Chapter 7: You're Hired.
(7 months after Goku's death)
The 3 months it had taken Gohan and Raditz to reach Frieza planet 3, the lowest number planet still believed to be intact, passed by like a long, dreamless night's sleep.
Unfortunately that was in the past now, the moment he had awoken, fear immediately began to build up in the pit of Raditz's stomach. There was no such thing as a good meeting with Frieza for a Saiyan; they nearly always ended in torture of some sort.
This time though he didn't have Vegeta for Frieza to focus on, it was merely him and his earthling raised nephew, who seemingly only had two personas, scared helplessness and berserker rage. Either response was likely to worsen any sort of 'fun' Frieza would have planned for them.
"This visit is going to be great, the brat's probably going to get us both killed." Raditz mumbled to himself, as he exited his pod.
He immediately walked over and pulled the still sleeping child from his pod, "Wake up brat!" He shouted before giving the boy a few light snacks to the face to make sure he was fully awake.
Gohan immediately began crying because he had never been awoken in such a violent manner before. "Where... Am I?" He managed to ask between whimpers after being shaken violently for crying for more than a few seconds.
"We're on this quadrant's capital planet; I'm presenting you to Frieza." Raditz said bluntly as he began walking towards the exit of the landing pad. A scowl stretched across his face to hide his own inner fear. If the kid knew to be afraid, things would get more annoying, and potentially deadly.
That was when Gohan remembered the last thing Vegeta said to him,
"Listen boy, I don't want to kill your mother but I have to, Frieza orders us to wipe out a planet and that's what we have to do. Do you know why? We have to because Frieza is currently the most powerful being the universe, which means he's in charge. If you want to be the one to decide who lives and who dies, you only have one option, become as strong as possible, without strength anything you love can be taken from you at any moment."
Gohan suddenly felt a mixture of emotions rush through him rage, grief, hopelessness; He needed to save his mommy; if she was even still alive.
When that thought shot through him, fear added itself to that mix; tears began to well up in the corners of his eyes as he forced himself to ask the question he didn't want to know the answer to. "Is...Is my mommy still alive?"
Raditz felt a shiver run up his spine, that was a dangerous question, if he told an uncensored version of the truth the boy would most likely kill him and attempt to escape in an attempt to save her, on the other hand if he lied and told him that his mother was dead it could make the boy display his other persona, a crying mess, which would simple get them both killed by Frieza.
He finally decided on a strategy, confuse the boy with numbers "It took us 4 months to go from your home world to planet 66 and it's been roughly 3 months since we left planet 66. Vegeta and Nappa are heading to Arlia which is in a similar direction but not exactly the same one and will arrive in 2 months, from there is just a 3 month trip to your planet. It would take you 7 months to reach your world and Vegeta will get there in 5, you're not saving your mom kid." Raditz said bluntly, hoping the kid would just accept things as they had to be.
Gohan thought about it, re-doing the simple math in his head over and over again. Raditz had now come to a complete stop as he waited for the boy's response, fear began to build that he had been too blunt. When finally the boy responded, a quiet whisper, "Noooo." before beginning to sob.
"Damn it boy, your tears will solve nothing!" Raditz angrily shouted, catching Gohan off guard. His sobs quieted to sniffing for a moment, "Yes you will never see your old family again, that sucks I know, I only got too see my father 3 times my whole life before our home world was destroyed." Raditz said intending to bring up his own painful past in an attempt to undo the damage he had unintentionally done.
Gohan looked up at the being he hated more than anyone in the universe, and actually felt a pang of sympathy for him.
Raditz grabbed both of the scouters and tossed them behind a nearby rock, he didn't need to worry about Vegeta or Frieza killing him if they overheard what he was about to tell the boy, "If you want to avenge you parent's deaths you have to help us… Go-han" Raditz was still uncomfortable with his nephew's very un-Saiyan name.
"I'm going to let you in on a secret, Frieza is the root cause of the pain we all feel, He's responsible for everyone we've cared about being taken away, directly or indirectly." Raditz's voice barely above a whisper, he now had Gohan's complete and utter attention.
"Everyone says Frieza was the one to blow up our home world, planet Vegeta, which with all the planet's he's destroyed just in the time I've been a part if the organization, I can't, not believe what they say. It's too much up his alley. He has taken my mother and father from me, Vegeta's parents the King and Queen, he stole Nappa's mate and son from him, and he is the reason I had to kill your father and Vegeta will kill your mother." The Saiyan warrior rationalized, he ignored the fact the boy's father still would've died for treason if the Saiyan royalty was still around.
Gohan stared at his uncle, replaying his last words in his head, comparing them to what Vegeta had told him earlier. It seemed to make sense, but he still wasn't sure why his parent's had to die. "But why, why did he do all these awful things? Why do you have to obey him? Why don't you stop him?"
Raditz had to give it to the kid out of all the weak, noble fools he had killed in his time, the kid, a half-Saiyan no doubt, was by far the most naïve of them all.
"The answer to the first question is the answer to the others; He's the strongest being in the universe. We Saiyan's love to fight, especially against strong opponents, but we're not suicidal. He could kill any of us at any time without any effort. Hell the only reason he keeps us alive is because he finds us entertaining" He almost spit the last word out before continuing "Especially Vegeta." He paused for a moment trying to decide just how much he was going to tell the boy.
Finally he continued "That doesn't mean we aren't trying, I was trying to recruit your father to help us in our mission of revenge. He needed to finish his mission first though so Frieza would accept him joining our group. He refused and so turned his back on his people, proving he had completely abandoned his honor." Raditz growled quietly at the thought
"So we brought you instead to help us, because we aren't strong enough by ourselves. We need your help to not only get revenge for our race, but to also put an end of us bothering with weak world's like your own. Like Vegeta said we're only interested in fighting strong warriors." Raditz hated to admit it, but they weren't strong enough, they would need all of them working together to get strong enough to take on the top missions, it would be the only way for one of them to achieve the legendary transformation and get revenge on Frieza for his atrocities against the Saiyan race.
Gohan just stared up his uncle, his head spinning, it sounded like a twisted version of the stories his daddy used to tell him about stopping the evil King Piccolo, the biggest villain to ever attack the Earth, to avenge the death of his friend. Was his father really so similar to these men, he fought the biggest threat to a single planet, but from what his uncle said they were fighting the biggest threat to the universe, and apparently they couldn't do it alone.
An inner struggle began to stir within Gohan, part of him had always wanted to be a hero like his father, but the way these men were doing it seemed wrong, his dad had told him he just kept fighting and training until he won, that you could never give up.
"Vegeta was right when he said we're your family now, we're the only ones left that would fight to avenge your death. We are all soldiers fighting against Frieza, even if we have to obey him for the time being. We're the only one's doing any preparing to resist him. So we need you to play along for now, you might hate us, that's fine, as long as you help us, and obey me for the time being." Raditz finished, adding the last bit in because it would be useful in the long run, and because he was tired of being low man on the totem pole.
