Chapter Nine

When the Dragon Ball Gang had finally awoken from their third dosage of knockout gas, the sky had darkened much more than before, noting that it was now about midnight. The group of wanderers observed their new surroundings, making note that they were now trapped in a much different cell than their now destroyed other. The bulky, stone walls had been replaced by sets of much stronger, more resilient steel walls to go with a clear version of the steel upon the ceiling. Oolong and Puar were now also back in the cell with their friends, having been easily rendered unconscious and captured by Pilaf's minion, Shu.

"Greetings," The shrieking voice of Emperor Pilaf said, alerting the group of the large television screen on one of the walls of their cell on which Pilaf's wrinkled face appeared out of the blue. "You have all done your parts in ruining my plans for world domination and according to my newly adopted law; you all will have to be punished for doing those disastrous deeds. As I may have, your punishment for such a deed shall be death because of all of the crimes you have committed against my empire tonight. Unlike your previous prison, there is absolutely no way of escape from this room so I suggest that you do not even tire yourselves out hoping to find one. The walls surrounding you are coated in a three foot layer of reinforced steel, much stronger than the rigid stone cell that you were barely able to penetrate. The ceiling is made of the very same material, though transparent instead of opaque like the other walls. Now as for your cause of deaths. When the Sun arises over my castle, this room will literally become an oven, reaching extremely high temperatures that you will be unlikely to survive in, in a matter of seconds. You will all be cooked to a crisp before you can even begin screaming in pain! Have a swell final night." The emperor maniacally snickered, his frown turning into a sadistic grin.

"Oh my god… w-we're all going to die," Bulma cried once the Emperor's lecture over his wicked plot to end their lives was revealed.

"Remember Blue… do not worry or panic," Raditz assuredly comforted in a calm, protective tone. That was one of the many things that she really found attractive and interesting about the foreign alien. Even in the most dangerous of situations, the Saiyan would always maintain his cool, never panicking even for a single second. If only she had met him before going on this quest. She would have never had to come on this journey, hoping to wish for the perfect boyfriend. The two of them would live happily as a couple, sharing much more passionate kisses than the one that the two had shared hours earlier before being knocked out. They would have never been trapped in this room, in trouble. Never sentenced to a seemingly painful death.

"Yeah Bulma," Yamcha reassured, a bit of hope revealing itself in his voice. "I betcha that another one of Raditz's energy waves could break through the sheets of metal and set us free!"

"I highly doubt it… but it's worth a try I guess." Raditz exclaimed, his tone remaining stoic and emotionless. After concentrating all of the energy within himself, the Saiyan shot out his Saturday Crush attack towards the wall of the prison, though as he had anticipated, the thick layer of pure metal had been left completely undamaged by the Saiyan's strongest attack.

"Now what?" Oolong hopelessly sighed, the last bit of hope for survival that he still had within him fading away at the sight of the failure.

"There's still one last thing that we could give a try." Raditz stated, walking away from his friends unsurely. "Tonight is a full moon. As a Saiyan, I possess the special ability to transform when I glance into it."

"What do you mean by transform Raditz?" Bulma questioned feeling a bit uneasy by the tone of Raditz's voice when he had spoken the word.

"I am able to become my Oozaru form," Raditz plainly explained, though a bit hesitant. "It multiplies a Saiyan's strength tenfold. This transformation is one of the reasons that my race are… well, were such powerful and feared warriors throughout the universe." The Saiyan proudly finished.

"Really?! Why didn't you brief us on this transformation of yours earlier?" Yamcha laughed, hoping that Raditz could possess the power to free the five of them.

"Well… because I haven't actually mastered the form yet." Raditz confessed, his tone lowering with each word.

"So you're saying that your power is limited in the form or something?" Oolong guessed.

"Of course not," Raditz responded. "I just do not have much control while I'm in the form. I've never told anybody about this before but… I'm the true reason behind my grandfather Gohan's death. I transformed into this form and suddenly went out of control, resulting in me accidently killing him." The Saiyan finished, sighing a bit as he struggled to maintain his emotionless and stoic features on his face.

