Sorry for the long wait but time flew by before I even knew it.
For some reason I had a lot of trouble in writing this next chapter so I wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible.
That's all for now. Thanks a lot to those of you who reviewed, it means a lot.
Dragon Ball Kai
Chapter 10
Greetings
After only two months things had gone back to normal in Kami's Lookout.
Goku's training continued to grow more intense, now sparring against several doll copies of himself on a regular basis. Kami offered his advice every time he could while Mr. Popo watered the trees and flowers just beginning to grow back in the garden.
"That's enough for today Goku," Kami said, impressed at how the boy lasted much longer against the dolls. He still couldn't beat them but he was starting to develop better reflexes and new says to fight. It wasn't lost on him how the spars lasted much longer than before.
The boy wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead and smiled at his teacher, "Hey Kami, do you think I can leave now that I'm done?"
"You were going to meet up with your friends," the guardian recalled. While before the Saiyans arrived he had no intention of letting Goku go see his friends, thinking that it would only affect his training, he did not think so now. If things developed badly then this was the only chance the boy had to be with them. "Fine. Tomorrow is your day off so don't worry about coming back early. Just make sure you're here the day after tomorrow."
"No problem," the boy grinned and ran off, "See you later Kami. Bye Mr. Popo!"
Mr. Popo smiled at the boy who waved as he jumped down the lookout and gave him a small wave of his own.
Once the boy was gone, Kami put on a more serious expression. Goku's progress was outstanding but, was it enough?
Bardock seemed very strong, even while suppressing his power, he was the strongest being he had ever felt. There was no telling if he would actually go through with his plans to take Goku and end life on Earth.
Even so, not all hope was lost. There was still something else he could do.
In the case that Goku wasn't strong enough to stop his father, then maybe with the help of a very unlikely source they could save the Earth. This was nothing but a passing thought at the moment but maybe he could find him later on and see if they could strike up a truce until the threat of the Saiyans was over.
Flying through the air at a high speed, Goku moved in the direction of his mother's ki.
Somehow getting the message to Korin, the talking cat had told him that his friends were planning to meet up in Bulma's house. Because if had been a long time since he had last seen them, and even Kami said it was okay to go for the sake of taking it easy, Goku was more than glad to go. He also saw it as a chance to introduce his mom to them. Other than Krillin, no one had met her yet.
It didn't take him long to fly over a forest where, in a large clearing with a river crossing through it, he could see five space pods gathered in a circle. Not far from them, on the other side of the river, he spotted the Saiyans sitting around a couple of giant fish roasting over a fire.
His mom was the first to spot him since she had learned to sense ki and, as he descended, the others looked at him with much different expressions.
While his father and Mara looked at him with neutral expressions, it was hard to miss the anger in Nappa and Raditz.
"What are you doing here?" Gine asked with a smile, pleasantly surprise with her son visiting.
"My friends are getting together in Bulma's house, I wanted them to meet you. They'll have food and everything!"
His mom laughed gently, "Fine I'll go with you. I wanted to meet the friends you've told me so much about."
Goku nodded with a grin before noticing Mara looking at him.
"You can come too if you want."
The Saiyan princess crossed her arms and smirked, "Very well. Though it is only because human interactions interest me."
He still had no idea what she said sometimes but it looked like she was okay with it. Deciding to put away any doubt, he grinned and took to the skies, "Let's go."
The sudden burst of power did not go unnoticed by Bardock's scouter, who watched his youngest son leave with a smirk on his face.
'He's much stronger than before. Though he's suppressing his power, it is higher than the average Saiyan.'
He crossed his arms and sat on the ground.
With the date of their fight getting closer, he couldn't wait to see how much stronger his youngest could get.
"Wow, your house is huge," said Krillin upon entering the enormous yellow building.
"Some of the others already got here," Bulma informed as the two walked through a large hall before finally going through a large glass door and into a massive garden that looked more like a small forest.
Next to a large pond, standing next to a large table with several chairs, were Yamcha, Puar, and Oolong.
