Piccolo drew his stance wide, hunching over, bringing his two fingers together, his fingers clenching like talons.
"Special!"
His voice was a shout of thunder.
"Beam!"
Lightning blasted across his body, and lightning blasted from his fingers, and Piccolo struggled to not be pressed down by the density of his ki, the forking arcs of pure, dazzling hatred that clawed toward him were enough to scorch his skin.
The smell of burning ozone and blood wafted through the area, filling Piccolo's nostrils as he watched the trio barely holding their ground.
The air crackled and hissed as he channeled his ki, focusing it, compressing it, imagining it in his mind's eyes.
A yellow sphere, rippling with blue electricity surged over his fingers, and it took all of his control not to fling it about in great arcing bolts of blue-violet.
Piccolo stood within the center of the maelstrom. A fierce wind swirled around him, tearing at his tattered clothes and his cracked skin. It rocked and shook the ground, sending spider web cracks rifling through from his feet.
The air itself was charged with electricity.
In the midst of it all, Piccolo laughed, honing in on his triumph and rather than launch the blast, only for it to ricochet off the far mountain, Piccolo grounded himself down and attained total mental concentration. Each time the lightning flared, the intensity of the flash burned into his retinas, but he didn't look away, his eyes were wild with the rush of power.
The thunder was almost deafening, and the storm of ki was still building. If he wasn't careful, the faint echoes would reach the levels in that man's strange device, that would lock onto and relay his ki back to the man, revealing their secret strategy to the burly brute.
"Cannon!"
More lightning surged forth surrounding his entire body, but Piccolo continued to compress and control it, and became even more settled in his powerful stance. He could feel the power beginning to reach its crescendo, compressed, and sharpened to its near limit, two bolts of radical power struck into the ground.
Rather than lessen the intensity of his ki, Piccolo only let it continue to rise, the blue lightning slowly surging with a silver indigo color, the only thing keeping the super heated energy from cooking him alive being his superior ki control.
Piccolo glared at Raditz, using all of his concentration to remain stable.
Let's see you stop this one...
May staggered, snarling, but the blistering pain that poured from Raditz's hands only intensified. She fed the power with the pain.
"May!" Goku called.
His voice sounded distant, distorted, as if it came from the bottom of a well.
"This is our chance!"
May felt Goku's and Nia's leaps from the ground to the air, felt their approach right behind her.
And, Raditz was not afraid.
All three could feel it.
He wasn't worried
"Come on!" Raditz's voice raised over the howl of writhing energy that joined his hands.
Now Goku was in Raditz's face, firing off thrity punches within a second, howling over the burning pain in his muscles. Raditz decided to make no offensive move, instead he ramped up the speed of his hands, bending the line of Goku's attacks, and his wrists, back toward his face.
Empowered by righteous fury, the trio was able to attack thrice in a single second, integrated by combat experiences from their past, each of the twenty strikes per second came from a different angle with different speed, timing, and intensity, an unpredictable broken rhythm of punches, chops, and knees.
Not one touched him.
After all, he had often walked unscathed through swarms of blasts on assignments, defended only by the might of his ki or his brethren's ki. Countering sixty blows per second was only slightly difficult, not impossible.
His arms wove with sharp angles and curves, never truly fast but always just fast enough, each motion of his strikes interfering with three or four or eight of the trio's strikes, the rest sizzling past, his precise, minimal shifts of weight and stance slipping them by centimeters.
Nia snarled furiously, ramping up the intensity and velocity of her attacks. Twenty per second. Forty per second. Sixty per second. Until finally, nearly eighty strikes per second, she still struggled to overload Raditz's defense.
So he used his defense to attack. A subtle shift in the angle of a single block brought Raditz's elbow in contact not with the leg of the oncoming kick, but with the side of Goku's head.
Goku managed to move just a hairbreadth before it would have cleft through his skull. Raditz moved forward, following through on the next strike, a stiff stabbing chop into the shoulder that sent Goku spinning backwards.
