"It won't be much longer until this planet is ours." A burly man stated.
"It would've been ours much sooner if you stopped fucking around and did your job for once." An intimidating voice snapped.
"My bad."
"It is your bad, you stupid little runt." A brawny voice grumbled.
"Things will be different on the next planet."
"I assume you'll sit there toying with someone far beneath your notice." A dangerous voice jeered.
"Listen here, turnip boy. If you fuck it up again. I will kill you."
"Wait! I think my little brother and little sister-Kakarot and Shaera-were sent to a different planet. I bet they're still there."
"A brother and sister? I didn't think there were more of us than those gathered here right now. Are you sure you're just not lying? I'll blast you to a crisp if you are." The womanly voice cooed.
"If they join us the rest of the universe will be ours in no time!"
The intimidating man crossed his arms over his chest, speaking in his dark and murderous tone. "The fact that they are your siblings doesn't fill with me anything but dread at thought of having two more failures on board...What planet were they sent to?"
"Uhh...I think it was called 'Earth'."
The four of them walked through the gore of the battlefield, tall shadows in the planet's gloom.
Thousands of troops and thousands of fighters had given their lives trying to defend this world against them-and they had lost. They had been wiped out down to the last. They relished the suffering and despair, and even now they could sense it rising up like the stench from the broken, charred corpses scattered about the landscape.
In the distance a storm was brewing. Each flash of lightning illuminated the sky, the world's two moons were momentarily visible in the distance, striking lights towering over the barren horizon.
"This is still a great victory. It has been far too long since we've had a challenge." The brawny man spoke up, breaking the silence.
"I sense you are eager to begin killing again. I expect you to control yourself." The womanly voice cut in, tone holding no humor.
"Why?" The brawny man asked pointedly.
"I'm in no mood for your destructive inclinations right now."
Her statement was met with an easy laugh by the intimidating man.
"She means no harm. Just keep yourself in check."
"She refuses to celebrate in our triumph." The brawny man noted. "She has been like this the whole time."
The brawny man clasped a hand on the woman's shoulder.
She shrugged free of the hand and turned away with a flick of her tail as it wound around her waist. "Celebrate this if you wish."
The burly, long haired man didn't miss the stark contrast when the singular, pod shaped spaceship shot out of its lightspeed route, and saw the gem planet of Earth looming before him. This world was a place of green grasses, verdant lands, and deep blue water that formed oceans, rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds. How different it was from so many other worlds, and his own home world, which had long meant its end.
His home world had been a place of deserts and mountains, with red and yellow cloud patterns swirling all across it. It really had been just a ball of brown and red hanging in space, as barren and remote as Earth was alive.
"Don't waste any damn time." A man's voice cut into the scouter.
"If those two failed, just kill them." Another voice, deeper and more sadistic than the first added.
The burly man stretched his shoulders, pleasantly surprised to hear from his three kin. "We could use them both."
"Not if they are not up to par." A sultry, womanly voice cut in.
"More so...How do you know they even completed their mission?"
"I don't know if they did that." The man simply said.
"Oh, I'm sorry, then maybe you should stop talking and handle the business." The first person who had spoken said in a crisp, no nonsense tone.
The man shook his head doubtfully, but he wasn't bothered by the jabbing tone. In a strange way, he was glad that his three kin were communicating with him, glad that small details were being finalized, and glad, that he and his two siblings would have yet another thing in common. How different things were now than decades before when he and his comrades had been forced to land on a world in order to effect repairs on their ship. That same day, their home world had been destroyed.
He tried to manage a smile, but the edge of his anticipation kept it from appearing genuine.
There was no way to control the singular pod on its descent. So the ship came down fast, breaking through the atmosphere and soaring across the sky.
"So...This is Earth?" He mused when the skyscrapers and towers of the cities came into sight against the horizon.
There were many cities that weren't destroyed. In fact, there wasn't a single mark of destruction or obliteration anywhere that he could see. Everything was like it had been. Even if his ship was streaking faster and faster, his perception of the places and people didn't falter. The ship curved, and went in hard towards a mountain region. He flew over the edge of a city, then the pod spaceship finally slammed down in a large forest.
"Hey! Who's out here!? What the hell you doing on my property!?" Barked the farmer, a stout man with a mustache and a shotgun in hand.
