A handful of artificial traveling orbs soared across empty space. A cerulean world seemed just a meaningless dot in the distance but they closed the range in a split instant before the entry into Earth's atmosphere slowed the pods down. Like crimson comets, the pods slashed at the morning sky and crashed. A trio of the spaceships landed in a small, uninhabited island whereas the remaining group splashed into the water surrounding the island.
The ships that did crash into the archipelago shattered the island into separate, rocky chunks that threatened to drown before long. It was for that reason that the pods that landed on the island did not wait around before opening up and letting their pilots out.
"A lot of water, huh?" a man of a bruiser's build and black, unkempt hair stepped out from the pod and looked around, seeing the island that he and his pack had leveled drowning under and sending bubbling streams in their watery demise.
"I hope your son didn't grow gills or something…" a rough-sounding yet still feminine tone reached the first Saiyan as a woman of short hair emerged from her pod and ascended to the air to watch the demise of the island she crashed into.
"It's not like I had much choice…" the first Saiyan replied with a grumble.
"Did you try not sending your son to a remote world to avoid a bogus attack that you could sense coming?" a tower of a man emerged from underwater. His flat at the top, dark hair took no time at all to stand back up and shake the water off though the Saiyan seemed irked by the wet ponytail to the point where he stroked it a pair of times to wipe some of the water off.
"Quit hassling me, Tora, I had a gut feeling…" the leader of the pack wearing a green scouter closed his eyes and replied with a calm demeanor, though if it was not his best friend poking fun at him, the answer might have carried a whole different tone altogether and would have been accompanied by a much more physical response as well.
"That's right, you shouldn't joke around stuff like that, Tora," a feeble-looking Saiyan with a scar on the left side of his forehead emerging from under the ocean lectured his comrade. "Bardock did lose another son because of that mistake."
"Thinking that Frieza would stab us in the back was no mistake…" a malicious tone came from an obese Saiyan that emerged from underwater not too long after the leaner, scarred comrade of his.
Another pair of male Saiyans emerged from their wet landing and once the entire troupe had shown up, they all turned on their scouters one after another. Together they scanned the planet for notable power levels as it would have taken far less time than it would have taken one man looking all around the place. They didn't have the clearest of clues as to where on the planet they've landed and it served as an optimal way of scanning the planet to land somewhere by the equator so that one's scouter could reach all the way to the other end of the planet.
"I mean no offense, Bardock, but it's not like your own son isn't at fault either. It wasn't too wise to run off while around Prince Vegeta… This disregard toward crazy opponents is something he took from his old man, I guess, huh, Borgos?" a shorter though well-built Saiyan with a rectangular jawline flat, jet black hair turned toward the largest Saiyan in the group who looked more like a monster with mostly humanoid appearance rather than an ordinary Saiyan like his peers.
Muscle-bound giant referred to as Borgos just turned his beady eyes down at his comrade with an indifferent look. Even a veteran such as Taro would have been frightened by this behemoth of flesh and muscle, especially with a triplet of grisly scars across his forehead serving as a neat signifier of the Saiyan's toughness, though the somewhat goofy strands of black hair standing off of each side only added up to a somewhat goofy look. The skull of the almost bald Saiyan stood sharp as a stone tip at the top and would have required a fist the size of a boulder to move or ring it.
"Quiet, huh? Well, no surprise there…" Taro shrugged. "Better find the big guy something to eat before he gets all cranky and ends up breaking your boy by accident. How strong did you say he was, Bardock?"
"Not too powerful, plus, I've sent him to this cushion of a planet so he couldn't have gotten much stronger. I'd say that his power level should be around a couple of thousands by now…" Bardock, the leader of the group turned on his scouter and looked around. His face shifted from apathy to slight irritation. "This planet's still teeming with life, what the hell has Kakarot been doing here?"
"Hmph… I think we've been issued a faulty model or something…" the obese warrior Shugesh took off his scouter and looked at it in his hand, trying to figure out if he was better off crushing it or if the quirks of the device could have still been figured out. "There are crazy power levels all over this planet… Most of them are well over several thousand units strong."
"No, my scouter says the same. This is odd, this planet is outside the Frieza Army space so it's no surprise that there might be some dangerous creatures in here but… I thought you checked this planet before shooting your brat here, Bardock," the female Saiyan corrected her ally.
"I did…" Bardock replied with a stone-cold face, wondering if one of these high power levels could have killed his second son. "This doesn't make much sense, these power levels are too wild for Kakarot. Then again, if these Earthlings existed this whole time, maybe they've tempered Kakarot as well?"
"Well… This is a surprise…" Tora smirked. "Here we thought we were just picking up a mere grunt, some cannon-fodder but we may just pick up an actual asset against the King. If any of these Earthlings power up just a little bit, they'd serve as a nice warm-up for old man Vegeta, huh?"
"They might." Bardock closed his eyes and crossed his arms, thinking his next move. He had no idea as to which one of these signatures belonged to his son and they were all not too far off from one another. As much as the Saiyan tried brushing off meaningless, fatherly emotions like pride in his offspring's growth and hope for his survival, he wanted to shoot straight for the most powerful power level of all, just knowing deep down that his own son could have only been that person.