Gohan was lost in thought as wrong as the way they were going about it felt. He couldn't help but think if what his uncle was saying was true, if they really were preparing to fight the monster who was the root cause of all the pain and suffering he and his family had been exposed to recently, how could he refuse to help them. He needed to be like his father and save those who couldn't save themselves, he needed to be the strongest like his daddy used to be, but instead of being the strongest on the planet, he needed to become the strongest in the universe, just like Vegeta had said.
A look of resolve crept across his face, as he looked his uncle right in the eye's "I'll help, I'll avenge my family."
Raditz just smiled, he had done it, and he had truly recruited the boy to the group. Now all he had to do was make sure the boy played the part of the good, obedient soldier, and they would hopefully get out of this with just the usual torture.
"Good" Raditz said as he sat the boy down allowing him to walk besides him, "I'll let you know what to expect from Frieza." He continued as he handed Gohan back his scouter, "He will most likely test you though pain, usually he keeps it to just beatings, though sometimes he does enjoy shooting piercing beams through your limbs" Purposely avoiding some of Frieza's more creative tactics.
"Nothing that a few hours in a healing tank won't fix though, you just have to tough it out and show no fear, that'll only make it worse. We've all been through it and have only gotten stronger because of it." Raditz said, disappointed that the boy's resolve seemed to have completely faltered at the idea of pain.
Gohan was shaken slightly by the idea of having holes in his arms and legs; he did his best to not show it like Nappa had told him to. He couldn't completely hide it though.
They took a few more steps before the boy spoke up, "I don't know if I want to meet this Freezer guy, can't you guys just not tell him about me?" Gohan asked his fear continuing to build the more he thought about it.
Raditz was thankful the landing pad was deserted no doubt due to the fact everyone on the planet was either orbiting Frieza attempting to gain favor or hiding due to the fact they valued their own lives. Otherwise the boy's behavior would cause the Saiyan race to deal with more shame due to the child's un-Saiyan disposition.
"That's too bad, I don't want to either but I have to because I thought you might of some use as one of the last of our race instead of killing you, now calm yourself as long as you only speak when spoken to and don't give any answers that displeases him we should be mostly fine." 'Or at least as one can be in the presence of Frieza.' The last part Raditz kept in his head for the sake of calming the boy down, and it seemed to work, as Gohan tried to be strong and work through his fear.
They then resumed their walk towards the main building complex of the base; for the most part it looked like most other PTO bases, though this was one of the few that was actually surrounded a large inhabited city. This world was the main technological capital of this quadrant of the galaxy. It was so important that rumor had it that this was where Frieza decided to have the Ginyu Force make their home base, just so the world was protected.
As they were walking through the outskirts of the city towards the base the boy kept oohing and awing at all of the tall buildings, impressive statues, mostly of Frieza, and other technological marvels.
For a child raised in the back country, who had never even seen a city before it was an extra impressive sight. All of his sadness and fear temporarily melted away as he got to just be a kid on his first visit to the city.
Raditz couldn't marvel at the sights, not that they really impressed him anyway he had destroyed too many similar cities to care about wealth; the only thing that impressed him was power, which Frieza has plenty of, the tyrant made sure to remind them of that fact nearly every time they saw him. It was that same power that had had Raditz terrified for the upcoming presentation.
At least the boy was no longer weeping like he had half expected him to be even after the boy had pledged to help, maybe the boy had some Saiyan pride in him after all. Though there would be plenty of time to shed tears afterwards.
Finally they arrived, Raditz immediately checked in with Zarbon's secretary. Since Zarbon for all intents and purposes acted as Frieza's secretary, he was responsible for scheduling all visits with the ruler of half the planet trade organization and therefore the galaxy.
Though since Frieza's right hand man had an even lower opinion of Saiyans than his master, he refused to directly associate with them unless absolutely necessary, leading him of have a secretary of his own, specifically for the Saiyans.
The small green amphibious alien laughed at Raditz for even requesting a meeting with Frieza, but told "I'll pass it on incase the boss is looking to do some exterminating."
Raditz was furious but bit his tongue, Zarbon's secretary had proven to be stronger than himself the last time they came to blows, and although he was much stronger now, didn't want to have Zarbon give him any extra punishment, before he could even meet with Frieza.
"Fine whatever." was all he could say as he decided to vent his frustrations the only way he could on a world where most of the beings around him were still stronger than himself; by heading to the mess hall, even the meager rations they were allowed would be better than facing Frieza on an empty stomach.
Gohan's childish trance, which had continued the entire time since he was out of the landing pads as he watch hundreds of soldiers of different species rush back and forth, ended abruptly when he smell the stench of the gruel that served as rations even at the best of the solder mess halls. The smell was less like the food his mom made for him and more like a well of raw sewage had burst into the room.
Gohan could barely keep from gagging from the noxious odors that assaulted his highly developed sense of smell. He was hoping they would just be passing through on their way to some other cool, less smelly place; his hopes were immediately dashed when they got in a line with an assortment of aliens.
"Can we leave?" He asked his voice nasally as both his hands clung to his nose.
Raditz for his part had nearly forgot the boy was still with him, he had been too busy dreaming of teaching the mouthy amphibian his place. "No we can't, I'm hungry, so we're eating." He responded his tone intended to cut off further discussion so he could go back to not focusing on the boy and instead on something to distract him from what might quite possibly his date with death itself sometime in the near future.
But Gohan wouldn't be ignored so easily, "I don't wanna eat here its stinky" He whined as the vein began to pop out on Raditz's temple. The boy's spoiled ways were beginning to rear their ugly head once more.
Raditz refused to tolerate such backtalk, especially in front of the other soldiers, they already saw him as a weakling and therefore a laughing stock, he would be damned if he was going to let them see him as subservient to a child as well.
In a flash he grabbed the boy by the throat and brought him up to his face, which was now locked in a snarl, "Did you just talk back to me!" Raditz nearly shouted, he didn't especially want to call more attention to himself than was necessary, "I said I was hungry so I'm going to eat, just for your insolence, I will be eating your ration too boy. Am I clear?" His voice dropping to more of a growl than anything at that point.
Gohan just stared wide eyed, he was slowly being robbed of air, he was so scared he nearly wet himself, he slowly nodded his head as much as he could, this was a complete reversal of how his Uncle had treated him just a short time before.
When he was set down once more, both his own hands rushed to his throat as he began to cough, and whimper, much to some of the planetary pirates' around them amusement.
Gohan sat their shaking as his anger began to build not just at his uncle for attacking him but at the others surrounding them as well. Adults were supposed to help you when you're in trouble, but instead these people just laughed at him. His began to approach his breaking limit, setting all of the solder's scouters off in the entire mess hall.
