Project Cloud


Chapter 15 - Capture


Slain and Tyber don't hesitate by rushing in for Raditz. With the Saiyan's undivided attention on them both, he forgets that Bulma is in the background. Raditz was standing nonchalantly with a crooked smile plastered over his bloodthirsty face. There was no doubt in his mind that even these two combined could take him on. But still, he had no idea just how much of an improvement Bulma was to the forces of the Galactic Patrol.

"Okay…" Bulma was on one knee, arm out and fist clenched, aimed for Raditz. "Time to show em what I'm made of." With her target locked on Raditz, she was ready to fire. Unfortunately this didn't last long as Raditz put on a show, dodging and evading the attacks of Slain and Tyber as if they were child's play.

Seconds that felt like hours passed on as the long-haired Saiyan continued to humiliate both high ranking Galactic Patrol members. As much as Bulma wanted to close her eyes and leave it up to fate, she knew that precision was key if she wanted this battle to even be remotely winnable. The sight of hearing cracking noises twenty yards afar from a simple elbow to Slain's ribs made Bulma wince. Tyber made an attempt to maneuver behind but was kicked in the stomach and sent sliding, holding his midsection.

The strikes rendered to Slain and Tyber were more than enough to knock the wind out of them. Raditz's glory was short lived though because he spent one second too long admiring his quick and easy work.

As soon as Bulma got her target locked on, a microscopic bullet fired off. Raditz turned around to make an attempt at dodging or blocking her attack, but his eyes weren't able to locate anything, which only elicited confusion. By the time Raditz realized she had done something else, he rushed in for the woman. The confidence he held soon turned to even further confusion upon realizing that he was moving much slower than what he imagined. Realizing that her gravitational weapon worked, Bulma grinned.

Reaching into her utility belt, Bulma opened fire on Raditz with a multitude of wires that had crackling electric shocks all over them. Once they made contact, Raditz howled; body shaking and teeth grinding as he struggled to remain on his feet, the only thing keeping Raditz on ten toes was his boiling anger.

Veins appeared as if they were on the verge of bursting at any moment. Pushing through the pain, Raditz tensed his muscles and grabbed the wires all shocking him in the chest and stomach area, forcefully pulling them off. "You...will...pay!"

"Shit!"

Bulma hoped to be able to put Raditz down with her sting gun, but to no avail. With her pressure bullet slowing Raditz down being shocked as it was attached to his skin, it was no longer functioning, and so thus, his speed was back to normal, though he still moved slower. Regardless, he was too quick for Bulma to get out of the way.

The earth-raised woman was sent to such a panic that she had almost forgot all training protocol that she had undergone subsequent to her integration in the Galactic Patrol. Doing what she could, Bulma pressed one of the many buttons attached to her utility belt, bringing up a barrier shield. One punch from Raditz was capable of cracking the barrier and sending Bulma off her feet and rolling as a result. The following attack wasn't as merciful. Her force shield was reduced to what appeared to be shattered, colored glass thanks to being struck by a ball of chi from the enraged Saiyan. Crashing into a small house from afar due to the impact of explosion almost knocked her out cold. The woman's mind was in a daze as her ears rung with a blurred vision to boot.

Sweating furiously as he walked over to Bulma, Raditz slowly raised his subtly shaky hand above his head, forming a ball of energy. "Your faction has always been known amongst the Saiyan race for slaughtering Saiyan children without hesitation." Raditz smiled. "I'll take joy in turning you all into space dust."

The Saiyan's scouter then beeped. Directly from behind was a blast headed for him from Tyber's handgun. Raditz ducked under the attack and retaliated with the very ball of energy he was going to use to finish off Bulma. Slain slid over to Tyber's side and the both of them fired off blasts from their weapons to cancel out Raditz's attack, blowing up a heap of smoke.