The burly man stretched his neck until it cracked, then twisted it to the other side until it cracked. He slammed his foot down out of the pod, growling as he rose to his full height. It had been a long and miserable travel, and the landing didn't do anything to lighten his mood.
"Who the hell are you!? Damn near busted my still. I told you to get off my property!" The farmer barked.
The man clicked his scouter, focusing his eyes on the loud mouth.
"I'm warning you! I'll put one in you!"
"A pitiful fighting power of five. Hmph." The man grinned, lifting himself out of the crater.
The farmer at this point was terrified seeing whoever this being was, take flight. "You're one of em alien cryptids or something?"
The burly man stepped towards him as he let off two shots, and he caught the bullets, looking at them curiously.
"You're way out of your league." He said, dropping the bullets.
He paid little mind to the farmer who ran away screaming in terror, and moved to check his surroundings, frowning in discontent.
"I wonder what that brother and sister of mine have been doing all this time. There's nothing but pitiful hillbillies running around."
He clicked his scouter again, surveying the surroundings. The scouter ran through its paces, measuring, surveying, and relaying. Eventually it leveled off, making a distorted sound as numbers flashed across the screen.
"Power level of 322. Now that's surprising. This one is the closest trajectory. That must be Kakarot or Shaera with no doubt. The lowest power level is 180. There are quite a few fighters for what it is worth on this little world, I never would have thought..."
He lifted himself high into the air, shooting towards the nearest trajectory.
"Power level of 322 here I come!"
Eyes as cold as glaciers, he stood surveying the destruction of his most recent energy wave. His training had started to get more intense as of late. He considered the speed at which his most hated foe dodged his lethal attacks, how his second most hated foe dodged his counters each and every time, and for the last five years he had pushed all of his hate and fury into his strikes.
Kata were more than just movements meant to adjust his muscle memory. They were an extension of his will and fury, something through which his fury could flow and guide his movements in battle. He would be the most powerful. He would have no equal. He would rule without any dispute.
He would crush his hated enemies underneath his foot, like the insects they were.
A stabbing sensation pricked on the edges of his perception, and he whirled around to face the approaching. It couldn't be his two hated foes, or any of their friends. Even if they were strong and capable, they didn't have massive ki like this.
After a moment, he could see the figure coming in at hyper speed. The flight wasn't slow by any means, and though he was muscular, it appeared the man didn't have a hard time picking up his speed as he made his way closer and closer.
It definitely wasn't his most hated foes. He held his ground as the figure landed in front of him, crossing his arms over his chest.
The man opposite of him had extremely long, spiky black hair with a prominent widow's peak, brown and black Battle Armor, with boots, armored wristguards, and a blue scouter. He wore two white accessory bands, one was tightened around his left arm, and the other on his left leg.
"You are not Kakarot. You are not Shaera. Green man, do you know where I can find Kakarot and Shaera?"
"Kakarot? Shaera?"
"Do you know Kakarot and Shaera?"
"Who the hell are you? Do you have business you want to settle with me?"
"I have no business with you. If you want my name...It's Raditz."
"I'm Piccolo. You will address me as Mazoku-Ue."
Raditz snorted. "I'm going to call you green man because you are green."
"You're going to pay for that."
"Certainly."
Piccolo remained silent, staring down the disrespectful spiky haired foe, who only returned his expressionless gaze with a smirk of his own. He slowly shifted his footing, putting himself into a comfortable, yet stable position for offense or defense.
"You think too highly of yourself, you spiky haired jackass. Now, you're going to wish you never came here in the first place."
"Right, green man." Raditz smirked, chuckling loudly.
Piccolo slowly shifted his stance again, growling.
"Go ahead and attack. Your power is tiny compared to mine."
"I suggest you back off!"
Smirking, Raditz took a step forward. "You would love for me to fly off...Look at you shaking in fear."
Piccolo snarled, holding his ground. "I'm warning you...You come any closer and I'll blast your ass sky high."
Raditz chuckled. "I'd love to see you try that."
Piccolo snapped his legs out, squatting in a defensive stance. His muscles flexed and his teeth began to gnash as he seethed in fury at his foe, digging deep within the hot core of his center. A gust surged around him as yellow bolts of power began to form all over, forcing his veins and muscles to bulge, expanding to compensate the sudden surge, and his radical ki started flickering brilliantly.