Nia rammed her fist into his gut, then hit him again in the same place, shaking the armor plate, aiming for the joints where it met the larger, thicker plates of his chest as Raditz flailed to regain dominance, she spun around for her next strike. Raditz's hand rammed itself against the middle of her neck and seized her, yanking her upright against him, his face coming within a centimeter of her nose.
He snarled. "Do you think I am foolish enough to wear armor that would allow weaklings to actually hurt me?"
Instead of waiting for an answer he spun around, heaving Nia with effortless strength, whipping her over his head to slam her to the ground. Nia could barely make Raditz let go, only an ill timed punch by May allowed her to angle her fall into a stumbling roll.
Raditz sprang after them both, swinging his heavy leg around and slamming it across May's flank before the woman could retract her strike. The impact sent her tumbling sideways and she leapt off the ground with a discharge of ki, flinging herself upside down.
Meanwhile Goku recovered quickly, spinning out of the way when he followed up with a high, snapping straight punch meant to break Raditz's nose and buckle him at the knees. Raditz retaliated with a quick jab toward his face, but he ducked his head to the side and came back with a high reverse kick at face level.
Raditz intercepted the kick with one of his own, angling it so that the momentum of Goku's attack was redirected to the side, sending him flying off target, angled towards the ground. This should have exposed him, but he was already reacting, driving his entire body forward into the ground with a handspring, launching himself skyward before Raditz could get his hand up.
Nia's weight slammed into Raditz, knocking him back as she snapped his neck backward with a punch.
Raditz threw his head just in time, and the second strike that would have smashed his face glanced off his chin instead. Scrambling to stay on her feet, Nia pounced, spinning so that her twirling legs formed a defensive wall that could barely stave off Raditz's next half a dozen blows.
Only now did she realize just how much he had been holding back. He was faster than she could ever have imagined, faster than she could ever fear, and he was using new sequences and unfamiliar moves he had not revealed thus far.
But, somehow she had survived the initial flurry, and now she knew what to expect.
The next exchange had a more familiar feel.
Raditz pressed the action with a devastating, swift combination of attacks, but Nia was able to deflect each one.
Her defensive style of fighting was simple, but performed correctly it was nearly impenetrable.
Now, however, Raditz's technique was more advanced.
Unable to simply bully his way forward, he had developed an unpredictable, seemingly random style. Each time she thought she could anticipate where the next attack was coming from, he changed tactics, disrupting the rhythm of the battle and causing her to give ground.
Raditz pivoted wide trying to come in on her left flank with another kick. Nia simply altered the angle of her retreat, taking several more steps backward to keep him at a safe distance as she swatted away a few strikes.
With her attention split between the enemy in front of her and the blast she was preparing to unleash, Nia didn't notice how close she was to exposing her side. Raditz caught her heel as they came on uneven ground and as he backed up, throwing her off balance, she nearly split to the ground.
He smirked and sent her flying high overhead with another kick.
Raditz grinned, watching her regroup high above him.
"Get ready to dance Kamehameha Style!"
"Eh?" Raditz tapped the button on his scouter, his eyes widened as the device honed in on the three detected powers.
From the corner of his eye, he seen that Goku, May, and Nia had taken similar stances as each other, their power increasing rapidly.
The stance was one he would have blown off or even scoffed at. Cupped hands or hand, drawn to their sides. The energy streamed, like blue supernovae.
That level of concentration wasn't normal.
"No! Impossible! They can increase their attack power by focusing it on a single point! 1,098, 989, 950..."
Raditz's words stuck in his throat, his scouter making its distorted sound as another power caught his notice, the surge of lightning made him snap his head to the side so hard he could have broke his neck.
He took note that Piccolo--green an--had taken an even wider stance, almost like he was trying to relieve himself, and right on his head was...
A massive surge of energy in the form of lightning bolts.