"It's alright Raditz… but that transformation of yours is the only way we can set ourselves free." Bulma reminded the Saiyan, bringing her admirer and crush into another of her warm hugs and passionate kisses. "If you don't do this for us… we're all going to die as soon as the sun rises."

"Yeah, I know that." Raditz responded, looking up at his friends. "I'm noticeably getting much better with each transformation but I still haven't had the time to perfect it just yet. That's why I want Yamcha to grab the three of you and get as far away as you possibly can as soon as I begin to transform… so that I don't snap and somehow harm any of you."

"Is there any way that we could stop you?" Yamcha asked out of curiosity. "You know… just in case you get too out of control for us?"

"The only way that I am aware of is if I somehow managed to lose my tail," Raditz explained, a bit of bitterness entering his voice. "But if you even think of slicing off my tail, when I awake tomorrow, I will make sure that you die a slow and incredibly painful death." Raditz plainly growled as his hands reached over to his left eye, removing the scouter that had been placed upon it. "Hold this and use it to keep track of my movements."

"Alright buddy…" Yamcha continued, dismissing his original idea as he placed Raditz's scouter upon his own stone black colored eye. "We'll just keep our distance from you then… stay safe Raditz."

"Good," Raditz replied, positioning himself into a meditating posture as he began clearing his mind. "You guys stay safe as well."

"Are you meditating?" Bulma asked the Saiyan.

"Yep, clearing my mind before I transform helps me maintain at least a bit of control over myself while I'm in my Oozaru form." Raditz replied as he began his meditation session.

The Saiyan meditated for a solid fifteen minutes before he slowly opened his eyes, signaling for Yamcha and the others to prepare to run away from the terror that was about to unfold. The Saiyan opened his eyes, glancing up at the full moon through the ceiling of his prison. Suddenly, Raditz's coal black pupils disappeared from view, his eyes becoming stained with a blood red color filled with hatred and rage. The Saiyan could feel his adrenaline rushing through his body as his heartbeat began to grow even quicker and quicker with each passing second, the boy's inner primal instincts preparing to reveal themselves. His once hairless face forcibly morphed into a tremendously hazardous snout, with his muscular body growing much larger and bulkier than it was before, doubling in size with each second that passed by. Hair began to rapidly sprout and coat the entire body of the newly transformed Saiyan, who had grown to measure at least fifty feet tall. Also, to the amazement of his spectating friends, the ape's armor had managed to grow in size to accommodate the Saiyan's sudden increase in size, both length and width wise. The walls around the primal beast quickly gave way, crumpling as Raditz's body grew much too large for Pilaf's deadly prison.

"Alright, let's go!" Yamcha suddenly said, securely grabbing his three, weaker comrades before he bolted out of the way of Raditz's trampling huge boots. Hesitating for a second, the enlarged Oozaru had just enough control within itself to simply ignore them and focus purely on destroying everything that remained of Pilaf's castle.

The beastly terror that was Raditz howled into the sky as he swiftly rammed his fist clearly through Emperor Pilaf's castle, slamming straight through anything that dared come in contact with its incredibly hairy paws. The Saiyan was quite aware of his surroundings but the transformation had released the boy's inner rage, filling the transformed being with an incredible amount of anger that he had to let out through any means necessary. This seemed to be a bit common for Raditz's Oozaru transformation, though it did appear to be growing much easier to control himself in the form than usual, possibly because of the long periods of meditation that he daily put himself through. At least the warrior had more control than needed to prevent himself from trampling over his allies.

"We've got to put a stop to his rampage!" Bulma cried out, noticing just how much damage the Saiyan was doing. "Look at all the damage he's causing."

"There's absolutely no way that I'm getting involved with that thing!" Yamcha gulped, completely terrified at the sight of the beastly Saiyan. He was truly staring at the epitome of a monster and had no intentions on trying to put an end to the monster's destructive rampage. Though the Oozaru was incredibly terrifying, Yamcha himself was much more afraid of what the Saiyan would do once he returned he returned back to his normal self, seeing his tail sliced clean off if the brawl had to come to the conclusion of slashing the martial artist's tail off just to calm down the monstrous beast.

