All Does Not End Well! Arrival of the Mysterious Warrior!
In the void of space, billions of lightyears away from Earth, there floated three white orbs in front of a field of dust and ash, trapped forever in the weightlessness of space, buffeted ever so slightly on the solar winds of the nearby star.
"Are you both on the private channel?" came one voice into the ears of two others. It was a harsh voice, filled with the anger of fettered youth and ambition yet with the tones of a highborn son.
"Yes, Your Grace," came the simultaneous replies from the adjacent pods. One was gruff and gravelly, an older voice heavy with a life on battlefields all across the stars. The other was younger, about the same age as the first voice, and gritty with lowborn indignity. The older voice was earnest in its reply, the younger… sarcastic.
"Very good," the first voice continued. There was a moment's pause and the faintest hum that crackled in each of their ears as their battle auras surrounded them, wide enough to catch some of the air inside each of their pods. Then the pods slowly opened and three men floated out into the void.
Out of the far left pod came a mountain of a man in dark blue armor with black boots and gauntlets and yellow pads over his shoulders and thighs. He had a machine fixed to his right ear, white with a piece of translucent blue glass over his right eye. His bare arms and legs were covered in battle scars, some faint and pale while some were large and gnarled. The starlight glinted off his bald head as he glowered at the void. The man in the left pod was slightly shorter with a green piece of translucent glass over his left eye. His body armor was black where the first man's was blue and brown where it was yellow. Where the other man was bald, he had a massive mane of black hair that practically reached his ankles. He had his share of scars as well, though not so numerous as the first man.
Between either of them was a much shorter man, perhaps five feet tall without his six inch spike of black hair. His body armor was white with yellow pads and he wore a blue undersuit. The glass over his eye was pink. His neutral expressions seemed to be a barely-repressed hatred for the universe.
They all had tails wrapped around their waists.
"What do you see?" the shortest man asked.
"The remains of our home planet, Your Grace," the largest man replied plainly as a handful of dust floated past his face.
"You would be wrong, Nappa," the first man shot back as he glared at the emptiness. "I see a murder."
"What're you saying, Vegeta?" asked the man with the most hair. Vegeta glowered at him before making a sweeping gesture with a white-gloved hand.
"Look at this," he told them, "Complete annihilation. No asteroid could have reduced Planet Vegeta to this. It would have taken a chunk out of the planet for sure but to leave nothing behind… even if our own moon had collided into the planet, it would have created more debris."
"So what was it?" asked the second man again.
"Is it not obvious, Raditz?" Vegeta asked. He waited for a rhetorical pause. "It was Freeza." He paused again to let that information sink in as the other two stared at him in stunned horror. "I have suspected it for quite some time, in truth. Now that I actually see the remains of my race for the first time, it is clear."
"But why?!" Nappa demanded. "We'd served him faithfully for years! We were his most valuable soldiers!"
"That bastard!" Raditz snarled through clenched teeth. "I-I killed for him! I took his money! I'm wearing his stupid armor! I'll kill him mys–"
"You will do no such thing!" Vegeta snapped. "As for the why? He feared us. He feared our potential for power. He feared… what we might become."
"I don't understand," Nappa interjected. "If you know he killed our people, why serve him?"
"What choice do we have?" Vegeta asked. "Freeza is the most powerful being in the universe. Not a day goes by where I do not wake up with the thought of strangling him yet I know it's impossible. I have been trying to get stronger for years now, seeking out his most dangerous missions on the most violent worlds, but it is not enough. It is time to take action."
"Whatever it is, I'm ready," Raditz assured him with a defiantly balled fist. Vegeta nodded and folded his arms over his chest.
"It is simple," Vegeta said. "We are going to carry on like nothing is happening. Freeza must suspect nothing. However, in secret, we will be seeking out and gathering any members of our race we can find. They cannot all have been on Planet Vegeta on the same day. Search every databank, every mission log, look for every exile or castaway. Gather our strength. Rebuild the empire and, in time, bring about our bloody vengeance! We'll reconvene on Zeron-4 in three years' time." Raditz nodded and floated back into his pod, which quickly took off and turned into a blip as it made the jump to lightspeed.