"Look, it's Krillin!" Puar exclaimed happily.
"Long time no see," Oolong greeted with a smile.
"How's it been?" Yamcha grinned.
Krillin waved at his friends before joining them, "Not bad. I've been training all this time and making good progress."
"Humph. You make it sound like I did nothing but laze around." Yamcha said with a confident smile that broke slightly when he remembered something, "Lazing around is something that I can't do, not with those guys around."
"Them huh?" Krillin nodded in morbid understanding. "There's only a few months left until Goku had to fight that guy..."
Yamcha put on a determined smile and gave a thumbs up, "Hey man, don't worry about that. Tien and I have decided to train as hard as we can so that when the times comes, we'll help Goku. Can't let the fate of the world be on his hands all the time, can we?"
"He's right," the newly arrived Tien said as he and Chiatzu approached the group. "Things won't be like last time with King Piccolo."
Krillin let out a sigh and shook his head, "If you guys are so into it then I guess that I have to give training my all too."
"You probably were slacking off this whole time," Chiatzu teased in a joking manner.
"Shut it," Krillin snapped, making the others laugh.
Bulma grinned to herself as he walked to the main entrance of her home to inform whoever was there to tell her when someone else arrived. However it seemed like it would be unnecessary since she saw the familiar spiky haired boy walk through the glass doors that opened when he got closed enough. Just like last time, the action made him stop on his tracks and look at the doors in wonder.
The action caused Bulma to smile, even though he appeared a tiny bit taller, he was still the curious boy she had met in the mountains.
Before she could greet him, she noticed that he wasn't alone. Following after him was a girl a little taller than him, as well as a young woman that couldn't be much older than she was. What stood out about the two was the strange armor they were wearing.
"Oh! Bulma!" Goku noticed her and ran to her with a smile, "There you are!"
Bulma smiled in response and ruffled the boy's hair, "Hey, good to see you again. The others are waiting inside. By the way, who did you bring with you?"
"Oh yeah," the boy put a hand behind his head and laughed. He had forgotten about introducing them to Bulma. "This is my mom and Mara."
"I see. Nice to meet y-What!?" Bulma exclaimed once she heard the boy introduce the two. Never mind the fact that he said it so nonchalantly, as if he was expecting her to know them already, but Goku had a mother? She never knew that.
"It's good to meet you," Gine said with a friendly smile that Bulma had seen many times mirrored on Goku's face. "My son has told me a lot about you. My name is Gine. Thank you for looking after him."
Surprised by the sudden gratitude, Bulma blushed, "S-Sure no problem." Turning her attention to Goku's other guest she looked at her oddly, "Is this your sister?"
"Of course not," Mara answered, as if offended.
"She's a friend," Goku said, earning a glare from the Saiyan Princess.
Bulma had no idea how any of this happened but decided to put it in the back of her mind for now. Seeing Goku smile as he pulled on Gine's arm to point that things that peaked his interest, she couldn't help but smile herself. It was good that he finally met his mother.
The young genius led the three to the gardens, gaining the attention of the others that tensed up when seeing who they were with.
"G-Goku?" Krillin let out in a trembling voice.
It wasn't lost on him or any of the others that he had come with two of the people that were looking to destroy Earth.
"Hey guys!" Goku greeted with a bright smile, "This is my mom and Mara."
Bulma brought a hand to her forehead. Goku had not gotten any better at reading the mood. Couldn't he see that the others were tense for some reason?
"Your mom!?" Yamcha, Puar, and Oolong let out in surprise.
After the initial shock wore off and the group sat around a very large table with all sorts of food, the party had begun. Yamcha, Tien, and Krillin were still a bit apprehensive but since Goku seemed perfectly normal, they decided that the two Saiyans were friendly.
"So how has your training been Goku?" Krillin asked, wanting to clear the silence.
The boy continued to eat and gave his friend a muffled reply that made his friends laugh.
"Leave it to Goku to lighten the mood," Oolong said with a laugh.