Suddenly the loud roars of a plane, which had taken off from the ruins of Pilaf's castle, managed to both interrupt Yamcha's thoughts and catch Raditz's attention. "Pilaf's trying to escape… I know that I wouldn't feel so sad if Raditz decided to put an end to that monster's life right now." Yamcha grunted, hoping that his friend managed to smash the aircraft down.

Although the plane had flown much higher than needed to avoid the swiping paws of the giant ape, the aircraft was suddenly struck by an enormous blast of energy fired straight from the Saiyan's open mouth. The plane was sent spiraling through the sky as its left wing was completely destroyed, setting the entire machine ablaze. After a few seconds of hurling towards the ground, the plane suddenly crashed down safely a fair distance from where Yamcha and the others were currently hiding from the powerful warrior that was Raditz, with said Saiyan catching a glimpse of the aircraft crashing down, deciding to approach the wreckage and observe what was left of it.

Seeing the Saiyan approaching, Pilaf and Shu immediately freed themselves from the wreckage of the aircraft bursting out racing away from the scenery, leaving Mai behind, who was stuck under a huge pile of debris, to fend for herself.

"Wait here." Yamcha commanded his friends before quickly scurrying over to the demolished plan, attempting to help out Mai, who had a surprised look on her face as she watched the Saiyan help her lift the heavy piles of metal from above her leg. "Need any help?" Yamcha asked as he lifted a piece of debris from the henchman's leg, which seemed to be a bit bloodied and bruised from the looks of that tattered clothing.

"Why would you help me… especially after all of the hell that I've put you through?" The woman questioned her savior between cries of pain. "You could've died just for helping me. Even if we were friends, I still almost killed you"

"Well, I helped because I know that you aren't as evil as those two friends of yours. I can feel that you did not actually want to harm us… and that you were just forced to do your job. Well, take a look at what's happened now. Your two so-called-friends have just abandoned you, leaving you to be killed… so I suggest that you find some new friends. Plus, how could I stop myself from helping out a beautiful damsel in distress?" Yamcha smirked, a blush easing upon his face as he wiped a bit of dust from Mai's bruised face.

"My hero… the Bandit," Mai smirked, drifting to sleep as Yamcha slowly and carefully picked her hurting body up from the ground. Upon closer examination of the limb, it appeared that the woman's leg had been broken and she would not be able to walk on it for a long amount of time. Luckily for the two of them, Raditz had moved so slow that he hadn't seen the two wandering from the wreckage of the plan, choosing to continue his rampage.

After firing another large ki blast from his mouth, making the remains of the plane explode in a cloud of destruction, Raditz, now slightly satisfied by the fact that he now seemingly had his revenge upon those who had imprisoned him, began to calm down a bit. The monster's anger seemed to have decreased a bit and Raditz found that control over himself became much easier, feeling that he had nothing left to prove once he had destroyed Pilaf's plane and most of his castle.

"Looks like Raditz has calmed down a bit." Puar commented, watching as the Oozaru merely wandered throughout the ruins of Pilaf's castle and the area surrounding it, occasionally smashing a nearby structure of the fortress just to maintain his cool, though remaining relatively calm for the remainder of the night.

The next morning Yamcha, Bulma, Oolong, Puar, and their new ally, Mai, ventured out early in the morning to search around the large piles of rubble that remained of Pilaf's castle after the job that Raditz had done to the place. The group had decided to sleep out in a nearby shack, getting in a few hours of sleep, besides Yamcha, who had managed to stay awake by powering on Raditz's scouter, keeping watch over his rival's movements through the night.

"Hey, he's over there!" Yamcha quietly said, hoping not to awaken the still asleep Mai, who was lying peacefully in his muscular arms. Even though the raven haired woman was once Pilaf's henchman and minion, Yamcha had to admit… he felt extremely sorry for her. He hadn't heard from his childhood friend since the very sgart of the Pilaf Wars, years back when he was only a child. She had explained how she had been forced to do the emperor's terrible deeds, risking being killed or captured for the past two years, after she had been taken from her home. And then, when she longed for the help of her former allies the most, the two villainous males had abandoned her, leaving her to be killed. Regardless of what had went down in the past few days between them, she was still a friend of his… and he would be there for her, unlike her other two friends.

