Piccolo followed the energy trail of the alien warrior. He had flown across the sea to a small island. Piccolo suppressed his energy, flew slowly in a wide arc, then flew low over the sea and approached the island from behind. He landed behind the small house with the red roof.
Hiding there, he listened to the conversation between the stranger - Raditz - and Goku. It was hard to believe that he was an alien who had come to destroy the earth. And that this Raditz was Goku's - or Kakarot, as Raditz called him - brother sounded even more unbelievable.
Suddenly someone screamed. Was it a child? Piccolo tried to look further around the house to see more. Raditz had indeed got a child under his arm. The little bundle clung to him, limp and motionless.
"So, do you understand me, Kakarot?" Raditz now spoke again. "If you want your son back alive, I want a sign of your goodwill. You have until this time tomorrow to kill one-hundred earthlings and stack them up here nicely. When you've done that, you'll get your son back and you'll be part of our team."
The objections of that old dodderer, the woman and the pipsqueak did not change the situation. Piccolo peered a little further around the corner of the house. Raditz was standing in front of Goku, who was lying on his back, looking up at the stranger with his face contorted in pain. He wanted to save his son, no question about it. Only Raditz was a lot stronger. Sitara had been right. Even Goku could do nothing against him. Now that Raditz also had Goku's son in his power, this was perhaps an even better starting point for a collaboration, although Piccolo was still not comfortable with the idea.
"Well, see you tomorrow!" said Raditz, flying off with the child under his arm.
Goku screamed, reared back and shouted something. A small yellow cloud appeared. Goku wanted to jump up and fly after Raditz, but the pain made him drop to his knees again.
Angrily, he clenched his fists and let them come crashing down on the sand. He muttered something, then shouted loudly, "His tail. Of course. That's his weak spot. I know what I'm talking about. But I can't do it alone. I need your help."
This baldy immediately pledged his help, as did the doddering old man. Piccolo grinned in amusement. What could they possibly do? The next words from the woman were more interesting again.
"There, he's stopped. He's still on Earth." So this little group knew where Raditz and this boy were. Extremely convenient. Piccolo decided now was a good time to show himself.
Goku took an upright stance. "Let's go then. Let's make a return visit. Are you ready, friends?"
"You'll never make it," Piccolo shouted as he hovered over the group. A theatrical performance, no question. He would have loved to capture the surprise of the people below him. The woman fell over and tried to crawl away. Piccolo had to stifle a grin and landed on the island.
"I followed Raditz. With those two," he pointed to the old man and the bald man, "you won't beat Raditz. I'll go with you."
The next surprise blow to the group. He continued to speak, walking towards Goku. "You alone will not beat him. You know his power. If we team up, we have a chance." While he had been speaking, Piccolo had walked past Goku and stopped with his back to him. He hoped that he would take this as a sign of trust. If Piccolo was even willing to turn his back on him, his archenemy, then they might as well fight together.
"Why should I ally myself with you?" This was a valid question from Goku.
"Don't worry, it's only temporary. This guy is in the way of my world domination." Piccolo still thought this explanation was the most believable. Goku and the others would certainly not buy that he was actually no longer interested in seizing power. He added another sentence. "Once I get Raditz and his team out of the way, it's your turn and no one will stand in my way." This statement had the appropriate effect on the bystanders. Only Goku remained calm.
"Remember. I will never let that happen." After a pause, he continued. "So this is the only solution. We ally ourselves."
"Believe me, it disgusts me just as much to work with you."
Goku didn't respond, asked the blue-haired woman for the technical device she had apparently used to track Raditz, and jumped onto his yellow cloud.
"Piccolo, we'll use the Dragon Radar to find Gohan." He pointed at the device. "Can you keep up with Nimbus's speed?"
What a ridiculous question. "I can be twice as fast, because unlike you, I can actually fly."
"Are you actually completely stupid?" snapped Bulma at Master Roshi and Krillin. She only earned confused looks. "You can't leave Goku alone like that. That Piccolo will stab him in the back for sure." She was completely incensed.
"And what do you think we should do?" asked Krillin cautiously, not wanting to upset her even more.
"Off in the plane and after them!" Without further words, the woman with the blue hair turned around, dug a hoipoi capsule out of her trouser pocket, pressed the trigger and threw it away from her. When the smoke had cleared, she climbed into the small plane. At the door, she turned back to the other two. "Do you need an extra invitation?"
Krillin and Master Roshi hurried to get on the plane as well.
Sitara wandered up and down the cliff edge above her forest. She had completely blocked out the sound of the waterfall. She did not feel the warmth of the sun on her skin or the tugging of the wind in her hair. She had focused all her senses only on the band of energy that connected her to Piccolo.