Nappa entered his own pod and waited for Vegeta to follow. He watched from the viewport of his pod as Veget floated in space and gathered a handful of debris into a gloved hand, squeezing his fist tightly until he held a stone. Lightning crackled through Vegeta's hair as he threw his head back and screamed. Below the scream Nappa heard in his scouter, he could hear a faint echo, which he realized wasn't an echo at all. Vegeta's rage was so great that Nappa could hear the scream in the vacuum of space.
OoOoOoO
Raditz landed on the surface of Zeron-4 frustratingly empty-handed. It was a frustration that was only compounded by the planet they were meeting on. Zeron-4 was a disgusting planet, sixth from a blue sun and nearly every inch of it was swamps of varying temperatures that were populated with repulsive amphibioids. It stank of sulfur and dead vegetation. Gods, he just wanted to blow the whole thing up from space. Here he was, however, trudging through the muck as he made his way to Nappa and Vegeta. Just Nappa and Vegeta.
"Well," he said with a slight smirk, "Glad to see I'm not the only one who didn't bring any new friends." The others glared at him. "Is Tarble dead?" he asked with the slightest hint of genuine concern.
Vegeta scoffed, "My younger brother is quite alive. He merely refused to join." Raditz chuckled at that.
"Ha! Told ya to go fuck yourself, didn't he?" Vegeta glowered with made Raditz chuckle again.
"Can't say I blame him," Nappa admitted with the barest hint of a smile. "This plan is insane."
"It would not be a Saiyan plan if it were otherwise," Vegeta reminded them with a grin. "Not that we needed him, he was banished for being a coward. What about that Tullece woman? The one with the pirates." Raditz shook his head.
"Last I heard any mention of her, she'd run off to the Southern Universal Quadrant. Seems her brilliant fucking plan for beating Freeza is waiting for him to die of old age in the ass-end of the universe."
"Writing off the only female Saiyan in the universe," Nappa put in before adding, "Not like that's an issue for you, Raditz." Raditz scowled and balled his fists.
"What," he shot back, "Just mad that you're not my type?"
"Enough, the both of you!" Vegeta snapped. There was a tense pause as he ran a hand over his face in aggravation. "So that is that, then. Everything else came up empty. We are all that is left." His shoulders slumped as he sat down on his pod with his head in his hands. Then he sat up with a sudden realization. "Wait," he said, "You've a sister, Raditz, do you not?" Raditz's face drained and he swallowed nervously. He wanted to lie but Vegeta's hawk-like gaze bore down on him and ripped the words from his mouth.
"Y-yes," he stammered out, "Your Grace. She was sent away on her first mission the day of Planet Vegeta's destruction. She couldn't have been more than a few days old."
"So she will be one and twenty now," Vegeta surmised as he stroked his chin. "Yes, yes. That will do nicely for me." Then he turned to Nappa and smirked, "Hopefully something for you as well in about fifteen years or so, Nappa." Nappa laughed as Raditz's face turned red and his hands began to curl into fists. "Does something trouble you, Raditz?" Vegeta asked. The veins stood out in Raditz's neck. The smug little shit. He wanted to strangle him. To jam his thumbs into his eyes and rip his heart out through his… no. It was pointless to even think of that sort of thing. Even if he got past Nappa, which was already impossible, Vegeta would crush him like a fly.
He had no choice.
"No, Your Grace," Raditz said as he lowered his gaze. "No problem at all. It should take me about a year to reach the backwater planet she's on." Vegeta grinned and stood up to clap Raditz on the shoulder.