Raditz chuckled and just clicked his scouter. "You think a bunch of smoke and mirrors can protect you!? Hahaha!" He went on to click his scouter once more in an effort to find them. Before he could, the device beeped yet again, detecting one of the two charging right through the smoke screen and heading for him. Raditz braced himself, yet didn't anticipate Slain, who was charging him from above. A solid kick to the shoulder caused Raditz to nesrly fall over on his side. He caught himself and smacked Slain away with his tail prior to grabbing Tyber's fist and punching the man dead in the face.

Though Tyber was sent on his back yet again, Slain managed to recover and flip over on his feet. Wiping the blood off his lip, he commented on Raditz's power. "It looks like that jolt took a lot more out of you than you'd rather admit."

No matter how hard Raditz tried to look as if it didn't influence his performance, his bluff was called. Angered, the long-haired warrior got ready to charge yet another attack. "Of course, you're right. If I wasn't hindered by your cheap theatrics, then that little surprise attack wouldn't have as much as made me tickle." He cocked his arm back. "NOW GO TO HE-!"

But he was stopped; paralyzed Raditz was once more, yet this wasn't because he was electrocuted like before. The very thing he didn't anticipate any of these galactic patrol goons to realize was the fact that the sole source of his absolute power was also his biggest weakness. Trembling as Raditz struggled to turn his head and look over his shoulder, the sight of Bulma grabbing his tail via his peripheral vision was confirmation enough. "Y-You...h-how…?" This was the very reason all Saiyan warriors were taught to wrap their tails around their waist in combat, as it gave off the perception it was some kind of belt, and not once did it give off the idea that it could be some form of weakness. For him to be exploited like this so easily was a blow to his already weakened ego.

Bulma had the smug look on her face that'd make any hormonal young man fall in love at first sight. But for Raditz, this meant defeat - an embarrassing one at that. "I took a lucky guess." Increasing her grip, Raditz let out a pained yell as he doubled down on his knees. He begged Bulma to let go, begged for mercy, making empty promises, and all. Every word that spewed from his mouth each second only motivated Bulma to tighten the squeeze she had on the Saiyan's vital weakness.

Tyber and Slain, both of whom were looking on, were left speechless. Slain looked over to Tyber, who appeared to be in much more shock than he. "Did you even know that Saiyans had such a weak spot?"

Tyber scoffed. Slain was one of the smartest people he knew and one of the galactic patrol members who knew him best. He felt insulted that the Namekian would even bother asking him such a question. "If I, a Saiyan, knew that the tail was the weak point, don't you think I'd have targeted it the first chance I got?"

"Right, good point."

From the moment Tyber was brought into the galactic patrol and taught everything he knew, not a single peer of his ever knew that his tail was his weakness as they all simply assumed it was a Saiyan's greatest strength. But it only made sense for Bulma given her story; with a Saiyan on Earth being someone she was close with, Bulma would of course know such valuable information. It didn't take him more than five seconds to realize why Bulma withdrew this detail - it was to make herself look good. Though selfish, he had to admit it was a keen move on her part. She may hold inferiority in physical prowess, but her intellect was something out of this world.

Bulma had applied enough pressure to shut Raditz up and send him to a deep sleep. Even after his eyes shut, she didn't dare let go. As Tyber and Slain approached her, she noticed that the both of them were talking through the communication device attached to their ears. Once the short call was cut, Bulma asked, "What now?"

"We hold him captive."

The Earthling woman's brow furrowed at the specific choice of words: captive? She didn't give it much thought and merely assumed that they had intentions on arresting Raditz, claiming one of the biggest arrests the Galactic Patrol's made in years - a member of the Freeza Force, but above all, a formidable Saiyan warrior!


The constant training and meditation was all Yamcha had been doing in order to try and keep his mind away from the shitty circumstances that were bestowed upon him and his peers. It was enough to have someone he finally could call friend asides from Puar be converted against them and kill one of their own peers, but for the love of his life to just say to hell with it it all and leave? It still left a scar that had was far away from the process of remotely healing. Bulma was the first beautiful, busty, curvaceous, intelligent, and charismatic young woman he could lay eyes on and not succumb to his anxiety and pass out or run away; it was because he got used to her. The feelings he had for her overrode the fear he had of beautiful women and she just ditched him. It didn't even feel fair - none of it!

