Here's the new chapter. This marks the start of the first long arc, since all the others were resolved pretty fast.
Dragon Ball Kai
Chapter 14
Reunion and Farewell
Goku flew through the blue skies and could already see West City in the distance.
It was odd for him to have a day off now since his father was pretty intense on their training sessions. Coupled with the Gravity Room, he had to say that this was the hardest he had ever trained. Still, he felt himself improving and sparring with the others was super fun.
In any case, the reason for his visit to West City was because Bulma had asked him to help her with something the last time he went to her house with his mom. The two of them had become friends at some point, a fact that made him glad.
The boy grinned as he flew over Bulma's house, and noticed that she was standing behind the large yellow building.
"You're just in time," Bulma said as the boy touched down on the ground.
"In time for what?"
"We're going on a little trip."
He cocked his head to the side as she took out a capsule and threw it in the air. With an explosion of smoke, a large red ship emerged.
"Working on your mom's spaceship was restricting since I really wanted to take the whole thing apart but couldn't since there was a chance that I could cause irreversible damage. So I figured that we could find yours."
"Mine?"
"Yup, you came from another planet too right? That means that your ship should still be out there somewhere. That's why I built a radar to help me find it, but I'm going to need you to give me a general direction. Do you have any idea of where it could be? Did your grandfather ever say anything about it?"
Goku crossed his arms as his brow furrowed in thought, "He never said anything about a spaceship, but he did tell me that he found me somewhere in Mount Paozu."
"Alright, this is going to be easy then," she declared with an excited smile, "It's far away enough that the other ships won't interfere with the search. So let's not waste any more time and get going."
Goku smiled at the idea of going back to his old home and followed Bulma into the large red shp.
"This is the only ship with a crane..." Bulma frowned upon entering the ship, "I really should have worked on making it faster."
"It's okay," he waved her off and went to sit against a wall on the spacious space behind the two seats up front. "I'll be back here training."
"No way! You're going to destroy the ship!"
Goku chuckled as he sat in a lotus position and leaned forward with a grin, "Don't worry, I don't have to move around with this training."
Bulma didn't take his word for it until she saw him take a deep breath and close his eyes. To her surprise he looked incredibly peaceful, in a way that she had never seen him before.
Well, if this was the training then she didn't have a problem with it.
Moving to sit on the pilot's seat, she glanced at the quiet boy and for the first time noticed just how much he had changed. He had only been eight when she first met him in the woods and hadn't grown a lot by the time of the second World Martial Arts Tournament, however now it seemed like he was beginning to hit a growth spurt as he was considerably taller than she remembered him. Nothing crazy that made him stand out around boys his own age, but enough for her to notice.
'Krillin's probably upset about it,' she thought with a giggle.
Soon she started the ship and the two were off.
Unlike any other day, Mara found herself waking up quite late. Since it was a day off from training she decided to fully rest her tired body after the previous day of harsh training that – though harsh – was doing wonders. Her power level had increased noticeably and spending so much time training under a stern adult Saiyan was making her a bit better at talking to him.
She hated to admit it but she was glad that Goku was there. His light mood even affected Bardock at times when his narrowed eyes found hers after she messed up on a training exercise. Not that he had it out for her or anything, he put Goku and Raditz under the same stern gaze whenever they broke a rule of their training, like not using their dominant on a spar or using ki blasts.
"Afternoon," Gine greeted her with an amused smile after she made her way out of her room.
The strange home that appeared after throwing something on the air was pretty big, enough to fit her, and all of Goku's family. They could even fit another person in there but things between them and Nappa were quite strained. It made her quite uncomfortable to be at odds with someone so loyal to her family even though said someone could be pretty harsh on her at times and never hid his disappointed when assigned to go on a mission with her.
"Hey," Mara greeted. "Where is everyone?"
"Bardock and Raditz went to run some errands and Goku went to see Bulma."
"Is something wrong?"
"Not at all, she just wanted help with something."
She nodded and noticed that Gine was cooking something.
It was a job, cooking, given to Saiyans that were not strong enough to go on missions or lacked the personality to handle purging a planet. She never bothered with it since all of her meals were served to her, but she wasn't fine just sitting there while Gine made her something to eat. It didn't feel fair and she was starting to feel self-conscious.