Raditz had only seen something like this from his comrades. His brawny comrade could clothe himself in a lightning armor, and his female comrade could ignite her ki like a star.
They were elite, though...Not low level rejects and a green man.
"Impossible! His power is even greater than mine--1,800! Combined power of 4,837! Impossible-and it's still going up! 5,176, 5,350--almost 6,000! I can't block that! They keep focusing it to a single point!"
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Raditz watched in fear as the white-blue beams of energy approached him. He ran to one side, then another, and then another, but the beams held him in place firmly. Knowing he was unable to avoid the attacks, he lifted both of his arms to brace for the attack.
The intensity of the blasts and their flash was more than enough to nearly blind Raditz, huge chunks of the ground snapped apart at his feet as the three blue beams morphed into a single white, massive beam, forming lattices and crystalline extensions against the spiraling, yellow electrical blast by its side.
Lightning blasted the ground, it blasted the clouds above, and it ripped across the terrain, striking the nearby mountains and landscape.
Raditz screamed as the light began burning into his retinas, forcing him to bring his hands up the shield his eyes, slowly coming to grips with the fact he was trapped. The massive shock wave shook everything around him and inside of him.
The concussive blast had more than enough power to shatter every bone and burn his flesh into dust.
He threw up a shield to protect himself from the attack.
Unfortunately, he couldn't shield himself from its power nor the area around him.
Everything exploded into great chunks of rubble. The ground collapsed in a shower of devastation, burying Raditz beneath tons of rock. A second later the rest of the nearby terrain caved in, devoured by the blast.
His skin flowed, as though the muscle and bone beneath were burning away, softening, bending and bulging, deforming from the heat and pressure of the burning blast.
"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh--"
The energy bent so close to Nia's face that she was choking, this was almost beyond her.
May ground herself down, hand firming as she poured the last of her ki into the blast.
Goku clenched his teeth, pushing himself forward, exerting all he could, even if it killed him, and his hands snapped forward without any hesitation almost lathered in the ki of his
Raditz's roar above above the endless blast of lightning became a fading wail of agony. The lightning and destructive beam swallowed themselves, imploding and exploding, leaving only the battered terrain, rain, debris, and four combatants who crumpled to their knees.
The area Raditz had been was disintegrated, revealing nothing but a mountain of rubble, a crater, and Goku recognized what was about to happen just in time to throw himself backward, shielding himself from the worst of the explosion aftermath.
He was thrown clear as the entire mountain of rubble collapsed in on itself, sending huge chunks of mountains tearing loose and massive blocks that tumbled to the ground.
Choking on the cloud of dust and smoke, Piccolo dragged himself towards the area slowly and placed a hand on the wreckage, closing his eyes, reaching out and focusing.
He searched for a sign that the long haired fool was alive.
He could not sense anything.
Meanwhile Goku, Nia, and May watched the spectacle of the implosion from the safety of the ground, holding back harsh coughs as billowing clouds of dust and debris rolled out from the wreckage and towards them.
Exhausted by the long battle and drained by the sudden unleashing of so much ki and injuries, they simply lay there until they were covered in a layer of fine powder.
Eventually, May began reaching out, she sought some sign that Raditz might still be alive beneath the mountain of stone or in the crater.
She couldn't feel a trace of the evil ki.
Raditz was dead.
Goku only laid on his back, staring at the dark, rainy sky above them while he gasped air back into his spasming lungs. He barely managed to roll over far enough to get a breath, before he writhed in agony, teeth gritting.
Despite the pain he simply enjoyed being alive.
There was neither time nor reason to mourn Raditz's death. He had become an obstacle in their path. An obstacle that was now gone. Yet his simple arrival on Earth had prompted them to action. It had prompted all of them to action. For five years there was peace.
And, it seemed for too long they had separated themselves from the events of the galaxy, seeking wisdom, understanding, and power. With the threat of three more Saiyans and impending destruction, there was no reason for them to leave Earth.