Unable to focus, Yamcha's eyes flew open as frustration took over and he huffed. Falling back on his silky bed in his own quarters of Kami's look-out, his eyes remained glued to the square tiles that made up the ceiling of the stainless, pristine, room.

Okay, so say that they actually accomplished their goals; they train, become stronger, defeat Goku, and somehow optimistically bring the true Goku back, then what? Even on the severe off chance that Bulma comes back madly in love with him, Yamcha doesn't even know if he'd be able to forgive her for ditching them as they were in a dire situation. Now Yamcha, being a former bandit, had done some terrible things, but of all the terrible things done to them, Bulma leaving damn near took the cake. Yamcha's friendship with Puar was defined with one word: loyalty. It was a characteristic that Yamcha appreciated most above all. Bulma's actions during these down moments were the polar opposite of what he respected most in a person.

The clicking sound of his door opening snaps Yamcha out of his thoughts as he leans up from his bed and keeps his attention to the person entering. There was without a doubt in his mind that he was greatly distracted at this point given the fact that he was unable to sense the presence that approached his quarters. He expected it to be Puar, but with the door opening, Tights pokes her face out from behind with a concerned look.

"Hey, how's it going?"

This was nothing more than a warm-up question. Practically everyone could tell something was bothering Yamcha and it was no surprise that the others had been gossiping. If Tights was anything like Bulma - which she was in her own way - then Yamcha knew that blowing her off would only frustrate Tights; so despite Yamcha's bad moods, he didn't want to potentially burn any bridges or shut down any rapport he had established with the only supporting cast he had in this residence of solitude.

"I'm sure you already know," Yamcha sighed.

Tights entered the room and softly closed the door behind her. Approaching Yamcha, who scooted over, Tights sat on his bed beside him. "Wanna talk about it?"

Yamcha huffed. "I-I don't even know where to start, man…" he leaned forward and rubbed his face into his hands.

"Just talk to me."

And so, Yamcha just let it all out. He expressed to Tights how frustrated he was over the situation. Instead of putting her two cents in, she just listened to every word that Yamcha had to say. Truth be told, Tights didn't even feel as if she had to give any input since she empathized so much with him. After all, they were in the same boat.

Then he opened up about Bulma.

"And your sister...i-it's just…" Yamcha plopped his back onto the bed yet again. "I don't even know. How can you just leave someone you love…" he then corrected himself, "people you love despite all the pain we're going through right now?" He then shrugged his shoulders as he temporarily stammered over his words. "I mean it doesn't even make sense! Your parents just died and everything! I know she's hurting just as much as you are but every time I tried to get her to talk about it, she shut me down. She became cold…"

The very mention of her parents brought Tights to tears swelling up. Not wanting to have Yamcha see her starting to cry, she fell back on the bed as well and wiped her face as they stared at the ceiling. "I really miss them…"

"I know you do." Acting without a thought, Yamcha's hands found its way to Tights' wrist. Softly rubbing her arm, he continued to speak. "Know that whenever you feel like talking to, I'm willing to listen. We all need someone to talk to - especially right now."

Tights then turned her head to look over to Yamcha. Staring at him as he gazed at the ceiling, it took a while despite the sudden silence for him to bring his attention toward her. As soon as his eyes locked onto hers, Tights felt a sudden wave of heat come over her, though it was more enticing than anything. Before Yamcha knew what hit him, Tights suddenly pressed her lips onto his.

Yamcha didn't know what to think of it. He was caught by surprise for a few seconds and froze. Tights pulled back, eyes wide, stuttering. "I-I'm sorry…I…" leaning up, she drove her hands against her face. "I'm sorry."

The two were going through a lot. As much as Yamcha loved fighting, even being trained by God and God's servant didn't bring him enough joy to take all the pain inducing events from replaying over and over in his head. They needed some kind of comfort - any comfort.