Most had stopped laughing and started to stare at the boy, analyzing if the boy might in fact be a threat to any of them. A few of the weaker ones back off as a precautionary measure, Vegeta's childhood tantrums were still infamous among the planet trade even to that day.
"Gohan! Calm down this instant." Raditz ordered, snapping the boy out of his rage fill trance, his eyes still burned with white hot fury though as he glared at his Uncle.
Raditz bent down and got his face close to the boy, close enough that only he could hear him, "You can try and get revenge on them for laughing now if you'd like, but just so you know, I'm not strong enough to keep any of them from killing you if you pick the wrong fight, if your anger is directed towards me, remember you gave me your word that you would obey me for the time being, and it was your back talk that caused me to grab you." Raditz's reminder actually calmed Gohan down some; he was now more simmering now than outright furious.
He still stayed silent all throughout the meal, even though he was starting to get hungry as he watched his mean uncle eat both his and his own portions of some sort of grey gruel.
The silence continued all the way until they were registered into a room in the barracks. As soon as the door closed Gohan decided to voice his displeasure "You're mean." It was a fact he already knew because this was the monster who killed his dad, and stole him from his mom, but he felt the need to remind him.
Raditz response only added fuel to the boys slowly re-building anger, "What was your first clue brat." he chuckled before laying down on the Spartan cot provided in the room.
Gohan's anger began to overtake him again; he was going to teach his uncle that he couldn't just treat him like this, especially if he was going to help them.
That was when Raditz surprised him, "Calm down and eat up." Raditz said as he threw a few of the emergency ration crackers he had been carrying with him to Gohan. 'Just need to keep him calm enough to get through this meeting.' He thought to himself as he continued to manipulate the child in an attempt to strike a balance between his emotions.
Gohan looked down at the crackers in his hand, before he could say anything in response to the unexpected gift, his stomach answered for him with a loud growl.
"Just eat up, and try to get some rest, we don't know how long they'll keep us waiting." With that Raditz began to try to go to sleep.
Gohan had just begun to eat the meager amount of crackers when suddenly a voice rang through his left ear, "Will the monkey known as Raditz please report to Frieza's chamber. Oh and bring the monkey brat with you." The voice taunted on the verge of laughter.
Raditz's blood ran cold, his moment of reckoning had come, whether he lived or died during the next hour was now entirely in the hands of his unstable, half-breed nephew.
"Come on brat we have to hurry." Raditz said fear evident in his voice, Frieza usually made them wait much longer than this to see him, this wasn't a good sign, besides the longer Frieza waited for you the longer the torture lasted.
The fear Raditz was emanating only managed to ignite Gohan's fear worse than it was before. 'What sort of monster is this Frieza guy?'
Raditz weaved his way nearly across the entire complex before finally arriving at the tyrant's chambers.
Just outside the door Zarbon's amphibious assistant waited a foreboding smirk on his face, "Have fun in there you two, Lord Frieza's in a great mood today." The alien said before rapidly expanding his chest repeatedly in his species form of laughter.
Raditz could feel the adrenaline rushing through his veins; Frieza was bad enough when he was in a good mood. He tried to hide it better this time to avoid further alarming the boy, by growling at his amphibious tormentor as he pushed past him through the doors.
As they entered the dimly lit room, Gohan felt the hairs on the back of his neck, and along his tail, stand straight up. There was definitely a dark energy to the room; the evil had seemingly permeated it so deeply it felt as if all the good in the universe had suddenly vanished.
It took a combination of all of his will power, and his uncle's vice like grip on his arm to keep him from fleeing the room immediately.
Raditz felt a similar urge to flee but he knew it would do nothing except shame himself and likely get him killed since Frieza and his body guards were much, much faster than he could hope to outrun, not even prince Vegeta was fast enough to block their blows with any consistency. So he decided he had to play it to the end and chanted "long live lord Frieza." Before dropping to a knee bowing as he forced Gohan to follow his lead.
"Ah so my monkey prince has sent his monkey joker to entertain me today, how kind." Frieza said without turning around his voice so calm and refined, that Gohan had a hard time believing he was the source of the evil energy, or that what was being said was actually an insult.
The alarm bells in Raditz's head were ringing too loud for him to even be angry at the insult. Frieza was testing him, trying to get a response, if he answered wrong the best case scenario he would have is a long torture session, if he escaped with his life
While his mind still reeling with the new implications the new threat to his life posed, he heard something that surprised him, his own voice perfectly calm responded "if that is what my lord wishes I would gladly try, though before we begin may I be allowed to complete my mission first." His voice much more humble than was normal for a Saiyan. 'Maybe all of those years of being beaten are finally paying off' Raditz thought as his body responded basically on autopilot.
Frieza's chair whipped around the being sitting in had a face full of shock and amusement. He was by far one of the scariest aliens Gohan had seen so far as he cringed slightly at the sight.
Frieza acted as if he hadn't even noticed the him yet "My a monkey pretending to have manners, this is too much Ahaha!" Frieza shouted before bursting into laughter. Both his body guards, a stout pink being with short horns and spikes sticking out and several places along his body and a feminine looking blue alien with green hair both broke into quiet chuckles of their own.
Raditz had slowly pulled himself out of his near trance like state and was slowly getting angry as the laughing continued. Finally when felt he could take it no more Frieza's laughter began to die down, "I suppose I can humor you my monkey, please continue." Frieza said his voice still so crisp it was starting to unnerve Gohan; there was obviously some insanity beneath the polite, elegant exterior, it shone through when he laughed.
Raditz gulped before continuing, "As you see Lord Frieza, recently I learned there was a chance my brother was alive and set out to find him, although he had never contacted us indicating success on his mission. I found him still on his world serving as the planet's protector and attempted to re-recruit him to his mission. He refused and I was force to kill him for his treachery."
Frieza face didn't betray anything about what was going through his head during the first part of the obviously well-rehearsed retelling of the story, inside he was furious that another Saiyan had survived without his knowing. But when Raditz said the other Saiyan had died by his own brother's hand a small smirk crossed his face. He had long wished his father would allow him to kill his own sibling, but to no avail. He was suddenly curious as to where the child had come from though.
"All done exactly as you should've, I have one question though, if you brother is dead who is the monkey cub sitting behind you? I was lead to believe that all the she-monkeys had died in the... meteor, was I mis-informed" Frieza said he couldn't help allow his smirk to turn into a small grin as he remembered the destruction he caused the Saiyan home world.
Raditz felt his blood run cold, it was bad enough when Frieza was glaring, but when he smiled, I usually meant something incredibly painful was on the way.
His tongue suddenly ran dry with the thought of tortures past, he quickly shook it off and forced himself to respond, "All of the women of my race have died my lord; the child is a half breed."