Piccolo began the long trek through the jungle on foot, following the same path Raditz had taken only hours before. He could have used ki to glide himself along, but he wanted time to think about what had happened...
And, how he would deal with the Saiyans.
According to Raditz the trio perverted the entire Saiyan heritage, transforming it into a sickly assemblage of mewling bleeding hearts. He had made no qualms about the fact, even combined, they could not achieve victory over him through sheer might, but Piccolo knew better.
Goku and his allies gained strength when united against a common foe. That was their nature. The key to defeating them wasn't fleets, armies, or sheer might.
Secrecy and deception were the weapons to bring them down. Victory could only come through subtlety and cunning.
Subtlety was something he lacked. It was something Raditz lacked even more. If he had been smart, he would have came in the guise of an alien challenger. He could have arrived with a tale of how he wanted to prove he was the best. Goku would have accepted him as an ally in the end after the competition. He would have been suspicious, of course, but over time his vigilance would have waned.
Sooner or later he would have let his guard down.
Raditz could have killed him.
Assassination was quick, clean, and effective.
Instead, Raditz had come and wanted to outright obliterate everything, just wishing to murder and destroy, not even following the rules of some foolish code of honor. There was no honor in his end. There was no such thing as a noble death. There was no greater goal or ideal, it was only mayhem and carnage.
Piccolo stopped at the side of the crater, narrowing his eyes as he looked over the strange pod that man had arrived in. He glanced back at the trio still leveled on the ground, his expression fierce. "I'm going to destroy it! We are under attack. Those other three Saiyans will be here."
"Chest...Hurts...Ribs...Guys, a little help..." Goku gasped, looking at the sky.
"Wait, Piccolo! Don't destroy the ship!" Nia cried.
"Where would that get us?" Piccolo asked, sounding perplexed.
"Doesn't it seem foolish to get rid of something that may hold the weakness to these Saiyans? There is also the fact that maybe they are part of an even larger army? Bulma can salvage the pod and use the technology."
"I should destroy it." Piccolo remained firm.
But May, staring at the myriad of scenes, at the many battles and explosions all about the region, was shaking her head before Piccolo could begin to argue his reasoning. "We're going to need that technology in the future. If Earth becomes a target, we are going to need a means to defend ourselves. They will soon have us surrounded."
Even as she spoke, she winced as a wound on her side opened up, oozing out some blood.
"Okay...I'm in pain...My head hurts a lot..." May admitted.
"Just hand out some of those handy beans you always keep on hand." Piccolo said, and he was trembling so forcefully from fatigue and exhaustion that it seemed he might just fall over.
"I gave them to Bulma before I left Kame House...I couldn't run the risk of that jackass getting a single one." She nodded wearily as she finished.
"It sounds like you have a concussion."
"Probably."
Piccolo looked towards Goku.
"Chest...Hurts..."
Nia clenched her hands tightly, growling as she considered the words of Raditz and the coming devastating scenes of battle flashing across the landscape.
"They will be here. They will not let us get away with this treachery in their eyes."
"Those bastards can't get their hands on the Dragon Balls. If they wish for immortality or something worse, we are doomed." Piccolo snarled.
Nia nodded, conceding the point. "We'll find the Dragon Balls and hide them. They will be much safer stowed away."
With a bow, Piccolo swept from the scene.
The Crusader, Bulma's ship, was easily the fastest vessel Krillin had ever been on. A small, personal attack cruiser, she required a crew of four to operate. Fortunately for Krillin, there were four others with him onboard, not all clad in a gi.
Bulma, a human, brown skinned with long purple hair, tall and strong, with the muscles and physique one would expect of someone who was acclaimed by many to be the greatest tactician of her time, Bulma had spent her life honing her martial skills and studies so that she could one day equal, and even surpass everyone else.
She had transformed herself into a living weapon.