"Do you need any help?"
Gine was surprised at the sudden offer but smiled nonetheless, "Sure."
Three Saiyan space pods crashed on the outskirts of a large city, leaving large crates on the pavement of a highway.
Several cars were crushed by the impact while most of the others crashed. Some lucky ones managed to break and stop in the road with a part of them getting out of their cars to see what happened.
Sirens were already coming closer as a few people peeked into the three craters and saw small alien ships.
There was a muted silence from the people as the space pods opened and three human figures wearing strange armor emerged. Two adults and one young man that appeared to be in his late teens.
"The gravity here is weak but it seems like a pleasant planet," one of the Saiyans, Cumber, pointed out. The purple scouter on his scarred face scanned the area around them and, to no surprise, he found that pathetic life forms had gathered around them.
Turles crossed his arms after emerging from his ship, "This planet ain't purged. Either the others were killed or..."
"They defected," Vegeta finished with a smirk. "I've been meaning to wipe the floor with your cousin Turles. Seems this is the perfect chance."
Turles chuckled and turned to the oldest Saiyan, "Looks like this is going to be fun. Let's hope it was worth the trip, Cumber."
Vegeta ignored everyone around him and pressed his scouter a couple of times. Last he heard, Bardock had hit twenty-thousand so he would start there and make his scouter show him power levels with at least that power level. It beeped as it scanned before it stopped and showed him the results.
Strange.
Other than he, Turles and Cumber, the scouter showed him three other power levels over twenty-thousand. Nothing he couldn't handle but surprising nonetheless since only trash had been sent to this back-water planet.
"Bardock is most likely the strongest out of these insects, but first we'll retrieve Mara. That useless brat can be hard to find."
He gave the instruction and lowered the power level scale to that of what she had last time but immediately hit a wall since there were several power levels that could easily be that of Mara. Damn, it appeared that this would be a lot harder than he first thought.
A flash of light made his eye twitch in annoyance. The worms around them had begun to send weak flashes of light at them with some strange tiny machines.
"Finding her will be too much trouble. Let's light some fireworks instead, it'll get their attention."
Turles smirked as the three ascended to the sky.
Vegeta nodded at Cumber, who then smirked and pointed a hand at the city.
Kami stumbled and supported himself on his cane when he witnessed what just happened. Horror was clear in his eyes and Mr. Popo had the tact not to ask what happened.
"This is bad..." he muttered before he closed his eyes and concentrated on contacting his former disciple.
'Goku!'
The boy's brow furrowed in surprise as he focused on the voice. This really wasn't anything new, they had communicated this way before, but Kami hadn't done it ever since he left the temple.
'Kami? What's wrong?'
'More Saiyans arrived. They just destroyed a whole city!'
"Wha-"
His voice subconsciously slipped out, gaining Bulma's attention, but he quickly focused on the voice again.
'I don't know their intentions but they are not like your family. These Saiyans are dangerous.'
'Okay. I'm on it.'
'Don't be hasty Goku. If you go there by yourself, you'll be killed. First find someone to go with you.'
Goku nodded and opened his eyes.
"Goku? What's wrong?"
"Sorry Bulma," he stood up and opened the back of the ship, "There's something bad going on and I need to go. Keep going to Mount Paozu, you should be safe there."
With that last warning, he jumped off the ship and shot through the air at a fast speed.
"Oh?" Vegeta let out from his sit on a large boulder left behind by the explosion. His scouter picked up something, it seemed that their fireworks had been noticed already. He checked the power level and almost let out a gasp of surprise.
"Thirty nine thousand?!" Cumber stood up straight, horror on his face.
Turles frowned and checked his scouter only to get the same reading, "Who the hell is that?"
Vegeta crossed his arms and stood up, "Whoever it is, he's not coming here. Probably off to get some help."
"Then what do we do? If there are others with such powerful power levels, we might be in trouble," Cumber said.
"Don't be foolish," Vegeta smirked, "I'm a Saiyan Elite. None of the trash here can even scratch me. We'll wait here, for their pitiful defense force to arrive."