She knew he had flown far. She felt a tugging in her chest that, although not painful, was very uncomfortable. If he moved any further away from her, it could happen that they would both be uncomfortable. Impatiently, she kept tapping her thumbnail against her front teeth.
She paused in her run, looked in the direction Piccolo was headed and thought feverishly about what she could do. Why had she trained with him for years? She could defend herself, she could attack. Was Piccolo really worried that she would get in the way? That she would be like a little child not knowing what to do?
Many miles away, Raditz locked little Gohan into his space pod and rejoiced in the quiet. The space capsule seemed small compared to the crater it had torn when it landed. The vast, grassy plain was deserted.
Raditz's stomach grumbled and he decided to find something to eat when suddenly his scouter beeped. He dismissed the combat power of 710 indicated from the capsule as a malfunction of his device.
As he turned to walk away from the crater, his scouter beeped again. Only seconds after the beep, the originators landed in front of him. Kakarot and the greenling he had first encountered on this planet.
"How did you find me?" he asked.
"That remains our little secret." Goku did the talking. He had always been more of a chatterbox.
"Kakarot, do you really think you can defeat me just because you teamed up with that greenling?" Raditz's voice had an arrogant undertone that Piccolo didn't like at all. The urge to beat him had now grown even stronger.
"Enough of this bullshit," Piccolo shouted, throwing his cloak off him, which hit the ground with a loud thud. Goku also got rid of his weights, which he wore in the form of his armbands, shirt and shoes.
But before either of them could take the first step, Raditz was suddenly behind them and dealt a blow to both of them. How had that been possible? Although he had attacked from the front, he had hit Piccolo in the back.
Raditz laughed. "I'll let you in on another little secret: if you should win this fight against all odds, you'll have to deal with the other two Saiyans. And they're even a lot stronger than me."
"You're talking nonsense. That the other two are stronger than you is just something you say to intimidate us." Piccolo thought he had misheard. It was not possible that the others were any stronger than Raditz.
"Where is my son?" asked Goku. He seemed completely unfazed by the news that there were supposed to be two other warriors with that strength.
"Don't worry, he's still alive. He's in the crater behind you." Raditz's head jerked to the side to indicate the direction.
Only now Goku seemed to notice the big hole and ran towards it. He stopped at the edge of the crater and looked down. Piccolo kept an eye on Raditz and therefore refrained from looking into the crater as well. He did, however, hear Goku's promise to his son to free him as soon as possible.
"One should never lie to children. How will you save him if you yourself are about to be finished?" Raditz teased Goku, who turned angrily to the stranger.
"All right, let's get this over with," Goku now addressed Piccolo.
"All right, Goku. I'm ready."
The three warriors faced each other, sizing each other up. Where were the weak points? At the same time, Goku and Piccolo ran and kicked and punched Raditz. The latter didn't even seem to have to make an effort to dodge the two. Instead, he dropped forward and managed to kick Piccolo and Goku in the face at the same time. The next moment he was high in the air and firing two balls of deadly energy. Goku, who had jumped after Raditz, threw himself around in the air and thus escaped the force of the energy. It smashed into the mountains some distance away. Goku fell to the earth like a stone and hit the grass hard.
Piccolo had also jumped up to deliver a blow to Raditz in mid-air. As the energy rushed at him, he threw himself to the side, but he was not fast enough. The energy pulverised his left arm. He staggered back to earth and straightened up in pain.
Blood dripped from the stump that ended just below his shoulder and he was breathing heavily. Goku's question about his condition he dismissed. "It's all right. I'll go on with one arm too."
He breathed in and out deeply. He could feel the bond that connected him to Sitara was no longer so stretched as to be uncomfortable. Hopefully Sitara would stay in her forest. She was not supposed to come here.
Sitara could no longer stand the wait. The energy ribbon was stretched to breaking point, bringing tears to her eyes. If Piccolo felt the same way, it would distract him from the fight. If she reduced the distance, she would at least take that burden away from him.
Sitara rose into the air and left the forest and her hut behind her. She quickly reached the mountains and flew over them. As she left the foothills of the mountains behind her, the tugging became less and was only a faint memory. She slowed her flight. Should she land in the small forest over there and wait it out? During the descent, she felt an overwhelming pain in her left arm and, staggering, she managed to catch herself a little so as not to hit the ground with full force. She broke through the top branches of the trees, which broke her fall even further. The ground was getting closer and she was still able to mobilise her strength to slow her fall a little. Nevertheless, the impact was hard and drove the air out of her lungs.
Panting, she slowly straightened up onto all fours and then heaved herself up into a kneeling position. She felt her left arm and examined it from all sides. No injury. So Piccolo was injured. The arm again.