Shunning any form of armor, she was a terrifying figure to behold through the heart of the enemy ranks of the Red Ribbon Army and King Piccolo's army, leaving a litter of bodies in her wake, by the end of the war, as many of the Red Ribbon and King Piccolo's spawns and Yokai army had fallen under her blade or hand as had been killed by Goku, Yamcha, Sho, May, Krillin, Kurisutofā, and Nia.
In the gunner chair across from the pilot was Rai, a Yokai who had been forced into serving King Piccolo after he wiped out her village, tearing open a rift between the Makai and Earth. Before that brutish battle she had been part of a near extinct clan that kept order in one part of the Makai.
She was peach skinned with light emerald green eyes. She had a pair of triangular ears akin to a cat's, a bushy light brown fur tail, two pairs of three whiskers, one for each cheek, and cinnamon brown hair that was kept short, covering her cheeks and forehead.
She had a slim and lean build despite being six feet and nine inches, and weighing one hundred and eighty pounds.
Handling the navigation in the back of the vessel was Yamcha, a human. His long, spiky black hair flowed like a mane around his shoulders, and wedged off into several bangs that folded over his eyes and face. He had been one of the fiercest fighters during the wars with King Piccolo and the Red Ribbon Army, and a key to victory in many of those battles, even though he wasn't always the strongest in the group.
His role was not to engage the enemy all of the time, but rather to provide support through both his strong will to single‐handedly alter the outcome of a large‐scale conflict, in close quarters Yamcha could draw upon his ki to give strength to the bodies, minds, and spirits of those around him, enhancing the skills and abilities of his allies as much as his own.
Located beside the navigator in the rear of the vessel, was the fourth member of the crew, Sho. Having been trained by Roshi just months before Goku, he was one of the few who had known the energetic man since he was a boy. Tan skinned, his hair was like a bushy mane, with several bangs covering his forehead. His eyes were intense, and his jaw was sharply angled. He was six feet and five inches, weighing one hundred and sixty seven pounds, but his lean muscles were like tree roots. He provided support for the pilot, gunner, and navigator. He called up stores of charts, engine readings, weapons status, scanner reports, and anything else the others needed to do their jobs.
Krillin was seated up front in the cockpit with Bulma and Yamcha, occupying the passenger seat, his only job was to stay out of everyone else's way and keep his mouth shut. While not the strongest or most tactically sound in their group, he made up for it with sheer determination and an uncanny creativity that had even Piccolo quick stepping back at times.
Using the long‐abandoned air route indicated on her data sheet Bulma discovered recently, the Crusader penetrated forward.
Bulma had expressed her concern at the start of the voyage.
According to current readings the way they were traversing had been known to momentarily just vanish into electrical fields. A ship traveling anywhere along the corridor during the nanosecond before a ki blast went off would be lost including being ripped apart, the instability and danger of the route had led to it falling into disuse and finally being forgotten.
Sho had calculated the risk of a ki blast or one causing such a collapse during their journey at just over twenty percent, more than enough to make Krillin breathe a sigh of relief when they emerged unscathed a few thousand kilometers away from their destination.
"Weapons primed and ready. Anyone we have to worry about being here other than the creep Goku ran off to fight?" Rai's brusque tone cut into everyone's ears over the intercom.
"Nothing within our vicinity." Sho reported. "The worst of the ki blast is gone. Looks like we're clean."
"I'm taking us in." Bulma told them. "See if you can find them."
"I'm picking up an ion trail from something nearby. Looks like we're right around where that spaceship crashed." Sho said as they neared the ground.
"Looks like we're right behind it." Krillin commented.
"Locking onto an...Iontrail...I am locked on the iontrail." Even over the crackle of an intercom, Sho's deep voice resonated through the ship.
"I'm engaging the autopilot. Get ready." Bulma said. "Keep your trigger fingers ready."
The autopilot dropped them down into the rain drenched wastelands, and for several seconds the only thing Krillin could see through the cockpit viewport was a wall of rain.
"I can't see anyone..." Krillin mumbled.