"YAAAAAAAAHHH!"
Piccolo's voice cracked with fury as he pushed the energy forth from his hands, digging himself in as the shockwave drove him back, and the blast itself began shearing across the ground, bellowing its terrible cry of hatred like its owner.
Raditz held his ground, watching the blast come, slightly impressed by the speed which such a massive blast could move fired on the fly.
There was nothing subtle about Piccolo's attack. The massive shock wave shook the very foundations of the ground they stood on. The concussive blast alone had enough power to shatter the surface of the terrain they stood on and grind it into a mass of debris. When it got less than a centimeter near him, he calmly exerted his ki, and reached out with it to form a barrier around himself and the heat seeking blast of death.
Everything around him exploded into great chunks of rubble. The mountains around them collapsed in a shower of stone and dirt, burying Raditz beneath tons of rock and mortar. A second later the rest of the natural ceilings caved in, drowning out the blast's screeching howl with a deafening rumble.
Piccolo watched the spectacle of the explosion from the safety of the ground at the foot of the hill made from his blast, keeping himself in the same squatted position he started out in for stability.
Reaching out, he sought some sign that Raditz might still be alive beneath the mountain of stone.
To his horror, he felt the man's ki.
He...Survived?
Raditz stood before him with the same smirk he had on his face before, arms crossed over his chest, his eyes lit with amusement. He hadn't moved an inch from his spot, and idly checking the wreckage around him, he allowed his smirk to grow as he focused on Piccolo once more.
Piccolo was silent.
This man was unscathed from that attack!
"Are you finished, green man?" Raditz finished with a mocking chuckle, walking towards him.
Piccolo held his ground, refusing to waver.
Raditz would've gathered ki into his palm and vaporize this green man, normally, but he was here on business that had to be handled. As if to prove his point, his scouter beeped, honing in on a power. "That must be them. Power level of 334. Power level of 318."
Piccolo braced himself for the end, but to his surprise, Raditz wasn't attacking.
What the?
Raditz glanced at him, smirking. "Lucky for you...I have to find Kakarot and Shaera. I'll be back though."
He glanced at Piccolo, noting his eyes were fixated on the sky. After a few moments of his foe not looking or speaking to him, Raditz hardened his gaze and focused on the same trajectory as well.
Was it possible this creature was able to sense energy without a device?
He tapped the button on his scouter, looking in same direction as his foe, honing in on the detected power levels. "Combined power level of 652...Kakarot has 334. Shaera must have 318."
He smirked for a second.
"It looks like they're closing in on this location."
Raditz got the feeling that they were more likely going to be completely against coming along with him and joining them on conquests. Truthfully, Raditz wasn't sure if he wanted to go back to others with Kakarot and Shaera. A part of him wanted to stay here, far away from his comrades.
Silently, both Piccolo and Raditz seemed to agree to prolong their conflict and watch the newcomers arrive.
Focusing on the detected power levels, Raditz moved his head a fraction every few seconds. The woman could fly by her own power, while the man either had trouble flying or preferred a different mode of transportation, because he hopped off of a yellow cloud, corkscrewing on his way down in a show of acrobatics while the woman did a series of flips on her way down.
The first to land was a man with a pale-skin complexion, standing at five feet and nine inches, weighing one hundred and thirty six pounds. He had dark eyes, black spiky hair that was stood up, with five spikes in the front, four in the back, three bangs hanging to the right of his forehead, and two bangs hanging from the left of his forehead, and a muscular body that was covered by an orange gi.
The second to land was the one who caught Raditz's attention. It was almost natural that she did. She was a young woman with extremely long, spiky, shaggy black hair that reached her ankles. She had shoulder length bangs framing the sides of her face, covering most of her eyes. She had a tan-skin complexion, standing at five feet and eleven inches and weighing one hundred and twenty-eight pounds. Despite being well developed and powerfully built, she wore a black gi, black boots, and black wristbands.
There were several more power levels that appeared, but they were all beneath his notice for the most part.
Raditz looked up with a knowing smirk, noting the features of the two newcomers. He went through the records, but he didn't actually think he would find them here.