"Good man," he told him while Raditz fought an urge to vomit. "Off you go, then. Try to bring her back peacefully. Don't want my queen damaged, do we?" Vegeta and Nappa laughed as Raditz trudged back off to his pod. As it took off, Raditz tried to imagine Kakarot. It was only then that he realized that he'd never actually seen his sister. Would she look like their mother, he wondered? What would she be like? Confused, alone, so separate and different. No one to answer her questions. No one to talk to if she'd done her job and killed them all.
"Well," he told himself as his pod made the jump to lightspeed, "At least I can give her that much." With that miniscule amount of comfort, he let the chemically-treated air of his pod bring him to sleep.
OoOoOoO
"Okay," Suno was telling Goku and Gohan as she stuffed a few last-minute things into her satchel before heading to work that morning, "So you guys are going to meet up with the gang at Kame House around noon and then I'll come by when I get off from work, okay?"
"Are you sure you can't come with us?" Goku asked with Gohan in her arms as she watched her wife race around the house.
"You know I'd love to," Suno reminded her gently, "But I couldn't get the time off. It'll only be a couple hours and then I'll be over. Besides, all our friends will be there. You won't even notice I'm gone!"
"Yes I will," Goku assured her with a sad puppy-dog look. Suno sighed and leaned up to give her a quick kiss and then gave Gohan a motherly peck on the cheek.
"Be nice to all your moms' friends, Gohan," Suno told the toddler as she ruffled his red hair.
"I will, mother," he told her and smiled. Suno grinned before turning her attention back to Goku.
"And you," she said with a stern playfulness as she poked Goku on the nose, "You stay out of trouble." Goku just grinned.
"Come on," she said, "It's me! What's the worst that could happen?"
OoOoOoO
Raditz was jostled awake by his battle pod crashing into the Earth. The pod's door opened with a hiss and he was hit in the face with clean, fresh air. He climbed slowly out of the pod as his heightened senses were bombarded with and adjusted to a barrage of sights, sounds and smells. He looked out over lush, green, breeze-blown fields and up into a bright, blue, cloud-filled sky.
"Hrm," Raditz muttered to himself as he tapped his scouter. "This doesn't look genocided at all." The scouter pinged with information as yellow numbers flitted across his eye. "Six billion?!" he went on with a disbelieving roll of his eyes. "Gods, Kakarot, were you even trying?" He finally turned to see the fat, bearded man in strange clothes waving some sort of weapon at him and babbling in a nonsense language. It took a few seconds for his natural Saiyan adaptability to pick up on and immediately translate it.
"Now git yur dagum space rocket offa mah prahperty afore ah–" he froze when Raditz stepped towards him and the man fired his weapon. Raditz threw a hand out to block the attack and was shocked when something solid hit his hand. His fingers wrapped around the rifle bullet and he stared at it for a long moment.
"Ho. Ly. SHIT!" Raditz burst out laughing. "Ballistics?! Is that what passes for a weapon on this planet?! You're throwing rocks at each other! How has my sister not killed you all?!" He laughed again and the fat man shot him again, right in the forehead to less than no effect. Without ever not laughing, he walked to the man, grabbed him by the front of the shirt, and casually flung him into space. "All right," Raditz said when he finally stopped laughing and tapped on his scouter, "Where the heck are you, baby sister?" His scouter pinged when it noticed the nearest high power level. "Three hundred and twenty two? Sweet Galick, what have you been doing, napping?!" He jumped with the intent to fly but couldn't repress the whoop of surprised glee as he soared up into the air. The gravity was so light here! It had to be a tenth of Vegeta's! He landed and, since it was so much fun, he took another big jump and laughed his head off. He landed on a rocky outcropping in a desert and dusted himself off. "Now then," he said to himself as he swept over the area with his scouter, "Where's that power level?"
"WHO DARES DISTURB MY MEDITATION?!" bellowed a deep voice from high above. Raditz looked up and cupped a hand over his eyes to see a wide-winged shadow on the sun. As the shadow descended and came more clearly into view, Raditz realize that they weren't wings at all. It was a cape and the shadow was…
"A Namekian?" Raditz muttered and scratched his head as the green man touched down. "The fuck are you doing out here? Your home planet's about a billion lightyears from here!"