Below them was a flat landscape, with mountains that were visible just miles away, the only significant structures in sight that remained intact.
"Picking up a small vessel on the ground, and that is where the ion trail is coming from." Sho told them as they drew nearer.
They were close enough now that Krillin could make out two receding towers of smoke rising upon either side of the landscape's face.
"Looks like there's only three people..." Sho noted.
"Only three? Are you sure?" Yamcha mumbled, sounding disappointed.
"According to this ship's scanners and my own sensory capabilities."
"Hopefully nothing happened to Piccolo. Even if he is bad news, we still need him for the Dragon Balls because of his link to Kami." Bulma said, clenching her steering yoke a little harder.
Yamcha scoffed. "I bet that walking plant ran off the first chance he got and left Goku, Nia, and May there on the brink of death. That damn cocky ass attitude of his for no damn good reason. He's the master of cheap shots."
Bulma rolled her eyes, bringing the Crusader in for a landing.
Bravado goes right out the window when you get knocked flat on your ass, get your leg broken, and can't get back up.
She set the ship down in the cover of a small range several kilometers from the towers of smoke. She would draw less attention approaching on foot, and she wanted to keep the Crusader's location secret in case she needed it to make a quick escape.
They disembarked and began the long hike to meet up with Goku, Nia, and May. The feel of this area was far different from an area even ten miles away. This was tired, weary, heavy and spent with the endless battle that had been being waged across its surface. There was malice in the air, like some infectious haze that clouded the mind and spirit.
The ki of the trio had always been strong, but Bulma sensed their ki was in turmoil and waning, a maelstrom of exhaustion, fatigue, and pain.
Neither the malicious ki nor the good ki whipped away from each other. Instead they collided and fused, becoming an obscene, indecisive ki that was neither warm nor cold, but felt like submerging into a lukewarm river. Far to the east she could see the edges of great forests. She could sense the native wildlife, chicken ostriches and hawk bats hiding deep within them, though they used stealth to mask their exact location.
The site of battle was to the west, several kilometers away from the forest's borders and the peaceful creatures.
Between them and the destruction was rolling hills and plains. The site of the first major battle that had been fought on Earth in five years. The fighting had been punctuated by four full-scale ki blasts, where each side had brought its full strength to bear in an effort to wipe out the enemy-or at least drive them from the world on a stretcher.
From the pungent smell of death and destruction the four knew a confrontation had been recently fought over this territory, as well. Their suspicions were confirmed when they crested a hill and came across a scene of carnage.
It was hard to tell who had won.
Goku, Nia, and May were sprawled on the ground bodies bloodied, broken, and heaving. As they drew nearer, they realized that they were still alive. The trio was not quite dead, though the gaping, severe wounds gave stark evidence that if they didn't hurry they wouldn't be alive much longer.
With a groan, Nia rolled onto her back, but couldn't quite bring herself up to a sitting position, leaning her head and shoulders against a nearby stone.
Her eyes-glazed and dilated-cleared momentarily and came into focus. "Bulma..."
Everyone gasped.
The woman mumbled, the words hard to hear through the choking bubbles of blood welling up in her throat. A coughing fit cut off what she was going to say next. She was too weak to even bring up her hand to cover her mouth as she spewed red spots over Bulma's dark boots.
"We killed him, but there are..Three more...!" She finally croaked out.
Bulma sighed loudly as she supported the taller woman, not quite the appropriate response, but it was better than nothing. She had to keep Nia talking in order to keep her conscious long enough to consume a Senzu Bean.
"Who is they, Nia?" Bulma asked, though it wasn't clear if the woman could even hear her in her fevered state.
She turned, then paused when she felt a tug on her arm from Bulma.
"Help them...Please..."
Krillin lowered his jaw so it was set. "Goku and May need a Senzu Bean. Their ribs are broken. Who the hell were you guys fighting?"
"Easy on the kool aid, Krillin." Sho said.