One of the reasons Yamcha didn't react was because it took him by surprise, but the biggest reason? The split second he closed his eyes, he could have sworn he was smooching with his girlfriend again.

"I should leave." Tights face was hot red.

Before Tights could get up and make her exit, a firm grip came around her arm. Yamcha pulled her back and kissed Tights with more passion than she had kissed him just movements earlier. The oxytocin flowing through their brains - the feeling that temporarily erased all the traumatic events that had been going on - was gone. And in that they took pleasure. And so, neither of them stopped. They even took it further. Sure, maybe it wasn't right or ethical. Bulma still never broke things off with Yamcha but her ways of dealing with her personal pain was the catalyst of Yamcha and Tights dealing with theirs - through one another.


On the look-out with the night making its horizon on Earth, Kami and Upa were both looking on down. Upa was mainly curious as to how Kami managed to see everything that was going on down below and Kami explained not only how he was a master at sensing ki, but just the divine powers he was given with being the Earth's guardian.

One topic led to another. Upa and Kami discussed many things but there was one subject Kami had been bothering to ask. Once a moment of silence came upon them, Kami cleared his throat and asked Upa one simple question.

"How do you feel in those moments of blur? Whenever you just move with such fluidity and bring yourself out of situations that seem as if you're going to lose?"

Upa's eyes went up; the kid went to thinking about it, going back as far as to when the instance occurred at the Tenkaichi Budokai and when it happened during his training on the look-out. It all felt like a blur to him and though he could feel a certain way, the boy wasn't capable of finding the proper ways to verbally express himself to a degree where Kami would perfectly comprehend his own perspective; so the kid just shrugged, saying, "I don't know."

"Do you feel as if you're thinking?" Kami continued to prod.

"Not really, no," Upa answered. "My dad always told me how important it is to use my head and how important it can also be to let my head just use me...kinda like how you and Mister Popo teach me. It's kinda like I don't feel nothing at all."

"It's been brought to my attention that you don't let anger, fear, or panic overcome you when it happens. I'm no scientist but if I had to perform my own hypothesis on what happens when you do this, it's that your brain and body performs at pique potential whenever you don't let your emotions get in the way, which is why you may not feel anything."

"Yeah," Upa put his arms behind his head. "I just don't know how to snap out of it."

"And you should never want to, especially in an important fight. You must be as tranquil as the heavens and as quick as the lightning from the skies."

"Is that how I'll be able to beat Son Goku?"

Kami paused, albeit briefly enough for Upa not to notice the temporary doubt that came into Kami's mind. Deep down, the Guardian of Earth knew that the only way for Upa to actually best Goku when the inevitable time came was to believe in himself and the only way to do that was to not spread even a bit of doubt in the young boy's impressionable mind. "Yes," Kami answered softly.


Bulma didn't even know what sleep was like nowadays. The battle that took place on Planet Mache did wear her out a bit and so she took a nap as they were on the ship to bring Raditz to prison. Her nap didn't last very long, though as the constant nightmares of her dead parents and horrible deeds done to her were enough to send her back to reality.

With her eyes shooting open, Bulma quickly calmed herself and casually looked to her side. Tyber was in control of the ship. Slain was behind them in a seat, eyes closed, resting as Raditz was across from him, cuffed.

"How far until we arrive?" Bulma asked, stretching and yawning.

The universally contagious yawn didn't get to Tyber as he maintained focus en route to their destination, blasting giant rocks while traversing through an asteroid shower. "Just a few more hours. I've been meaning to ask you something but didn't get the chance since you drifted off to sleep."

"Shoot."

"How did you know to grab his tail? I'm a Saiyan and even I didn't know that was such a weak spot for anyone." He had already put two and two together given how Bulma told a part of her story about her friend turned foe back on Earth being a Saiyan, but wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth. Unbeknownst to the two as they talked, Raditz was silently coming back to a state of consciousness, ears perking up as the two continued to converse.