"We don't have enough pods for all of them though…" Leek, the slick and fragile-looking Saiyan, compared to his peers scratched his head, feeling baffled by this predicament. "I wonder if this planet's invented space travel and they could use spaceships of their own?"
"Don't make me laugh!" Bardock's eyes shot wide open as she clenched his fist out in front of him. "As if we, Saiyans, a proud warrior race would team up with some lowlife scum this far off in space… Kakarot's the only one we need. The rest can go die for all I care. Let's just hope that they provide us with some challenge and make us stronger in the process. After we rest on a pile of their corpses, we might need to hit Planet Vegeta directly."
"Already!?" Leek leaned back in panic. "B-Bardock, we might not be ready for that!"
"Don't soil your pants, Leek, don't forget why we're doing this. King Vegeta has become spoiled by his alliance with Frieza. He might have been the strongest Saiyan a couple of decades ago but, try as hard as he might, many actual warriors fighting his battles in the front lines have surpassed him. I have it on good authority that Prince Vegeta's been keeping tabs on our squad, he might grow suspicious and report us to his daddy. That rag won't come for us himself, he'll have Frieza sick his henchmen on us, and Frieza will dance along because deep down he's afraid of us Saiyans."
"Hmph… Still with that old thing…" Tora shook his head in disapproval.
"It's true! I don't know why but I'm certain that Frieza was about to pull something all those years ago. I'm not insane, though everyone looking at me like I was mental served as a nice motivator to grow stronger. Still, ready or not, we have to strike soon. The moment we fight on a planet closer to home Frieza will notice our true power and if we stick to far-off reaches, the little prince and his lackey will catch up to us instead." Bardock barked at his comrade.
"I guess it's for the better that we did replace those old scouter models. The old ones would have blown up in our faces from power levels this intense!" Shugesh sighed and put his scouter back on, now that his suspicions of malfunctioning scouters have been confirmed as false.
"Split up, target each notable power level individually," Bardock ordered and flared up with a crystal-clear gleam of intense aura.
"Wait, these guys are really strong, maybe we should attack them all together, and then, when we run into Kakarot, just scoop him up…" Leek stroked his neck feeling uneasy about rushing head-first into such challenging battles.
"We can't afford that…" Bardock shut his ally down. "All of them are strong, yes, but that's what we need. We need adversity, we need a challenge, we need injury so that we grow as strong as possible before attacking Planet Vegeta and kicking that weasel king off of his throne."
"I was afraid that you were going to say something like that…" Leek sighed and observed his comrades all take off at various corners of the Earth, hunting down the highest power levels. Bardock himself took off toward the north-east, where the largest power level was residing in all the way up the northern part of the continent.
The gold-incrusted frame of an old, mahogany door opened up with a barely notable screech. Whatever meek cries the doorway let out soon submitted to the vocal authority of bold steps as a well-trained, muscular frame in a tattered, indigo gi walked out from inside the Room of Spirit and Time, accompanied by a cheerful, pale floater beside him.
"Trouble! Great trouble!" Mr. Popo ran up to the emerging martial artists, rushing so much that he hunched and bent over by the knees in the escalating feeling of dread that drove him. "The Saiyans are already here!"
"Already, huh?" Tenshinhan sighed. "I had hoped to have a few hours to rest and recover but we'll have to settle for taking a few Senzu…"
"Hmm… They're almost half a day early!" Chiaotzu scratched his red cheek, feeling some fluttering butterflies deep down. "I don't think it's wise to expect Chayote help now for sure…"
"Hmmm… They're more powerful than I thought…" Upa approached the duo, almost matching Tenshinhan in bulk, having grown a considerable amount in the last seven years as he pressed the hand of the three-eyed warrior. "Thanks for pitching in to help. If you need anything, I can conjure it up, though I don't think I'll be able to help out much during the actual battle…"
"Hmm… This isn't good, the others will still be training, they'll be caught unaware…" Tenshinhan pondered out loud, closing his eyes to shut off all external stimuli and focus on his thoughts. He almost considered attacking the Saiyans by crashing into them midway to their destination.
"Why are they here?" Chiaotzu wondered.
"From what I've overheard, they're looking for Goku. Though they do not intend on leaving this planet alone once they find him either. They must be stopped by all means!" Upa took the staff of a Kami off of his back, which he had modified to resemble an ax more by attaching a head of an ax to its upper end. Even if the current Kami did not feel too confident about his chances to defeat the Saiyans by himself, he was willing to pitch in and help the rest fight.
"Are you sure you're going?" Mr. Popo ran in between Tenshinhan and Upa and looked the grown, tribal man in the eyes. "They cannot read your signature up here but once you leave – they'll be able to."
"So they're tracking us through our Ki signatures?" Tenshinhan asked.
"That's right. They have these devices on their faces that help them track one's "power level". It seems to be some sort of gadget for sensing Ki," Upa nodded.