Frieza for his part seemed almost relieved; he had initially been worried that the insufferable King Vegeta had actually done something intelligent, such as made a secret colony. But no just a lost, disillusioned low-level going native.
The whole thing actually had a positive effect one monkey ended up killing another and wiping out an entire planet of other monkeys so he and the others couldn't repopulate their race. 'Stupid monkeys shooting themselves in the foot every time something almost goes their way.' Frieza thought as he stifled a laugh.
His euphoria was interrupted though when he remembered the Saiyan had never actually said anything about wiping the planet clean. A frown quickly reformed on his face, the dirty monkey might have just tried to pull a fast one on him.
His faithful servant Zarbon was thinking along similar lines and decided to investigate the situation further. "So how long did you take a pitiful weakling like yourself to wipe the world clean of all of that trash poluting its surface?" A taunting sneer across his face, disdain thick in his voice, both expertly hiding the fact he was digging for information.
Raditz tried to stutter an answer but his voice had completely failed him "I… uhh...well…"
With each word Raditz uttered, Frieza's glare became colder and colder.
Raditz was finally able to force himself to speak complete thoughts instead of random words, "You see I thought it was more important to bring the child to you while I had him under control he is fairly powerful, more so than my weakling brother so I didn't want him damaging my ship while I wiped the planet out." When Frieza's glare didn't lighten any he quickly added "Vegeta and Nappa are going to finish the world off now."
"Dodoria what's the boy's power level?" the ruler of over half of the galaxy asked, the venom so thick in his voice it could be cut with a knife.
The giant pink being, pressed the button his scouter and started laughing, "It's just under 100 sire.
As soon as Dodoria finished speaking a single red beam shot out from Frieza's finger piercing straight through Raditz's stomach. blasting open a large wound, that would be potentially fatal if not treated soon.
Frieza rose from his chair and slowly floated over to the writhing, bleeding form of Raditz.
He would simply kill the monkey-child and then torture the planet's location from the useless being that now bled on his throne room floor. Then he would kill him in as painful a way as he could conceive, before going to this new monkey world to blow it up himself.
Gohan stared up at Frieza in horror. Frieza just glared back irritated, before turning his attention back to Raditz on the ground; wanting to make sure he could see the other monkey's death.
"Do you take me for a fool? Vegeta and Nappa both going to purge a planet that weak unless ordered ha! No they are going there to try and rebuild your filthy species, you should've just wiped the planet out instead of trying to pass this worthless child off as reason to keep the planet ar-" Frieza's rant was cut off by a weak, shaky voice
"Damn that would've been a good idea." Raditz paused as he coughed up blood. Before continuing, "Unfortunately as far as I know what I have said is the truth, they are going to wipe the planet clean, and the boy is much stronger than he appears, if he gets angry his power soars." Raditz choked out laying all his cards on the table as a last ditch effort to save his life.
Frieza was shocked, beings didn't interrupt him, especially when he had already shot a hole through them, normally they just begged for mercy. His gaze shifted from one of fury to mild interest, "I'll just see about that my monkey joker." His last words returning to the same tone he had had when they had first entered the room.
Frieza set his sights back on the boy who was shaking uncontrollably. "Go on then show me your power little monkey."
Gohan was paralyzed with fear.
Frieza waited just a second more before lashing out, lightly, with his tail, sending Gohan back into a wall.
"Are you angry yet, monkey, come on show me your power." Frieza goaded as his seemingly teleported across the room, back in front of Gohan who was just sitting back up from the from Gohan's perspective, powerful blow.
Frieza appearing in front of him caused him to try and scurry away on all fours, much to Frieza's amusement.
He didn't make it very far before Frieza grabbed him by his now unwrapped tail and threw him across the room again.
"I'm giving you a chance to live, just show me this strength your monkey uncle claims you possess." Frieza continued to taunt.
Gohan was struggling to rise, he was angry, but his fear was dampening out his rage, he was just a child he shouldn't have to be taking a beating from some sort of monster.
"Not going to play nice and show me your power, oh well, goodbye you dirty monkey mutt." Frieza said charging up a small death beam and firing it at the boy, the beam should be enough to kill even a child as weak as the one before him slowly, making it as painful as possible, nothing else would do for the vermin of the universe.
Gohan saw the red beam shooting his way, and his young life flashed before his eyes, unbeknownst to him, the need his body had to resist the call of death was able to pull his inner power from him. Subconsciously he body lunged upwards with all of his might. The beam scalding the very tip of his tail, causing him to yelp in pain.
The four scouters in the room sounding simultaneously, although Raditz was in no condition to even open his eye's enough to see the reading, he knew that the fact he had heard the pinging of the scouter registering the spike, Gohan had finally awoken his strength. Now he only had to hope it would be impressive enough to save their lives.
To say Frieza was shocked was an understatement, the boy whose power wasn't even 100 a moment ago, not only was able to dodge his attack, but the scouter said his strength spiked up near 3000.
"I can't believe it the boy's power is at 2940, the fool was right." Zarbon responded, surprised that the boy was so powerful at such a young age, the only Saiyan he knew of that was stronger that young was Prince Vegeta himself, who had a power level just shy of 5000 when he arrived in Frieza's 'care'.
Frieza mouth shifted to a small smirk, 3000 was a power level high enough that the boy could serve as adequate entertainment for when he finally had to put his favorite monkey prince down.
"The boy shall live." Frieza declared as he floated lazily back towards his chair. His mood going from anger to near euphoria once more.
Gohan for his part was sucking on the tip of his tail trying to make the burning feeling stop, tears dripping from his eyes due to the pain.
'Lord Frieza, what do you want us to do with the monkeys besides letting the boy live?" Zarbon asked as his master floated past him.
"Simple, Dodoria take the manned monkey to a rejuvenation chamber, when he is healed, torture the location of the boy's planet from him and then gather your team. Make sure my dear prince isn't up to any monkey business." Frieza paused a moment to admire his own sense of humor before continuing.
"Zarbon in the meantime, please give the boy a proper welcome to the planet trade." Frieza's voice was almost singing it was filled with such happiness and joy, but beneath it Gohan could still hear the insanity that told him that the welcome was going to be a painful experience.
He was proven right just as the thoughts crossed his mind, a large blue fist imbedded itself in his stomach, forcing all the air from his lungs.
Zarbon the proceeded to play a game of tennis with Gohan's still accelerating body as he was smacked in a variety of random directions over and over again. The sound of his grunts and yells of pain, were completely drowned out though by Frieza's sadistic laughter.
The game continued until the gracious arms of blackness were about to swallow Gohan whole.
Zarbon wasn't going to be merciful enough to let his fun end there, after pausing a moment let the boy wake back up some. He then proceeded to fire a series of small compact energy blasts charring numerous small spots all over Gohan's body.