"Some guy smashes a crater into the ground and beats the hell out of my friends and all you have to say is calm down?"
"You only waste your energy making a scene."
Gradually, very gradually, Krillin calmed down.
Seeming hardly concerned, Yamcha motioned for Bulma to help him, and together they got the Son duo on stable ground. They lowered them gently to the rain-slick terrain, and May started awake as soon as Bulma began to attend to her wounds and nudge her throat gently.
She blinked wide, her body throbbing as a red hot wave of vigor consumed the overwhelming pain paralyzing her body, rejuvenating her as well.
"Do you know who it was you were trying to kill?" Bulma asked her.
"Wasn't trying to kill him, at first anyways. He didn't leave us much choice in the matter, he wasn't taking no for an answer." May said matter-of-factly, as if it hardly mattered.
"Who hired him?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Why don't you tell us?" Krillin asked, coming forward.
"Whoever it was wanted us to wipe out everyone and everything on this world. When we were finished here, we were going to invade another world because three others besides the man we faced were going to have complications taking it." Nia said.
May crossed her arms over her chest, biting her tongue. "That is besides the point. There will be three more of these 'Saiyans' coming here to avenge their arrogant and gutless comrade. For the price this world seems to fetch there'll be more just like him or worse lining up to take a hit at us. And, these Saiyans coming won't make the same mistakes this one did."
Tough as she was, she ended with a grunt and a groan.
"Goku's wounds are going to need more treatment than I can give here. He isn't conscious so he can't swallow the bean." An obviously concerned Sho explained.
"Who hired the guy who beat the hell out of you?" Krillin asked again.
He continued, throwing the full weight of his voice and ki into his demand, a strength that surprised everyone, that came from something more than simple dedication to his duty.
"If that guy was capable of doing this to you three, that means he could have done the same to us! He could have done the same to Tabby and Rai, and those two are Yokai. They've always been skilled and strong. You have to tell us something."
"Some redneck flea bag space pirate isn't mightier than I am. You better slow it down there." Rai said, her tone breaking no argument.
"But Rai look around you and look what happened to--"
"I am a Yokai! No one in this realm can match up to me. Not even a Saiyan who likes to chuck around their ki."
"You're so confident."
"I know I can smash you and stuff you into a tuna can, little shrimp. I will hang you over a toilet again."
"That was only one time!"
"Whatever."
May found herself glaring at Krillin for his ignorance, but, lips twitching, she started to answer. "Rai isn't too far off with her assessment. It was a space pirate called Raditz."
Krillin pressed. "He's one of these Saiyans?"
"Whatever he was doesn't matter. He was nothing but pure evil. I am trained to extinguish evil swiftly!"
Krillin frowned. "You don't have to be so brusque and reticent about the whole thing, May. I see training with Kami for five years hasn't changed your temper."
"You yap like a hen and piss me off."
Nia looked towards Bulma, noting she was moving towards the pod Raditz had arrived in. Yamcha meanwhile had carefully gathered Goku and moved him into the Crusader.
"We can pick this up later on. We need to get Goku into a healing tank and I need to get back here so I can take apart this ship. I might be able to find some weaknesses we could exploit. If not, we still have advanced technology that will be very useful for us. Interstellar travel is something we've only been theorizing recently." Bulma said, voice urgent.
Krillin sighed and looked away.
He knew there was no sense in trying to change anyone's minds.
So they had foiled this attempt on Earth and killed one murderous space pirate. It was clear to him that everyone, and Earth remained in grave danger because three Saiyans were coming--all at least twice as strong as this menace.
"How long do we have?" Krillin finally asked, teeth clenched.
"I give it a year. Maybe less. Judging from that technology, it is only logical he had some device that allowed them to listen to everything that happened." Sho surmised.
"One year?!"
Sho just regarded Krillin calmly, despite the bald man's increasing fear. "More or less. We could split it evenly...About ten months."
Bulma frowned. That isn't much time...