In her years of training, it had happened once that Sitara had seriously injured him and she was still puzzling over how that had happened in the first place. He had been off his game since the beginning of the training for reasons unknown to her, half-heartedly blocking her kicks and punches and narrowly dodging her energy balls. As she rained down a succession of blows on him, she thought she saw a gap in his defence. She pushed herself off the ground, jumping back to put some distance between them. A ball of energy formed in her right hand, which she did not hurl directly at him, but deliberately placed just beside his side. Instead of continuing to dodge the bullet, however, he leapt into it as if he hadn't really seen that the bullet would miss him anyway.
Dust swirled as the remains of the bullet hit the dry earth. Sitara expected a counterattack and searched the dust with all her senses. But nothing happened. When the dust settled, she realised why Piccolo did not attack. He had sunk to his knees and was holding his right shoulder. There was nothing below the shoulder. His arm was gone. Instead, blood dripped onto the ground. His face was contorted in pain.
Sitara ran to him and dropped to her knees in front of him. "Piccolo, I'm so sorry. I don't know ... I ... what do we do now?" she stammered, already starting to tear strips from her suit so she could bind the wound.
Piccolo didn't say a word. Instead he made growling sounds and clenched his teeth as if he were concentrating very hard. Sitara, whose trouser legs were already gone, paused in what she was doing and watched his face. A vein on his forehead stood out dark blue as Piccolo seemed to increase his efforts.
Sitara's gaze moved from his face to the stump of his arm. Was she imagining it, or had he already stopped bleeding? With a cry, Piccolo seemed to unleash all his power and a new complete arm shot out of his arm stump. The arm was surrounded by a fluid that seemed to have a slimy substance. Piccolo breathed heavily and slowly moved his fingers to test if everything was working.
Sitara looked Piccolo in the face again and blinked in confusion. This was an extremely interesting ability. She stepped forward, took a strip of cloth and began to clean his arm. As suspected, the liquid had a slimy consistency and felt warm. She almost expected him to pull his arm away, but he held it still and watched her.
Sitara felt his gaze and the blush rose to her face. She concentrated on his arm so as not to have to look at him. When she had finished, she still did not lift her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said again. Piccolo lifted his arm, put his new hand under her chin and turned her face towards him.
"It's all right. There's no harm done. That was training. You didn't have to sacrifice your trousers for me." With a wave of his left hand, he made her clothes re-emerge.
The first and only time Sitara had hurt Piccolo. And the pain had felt the same with her as it did now. Back then she had relegated it to the far corner of her consciousness in order to be able to help him, but today the pain had hit her so surprisingly that she needed some time to be able to react. She hoped that Piccolo was not distracted by her fall. She was annoyed at that moment that they had tried again and again to strengthen the energy connection but had not given a thought to protecting each other as well. It had not even occurred to her that they might one day find themselves in such a situation. He fighting, leaving her behind, with no idea if he would survive the fight.
Take a deep breath, she admonished herself. Panic, now was the stupidest thing she could do. If he sensed these feelings, he would most certainly be distracted. She couldn't risk that.
Sitara leaned against a tree and calmed her hammering heart.
"Goku, if you have another trick up your sleeve, now would be a good time to play it."
They spoke softly. "You mean a plan? No. You?"
"I have something much better. A new fighting technique that will be a tough act to follow, even for him."
Raditz visibly lost patience and took several steps towards the two. "I've had enough of your ramblings. Let's finish this."
Piccolo quietly addressed Goku once more, "I just need time to gather energy."
"You mean your new technique will defeat him?"
"Let's try."
Goku nodded grimly. "I will distract Raditz. But don't leave me hanging."
"Don't worry. I want to finish Raditz off and finally try my new technique. Too bad, actually this new technique was meant to finish you off."
The slight smirk was only on Goku's lips for a split second. He had to admit to himself that he had been longing for the day when he would fight Piccolo again since the tournament ended five years ago. "Don't forget. There are two more like him coming. You still need me."
"You're right. You really do think of everything. What would I do without you."
"I'm happy to return the compliment."
Raditz had set up in a battle-ready position during their conversation and was waiting to attack. Goku sped off and attacked Radditz. The latter managed to block his kicks and punches. Goku kept getting hit in the face by Raditz's fists and his body showed more and more bruises. With a spin and a connected kick, Raditz carried Goku a few feet away from him. Before Goku hit the ground, however, he pushed himself off and put his hands together.
"Ka... me... ha... me..." A bluish glow formed between his hands. Raditz was surprised. His scouter was showing him a rising fighting power in Goku. He had not experienced anything like this before. A beeping in the device made him move around to Piccolo. The latter had put the index and middle fingers of his intact hand to his forehead and lowered to his knees. Spirals of energy gathered around him. His face was contorted with exertion, the veins on his forehead and neck standing out clearly.
