The saiyans flew at top speed to the target. It couldn't be missed however, the thing was as big as a skyscraper. It didn't take them to long to reach their destination. The saiyans landed at the foot of the giant tree. Ceeta was nervous and was sweating. Nappa noticed this and said:"What's wrong though guy? Why so sweaty?". Ceeta looked around and felt evil presence. Nappa got annoyed by this silence and yelled at the saiyan. Kakarot started to laugh gently. Nappa looked at Kakarot:" What's so funny low class?". " He he he, you are blind without those scouters of ours.. Ceeta can sense the enemy without those, as can I" Kakarot said with an arrogant tone," If you could , you would feel the kitty-people closing in around us". " WHAT? You can't detect someone without a scouter!" Nappa yelled. Kakarot closed his eyes while crossing his arms. " Mmmm let's see, a couple dozen of them.. One is heading for you Nappa" Kakarot said. " What the-" Nappa tried to say, but as Kakarot predicted a H'Aess zapped out of the bush and attacked Nappa. It tried to claw the saiyan, but he vanished out of sight. It planted its claw into the dirt. Kakarot was mocking the cat, while Ceeta was watching anxiously. The H'Aess looked around nervously, desperate to track down the saiyan he intended to kill by a sneak attack. It got up and stretched his hand, about to fire a energy blast into the area to lure the warrior out. Before it could realized it however, Nappa reappeared and grabbed it's arm and turned it around to the cat's own face. It was too late for the cat-warrior, it killed itself by blasting his own face off.. " Hahah that was not even a challenge!" Nappa exclaimed victoriously. " Good, but do you now realize how blind you are?" Kakarot said. Nappa gave Kakarot a mean look. Kakarot didn't stare down and looked Nappa straight into the eyes. " Fine, you'll have to teach me your little trick sometime" Nappa said annoyed. " When the two of you are done, turn your attention to our visitors here" Ceeta said sarcastically.
Out of the woodwork , the dozens of cats predicted by Kakarot appeared. There were five with really high power levels. Ceeta recognized these Z'Haess fast: It were the Shamans. The shamans were responsible for the mad outbreak of violence on the planet, forcing the cat- people to drink the Hollow tree's fluid. " Well well, Ro'Shar.. M'ait I'rk azun. It is you again you little monkey man" the head shaman spoke, " Remember what happened last time you tried to enter the tree?". Ceeta clutched his fists and growled at the Shaman. " I see you do remember the humiliation you went through. I'm surprised my warriors let you escape: you could barely even walk" the cat-wizard said. " That was 2 years ago, I'm stronger now AND I'm carrying the Claw-dagger!" Ceeta said confidently. The Shaman smiled:" Ahh yes the Dagger.. the dagger able to suck the effects of the Hollow tree out of the victim. I'm well aware of its power and the years to tried to acquire this pitiful relic" the cat said, not losing its confidence and arrogant tone. " Then you know I'm here to kill you and steal the power for myself!" Ceeta yelled. " What would Reishka think of you now?!" The shaman taunted. Kakarot looked at Ceeta and said:" Who the hell is Reishka?". Ceeta didn't answer, he only started at the shaman. He was obviously troubled by what the cat had said. The Shaman saw Ceeta was suffering inside and couldn't resist laughing. " I've had enough of all these cats, I say let's get them" Nappa said angrily while a vein popped up on his forehead. The shaman turned its attention to the two other saiyans. " You have the same type of scent as Ceeta, you must be of the same filthy race" he said. " Well, at least I don't have to use the litter box" Kakarot taunted back. The H'Aess warriors almost lost control and would have attacked the saiyans, but the Shamans held his hand up, signaling to practice restraint. " Tell me, what are you?" he said. " We are saiyans, the mightiest race in the universe. We landed here not out of free will, but now we are here we will smash this puny planet" Nappa said with pride. The cat smiled. " If you want to tree's power you'll have to defeat us all, and that's not going to happen" The shaman said. The saiyans' only answer was that they got into fighting position. " … So be it" The head shaman said," ATTACK!". The words just left his lips for a second and the cat people attacked. It was kind of unfair, the odds were around 1 to 30. They seemed to be controlled by one single entity, as they all did the same move. The dozens of H'Aess all charged a ki blast and fired it simultaneously. The impact of all those blasts