Chapter Twenty-Eight

Raditz's body slammed into the ground after Tao's counterattack, the Saiyan groaning as he pushed himself to his feet. Blood leaked from multiple cuts on his body and his legs could barely support his weight. Looking forward, he saw Tao holding an unconscious Yamcha by the collar, devilishly grinning at him as he uttered something.

"The doctor added some nice improvements when he patched me up," Tao devilishly smirked, unscrewing the metal hand he'd been given. Now replaced with a pink blaster, the assassin aimed his glowing hand at the sleeping body of Yamcha and called for Raditz's attention. "Let me show you!"

The next moment the assassin threw Yamcha into the air. Aiming his arm cannon straight up, all while keeping his beady eyes on Raditz, Tao's teeth showed in his sinister grin as he charged more energy into his finishing move, the Super Dodon Wave.

'I have to do something,' Krillin thought to himself, watching as Yamcha's body finally began falling back towards the ground. 'This guy's gonna see Raditz if he tries to save Yamcha.'

Raditz felt a warmth on his forehead and brushed his hand against it, feeling the cut he had taken from the cyborg. Looking over his bloodied hand, the Saiyan's lips curled into a frown as he watched Yamcha's body fall and the energy building in Tao's hand grow. If he didn't move quickly the bandit would be killed. What could he do though? Surely Tao was anticipating him to try.

"Destructo Disc!" The voice of Krillin cried out from behind Tao. Lunging his arm forward, the monk shot a golden disc of ki at the cyborg.

Cutting the distance immediately, just as Tao's energy attack seemed ready to be unleashed on Yamcha, the sound of metal hitting the floor echoed through the room. Looking down, Tao saw the blaster part of his hand had been cleanly cut by the monk's attack. Moving forward before Tao could think to do something, Raditz caught Yamcha's falling body and placed him down.

"Come on Yamcha," The Saiyan pleaded, hitting the bandit to no avail. Left with no options, Raditz reached into his pocket and pulled out one of Korin's senzu beans. Breaking the bean in half, he fed a piece to himself and then forced the other half down Yamcha's throat.

"W-Where am I?" Yamcha stirred, his eyes opening as he chewed the bean. Feeling his energy return to him, the desert bandit shot back to his feet and towards Tao, helping Krillin fight off the cyborg.

Raditz looked at his hands as the scratches and bruises on them and his entire body disappeared and his energy returned to him. Pulling himself back to his feet and ripping the torn piece of fabric that was the remaining piece of his shirt, the Saiyan charged towards Tao to help his friends.

Tao looked up just as he was about to punch a hole through Krillin, seeing Yamcha charge towards him.

"So, back awake?" The cyborg teased as he blocked the bandit's punch. Sending out one of his own, Tao then disappeared as Yamcha threw another. Reappearing, the assassin lashed out with a kick that sent the bandit spiraling into Krillin and sent the both of them into a pile of rubble. "Try this on for size!"

Pointing his finger towards the pile of rubble that the two students had made, Tao began charging energy into his fingers. Suddenly he felt a snug feeling on his fingers and looking up, he saw that Raditz had suddenly appeared in front of him, moving quicker than even he could perceive.

"You! But how?" Tao spat in disgust, wincing as his finger was squeezed. "You should've bled out by now!"

"Leave them alone," The Saiyan retorted, letting go of the man's hand Raditz backflipped into his battle stance, ready to face Tao head on.

"You're no match for me yourself, we've proven this," The android laughed as he watched the boy drop into a stance. "But if you insist on carrying on with this charade, I'll make sure you don't come back this time!"

"Not this time," Raditz replied, feeling much stronger after taking one of the beans. He remembered the aftermath of his fight with Master Roshi how much he had grown in strength after being beaten to a pulp. So his Saiyan blood helped him get stronger after a fatal beating. "I'm going to leave you where I should've back in the woods. No more second lives."

Finishing his statement, the Saiyan shot at the killer robot. Easily avoiding the mercenary's punch, Raditz snapped his hips and shot his fist into Tao's face. Unable to shake the stars from his vision, Tao was sent into his own pile of rubble. Seeing this, Raditz fired a kiai blast to free Yamcha and Krillin from their prison.

"I'm going to press up on him," The Saiyan began, only to be interrupted by Krillin.

"That's suicide Raditz," The monk shot back, unaware of Raditz's new powerup. "We can't keep up with this guy single handedly. You and Yamcha distract him, I'll finish the job with another of those discs."

"He won't let you get another one of those off after you took off his hand, that won't work," Raditz retorted, knowing the fighter that Tao was. Then an idea came to mind. "You two just be ready for my cue. We gotta blow him into so many pieces that he doesn't even think of coming back."

"I don't know how you managed to hit me with a hit like that," Tao groaned, expelling his ki and flinging the rubble from him. Looking at the group of three, the mercenary shook his head in belief as he noticed his gi had been torn some. How had the boy moved so fast? He was just on the verge of bleeding out! "But it's useless, I'm stronger than you!"