Turles and Cumber exchanged glances but followed the words of their Prince regardless.
Goku's worried frown relaxed slightly when he felt a familiar ki moving towards him. He sped up towards where the ki was coming from until he finally saw Mara's figure in the distance.
"I felt your ki spike randomly, did something happen?" She asked once she caught up to him.
He nodded as the two began to travel through the sky.
"Kami told me that some Saiyans showed up and destroyed a city. I have to go stop them."
Mara felt a bit nervous after hearing that, but pressed on regardless. She knew this day would come, when they would have to directly go against the others, but perhaps it was a bit too naïve of her to think that it was still far away.
"I'll help you," she said. This was now her home and it was the least she could do to show some appreciation for what Goku had taught her without his knowing.
Goku smiled, "Then let's go faster!"
She returned the smile as the two became encased in white aura and shot off much faster than before.
Thirty minutes after they noticed the two power levels moving towards them, Vegeta and the others could finally make out two noticeable dots in the sky.
Vegeta smirked as he stood up, eyes trained on the figures with eagerness in his eyes. He never expected competent power levels, one of them must be Bardock. The other he didn't know.
He quickly went over the list of those that had traveled here.
Nappa? Of course not, he was a weakling, forever a simple servant.
Raditz? He laughed at the idea.
Bardock's wife? She wasn't even a warrior.
That only left Bardock's other son.
His eyes narrowed in thought but he didn't have to wait much for the answer as the figures finally became visible and stopped above the three Saiyans.
"B-Brother..." Mara muttered with horror in her eyes.
Vegeta checked his scouter again just to be sure and smirked at the result, "Mara, it seems you grew less useless in your time away. Tell me, why have you not returned? Father believes that you turned traitor along with the trash that came with you."
Mara's mouth opened and closed as she began to back away slowly, fear evident in her features. All of her insecurities came crashing back, memories of being belittled by her brother and harshly beaten during their rare spars...
"What's wrong, can't speak?" Vegeta chuckled, "You were always pathetic."
"Enough!" Goku moved in front of Mara and glared at the Saiyan Prince, "I don't know who you are, but I won't let you talk like that to my friends!"
Vegeta smirked, "Wipe that look off your face insect. I can do whatever I want. If you have a problem then I'll make you kneel on the ground and cry for mercy."
Goku growled but was snapped out of it when he felt Mara grab his arm, when he turned his head to see her he realized that the friend he knew was gone. The strong, and sometimes cocky, Mara was replaced with a quivering girl who couldn't even raise her head.
To see her reduced to this state... Goku's eyes narrowed on Vegeta, he must have something to do with it.
"Please...don't fight him."
"It'll do you well not to," Vegeta said, "It would save you a lot of hurt." He paused and then chuckled, "No. Maybe you should fight back. I came with the intention of taking Mara back by force and killing anyone with her."
Goku closed his eyes and spoke in a voice that only Mara could hear, "I don't know why you're so afraid of him, but I promise that I won't let him take you."
"He must be Bardock's son," Cumber pointed out.
"It's strange of him to send his brat to fight his battles for him," Turles said before he broke into a smirk, "Must be losing his touch."
"Prince Vegeta," Cumber said, stepping forward and bowing slightly, "Would you like me to take care of this brat?"
Vegeta uncrossed his arms when the boy landed on the ground, "That won't be necessary. I'll teach him a lesson myself. It might be good to greet Bardock with the body of his dead son."
"Very well."
The two Saiyans stepped away as Vegeta faced Bardock's son who got into his fighting style.
Vegeta only smirked in response, even relaxing his stance a little bit before he suddenly received a painful punch to his jaw that sent him hurling back. His eyes widened in surprise, having not expected the brat to be so fast, and quickly skidded to a halt just in time to sidestep a kick and lash out with a backhand that sent the kid flying back. He wasn't done however as he thrust his hands forward and fired a couple of ki blasts.
Goku gritted his teeth when he noticed the two attacks coming towards him, and pushed himself off the ground with his hands and flipped in the air while bringing his hands to his right side.
"Kamehameha!"