lit up the entire sky and caused an extreme explosion. Being a sandy jungle, all the sands whipped up and created a huge dust cloud. No one could see 2 meters in front of them. The three saiyans survived the blast by combining their energy in one shield. Nappa couldn't see a thing as well with the sandstorm. " Grr darn it, I can't see a damn. Hey Kakarot where are you?" Nappa said as he looked around. But Kakarot nor Ceeta could be seen. The H'Aess got nervous too. " Rshak ar-mait.. did we get them?" One of them said. From out of nowhere, Ceeta jumped on one of the warriors. The H'Aess couldn't sense energy as well, so they couldn't sense one of theirs was in trouble. Ceeta did a surprise attack on the cat. He zapped in front of it. The cat warrior desperately tried to punch the saiyan outcast, but It got blocked easily. As the saiyan held onto the cat's arm, he got out his special dagger and stabbed the cat warrior. As seen before, they Hollow tree's control disappeared and his muscles and ki shrank to pitiful levels. Ceeta threw the dying H'Aess into the air, finishing him with a mouth blast. Then Ceeta zapped away to his next target. Meanwhile Kakarot was having his fun as well. He had grabbed a cat from behind and held him in a stranglehold. The saiyan knew there was another H'Aess close by, so he decided to lure him into killing his own man. " Hey over here! I've got the monkey man!" Kakarot yelled into the sandstorm. The nearby H'Aess heard it and couldn't really detect it wasn't a cat warrior. So then he fired a strong energy blast into the direction. Kakarot could detect the energy ball flying towards him. At the last second he released the cat he was holding and pushed him into the energy attack, while dodging it himself. The H'Aess was vaporized. " Mmm this strategy felt strangely familiar" Kakarot remarked.
Meanwhile, the head shaman was getting pissed. He used his powers to let the sandstorm subside. As quick as it appeared, the sandstorm disappeared. The saiyans had lost their advantage. " Finally, I can see something!" Nappa yelled. It was looking bad for the three warriors. The H'Aess attacked. The fighting was fierce. After a good 15 minutes, the saiyans were quite beaten down. Only Nappa really held his own, although he was losing his ground as well. Ceeta was knocked out cold and was lying on the ground, bloodied and with broken bones. Though Kakarot was not quite as powerful as Ceeta, he had been used to a great deal of physical punishment on Earth. He was still trying to fight them off. Kakarot sat on one of his knees, bloodied face and catching his breath. Five of them were rushing towards him. He stretched his arms beside him and gathered energy for his signature attack. " Eat this little pussycats! RIOT BREAKER!" he yelled as he fired the volatile purple energy ball. Two of them couldn't get out of the way in time and took it head on. The other three dodged in time and continued their way to Kakarot. The saiyan was in no position to counter the attacks of three warriors with almost the same powerlevel he had. The H'Aess beat him up ferociously. While one of them was holding the saiyan's hair, the other two were pummeling him with punches and kicks. He couldn't hold up much longer. Ceeta woke up and saw Kakarot's dire position. He looked over to Nappa, who was still fighting for his life with some elite clan members. Ceeta realized Nappa could not help Kakarot. He himself was to broken to even move his arm. He had no Zingi-berries left, so he couldn't temporary heal himself. Things were looking bleak. The shamans, who were watching over the struggle, were all laughing. Meanwhile Kakarot had lost consciousness. Nappa was brought to his knees. " Darn it, it can't be that I get beaten by these fools.. I'm a saiyan elite!" Nappa shouted in pure rage. " Enough playing around, you can all kill them now!" The head shaman ordered. The remaining warriors were about to go in for the kill. As one of them lifted his claws to kill Kakarot, a lot of noise came from the skies. Everyone looked up. It were two shining objects that appeared in the sky. They had the form of a ball and raced at incredible speed towards the ground. Even worse, when they eventually where in the atmosphere, they crashed into the Hollow Tree! The shamans panicked and screamed, fearing the Hollow tree might be badly damaged. Nappa, the only saiyan still consciouss to know what was happening, said:" About time..". " Wait what do you mean?" one of the H'Aess said. Nappa looked at him and grinned. The two pods were embedded into the tree and opened the door. The two passengers left their space ships. Vegeta and Raditz had arrived!