Gohan was screaming in agony, the 'introduction wasn't over yet though, as Zarbon proceeded to slowly, methodically break every one of the bones in the boy's tail.
When he was done Gohan just lay there whimpering in such pain he couldn't even try and move any more.
He hated them all, he now knew that his uncle was right Frieza and his Lieutenants were pure evil, but his hate didn't just extend to them, he was also furious with his uncle for making him go through this.
Frieza quickly got bored with the boys whimpering, "That'll do Zarbon, take the boy to a healing chamber." Frieza said before turning his chair back the other way once more.
Zarbon immediately picked the boy up by his tail once more, Gohan was in too much pain to even scream, as he was carried all the way back to the hospital wing, by his shattered tail, the broken remains of his scouter falling unceremoniously to the ground, after miraculously staying on his face through the entire beating.
When Raditz was pulled from the healing chamber by the powerful arm of Dodoria, his eyes were still adjusting the bright lights around him; the pain in his stomach told him he had been pulled very early in the healing process.
He saw Gohan form floating in a healing chamber by the door as they exited. Not a single word was spoken, but by the smile on Dodoira's face he knew he would not enjoy what awaited them at their destination.
He was proven right the next few hours were some of the worst of his miserable life, as Dodoria continued to torture him for the information he had tried to give him within a few minutes of entering the chamber.
The day would end with Raditz's body completely broken, being prepared to take another long dip in the healing tank.
Dodoria and his men left the atmosphere speeding towards Gohan's home, on the newest, fastest ships in the entire PTO, before the doctors could even manage to get Raditz's mangled body submerged in the powerful healing solution.
(On Earth 10 months after Goku's death)
Krillin stood behind a large rock suppressing his power as low as he could while he tried to catch his breath for even just a moment. 'How do I always get in these situations?' Krillin thought to himself his mind flashing back through the day's events.
(flashback)
Piccolo had decided today was the day to remind everyone just what it was like to fight someone clearly superior to themselves.
"You've all become complacent with your training." Piccolo said his voice ripe with irritation
"Just because some of you are able to put up a decent fight against me when I'm split in four doesn't mean you're anywhere near ready to fight the Saiyans." The head of the demon school shouted at the warriors around him.
"So I think it's time I remind you all what it's like to fight an opponent far out of your league." The grin on Piccolo's face caused Krillin's heart to begin pounding in his ears; a smiling Piccolo was usually a forecast for pain and suffering for them all.
"Each of you will fight me one on one, as a reminder of how far behind you all really are. Who wants to go first?" He finished his speech and looked through the group waiting for a volunteer.
Since Tien had kept his clear advantage over Krillin and Yamcha, he inwardly sighed, 'Might as well go first'
"You ready for this Piccolo, I'm not going to hold back." The three eyed martial artist goaded as he stared his enemy, turned temporary teacher, down, projecting a confidence he didn't really feel.
Tien knew he was in the trouble before the fight even began, He could defeat one of Piccolo's clones with ease, but now he'd be fighting a being at least four times stronger than that.
"I would hope not, this fight would be even more boring if you did." Piccolo responded, feigning contempt. In truth he was ready to show the closest thing to a rival there was among his students, the true extent of his might.
In a flash they were gone from the previous locations, both appeared towards the middle, though closer to Tien's starting spot than Piccolo's, one arm extended apiece.
As soon as their fists met, a massive shock wave shook the valley; Tien immediately felt his arm go numb as the power from Piccolo's blow worked its way up his arm shocking his nerve endings. This was not the way the triclops wanted to start the fight.
Piccolo smirked, and while Tien was coming to grips with being down an arm only seconds into the fight, the son of the demon king unleashed a powerful right hook into his opponent's chest, sending the strongest of the human martial artists flying.
What followed next made the first blow seem like a flea's bite, as Piccolo vanished from his spot and appeared behind Tien, arms already back and ready to deliver a vicious ax-handle.
Tien didn't even have time to realize that Piccolo was behind him, everything was happening so fast.
When the blow hit, right between Tien's shoulder blades, his entire torso bent painfully inwards as he was launched back towards the ground.
The others could only watch in horror as their friend, and de facto leader crashed into the ground with astonishing speed.
"Tien NO!" Chiaotzu yelled, having to fight off the urge to rush to his best friend's aid. He had done so once before, and they had both suffered the consequences.
"Come on now, I know you're not done yet." Piccolo's gruff voice rang out after a moment of waiting for his 'student' to appear, arms crossed, curious as to what his adversary was planning.
His unasked question was answered just a moment later as a massive triangular blast shot up from the rubble.
Piccolo didn't have time to adequately dodge, he had let his guard slip too much in his over-confidence, so he simply crossed his arms and braced for impact.
The resulting explosion was massive, it shook the ground for miles around, but when the smoke cleared, Piccolo was revealed mostly unharmed, just some smoke billowing off his ruined tunic.
"All that waiting for that? I'll at least give you-" Piccolo started to taunt before being interrupted by "Dodon Ray!" a single beam of light shot up from a now standing, but thoroughly thrashed, Tien.
Piccolo was irritated at being interrupted during his well-prepared finishing speech, and simply backhanded the blast aside.
In the twilight of the early morning though, the flash of light the beam has caused, allowed Tien to slip unnoticed from the crater.
By the time it registered with Piccolo that Tien was gone, Tien already had a chop swinging at the back of his neck.
Just as his attack should have made contact through Piccolo's body faded away, nothing more than an after-image.
Before Tien could even fully turn his head to search the reincarnated demon king out, Piccolo was back in the same spot he had just vanished from, only this time facing him, a fist already imbedding itself in Tien's gut.
A mixture of blood and saliva spewed from the warriors mouth, along with all of the air in his lungs. Piccolo wasn't done yet though, he followed up the first attack with a powerful chop to the side of the neck, knocking the seasoned martial artist hurtling face first into the side of a mountain.
If Tien wasn't even going to allow him his banter, then he'd shut up and let his fists do the talking for him. 'At least he had a couple tricks up his sleeve, we'll have to refine those over the next couple months, their still not nearly good enough.' Piccolo thought to himself as he watched Tien's limp form dropping to the ground from the small crater it had made in mountainside, only to be slowed last minute by the short floating man's telekinetic abilities.
Yamcha or Krillin would be next, and since Piccolo was now well warmed up, he immediately went on the offensive, instead of giving them a chance to choose.
Yamcha was able to block only a few of the immensely powerful attacks before his guard was completely broken down, sending a small blast off the ground, he launched himself into the air to get some breathing room. Both of his arms and one of his legs already throbbing with pain.
When Piccolo launched out of the smoke still tracking his victim, just an instant later, Yamcha made the mistake of trying his wolf fang fist attack to turn the tide, not only was every one of his jabs easily blocked, but he ended up completely exposed for Piccolo's brutal counter-attack. When the son of the demon king moved slightly to one side, gripping Yamcha's latest extending arm, in a vice like arm lock, Yamcha could only stare in fear as his defeat was sealed.