Goku finally swallowed his food and grinned at his friend, "I said that it's going great! I'm learning a lot from Kami!"
"Kami?" Tien wondered to himself quietly.
"We should have a sparring tournament, this place is big enough?" Yamcha proposed. "I'm dying to show you guys what I've learned. What do you guys say?"
"Sounds good," Krillin agreed.
Bulma sighed as the others seemed okay with the idea, "Fine, just don't destroy anything."
"No energy attacks then," Tien decided as he got off his chair.
Yamcha got up as well and began to stretch, "So how are we going to decide who fights who?"
"Let's see," Krillin muttered to himself as he began to count those that were going to spar. With Tien, Yamcha, Chiatzu, and – even though he didn't stop eating – Goku, there were five of them. "There's only five of us."
Swallowing and without looking up from his food, Goku spoke, "Mara will fight too, so there's six."
His four friends looked at him oddly before turning to the Saiyan girl sitting at the far end of the table with a scowl on her face.
"Why do I have to take part in this?"
Goku stopped eating briefly and gave her a grin, "It'll be fun. These guys are strong."
"I really doubt it."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tien asked with an irked raised voice.
The Saiyan instantly tensed up and looked down, "Eh? Um... I didn't..."
"Let's decide who goes first!" Goku cut in as he put down his final place and stood up.
Gine watched the scene from her chair, feeling proud of her son for keeping peace. Saiyans were known to make comments like the one Mara made, but it looked like she was still doing bad with adults. Even so, the thing that confused her was the Goku's friend wasn't a Saiyan so why did she have that reaction? Could it be because she couldn't kill this Tien person?
"Okay, let's decide with this!" Yamcha had six toothpicks on his hands, painted in either red, blue, or yellow at the bottom. "We'll draw a stick and whoever matches a color has to spar."
Everyone reached for a toothpick and pulled it out at the same time.
Yamcha would spar with Tien.
Krillin with Chiatzu.
And Goku with Mara, who seemed content with the match.
For the Saiyan Princess, he was the only of the bunch that could give her a fight. Even with the restriction of not using energy attacks, it would be a good way for her to train and see how much she had improved lately.
In the end it was decided that the two smallest ones would be fighting first, followed by her and Goku. As an added rule, a large square was made on the ground. Whoever stepped over it would lose the match automatically.
Once the first fight started, she had to admit that the two of them used pretty good forms. The bald human had a very familiar stance that Goku used on occasion, while the pale white one – who was very rare for a human, if he even was one – took on a more offensive stance.
The fight began with Krillin charging forward and aiming a punch at Chiatzu, who blocked by slapping the hand away and retaliated by twisting his body and kicking the opponent on the shoulder. Krillin gritted his teeth, not expecting the power behind the kick, before he planted both feet on the ground before kicking off of it and throwing a kick of his own. It looked like the small white fighter wasn't expecting that as he took the attack on the stomach and was thrown back several feet.
Not wanting to give him a chance to recover, Krillin charged in once again but Chiatzu stopped himself in mid-air before rushing towards his opponent.
What followed was a barrage of kicks and punches that the two either took or blocked, before finally Krillin ducked under a punch aimed at his face, grabbed Chiatzu by his midsection, jumped in the air, and finally threw him out of the ring. He tried to stop himself in the air but ended up falling outside of the ring.
"I won!" Krillin cheered.
"Ah man..." Chiatzu muttered to himself while dusting off his clothes.
"Don't worry about it, I see you've improved a lot," Tien praised with a smile, lifting his friend's mood.
"Now is my turn!" Goku exclaimed excitedly as he and Mara moved into the ring.
"This won't be like any of our spars before," Mara said with her eyes narrowed, "I won't hold back this time."
Goku grinned, accepting the challenge, "Fine. Then that means we have to drop the weight on our clothes."
The Saiyan Princess smirked as the two of them concentrated and the weight pushing down on them disappeared.