Raditz and Vegeta surveyed the battlefield. Raditz was shocked when he saw his brother out cold and hanging in the claws of an enemy, being beaten severely. " Little brother! Are you okay?!" Raditz yelled down to his brother, but no answer followed. Vegeta said nothing. The saiyan prince grunted loudly and crossed his arms. Then he hovered down to the ground. He landed right in front of the shamans. Vegeta gave them an intimidating look. Every shaman trembled in fear except the elder. " More of them.." he said, " Came to die with your friends?". Vegeta smiled subtly. In a quick move he raised his arm while his hand was clutched except his middle and point finger. The Elder shaman exploded in a blinding flash. " Now that the annoying feline was been taken care of, any of you want to explain what is happening here?" Vegeta said stringently. Meanwhile, all the Z'Haess trembled in fear before Vegeta's might. The elder shaman was the strongest of the corrupted H'Aess after all. " Hey prince Vegeta, glad you.. kuch.. made it" Nappa said. " You look like you've seen better days..Nappa" Vegeta said without any trace of emotion. " It's a long story, but I'm sure the mid class boy can explain here" Nappa said. Vegeta looked over to Ceeta. " So there is a fifth saiyan after all.." Vegeta said while looking at the passed out Ceeta. Then Vegeta turned his head to Kakarot and laughed. The saiyan prince overviewed the battlefield and yelled:" Kitties! YOU BETTER START RUNNING!". Vegeta stretched his hand and readied an energy attack. In pure terror they all ran away into all directions. Nappa quickly ran over to Ceeta and Kakarot to pick them up. " This is going to get ugly hehehe " Nappa laughed. Vegeta's evil smile spoke for itself. " SAY GOODNIGHT!" Vegeta yelled and unleashed his attack. It was a pure purple energy wave and made its way into the air. Once it reached a certain height, it stopped. After that it split up into dozens of other potent energy balls who raced after the fleeing H'Aess. Countless explosions followed. After the purple light and explosions subsided, the H'Aess were no more. Nappa had in the meantime flown up to Raditz and put Ceeta and Kakarot on the branch they were standing on. " You look beaten up" Raditz said to Nappa. " Well I didn't exactly had an easy time here" Nappa said while he was trying to calm down. " We neither, we barely got away from Dodoria and his men" Raditz sighed," And hey, who's that guy?". Nappa sat down on the ground. " Well, from what I can tell he's another saiyan survivor who stranded on this mud ball" Nappa said. Raditz was the last of the saiyans to have a functioning scouter. He activated it. " What are you doing?" Nappa asked. " Well If he's a saiyan, he should have a pod right? I'll see if I can download his data" Raditz explained. After a while the following info appeared on the scouter:
Mission flight: 207
Destination: Trazon-09, alias Z'Haessa
Current population level: 1%
Mission time: 24 years, 41 days , 25 minutes
Passenger: Dratok, Son of Zorn and Celta
Status: 1st class warrior by birth
Last login: 24 years, 40 days, 16 minutes
"Wow, an elite" Raditz said. " What? He's elite? Who are his parents?" Nappa said in surprise. " His parents were saiyans named Zorn and Celta" Raditz answered. " ZORN?" Nappa said even more surprised. " Yes, why? Did you knew him?" Raditz said with a raised eyebrow. " Of course! Zorn was King Vegeta's personal bodyguard! He was indeed an elite, with a powerlevel of 7100" Nappa said," His son supposedly disappeared mysteriously a couple of days before the planet was destroyed. " Interesting, how did he end up in the pod and eventually on this planet?" Raditz said. " I'm not sure" the saiyan giant said. " I think Dratok will come in handy" Raditz said with a grin. " Dratok?" Nappa said. " Yes that's his name" Raditz replied. " I see, that must be his true saiyan name. He must have been too young to remember. He named himself Ceeta" Nappa said. The two saiyans sighed. At that moment Vegeta hovered up to where the two saiyans were sitting. They informed Vegeta about Ceeta and Nappa explained everything about the Hollow tree that he could remember. " So my father's bodyguard's kid eh? I guess it will be refreshing to have a second elite in our team" Vegeta said," and this Hollow tree is intriguing. When the half-wit low class and Dratok awake, we'll look for this core of the tree to gain it's power". Vegeta hoped it would prove enough to make him strong enough to defeat Frieza….