Vegeta smirked and shot over the attack towards the boy who still had his hands still outstretched. With the brat leaving himself wide open like that, he punched at him but his eyes widened in surprise when his fist went through him. Before he had the time to wonder what happened, a knee collided with the side of his face and sent him hurling away.
"This is impossible!" Cumber let out in a mixture of shock and horror.
Turles furrowed his brow and checked his scouter, "Says he has a power level of thirty nine thousand!"
In the blink of an eye, a blue flash tore through the area before crashing against a surprised Goku that only managed to put up a hand, though it did nothing as a fist met his jaw head on with such force that he was sent hurling away. Vegeta didn't let up and followed after the boy, disappearing from view and reappearing behind the boy just in time to deliver a kick to his back, that sent him flying up in the air.
The Prince of all Saiyans smirked as he followed after the kid, who managed to flip himself in the air and let out a beam of ki that was laughably off mark. As Vegeta got close enough to attack, he was blindsided as the attack from before ended up exploding against his back.
Taking the opportunity, Goku twisted his body so that he could kick his opponent on the side of his face and knock him back so that he could get a bit of breathing room.
Things...they looked really bad.
Goku could feel exhaustion beginning to set in, those couple of strikes from Vegeta had done some real damage.
Still...
He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists and he willed his power to come out. Even if those hits had taken a lot out of him, he still hadn't gone all out.
"Hm?" Turles raised an eyebrow when his scouter came to life, beeping rapidly as it calculated a change in power level. "F-forty... forty one... forty two... FORTY TWO THOUSAND!"
A violent blue aura swirled around Goku as he dropped into his fighting stance and watched as Vegeta shook off the damage done to him.
"You actually have some fight in you," Vegeta chuckled, "If we met under different circumstances, you might have made for a decent punching bag. But now..."
White aura exploded around Vegeta with such force that even Goku was knocked back from the sudden shock wave.
"Now you're nothing more than a bug I will squash!"
Goku stood there in shock, even though he had just unleashed all of his power, he could feel a very noticeable difference between him and Vegeta.
During the time in his two weeks training the brats, Bardock had decided to do like his youngest son and learn to sense power levels instead of relying on a scouter. It was a bit hard, and Kakarot not being much help when it came to explaining certainly didn't help, but after a week he had gotten decent.
That's why a few moments ago, while he set a large fish down while Raditz had gone inside the house to call his mother, Bardock had quickly turned his head after sensing his youngest son's ki.
It was elevated, much more so than he did in training, and there was someone else there, someone more powerful than him.
Bardock decided not to wait for answers and quickly took to the skies and headed in the direction of what was most likely a battle.
Moving through the sky while engaged in a flurry of punches and kicks, Goku and Vegeta continued their fight. The prince smirked as he landed a blow to Goku's jaw, but the latter quickly retaliated with a kick to his side.
Vegeta gasped slightly, not having expected the attack to actually hurt him, and backhanded the insolent brat away with enough force to send him crashing on the ground and kick up a massive dust cloud.
Not done, Vegeta growled and let loose a barrage of ki blasts on the brat.
Turles and Cumber gritted their teeth and moved back as the attacks were lighting up everything around them.
Finally, the attacks came to a stop, leaving a giant cloud of debris.
As it began to clear, Goku slowly got back up on his feet with his clothes torn up in several places, and various bleeding wounds on his body.
"Is that the extent of what you can do?" Vegeta smirked. Though he had a few scratches, he appeared to be completely fine.
Goku felt his hands trembling and knew that his power was going down fast. He hadn't been able to dodge the ki blasts and had been force to focus all of his power on defense.
Now he was breathing harshly, his body was trembling over the damage he had taken, and his right eye was swollen shut, from the backhand he had received.
Even so, he had to do something!
Blue aura exploded around him, kicking up clouds of dust before he pushed off the ground, causing it to give out under him, and moved straight towards Vegeta.
The price crossed his arms and clicked his tongue.
Goku threw a kick but Vegeta caught it with no problem. He narrowed his eyes on the brat, holding his leg in place while the low-class trash glared at him. It was about time he killed him.
However, something unexpected happened.
"Solar Flare!"
Vegeta let out a scream and dropped his hold on the leg as a blinding flash of light hit his eyes dead on.