"What's a Namekian?" the Namekian asked. "I am Piccolo the Demon King!" Raditz laughed again. Holy shit, his sister was stranded on the funniest planet in the universe. Maybe that's why she didn't kill them all.
"D-d-demon King?!" Raditz sputtered before the Namekian snarled and punched him in the face. Raditz kept right on laughing. "No, my green friend," he finally managed to say, "What you are is a slug far away from home with delusions of grandeur." He cracked his knuckles as the Namekian took a step back, "And I'm your reality check." The Namekian snarled again and charged at Raditz who blocked every attack so lazily he was worried he might fall asleep. Then the Namekian did a stupid-ass backflip and hit him in the face with some kind of blast. The Namekian looked rather pleased with himself until he saw Raditz dusting himself off and straightening his hair. "Yeah, yeah," Raditz said patronizingly, "So you can make a pretty light that makes a lot of noise. It's adorable. But if you actually wanna kill someone, you've gotta put something into it!" He raised his left hand high overhead and a ball of purple energy collected into his palm while lighting ran up and down his arm. "Let me show y–" he paused as his scouter pinged and he dropped his arm. "Huh," he muttered, "Three hundred thirty-four." Well, it was a little better. Gods, her muscles must be atrophied from this planet's soft gravity! "I'll have to kill you later, Demon King." Then Raditz rocketed off into the sky.
Piccolo wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead and looked down at his trembling hand. He… he almost died. Whoever that strange man was… Come to think of it, Piccolo realized, he had a tail. Just like–
"Son Goku," Piccolo muttered with narrowing eyes. He had a revolting suspicion that he knew exactly how today's events were going to unfold.
OoOoOoO
The patties and hot dogs sizzled as Yamcha manned the grill outside Kame house, mingled with the gentle crash of waves upon the shore. There was a picnic table set up under the shade of one of the palm trees and surf music played over the radio while Krillin sliced up lettuce, tomatoes, and a few watermelons with his katana. Turtle and Puar were setting up a volleyball net. Launch was inside the house preparing drinks and Bulma was helping. Although it sounded like awful loud and argumentative helping.
"You put the salt on after you make the drink!" Bulma was insisting.
"What kinda 'genius' are you?!" Launch shot back. "Then I'd get salt in the drink! You salt the glass before!"
Roshi, ever-helpful, was lounging in his beach chair, sipping a highball and reading a magazine.
"Good weather, good food, good company," he said as he flipped a page before taking a sip, "This was a pretty good idea, Krillin."
"Yeah," Krillin said with a nod as he wiped down his katana with a napkin. "I dunno why we didn't think of doing something like this sooner."
"We've all been busy with our lives and stuff," Yamcha reminded Krillin as he deposited the freshly-cooked barbecue onto an ever-growing platter that included more burgers and hot dogs plus ribs and chicken. One might say it was a lot of food and one would be correct. Except that Goku was coming so it only might be enough. "Oh, that reminds me," Yamcha said as he dumped an entire chain of sausage links onto the grill, "That white box I put in the fridge has some cupcakes Chi-Chi made. If I don't come back with an empty box–"
"You'll be in trouble?" Krillin assumed with a laugh.
"Oh, no," Yamcha told him, "I'll be fine. However, there is the distinct possibility that Chi-Chi maaaaaay hunt you down." Roshi and Krillin laughed… which slowly died when they realized Yamcha was being serious.
It was at this point that Launch came out of the house with a tray of drinks, Bulma shuffling behind her in something of a huff.
"So who else is comin'?" she asked as she walked around, giving drinks to Krillin, Yamcha, Puar, Turtle, and finally Bulma, smirking as she held it out of reach before handing it to the other woman who rolled her eyes and smirked right back.
