioned in almost a ramble, the world was almost bending around him. "Get out of my head!"
"FRIEZA!"
It wasn't happening, none of this was happening, where was he really? Panicked eyes darted around the landscape, looking for something real, anything real. When he turned to look at Kakarot and Raditz, they'd been replaced by children. A nine year old boy and an infant.
He almost froze in place, feeling himself trembling as the world ceased making sense.
"Turles, what the hell is going on?" Raditz asked a nine year old.
Blood began to slowly dribble from Turles's nose as he looked at Raditz, and then to Kakarot.
"I-"
And then the world went black.
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It'd not been exactly hard to pick Burter apart. The blue monster had tried to use his speed, only to find anything he did was met by Vegeta's block, or his own dodge. Worse for the blue beast, Vegeta was fast enough to stop him from running.
Finally, he'd cut him off in mid air.
Burter's eyes flashed open in a panic as Vegeta's hand extended, seeing the power forming.
"Vegeta, wait! Wait! We can-"
I've had enough of you Ginyu fools.
A blue wave exploded across the sky as Burter was torn violently from life. A grin appeared across his lips, seeing Ginyu had already been taken down to almost nothing, except lying in a hole in the ground.
"Time to finish this."
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What the hell just happened to Turles? He was about to attack us for almost no reason, in some kind of trance, then rambled for a moment, bled from his nose and passed out. Does Ginyu have some kind of attack that does that?
"Kakarot-"
"I don't know, but that's nothing Ginyu did to me."
From the ground below, Ginyu coughed violently. "Yea, what's with you Saiyans? Are you all insane or something? First I get Mister Nice guy, then the psycho killer who goes insane and drops out of the sky. Can you people at least be consistent?"
So, it wasn't Ginyu. To hell with him for now, it's time to get-
Vegeta appeared above them.
"Get ready to die Ginyu!" he shouted.
"Vegeta wait!" Goku cried out, the Prince diving down towards the broken body.
With a grin, the body on the ground began uttering a phrase.
"Change..."
Without warning, Goku had blasted off, flying ahead of Vegeta at the last moment. A golden light exploded from the downed body below, heading towards the pair.
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"Where the hell am I?" Turles whispered, holding his head as he slowly brought himself to his feet, this place was extremely dark, he couldn't see anything even with Saiyan eyes.
"Kakarot?"
Kakarot?
"It's been so long. I've been calling out to you for years my son. I sense that the time of Frieza's defeat is approaching. There is so much I need to tell you. But what happened? Ever since you struck your-"
"I am not Kakarot you idiot," Turles seethed angrily.
Emerging from the shadows of the world he found himself standing in, this near empty voice, Turles's eyes met with the man who wore the green and black Saiyan armour. He felt his fist tighten as he sneered.
There was only one person this could be.
"Bardock."
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Important notice: The next two weeks will only have Monday Updates.
Reviewers:
Treeger: I look forward to Turles and Goku having a real conversation as well. It could take a while, and I don't think they'll like who they meet lol
Ness: As always, thanks for the review.
Super Mystic Gohan: Thanks :)
Full Power: Can't wait till Monday now can you? XD
Dark Impaler: This Monday. I hope you like it. :)
Coldblue: You've gotta get an account so I can answer some of these things by PM, or if you forget to ask a question it can be fired by PM, lol
Anyway, where to begin?
It's not Raditz's role in the story to necessarily be the strongest Z warrior.
My plans for Jeice are for him to be dead. He's doing a fine job.
Will Turles die soon? I can't answer that. Will he sense energy? Probably.
Power levels? Incredibly off, as this chapter demonstrates XD
Jason9000: I decided to not cover the Ginyu fight with Goku, as it didn't really happen any differently than in the Canon sadly.
Fightingchampion: I'm looking forward to my next update too :)
Luke: You are most welcome.
Pointer39: Be careful what you wish for.
Super Saiyan Master Kackarot: Thanks.