His nose was broken on Piccolo's first strike; the next was a brutal knee to the stomach, resulting in a large amount of blood to spray from the former bandit's mouth. His day was ended though when a vicious axe handle collided with the back of his head, his limp form hitting the Earth well above terminal velocity.
Piccolo the turned his sights to the bald monk who had proven himself a worthy adversary several times since they had first fought in the 23rd world martial arts tournament. Piccolo suddenly vanishing from view.
Krillin sensed him coming just in the knick of time, his hands shooting to his face, "solar flare!" The bald monk shouted as a luminous flash filled the sky, temporarily blinding all but its source.
Krillin then let loose a massive volley of Ki blasts at his stunned teacher, before making a hasty retreat, dropping his Ki level near zero and hiding behind the rock, he had been behind since.
(End of flashback)
'Not good, I put almost everything I had just in that one attack, but It doesn't even feel like I phased him.' Krillin thought trying to contain his panic, fighting Piccolo had always been difficult, even when he was split into 4, but this was insane, even when they all attacked him together they usually couldn't do more than force a draw.
Suddenly Krillin heard something that made his blood run cold, on the rock right behind him he heard the clack of feet touching down.
He looked up to see a large ball of Ki already formed and pointed directly at his face, in short he was screwed.
Piccolo allowed a dark grin to cross his face before unleashing the blast; it was just strong enough to break through his students defenses without actually vaporizing him.
Krillin's limp, scorched form now lay at the bottom of a large crater, half buried beneath debris.
'Hmp, that'll be entertaining when he tries to get up.' Piccolo thought to himself before turning to the last two, his smirk becoming a full grown grin once more, and launched himself at them.
Chiaotzu was his first target; he appeared in front of the small pale man, already swinging a devastating round house kick to his victims gut.
Chiaotzu didn't even have time to flinch before the full force of the kick had already been absorbed by his abdomen, he rocketed backwards, the air completely forced from his lungs, on a path straight for the nearest of the hills still standing.
Before he could reach it though, a more painful obstacle got in the way as Piccolo, using every bit of his mind bending speed was able to get behind the man-turned-speeding-bullet and defected him from his current trajectory with a powerful downwards chop. sending his fourth student into yet another small crater of his own.
Now only his most reluctant student was left standing. Yajirobe whose lack of hand to hand combat ability were partially covered due to his natural swordsmanship.
Piccolo landed in front of the now shaking Yajirobe, his arms crossed in contempt.
"Come on now, I'll give you one free shot." Piccolo taunted wanting to see if Yajirobe could come up with any strategy at all, that would prove him to be anything except extra durable cannon fodder when the time came.
The borderline obese Samurai stared, in horror, at his supposed teacher, definitely not wanting to end up in a crater like the others. Finally he got an idea, one that just might be crazy enough to work.
Just as Piccolo took a step forward intending to force Yajirobe's hand, and fell right into the swordsman's trap.
Yajirobe split into 4, causing Piccolo to hesitant for just a moment, 3 of the 4 Yajirobes let loose a barrage of small Ki blast, doing little more than annoying the most powerful being the Earth had ever seen.
Piccolo phased out and easily took out the three weak Yajirobes who were harassing him, taking his eyes off of the main one for just a second.
That was when he struck; the Samurai had drawn his sword and crossed the few meters between them as soon as Piccolo turned his back.
Piccolo whipped around expecting to block a simple punch with his forearm, instead Yajirobe's sword cut clean through it.
Piccolo let out a yell of pain, his leg lashing out violently, sending the weakened original Samurai flying into a nearby rock.
Piccolo panted in pain, he had been careless and forgot to see which Yajirobe actually had his sword. 'That's exactly the kind of underhanded fighting style the humans would need to use if I am not enough to beat the Saiyans on my own' A small amount of pride rising up at his most worthless student doing something impressive '… I'm still going to beat the worthless lump of lard to a bloody pulp for cutting my arm off.' Piccolo thought, as he prepared to give his weakest student the beating of his life.
Piccolo was finishing his daytime training with some meditation, all of his students were in dreamless, trauma, induced slumbers; as they should be at the end of a day's training. He found though although he should be focusing on controlling his Ki he couldn't help but reflect over the changes his students had caused his way of life last 4 months.
His old life of isolation had gone by the wayside as he was now forced into close and nearly constant contact with most of the beings he had spent the better part of his life planning the very personal demises of.
At first it was an awkward situation for him, all of his students had not only known each other for over a decade and so could easily converse with one another, but they also shared a mutual hatred towards him.
When they weren't training, they treated him with a hostility they didn't even bother to hide, they knew, rightly so, that he was nearly as big of a threat as the beings they were preparing for, and the alliance was only a temporary necessity.
Eventually though they all began to become more accustom to his presence and began to reach out to him occasionally. Only complicating his life more, hatred was something he knew, and expected, but attempts at kindness were a completely foreign concept for him, more than anything their foolishness attempts would just irritate him.
The three eyed man was the first to truly put an effort to put aside his previous aversion to him. Even when Piccolo was divided into fourths he was the only fighter to give him a real challenge, splitting the early fights nearly evenly, which gradually began to build their rivalry over the first few weeks.
Eventually he had to siphon more and more strength from his other clones to keep up with the former crane student, which gave the weaker students the impression that they were advancing much faster than the others, it was a catch 22 he was glad to finally be able to rectify this morning, with his impromptu beating of them all.
But the budding rivalry also, caused a strange change to their relationship, he enjoyed the banter they would have during and between their fights. It was something he actually looked forward to, besides of course world domination.
This began to put him in an awkward situation, he couldn't afford to form friendships; he had to kill everyone that could stop him from conquering the Earth as soon as the Saiyans were eradicated and the fighters he was training would be among the first that would have to go.
Though recently a new idea began to make its annoying self-known, apparently a small part of him actually wanted to consider offering some of his previous enemies a chance of salvation, as his henchmen.
No matter how often he tried to quench such thoughts they had only increased in frequency over the last couple of weeks, no matter how many times he told himself they would only serve as potential threats, through the knowledge of the damned evil containment field.
Finally he decided he would get no worthwhile meditation done that evening, and split into two, to start the night portion of his training, an outward expression of the war that was brewing inside his head a battle against himself.
(Planet Arlia 10 months after Goku's death)
Nappa and Vegeta looked over the barren landscape with casual disinterest, normally on such a weak planet they would try and devise a game to make it more entertaining, unfortunately, time was not a luxury they had in this situation.
"This place stinks, why couldn't Frieza just let us blow the planet up from orbit." Nappa grumbled, irritated by the mixture of foul smells assaulting his sensitive sense.