Without a word of warning, the two of them flickered out of view before clashing in the middle of the ring, causing a shock wave to push all of those unprepared back and send the table flying. Everyone except for Gine gaped as the two blurs continued to clash until they were both visible on the ring and began to exchange a flurry of punches and kicks that appeared to be blurs.
"No way... How did Goku get this strong?" Tien wondered out loud.
"This is insane." Yamcha said with wide eyes.
The two Saiyans clashed once again, with Goku blocking a kick to his side, but Mara quickly spun in place and delivered a punch to his face that caused him to involuntarily take a couple of steps back. She wasted no time and followed up with a kick to his midsection that sent him flying towards the line that marked the end of the ring.
Goku quickly flipped in the air and stopped himself from falling out, before shooting towards Mara at top speed, taking her by surprise, and landing a punch on her stomach. She doubled over in pain before the boy's tail wrapped around her legs and hurled her across the garden.
"They're both crazy," Oolong said with a look of fear on his face when seeing the girl shoot towards Goku.
Gine watched the spar with a smile on her face.
A sort of rivalry had formed between them and that was making them make outstanding progress. Only a few months ago, neither of them would be able to fight at such a level. It was hard to think that Bardock was stronger than the two of them, mostly because she had never seen him fight all out. One thing was for certain though, Goku was currently stronger than Bardock was when fighting another Saiyan back on Planet Vegeta.
Even so, it still wasn't clear if he could become strong enough to beat Bardock. At times like this she wondered what it was that he was thinking, they may have spent years together and told each other almost everything, but when he got like this there was no way for her to understand what he was thinking.
"Okay, we're done here!"
Bulma's voice snapped everyone out of their thoughts, even Goku and Mara stopped mid-air to turn towards the owner of the voice.
"I told you not to destroy anything and now look!"
Pointing at the destruction the two Saiyans had caused; windows shattered by the shocks of their attacks, the water from the pond covering one of the walls, and her dress had gotten ruined from it.
"Oh no!" Goku yelled in horror, "The food!"
That was all it took for Bulma to snap and give an earful to all those present. Even Mara wasn't spared as she was made to sit while she lectured everyone.
"Bye Bulma!"
"Visit any time! Just don't break anything!" Bulma called out as the boy and his two guests flew out of her sight.
Now alone with her son and Mara, Gine smiled, "You have some good friends."
"Yeah. Even though Bulma can be pretty loud," he responded with a laugh.
Mara grimaced, "Don't remind me."
To think that some Earthling had yelled at her. Because of her orders not to hurt anyone, she could do nothing but take the scolding quietly.
"Are you going back with Kami?" Gine asked, seeing as the sun was beginning to set.
"Well, I don't have to be there until the day after tomorrow," he answered, "Hmm... Maybe I could go get some food..."
"No," Mara interrupted, "We are going to finish our match that was interrupted by the loud Earthling."
Goku grinned at that, "You're on!"
Several blinking lights illuminated a dark room where an old man typed furiously behind a large computer screen.
"Good. Good."
A couple of large tubes filled with water splashed as the man laughed to himself.
"My first prototype androids are ready."
Goku panted, sprawled out on the ground next to Mara who was doing the same.
His mom had left a couple of hours ago and it was now pretty dark. It looked like their spar had lasted much longer than before. Not to mention that it had been a lot more destructive as the grassy meadow they had found was now full of craters.
"Ah... I can't move my legs..." Goku smiled weakly.
"Neither can I," Mara answered, "At least this means we'll get stronger."
The boy nodded weakly in agreement, not that she could see it, as his eyes began to close on their own. Soon enough he began to snore lightly.
Mara looked to her side and, to no surprise, noticed that Goku was fast asleep.
"Might as well," she muttered to herself before closing her eyes to do the same.
Just like that the two Saiyans were sleeping together beneath the starlit sky.
Power Levels:
Goku - 3,000
Weight Off - 23,000
Mara - 3,000
Weight Off - 23,000
Krillin - 5,000
Tien - 4,000
Yamcha - 4,500
Chiatzu - 6,000
Gine - 1,000