"From back home on Earth," Bulma started, "there's a little boy just like him that I know; goes by the name of Goku and used to be a sweet, dumb kid who seemed unstoppable, but he told me how everytime someone grabbed his tail, he felt weak and queasy. I figured if either of them were truly alike since they had a tail, I had to take a shot at it."

Tyber scoffed. "Jako was given an assignment for Earth - meant to take care of a Saiyan child that was being sent there. I wasn't around at the time, though...I was just a baby myself. But Jako always spoke on how he took out a Saiyan child and well, looks like I get the truth now."

"If you guys are supposed to kill Saiyan children, how come you're in the Galactic Patrol?"

"From my understanding, all Saiyans established as lower-class citizens are sent off to planets considered frontier worlds, which are supposed to be easier to take care of for them to be sold off. Me? I wasn't just any lower-class - I was pathetic - probably not even wanted as an engineer on my homeworld so I was sent off to prove my worth, but they figured I'd probably fall to natural selection anyway. I can imagine them deeming me so pathetic that it wouldn't surprise them that one of their enemies - the Galactic Patrol - would feel pity for me, hmpf. I was fortunate enough for one of them to not follow protocol and take me in."

"Who?" Bulma asked.

Tyber's eyes narrowed. "That damn Merus."


The scouter that Raditz used wasn't just a device that could detect sentient life forms, but also a device used as a line of communication between he and his comrades. The two comrades of his, who were also fellow Saiyans, were listening in from the very start and even now. Despite Raditz's scouter being removed, it was being held by Tyber, who had been overheard during his conversation with Bulma.

The two Saiyans were both in an area of solitude, on a small island on a foreign world now clouded by the smoke of the burning corpses surrounding them.

The shorter of the two had his eyes closed with his back leaned up against a tree as he listened in on their conversation. The taller of the two snapped crispy legs off the burning corpses and smashed his teeth into them as he listened in.

"Can't lie," the taller Saiyan started, "this is some interesting info." He then started to chuckle. "Can't believe she called a Saiyan sweet; ever heard of something like that before, Vegeta? Maybe we should recruit the rascal."

Deciding he's had enough of their talk over the scouter, Vegeta cut the line of communication and slowly opened his eyes. "The last time I heard a Saiyan being called sweet, they died on the battle-field two weeks later. Sweet is for weaklings and we don't have room for any more. As you can tell, Nappa, we've wasted our time with Raditz."

"But with proper training?" Nappa suggested.

"There was one point in time where we both thought the same thing about Raditz," Vegeta replied. Realizing what Vegeta was saying, Nappa decided not to touch the subject any longer and leave it be. Once Vegeta's mind was stuck on a decision, there was no way he could convince him otherwise. "I just want to head back to headquarters for now."

"Eh…" Nappa started to rub the little bit of hair he had. "I don't think that'd be a very good idea."

Curious, Vegeta asked, "And why's that?"

"Freeza won't be very happy to find out that one of our men's been captured by the stupid Galactic Patrol - looks bad on him. And for us to not even consider busting him out makes us look we-"

"I get it."

Vegeta sighed as he rubbed his temple. The Saiyan warrior quite frankly didn't give a damn how Freeza felt, but the mere thought of the constant subtle verbal degradation from Freeza regarding these circumstances started to give Vegeta one big migraine already; he didn't want to deal with it, and he had to acknowledge that Nappa made a fair point.

"Fine, we're to trace Raditz's scouter to their location once they land." Grabbing a remote from inside his armored chest plate, Vegeta tapped a few buttons prior to putting it up. "Send a message to Dodoria and Zarbon that we'll be a little longer than expected."

With their space pods hovering over them, Nappa's lips curled into a toothy grin. Truth be told, he just wanted to get a crack at the Galactic Patrolman that managed to take down Raditz despite being so weak. Part of him feels like they got off on luck, but there was another part of him that felt like they were a bit more challenging than they let off. Regardless, the fantasy of him knocking their heads off was the only thing he found true joy in. "Alright, then! Let's get this show on the road."