Tao was knocked out of his conversation as Raditz pressed forward, sprawling him back with a kick to the chest. The cyborg fumed as he felt his wind be knocked out of him. Unable to keep up with the newfound speed Raditz possessed, Tao blindly shot two beams of ki from his eyes hoping to catch the Saiyan off guard. Sadly, they went through an afterimage as Raditz appeared, sending the outclassed hitman sprawling backwards with a bicycle kick.

"Funny thing about us Saiyans," Raditz said with a growl, shooting forward with renewed vigor before Tao could think of attacking all of them at once. Blocking an elbow from the cyborg, Raditz used a sweeping kick to knock Tao off balance. Taking a step in he followed this up with an elbow to the android's metallic face, sending him back into a wall. "Don't kill us and that comes back to bite you." The Saiyan finished as he charged Tao once again as he collided with the wall, hitting him with a flurry of lightning fast kicks and punches that further pushed him into the wall.

"Now you guys!" Raditz yelled at his friends, pinning Tao in a similar position that Eighter and Android Null had put him in during their assault on him. He knew the cyborg couldn't dodge what was coming from where he was now. Raditz only hoped it would be enough.

Cupping his hands to his side, the Saiyan began charging blue energy into his palms. Seeing this, Krillin and Yamcha both flew over to the sides of their friend and began charging their own Kamehameha Waves.

"Kamehameha!" The three students screamed in unison. Releasing their attacks at once, three Kamehameha's combined into an enormous one and followed Tao into the crater Raditz had beaten him into. In a brilliant flash of light and an earth shaking explosion, Tao was struck by the attack and when the lights died down, no trace of the assassin was found.

"Is that it?" Krillin said, wiping sweat from his bald head and turning to Yamcha and Raditz. "W-We won?"

"I think so," Raditz said, his aura dying down as his energy slowly returned to his body. "Or else we're done for… that was all I had."

"I thought we were goners," Yamcha chanted, placing an arm around Raditz's back as he congratulated him. "I knew you were pretending to be weaker than him. Good strategy Radz!"

"I wasn't," The Saiyan admitted, shocking Yamcha.

"How'd you go from getting your ass handed to you to beating the shit out of him then?" The bandit asked, perplexed. "He hit me so hard that I was knocked out on the spot…"

"When I gave you one of those Senzu beans to wake you up I took one too," Raditz explained, grabbing another of the beans out of the bag and breaking it into two pieces. Tossing one to each of his friends, the Saiyan continued. "It healed my injuries and restored my energy. Thank Korin, otherwise I don't know how this would have ended."

"Man, my ribs don't even feel as terrible as they were," Krillin said, stunned. He looked over his body, he didn't feel much stronger though.

"You won't feel stronger, that's a Saiyan thing," Raditz told his friend, calling Bulma to let her know that he was alright.

After a few minutes of searching, Raditz, Krillin and Yamcha finally located the Dragon Balls that Tao had safeguarded. In the chaos though, it seemed that every other soldier had fled.

"Damn, I let the doctor escape again," Raditz cursed himself, counting the Dragon Balls before turning to Bulma. "This is only six, where's the last one?"

"I'm not sure, the radar's not bringing it up," Bulma answered, putting the rest of the balls in a capsule for safekeeping. "We can't grant the wish without it, what a waste."

"It'll come up," Raditz said. "The good thing is that this Red Ribbon Army has been beaten."

"Yeah and now we can train for the next Budokai Tenkaichi," Yamcha said, reminding the Saiyan. "You gonna be there to protect your title?"

"Perhaps," Raditz said, turning towards the sky. He knew Yamcha wanted a rematch but his mind still wondered where Gero had vanished too. "First there are other things I gotta handle but you'll get your rematch there."

"Maybe I'll tag along with you back to Roshi's," Krillin said to Yamcha, scratching his head. "I'm not much of a match for Raditz and I don't wanna be all in his and Bulma's way now that this thing's all over with. Maybe we can change that before this next tournament by sparring together."

Raditz raised to his feet as he finished meditating in the Gravity Machine. It had been a few weeks since the defeat of Tao and he'd been training more than ever. If Gero was still out there then there was a chance more of his machines were being made. Raditz wanted to be ready for them.

The final Dragon Ball still hadn't been found yet, it literally had gone off the radar but Bulma was working on a more sensitive version of the Dragon Radar that she swore would find it. Upa had been upset at this but took advantage of a bad situation by continuing his training with Krillin and Yamcha on the turtle hermit's island. Sometimes Raditz popped by to check on the boy, he still owed him a wish.

Following his meditation with five thousand sit ups, Raditz had just about finished when he felt a chill run down his spine. As if on instinct, he arose and walked out of the machine. Something was wrong.

Walking towards Capsule Corporation, the Saiyan's scouter beeped frantically. Before he could make it to the building though, an explosion ruptured the air and Raditz's heart dropped as windows blew apart and flames decorated the part of the building he knew as his and Bulma's living quarters. He checked the Scouter again, a power level was dropping!

"Bulma," The Saiyan said with wide eyes, flying into the flaming building but also fearing what he was going to walk into. Although he didn't want to believe it, something in his stomach was telling him to go see where the bluenette was. She couldn't be… could she?

Power Levels

Raditz: 480 (Zenkai)

500 (end of chapter)

Krillin: 371

Yamcha: 386

Cyborg Tao: 460