The group walked over to where a sleeping Raditz lied face down in the sand, giving the boy a little shake. The Saiyan immediately burst awake, seeing his friends gathered around him. Once he had been handed back his prized scouter, the warrior placed the device back upon his eye, powering it on to scan the surrounding environment. "Man, that really does take a lot out of you," The Saiyan playfully joked, witnessing the damage that he had caused.

"That was one of the scariest things I've ever witnessed," Bulma said, hugging Raditz as soon as the Saiyan arose from the sandy ground. "But also the coolest."

"Yeah… I know," Raditz replied, embracing the bluenette's hug with his own. "But believe me… that was actually the greatest amount of control I've ever had over myself in the form. I'm just glad that I didn't happen to attack any of you honestly."

The Saiyan's statement was suddenly interrupted as he caught sight of the raven haired female resting in Yamcha's arms with her clothes tattered and ruined. "Is that… don't tell me that's Pilaf's henchwoman? Are you fucking begging to get killed Yamcha?" The Saiyan harshly asked the former Desert Bandit.

"Oh yeah… about this. She seemed so helpless after her leg was broken by you during the night. Her comrades raced off from her hurting body, leaving her to die! I decided to be a hero and help her out because I'm not as heartless as those two Raditz. She spent the night with us and she seemed pretty cool and good, seeing as she continually apologized for everything she had done to us." Yamcha explained to his spiky haired rival. "S-She was a childhood friend of mines and was forced to do all those things… she and I go back further than anybody else –just trust me Raditz."

"Alright… if you trust her I do as well. But let's just hope that she's good news this time around." Raditz told his friend, using his hands to brush the small amounts of debris from the surface of his Battle Armor. It wasn't as if she was much of a threat to him to begin with, even before the injuries it seemed that she had sustained.

Bulma blushed as she stared into the young Saiyan's comforting, warm black eyes. "So Raditz, where are you going to head now that our adventure has come to an end?" The bluenette asked, hoping that she could still keep in touch with the warrior from time to time.

"I'm going to go train under Master Roshi like I agreed to… I really need to get as strong as I possibly can." Raditz answered. "But I'll still come to visit you from time to time Blue." The Saiyan added, brightening Bulma's grin with his words.

"I'm going to train too… after I help Mai recover though." Yamcha smirked as he threw out one of his capsules, this one containing his trademark hovercraft. "I'll be waiting on my rematch Raditz… come on Puar, let's go!"

"You're on," Raditz responded, a smile easing upon his face at the mention of a good ole sparring match. "Just tell me the time and place."

"How about at the next World Martial Arts Tournament? It's taking place in the next eight months." Yamcha suggested.

"Sounds good to me… that should give me more than enough time to train." Raditz responded, watching as the Desert Bandit, along with Mai and Puar, soar off into the distant desert. "I'm just hoping that you train as hard as you can."

"I guess that I'll come watch you kick butt," Bulma smiled, admiring the Saiyan before her. "So… I hope that I'll see you around soon Raditz."

"Yeah, take care." The Saiyan smiled, waving goodbye to the bluenette, as well as Oolong. However, before Bulma could proceed any farther, Raditz grabbed her shoulders, bringing her into another one of their kisses, this one lasting more than ten seconds. "Remember me by that." Raditz exclaimed, watching as a love-struck Bulma, as well as Oolong got into a jet that Bulma had spawned from her capsules and then took off into the clear blue skies, bidding farewell to the Saiyan for the time being.

"Alright, time to get my training started." Raditz said, taking off into the sky as well, soaring towards the island where the Turtle Hermit, Master Roshi, resided on. The anxious look upon the Saiyan's face was much more evidence than needed to show that he was extremely ready to begin his training under the legendary martial artist.

Power Levels

Raditz: 90

900 (Great Ape)

Bulma: 10

Yamcha: 30

Mai: 5 (broken leg)