"Well," Bulma started to say before taking a sip, "...damn it, that's good," she muttered with a smack of her lips before continuing, "You said Ten and Chaozu are–"
"Building a deck for the cabin," Launch reminded her. "Dunno why, Ten got some kinda crazy building bug. Probably just training in disguise. Shouldn't take them more than a couple hours."
"Right," Bulma said before moving on, "And Chi-Chi is…"
"Working," Yamcha replied before flipping the entire sausage chain at once. "We can't both take the day off. Kinda sucks but, y'know, that's what happens when you're basically a superhero." Bulma rolled her eyes.
"Riiiiight," she said dryly. "Suno's got work today, too, but she'll come by when she gets out, so that means the next person to show up is–"
"Look!" Puar shouted as he pointed up at the sky. Bulma was really getting tired of being interrupted. "It's Goku!" Everyone turned their eyes skyward and waved excitedly as the tell-tale yellow cloud came zooming down towards them.
"Goku!" they all cheered in unison as Nimbus came to a stop right on the shore. She had… a little kid sitting in front of her on Nimbus. The kid was wearing a blue-and-yellow striped shirt, blue shorts, red sneakers, and the four star Dragon Ball was hanging from a string around his neck. His hair was a bright shade of orange, practically red.
"Hey, everyone!" Goku said with a grin as she hopped down off the cloud. She turned and picked up the kid in her arms and they all saw a tail curling out from behind the kid to wrap around Goku's wrist. "What're you all staring at?" Goku asked as the kid looked at them shyly.
"Goku…" Launch started to say with a stunned expression on her face.
"Are… are you babysitting or what?" Yamcha asked.
Bulma, it should be said, was grinning from ear to ear.
"What?" Goku asked before looking at Gohan, whom they were all pointing to. "Oh! This is Gohan! He's my son!"
Krillin nearly fainted.
"Y-y-your son?!" he croaked. "But when? HOW?!" Goku scratched her head and thought as she set Gohan down.
"I don't remember," she admitted with a grin. Everyone but Bulma face-faulted as Gohan saw a crab and shuffled off, distracted by the animal. "Suno knows, you'll have to ask her when she get here. I know Bulma helped, though." Then she turned to Gohan as the others picked themselves up. "Say hi to everyone, Gohan!" Gohan stopped what he was doing and turned to bow respectfully to his mama's friends.
"Hello," he said shyly before he went back to studying the crab.
"He's adorable, Goku!" Launch cooed as she clapped her hands excitedly. Roshi chuckled and adjusted his sunglasses as he leaned on his cane.
"So y'named him after your grandpa," he said wistfully as he watched Gohan chase the crab. "He would've love to see this."
"Why," Yamcha said as he dug sand out of his ear and looked at Bulma, "Am I not surprised that you had something to do with this?" Bulma just kept on grinning.
"What," she asked, "You got something against true love?"
"True love," Yamcha shot back, "Or 'science'?"
"Yes." Yamcha groaned and rolled his eyes. He caught Goku heading towards the food table out of the corner of his eye and grinned. Some things never changed, at least.
"Whaddaya want, Goku," he asked. "We've got burgers, franks, chicken, ribs, all kinds of stuff." Goku stared at him, then back at the table, then back at him.
"Yyyyyes?" she said slowly. Krillin laughed.
"Well at least that's norm–" he started to say when a sudden sensation shot through all of the ki sensitive people, like a jolt of electricity through their brains. Even Bulma, who was as ki sensitive as a rock, could tell something was up. "You guys feel that?" Krillin asked nervously.
"Yeah," Goku said with a nod as she glared up at the sky, "Something's coming!" This power was huge. It was unlike anything she'd ever felt! "Gohan," she called sternly, "Get over here!" Gohan scampered over to Goku and instinctively hid behind his mama's leg.
"What is it?" Yamcha added as the fighters gathered together with Goku at their center, spatula still in his hand as they searched the sky.
"Whatever it is," Roshi muttered, "It's bad." He was reminded of his sister's fortune.