Tenshinhan laughed out, the other three looked at him wondering if the three-eyed warrior that's been one of the few warriors to keep up with their training during the long break since the last time the Earth had been threatened had gone mad from the insane challenge placed in front of him.
"That means they'll be running into Piccolo too. Those poor fools…" Tenshinhan explained his thought process without dropping a smile.
"That's right… Piccolo has grown a great deal stronger, I was worrying that if he ever tried something – we'd no longer be able to stop him. After all, Goku and Chi-Chi haven't been training all that much since starting a family, at this point, you're probably stronger than him already…" Upa stared off into the clouds, feeling the irony of the greatest threat to his guarded planet becoming possibly its greatest asset as well.
"That isn't fair to say. Just because my power might surpass Goku's now doesn't mean anything. He's Saiyan after all, the moment he feels the heat of battle, his strength will keep skyrocketing and his mindset will become focused on training again…" Tenshinhan shrugged before he approached the edge of the God Temple and looked ahead at the planet he agreed to defend once again. Chiaotzu followed him nearby.
"I can sense them," Chiaotzu confirmed it. "They're scattering across the Earth…"
"They don't know which one of these high power levels belongs to Son Goku, they'll be hitting all of us at the same time while splitting up," Tenshinhan read the tide of the upcoming battle like a book.
"The others must sense it too, they aren't moving. They must know that there's not much they can change at this point. This sudden call for training has unnerved all of us…" Chiaotzu sighed.
"It's not that. They're staying apart on purpose. The enemy has split up, reducing their overall potential for devastation. The others must want it to stay that way…" Tenshinhan replied.
"But why would the Saiyans split up?" Chiaotzu scratched his cheek, feeling a bit taken aback by the lacking battle strategy of the invading force.
"They're Saiyans. It's safe to say they're all blockheads that want a tough and fair battle, just like Son Goku. If a challenge is what they want – we'll give it to them!" Tenshinhan declared with a confident smirk. He'd been training these past seven years without losing the drive he had when he thought the planet being at threat from Piccolo Jr.
"Hold on, it isn't wise to attack them head-on…" Upa advised. "Bulma said that Chayote declared she'd be here in four days two and a half days ago. It might not mean much but an hour or two might mean the difference between saving the world and perishing."
"Maybe so…" Tenshinhan folded. This time he didn't want to be useful only by sealing one enemy away with the Mafuba and having all of his combat potential drained from him. This time, things would be different. Still, if he could have been more clever about how the climactic battle for the fate of the world started, it may have been wiser to act like a fool and flee a bit further, let the enemy waste time by rushing to him.
Be patient, not rush into his own hasty grave as he did against Demon King Piccolo…
"It's ironic…" Tenshinhan smirked. "More than ten years ago Fortuneteller Baba appeared before us and told us that we better become strong to protect the Earth from incredibly powerful aliens. I know it's outlandish but… Who would have known that she'd be seeing this far ahead and that we'd end up training to actually protect the Earth against a real alien threat?"
Chiaotzu nodded alongside his best friend while Upa approached the pair and tapped his staff, covering the entire sky in clouds and calling upon thunderbolts imbued with divine magic to strike at them and take them to a further off location. Upa did not want to fight anywhere near the Sacred Land of Korin but it just so happened that the Saiyans were just around the equator by this time and taking Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu to the mountains walling off what once was the Red Ribbon Army base was the best option when stalling for time.
"Hmm?" Tora turned to the west as his scouter continued to beep as if calculating a number that was simply so large that the pause between the beginning of calculation and the end made the pause awkward. "Another power level suddenly emerged. A power level of 9200…"
"And another batch nearby, 2300 and 437… That's not too much but it's way too large for this planet if what Bardock told us about it is to be believed," Taro replied.
"9200!? That's way crazy! How are there Earthlings almost as strong as King Vegeta himself!?" Leek stopped and grabbed his head in panic.
"Hmmm… That's a fair point, a power level of 9200 is a decent challenge but those other two shrimps on top will make the fight annoying. Leek, continue heading north, Taro, let's team up for this," Tora turned toward the newly emerged power level. His face betrayed a certain dislike for how suddenly a new and fearsome challenger emerged on this planet but he knew it couldn't have been helped.
"But Bardock said…" Taro was about to object.
"I'm the sub-leader of this squad. Bardock's not here so I'm making this call," Tora faced the other Saiyan while the two stood opposed to one another in a deadlock of intense glares. Taro was the first to fold though he didn't seem at all frightened by the sub-leader of his squad, rather excited to face these new challengers alongside him.
"Fine, just make sure you don't get in my way…" Taro taunted his comrade.
"That's funny, maybe I should leave you to face that power level of 9200, seeing how it is greater than yours…" Tora smirked with a look aimed at his defiant comrade who broke only a single drop of sweat from his flat, rectangular forehead.
"Hey, hey… You'd die against such a guy too, we'll need to take 'em on together." Taro replied with less machismo in his tone and more cold reason than usual.