"...ha!" Goku let the energy beam whiz down on Raditz. The latter ran away, but Goku directed the beam after Raditz. Instead of continuing to run away, Raditz turned towards the energy and held out his hands, deflecting the energy beam.
Goku, still suspended in mid-air, was stunned that Raditz had been able to deflect his Kamehameha like that.
"Get ready. You'll get this back." Raditz in turn now fired a beam of energy that hit Goku directly. He fell to the ground badly injured. Raditz was immediately on him to deliver more blows as he paused and stared at Piccolo.
"Now you can order your coffin, Raditz."A small yellow ball of energy had formed at the tips of the index and middle fingers on Piccolo's hand. Drops of sweat ran down his temple.
"There's no such thing. His combat power is 1,330, and all his power is concentrated in his fingertips." Raditz was beside himself. He couldn't believe what he was perceiving through his scouter. Beings who could control their fighting power at will, or even concentrate it, he had never met on a single planet.
"Prepare to die through my Special Beam Cannon." Piccolo took advantage of Raditz's confusion and fired his attack. The focused beam of energy, surrounded by a spiral of blue light, hurtled towards Raditz and exploded. Goku blinked against the blinding brightness. Dust swirled, more smaller explosions followed, forming great clouds of smoke. All the while Piccolo stood breathing heavily at the spot where he had sent the hell spiral loose, waiting impatiently for the smoke and dust to settle.
It seemed to take an eternity, but then the figure of Radditz materialised out of the cloud of dust. Piccolo was stunned. He had missed Radditz.
"Congratulations. My armour is damaged. If you'd hit me full on, I'd probably be animal meal by now."
Raditz did not give the impression that he would reward Piccolo for damaging his armour, although he had congratulated him on it. He raised his arm and bared his teeth. Energy gathered in his raised hand and he began to run towards Piccolo, while the latter stopped, frozen, eyes widening in shock. That was the end.
But Raditz suddenly stopped in mid-motion and turned around. Goku had managed to sneak up behind Raditz and grab his monkey tail. Goku knew from himself that the tail of a Saiyan was his weak point. If held tightly, the warrior's energy would dissipate.
Goku couldn't help but laugh. "Tough luck, I got your tail." He squeezed and Raditz fell to the earth. "Piccolo, use your Special Beam Cannon again."
"Very good. Hold it tightly. I can only use the it one more time." Momentarily, Piccolo was about to start gathering his energy all over again when Raditz spoke up.
"Please, little brother, I'll do anything you want. Let me go."
Piccolo paused in his movement. "Don't listen to him, Goku. He would say anything."
Raditz continued to whimper. "Please. We are brothers after all. How can you do this to your brother?"
"I've told you before, I can do without a brother like you." Goku's words seemed cold.
"Please. I am leaving this earth." There was no end to Raditz's plea.
"Do you swear it?" Goku seemed to cave in. Piccolo couldn't believe his ears. This was their last chance against Raditz. Such an opportunity would not arise again.
"I swear it."
"No!" Piccolo shouted. "He's lying. Don't you let him go."
As if Raditz knew how to get to Goku, he continued to speak. "I beg you. Even if you kill me right now, at least tell me you believe me."
As if in slow motion, Goku released his grip on Raditz's tail. Relieved of his powerlessness, Raditz grinned maliciously, straightened up and, while still moving upwards, slammed his elbow into Goku's face. Goku was flung backwards several feet and came to rest on the grass. Immediately Raditz was on top of him and kicked Goku's chest with his right foot so hard that the air was knocked out of his lungs. He pressed him to the ground.
"You idiot. All I had to do was appeal to your compassion a little and I had you going. Pathetic. I have no problem killing my brother. But first you're going to suffer a little." He kept kicking Goku's chest. Goku's cries of pain could be heard for miles.
Raditz was enjoying the underdog's screams to the fullest. "Don't worry, Piccolo. I will soon put an end to your greenish existence as well."
Piccolo still could not move. Anger and fear dominated his thoughts. Anger at Goku's simple-minded ways, hatred of Raditz's superiority, fear that his life might end here and now and what would become of Sitara then.
"Little brother, go to hell." Raditz started for the kill but the beeping of his scouter made him pause. Confused, he looked around. Nothing could be seen. The plain was empty, birds swooped up from a bush. But then there was a bang from the pit where Raditz's capsule was. The capsule exploded and suddenly little Gohan stood before them. Teeth bared, eyes empty with unbridled rage.
"Gohan, leave." Goku could barely find the strength to say the words. Chi-Chi would kick the hell out of him if she learned that Gohan had even come close to a dangerous situation.