'I don't know how they'll be prepared in time.'
The seconds dragged by agonizingly as they waited for something… anything. Then suddenly there he was, a man in strange armor with enormous hair. He sneered at them in contempt with his arm folded across his chest and the water spraying behind him when he came to a sudden stop. Goku stared at him in shock. He was so fast! Where had he come from? Then her eyes drifted downward and she noticed… a tail?
"Hello," the man said as his gaze fixed on Goku, "Kakarot." Goku took a step back as he walked towards them and got into a guarded stance with Gohan safely behind her.
"Why did you call me that?" she asked. "My name's Goku."
"No," the man insisted as he came closer, "It's Kakarot. I would know. I'm your big brother, Raditz." The others stared at him in open-mouthed shock. "It's good to finally meet you, little sister."
"Wait," Goku interrupted, "If you're my brother, why haven't I seen you before?"
"Because I haven't been here before," Raditz explained. "I'm not from this planet. Neither are you. We're members of a race called Saiyans." The others gasped, except for Bulma.
"I coulda told you that," she muttered. Goku didn't know what that meant but she wasn't really paying attention to her. She watched Raditz's eyes find Gohan and her whole body tensed up as her son tried to hide even more.
"Is that your son?" Raditz asked as his eyes lit up. "Am I an uncle?!" He grinned for a moment before his face turned deadly serious and he pounded one fist into the other palm. "Show me where the father is so I can rip him in half."
"I'm not Gohan's mother," Goku explained. Raditz's brows furrowed in frustration.
"Don't lie to me, Kakarot, I can see his tail! Are you ashamed of your son?"
"Stop calling me Kakarot!" Goku said sharply. Why did he keep calling her that? "My name is Goku! Besides, Gohan's my son but I didn't have him. Suno did." Raditz blinked.
"Is Suno a woman?"
"Yup!" Goku said with sudden cheerfulness. "She's my wife."
"Huh," Raditz said before shrugging, "All righty."
"That's all you have to say?!" Bulma asked, sounding offended for some reason.
"Back on Planet Vegeta," Raditz explained, "It was common for pairings to be made based on strength or mutual attraction. Biological compatibility wasn't super important. That's why we had birthing chamber technology, after all." Then he put a finger to that funny device on his ear. "Hold on a second," he said while holding up a finger on the other hand. "Hey, Vegeta," he said suddenly, although it didn't look like he was talking to any of them, "There's a slight snag with your plan." Then a voice came out of Raditz's device; the angriest voice Goku had ever heard.
"What is it?" the angry voice demanded.
"My sister's more masculine than you," Raditz said with a grin.
"WHAT?!"
"She's impregnated someone. You haven't."
"I WILL RIP THE FLESH FROM YOUR BONES, YOU INSOLENT CUR!" Raditz laughed and pushed a button, apparently hanging up on Vegeta.
"Who's Vegeta?" Goku asked.
"I thought that was the planet," Launch added.
"It's both. You'll find out soon enough," Raditz said sourly. He didn't seem to like Vegeta, whoever he was. "Short version: A fucking dickhead."
"Hey!" Krillin barked. "Watch the language around the kid!" Raditz held up his hands apologetically.
"You're right," he admitted, "My mistake." Then something flicked out as quick as a flash, cracking like a whip as it struck Krillin on the chin, sending him flying through Kame House to skip across the water like a stone. "How's that for fuckin' language?!" It was only when Goku saw Raditz's tail wrap back around his waist that she realized he'd hit Krillin with it. She hadn't even seen the attack!
"Raditz!" Goku snapped as she advanced towards him while Yamcha flew off to get Krillin. "I don't know why you're here but you need to leave, now!" Brother or not, he was being a real jerk!
"I don't understand," Raditz said with a shake of his head, "None of this makes sense! Why are these people alive? Why don't you know your mission? Why don't you know your name?!"
"My name is Goku!" she said stubbornly. "What mission? What are you talking about?"