"Frieza's message said something about wanting it to be more, personal, for the ruler of this world." Vegeta responded without any enthusiasm as he kicked over a ruined wall.
Nappa threw a couple of small Ki blasts at several small ruined buildings, let out some frustration that had been building up under Frieza's yoke.
"Come on Nappa stop playing around let's just burn this mud ball quick and move on." Vegeta ordered as he started to float in the direction his scouter indicated was the nearest and seemingly only major groupings of power levels.
Nappa though stayed in place, he thought his scouter had detected low but close power levels and he'd hate to have to miss any of the worthless beings in the planet. Frieza's punishments were exceedingly harsh if survivors were discovered.
"I think there might someone around here Vegeta." The lumbering giant responded his eyes slowly scanning the horizon for any sign of movement.
Vegeta was about to respond when, the sand right below him began to shift.
The Saiyan prince just watched with amusement as a group of what appeared to be overgrown beetles riding giant worms shot up from the sand.
The riders quickly fired a series of red Ki blasts at both of them intending to stun their prey for an easy capture.
The attackers ended up being the ones stunned when after both clouds of smoke blew away both the aliens stood completely unscathed.
"Hey Vegeta did you feel that?" Nappa asked an unnerving grin flashing across his face.
Vegeta also had an amused smirk on his face, "Yeah I think a couple of gnats just tried to bite us."
"Well that's what I thought; I guess we better zap 'em." Nappa said, as his eyes refocused on the suddenly very vulnerable feeling creatures in front of them.
Before any of the natives could react Nappa extended his index and middle fingers before raising his whole arm.
An area the size of a small city flashed brightly as a massive amount of energy vaporized everything in its path.
"That's one way to take care of an infestation" Vegeta sneered as they watched the rapidly expanding mushroom cloud.
Nappa was still laughing he loved having opportunities to use his favorite technique.
After a few more seconds of chuckling at the still growing shockwave Nappa suddenly turned and asked, "Hey Vegeta, what's the average power level on this rock anyway?"
"Weak, the report said its only 75." Vegeta responded disinterestedly.
"75! Damn so those bugs I squashed were the elites then, if I had known that I would've play around some more, though with power levels under 300 they wouldn't have lasted long anyway." Nappa responded disappointed at his own carelessness.
"No Nappa you did well, we have to hurry on this purge anyway." Vegeta replied before beginning to fly towards what appeared to be a castle in the distance
Nappa quickly caught up since Vegeta wasn't in a hurry, "I know but it still would've made it less boring." The giant pouted like a toddler who was just punished for not wrapping his tail around his waist
"Give the castle a scan with your scouter, there's a power level around 1000 near the center, as long as it's not the king I'll let you play with it for while I extend the Frieza's counter offer to the king." Vegeta said feeling much less excitement at the prospect than his voice let on.
"Thanks Vegeta." A huge grin returning to his face as he began to daydream how he'd use his little bit if fun in an otherwise boring mission.
'Sometimes I think that boy might be more mature than Nappa.' Vegeta thought with disgust as he ignored his 'body guard' for the rest of the short flight.
The structure they stopped before appeared to be the only intact building on the planet, if what they had seen so far was any indication.
"We should knock don't you think Nappa." Vegeta said actual humor in his voice, his scouter picking up many scurrying beings, likely guards moving into defensive positions around the castle gates.
"Why not I guess that's the polite thing to do." The giant said before walking up the wood/iron combination door and promptly punching it right off the frame.
"Knock, knock! Anyone home." Nappa hollered as a flurry of arrows and spears shot out from the darkness at him, all of them breaking against his Ki strengthened skin, and armour.
"That wasn't very nice; you should teach them some manners Nappa." Vegeta sneered his servant proceed to unleash a massive volley of blasts incinerating the entire entrance hall of the castle.
The two Saiyans then walked unmolested through the rest if the castle, before finally coming out before a large throne room filled with the surviving soldiers and a bug wearing a crown standing defiantly before a throne.
"There they are men, kill the invaders." The king shouted as his servants rushed at the duo.
Vegeta calmly threw a small Ki blast into the stampede of guards vaporizing the lot of them in one brilliant flash.
"Alright Nappa I'll play with the king while you find that one high power level." Vegeta said as he shot a death glare towards the cowering king hiding behind his throne, shouting about something called a yeti.
Vegeta began a slow march towards the king, his glare never wavering. Before he made it too far, the mystery of what the king was shouting about and the anomalously high power level were both solved, as the ground beneath him slid open revealing an even larger bug.
Vegeta's scouter immediately began beeping indicating the creature was the high power level he had detected earlier, '980, hn the creature would barely give Raditz a work out."
"Nappa I found the giant bug you're looking for." Vegeta shouted to Nappa who had just began to fly away to begin his search.
The giant continued along his path for just another instant before suddenly accelerating rapidly upwards, his aura glowing brightly.
He then performed an agile aerial twist just as the monstrosity took its first step out of its cage.
The king's confidence had apparently completely returned as he began to shout orders for the giant being to eat them, a thought that was amusing to the prince.
Nappa continued to accelerate, now towards the beast, aiming himself directly at the being's head.
Just as the creature let loose a massive blast from its mouth, Nappa suddenly veered off course flying rapid around the monster's legs. The creature held its blast though, as it chased its meal, not realizing it was cutting through the artificial ground that supported it. Before it could even cut a full circle around itself the floor buckled causing the beast to fall back into its lair.
Nappa completed his circle, before diving in after his newest plaything. The roars of the yeti shook the ground as a vicious fight took place below.
Vegeta chuckled to himself for as stupid as Nappa acted most of the time he was actually a smart fighter, he just had a tendency to play around with his opponents too much.
Vegeta had stopped walking a few feet away from the cowering king, suddenly all went silent below, the silence had just begun to get eerie, when Nappa's green coated form floated of the hole a disappointed look on his face.
"For how big it was it really wasn't very durable, damn weakling." The giant muttered to himself as he set down, so just this king left here right" Nappa asked as he stared at the shocked being before him.
"Please I'll give yo-" the King started to sputter, before Vegeta silenced him, "Silence, have some honor, no amount if begging will save you today. You should have realized that you don't turn Frieza down and live to talk about it long." Vegeta said dryly he found very little enjoyment in being Frieza's enforcer, but for the time being he had to play his part.
He couldn't wait for the day he was in his rightful place as the ruler of the galaxy instead of the hired muscle.
The Prince then quickly charged a small beam and fired it at the king, immediately vaporizing him, and a good portion of the castle. He had had enough of this world; they were behind schedule as it was.
"Let's go Nappa, no need to waste any more time here." Vegeta shot through the sky a scowl on his face, lost in his own thoughts.
Nappa followed right next to him, though with a little more effort than the first time, the slime gradually being blown off of him by the wind resistance.