Goku took the opportunity, gathered all his remaining power into his right fist, and delivered a devastating punch to Vegeta's stomach.
The Saiyan Prince let out a chocked scream as blood shot out of his mouth and a large chunk of his armor broke off.
Goku gritted his teeth as he twisted in the air and followed up his attack with a kick to Vegeta's neck, which sent him crashing down on the ground.
"Impossible," Turles muttered to himself, his eyes wide as he watched Vegeta fall on the ground, heavily damaged.
"You damned brat..." Vegeta growled as he began to regain his vision and stood up, only to stagger backwards and fall again.
"Leave this planet now," Goku, though severely weakened, warned. "There's people coming to help already."
Cumber checked his scouter and gasped, "There's a powerful power level coming this way. It's... forty six thousand!"
"No, there's more coming," Turles said, "I can feel several coming this way, most of the bordering and surpassing thirty thousand."
Vegeta gritted his teeth and stood up while wiping the blood off his lips, "We're leaving."
There was little he could do to calm the rage he felt at being forced to leave the planet so soon, but his father had been quite clear in saying that the main objective of this mission was to take Mara back to Planet Vegeta. He hated to admit it but the fight against the brat had actually weakened him and, while he could transform into a Great Ape, so could Bardock.
Failing a mission was the last thing he would do. Besides, he could always track the low-class scum again. So long as they had their ships, it would be easy to find them.
He walked up to Mara who cowered under his stern gaze, and did nothing as he grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to his side. "Cough up the remote of your ship."
"Let her go!" Goku screamed as he flew towards them but was blindsided as Turles' fist collided with his jaw and knocked him against the ground.
Vegeta watched the scene in satisfaction and nodded at Cumber, who bowed slightly before moving towards the brat and stomping on his chest.
The boy coughed up blood and groaned painfully as the man stomped on his chest again.
"Give me the remote to your space pod or this brat will die," Vegeta warned her as he gripped her hair tighter.
Mara trembled with tears in her eyes and did as she was told. She took out the remote and gave it to her brother. She had to. She was always told to listen to him and, even now, she was too afraid of going against that.
"Cumber, stay here and wait for the ship to arrive," Vegeta instructed after having pressed a couple of buttons on the remote. "Mara will take your ship."
Goku struggled against the foot digging into his chest, watching helplessly as Mara was dragged away by the hair.
"M-Mara..."
"Shut it brat," Cumber warned.
He gripped the foot weakly as his desperate eyes watched as Vegeta threw Mara into an open Saiyan Pod.
"Mara!"
"Don't...Goku," she said with trembling lips as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Please, just forget about me. Please stay quiet, you'll get to live that way."
Goku ignored her words and fought against the foot on his chest, "I.."
"Stop! Please," Mara sobbed, "We can't do anything. Just stop fighting...Stop fighting and you'll live."
Stop fighting? No. He couldn't. He wouldn't.
Goku's eyes flashed with determination as he slowly began to grip the boot tighter until he finally lifted it off his chest. The older Saiyan looked at him in surprise, which was just what he needed.
Managing with his remaining strength, he drew enough power for an attack, "Solar Flare!"
Cumber stumbled backwards with a cry of pain, as Goku slowly stood up.
Good. Now he could-
"Eh?"
A ki blast went through his right shoulder, leaving a bloody gaping hole as he hit the ground with a cry of pain.
He felt...empty.
Completely overwhelmed.
Because, the outstretched hand which shot the attack, was Mara's.
Vegeta smirked at the scene as he entered his Saiyan pod.
"M-Mara..." Goku gasped incredulously.
"Don't come for me," she said with a hardened expression that crumbled quickly, "P-Please...don't..."
Goku gritted his teeth, helplessly watching as the pods closed and finally took off.
"Mara..." he let out before his world went blank.
Power Levels:
Goku – 5,000
Powered Up – 39,000
Full Power – 42,000
Weakened – 29,000
Bardock – 25,000
Full Power – 46,000
Mara – 7,000
Powered Up – 39,000
Vegeta – 40,000
Full Power – 47,000
Weakened – 43,000
Turles – 38,000
Full Power – 41,000
Cumber – 37,000
Full Power – 40,000