"When you were put into the pod that brought you to this planet," Raditz explained, "There should have been a message played over and over, telling you who and what you were and what your mission was. You were supposed to wipe out every life form on this planet."
"What?!" Goku cried in horror. That was awful! How could she ever do something like that?!
"It's not that big a deal," Raditz said casually. "I've killed a few planets. It's what we do. We kill a planet's people and then that planet is sold to someone else." His frustration returned as he glared at her, "I just don't get it! How could you not remember? Were you hit on the head or something?" Goku chewed her lip in thought. Had she? She had a fuzzy memory from when she was very little of falling a long way down.
"Come to think of it," Roshi spoke up suddenly, "When Gohan sent me his first few letters about you, he mentioned how much of an ornery fussbudget you were. Then one day you took a bad spill in a ravine and hit your head. When you woke up, you were as gentle as a lamb." Something about that really seemed to bother Raditz.
"I can't believe it," he spat. "This planet's entire population owes its existence to your soft head." He threw his hands up in exasperation. "Fine, here's why I'm here. We are two of the only Saiyans left in the universe after someone destroyed our planet. I have two associates and I need you to come with me. We need you to help pay back the one who destroyed our race." Goku frowned. That sounded important, but...
"Your friends," she said thoughtfully, "Do they kill people, too?"
"Oh yeah," Raditz said flippantly. "Nappa's killed a few hundred million and Vegeta? He has to have cracked a billion by now." Goku glowered and balled up her fists. How could she be the same race as such awful people?
"Then I don't want anything to do with you or them!" she declared resolutely. For half a second, Raditz looked genuinely sad. Then he sighed and something hit Goku hard enough to knock her to the ground. She gasped with pain and held a hand to her chest. Even Piccolo didn't hit this hard!
"Mama!" Gohan cried out in distress as he ran to be at her side. Raditz snatched him up by the nape of his neck and hauled him up into the air while Gohan kicked and flailed and cried and screamed.
"I'll give you twenty-four hours," he told her bluntly. "Kill one hundred people or come with me. If you won't do either, I'll wipe out this planet and take Gohan with me instead."
"Give me back my son!" Goku insisted painfully as she tried to sit up. "Give him back..." she repeated weakly as she fell back into the sand.
"Twenty-four hours," Raditz repeated coldly. "In the meantime, I think little Gohan here needs to bond with Uncle Raditz." Then he rocketed off into the sky as Gohan screamed.
"Gohan!" Goku cried in despair. But he was already gone. She slammed her fists angrily down into the sand before the others moved to help her up. How could she let this happen to her son?
"Are you alright?" Yamcha asked as he and Bulma hauled Goku up to her feet.
"I'll be fine," Goku insisted with a wince before looking skyward. "Nimbus!" The cloud flew back down and Krillin put a hand on Goku's arm.
"Are you sure you wanna fight him by yourself?" he asked.
"Yeah," Launch added, "I'll call Ten and Chaozu, get them over here. I bet the six of us–"
"Will die," came a stern voice from above. They all looked up to see Piccolo descending towards them.
"Great," Bulma muttered, "From bad to worse."
"I've seen this Raditz," Piccolo said as he landed and walked towards them. "Your five stupid friends will die without so much as scratching his armor. The only chance you have…" Piccolo paused and seemed visibly disgusted with what he said next, "Is to work with me."
"Fine," Goku said firmly. "Whatever it takes."
"WHAT?!" the others cried out in unison.
"He's right," Goku was forced to admit. "The only way I can save my son is to work with Piccolo." She turned to Bulma and held out her hand, "Give me the Dragon Radar. I can use it to find him." Bulma nodded and handed Goku the Radar from her shaking hands. Then she turned away from her friends and climbed onto Nimbus. She glowered at him and he glowered right back, the both of them flying off.
"Can they win?" Launch asked as the group watched them leave.
"They'd better," Roshi muttered. "We can't."