For the first 30 seconds or so of the flight he was silently thinking on his own, finally he spoke up. "We should've had the kid and Raditz take care of this world." The giant commented irritated that his time was wasted on such a weak un-entertaining world.
That got Vegeta's attention, he hadn't even remembered to check in and see if they had survived the encounter with Frieza.
As they set down next to their pods, Vegeta tried to send a transmission to the duo but the voice of Qui responded on what was supposed to be the Saiyan team signal.
"My Vegeta it is good to hear from you again, trying to get ahold of your little monkey friends are you?" Vegeta's rival taunted.
Vegeta instantly feared the worst, there had to be a reason Frieza had Qui intercepting his signal.
"Don't worry Frieza left you little servants alive, but seeing how they are currently preoccupied. Frieza asked me to let you know he's not pleased with your troop of monkey's failures Vegeta, not at all." he responded as if he had read Vegeta's thoughts.
"He knows about the long haired fool and his weakling brother's incompetence, since the planet is so late he's decided to add an additional 10 points to your required quota this year, to make up for the lost revenue." The purple aliens, obnoxious voice continued.
Vegeta could picture the infuriating grin on Qui's face it caused him to shake with rage, the only way they could possible make up 10 whole points would be another big time mission, but Frieza never gave the Saiyan's those.
He was going to kill Raditz if he took a beating for the third class's incompetence. They had to completely redo the current strategy; the kid's hands would have to get much dirtier earlier and more often, to even have hope of succeeding. With Arlia out of the way they would need 23 points, a full year's quota, in just 2 months
"Fine… I'll do the extra planets; let me speak to my men, so I can make the arrangements." Vegeta forced himself to sound calm, even though it was easy to tell by all other means that he wasn't.
"Nope." Qui replied before breaking down in laughter as Vegeta let out an enraged snarl.
"You patch me thro-" Vegeta started to shout, but a new icy voice spoke up on the line. "My Vegeta, does something have my dear monkey prince riled up today?' Frieza's mocking voice was not what Vegeta was expecting at all.
"Lord Frieza?" He asked, including the Frost demon's title as a subconscious response from years of beatings more so than to show respect to the unexpected eavesdropper.
Frieza waited a second longer to see if Vegeta offered anything else before beginning, "Yes it is me my monkey prince; I must have surprised you since you rarely use my full title." The humor was evident in his voice.
"Now I just wanted to tell you personally how disappointed I am in your troop's failure. Part of the punishment I am enforcing is commandeering your other two monkey servants for the time being, since apparently you are having a hard time commanding so many underlings. Fear not I will keep them very busy seeing how I have some special missions I would like them to take care of to help make up for your failure. Do be sure to get your quota in on time, I would hate to have to punish you further." Before Vegeta could respond the line was cut.
The Prince of the Saiyans was left seething mad, his aura swirling brightly around himself, 23 points was an impossible goal with all four of them working together, but with just him and Nappa working… he didn't even want to consider the possibilities.
"Nappa we're leaving now!" He shouted at the equally enraged giant next to him, before loading into his pod.
Nappa hesitated a moment, they still had to purge the planet, but he decided it would be best to not test Vegeta right now, and followed suite.
A few seconds later they were already far above the planet, Vegeta stopped their ships in orbit though, gripped a tentative atmosphere around himself and got out of his pod
He had a lot of pent up frustrations, and he was going to take them out on the pitiful excuse of a planet.
Cupping his arms at his side, "GALIK GUN!" He shouted as he fired a truly massive blast of energy at the planet.
By the time he had gotten back in his ship, the world was already being torn apart by the force of the blast.
'Now I have to wipe the brat's mud ball clean in record time, and try and hit up some higher class planets on the way to Lostea, I will have my revenge for this I swear it.' These were his last thoughts he had before drifting into the dreamless slumber.
And that's a wrap, alot of ground was covered that chapter. Originally I had it set up as two or three smaller chapters, but I'm already getting revved up for the battle for Earth and Gohan's first purge so I figured I would just knock all three sections out in one go. It had the added bonus of being my first chapter to crack the 10,000 word plateau, excluding my A/N it was nearly 12,000.
I have good news and bad news for everyone, I'll start with the good news I recently got my second story posted (Don't worry it's not going to be a time drain it is just a one shot) It's called Dragon Ball Zombie (real creative name I know lol) if your interested, it's a crossover between Dragon ball z and Highschool of the dead, also it is only a one shot.
Unfortunately I won't be gaining any additional writing time for Culture Shock as I'll explain in next.
Now for the bad news, due to a combination of factors, I will likely be delayed in posting the next chapter by at least a week, (Right when things are about to really get interesting, I know, I'm bummed about it too.) These factors include, but are not limited to:
I'm beginning to hit the real meat of the semester in school so the homework is ramping up. two big projects and a paper, in addition to my usual homework.
I recently got a new job and will be starting it right after this chapter is posted, less hours more money kind of situation situation, so training is going to sap some of my time, next week.
And most importantly I have finally reached the end of the rough draft I made during Christmas break. So I'll be starting from scratch for the next few chapters until I can get a good stock pile built back up in spring break. Plus I'm going to really want these next couple of chapters to be perfect, which means extra editing.
I don't anticipate the delay being a major one in any way, I start to get antsy if I can't get a new chapter up every couple of weeks, because I'm going down the story just like everyone else, I'm just a little ahead on it than everyone else, lol.
Well thank in ahead of time for your patience and I hope everyone who's made It this far sticks with the story.
Now for the reviews:
Super Mystic Gohan: It's good to hear your still enjoying it. I'm glad you could see the work I've put into trying to capture the dynamic between everyone; that was the part I was worried that I would struggle with the most.
I think this battle is going to be by far one of my favorite sections to write, so I hope it lives up to everyone, (including my own) expectations.
Next time on Culture Shock, the Saiyan's arrive! How will the Z fighters overcome these seemingly unstoppable foes? What sort of diabolical plans does Frieza have for Gohan and Raditz? Will Gohan actually take part in a purge? The answers to all of these questions and more will be answered in the next chapter of Culture Shock!
Simgr101- Thanks for the review, glad you liked the story so far. Yeah that always bugged me about Nappa in the show too; Toriyama seemed to just want to make him into a big disposable brute, That had a good start of a personality and then they decided to just toss him aside, a real disappointment because there was a lot of potential there.
Piccolo's going to have an interesting journey throughout the story for sure. He's definitely one of the more enjoyable to write.
As for your last concern I'm afraid I might spoil something if I touch on that subject so I'll have to take a rain check on answering it.
Enlyasurgeon- Thanks for another review. Chi Chi and Piccolo are going have interesting paths throughout the story, Sorry I'm having to be vague on this regard lol.
Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed, hope you all keep up the good work, as always if you think there are any issues with the story don't hesitate to let me know.