"How did you find me?" Raditz asked.
The spiky haired man scowled at him. "That's none of your business."
"Fair enough. I'll ask another question in that case. Have you come to say that you will join us?"
"Join you?" The long haired woman asked.
"As one of the last surviving Saiyans."
"Saiyans?" The woman looked to the spiky haired man, who only shrugged in return.
"Yes. The Saiyans."
The woman frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Funny." Raditz said, almost offhandedly. "Are you two Kakarot and Shaera?"
"My name is Goku." The spiky haired man looked at Raditz with genuine confusion.
"I can tell it was you two from a glance. You both have clearly grown up. You both look just like father, though you have definitely inherited mother's traits."
"Goku...Who is this man? Do you know what he is talking about?" The woman asked him.
"I don't know Nia..." Goku trailed off, eyes narrowed, remaining fixed on the long-haired man. "I'm not sure what he's talking about. I felt his ki all the way from Kame house."
"My husband and the twins wanted to come, but I managed to convince them to hold off." Nia admitted.
Goku nodded, expression growing serious. "You're right. He is incredibly strong...Stronger than Piccolo...I don't think it matters what he calls us...The only thing that matters is what he plans to do."
"What have you two been doing all of this time? You were supposed to exterminate this species so this world can go up for sale." Raditz said.
Nia glared at him.
"My sister and I would never do that!"
Raditz glowered at them, clenching his fist. "Don't tell me you're one of these weaklings...You've allowed yourselves to become like them. It is not becoming!"
"My name is Son Goku."
"My name is Son Nia."
Raditz crossed his arms over his chest, humming to himself. "Did both of you hit your heads?"
Goku nodded. "It was a long time ago."
Raditz snarled, cutting his fist through the air. "Dammit! I'm Raditz, your eldest brother. Kakarot and Shaera, you are my younger siblings. The offspring of Bardock and Gine."
"What!?"
"He just said he's our older brother, and that's all you have to say..." Nia remarked, looking at Goku with a dry expression.
Goku couldn't take his eyes off of Raditz.
Raditz cut between them. "We are Saiyans. A mighty warrior race. You were not born on this planet, but on planet Vegeta, which had ten times the gravity of this world."
"You lie." Nia said.
Raditz continued as if he didn't hear her. "Our homeworld was wiped out roughly twenty four years ago by a meteorite, leaving only myself, three others, as well as you two alive. We were the only ones off world when the rest of our kind was vaporized. We are part of the planet trade business. We locate suitable planets, exterminate the native inhabitants, and sell them to rich customers. It is quite a lucrative and profitable business."
"You're nuts." Goku remarked. "That's wrong."
Raditz would have scoffed, but he kept it down. "Adult Saiyans like me, the best of the best, are assigned to worlds that you can call problematic...We go where only the strongest and toughest inhabitants are. Weaker Saiyans, like you two, are sent as infiltrators when you are still infants to exterminate the population of weaker worlds...At least you were supposed to. You two have miserably failed in your mission, you've went against your programming which is even worse."
"Look...I don't know who you are or why you came here. What you are suggesting is impossible. I would never kill people by the billions like you're saying." Nia said, nearly shaken with outrage.
"There's no way I'm related to a bunch of space pirates who just go around murdering and pillaging!" Goku snapped, irate.
"Don't push my patience..." Raditz warned.
"It's the truth. You are pirates, not warriors! You wouldn't kill the weak if you were warriors!" Nia bit out.
"You've forgotten your pride! We are Saiyans are the mightiest warriors in the universe. I can still remember the day that we first sent you two off as infants. We had high hopes for both of you. Kakarot. Shaera. Why have you not carried out your mission. Why have you not destroyed everything here?"
"I already told you...I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not doing any of those things you said, even if you are my brother." Goku said, tone having no levity.
Raditz glanced at the two carefully, a frown crossing his face. "Your tails. I see you still have them."
"Why does that matter?" Nia asked.
Raditz growled, taking a step forward, hand clenching halfway into a fist. "Don't play dumb with me!"
Goku eyed Raditz warily. "We got tired of people always messing with them. We worked on the weakness of them being grabbed to the point it doesn't have an effect on us anymore."
Raditz's eyes widened, but he quickly schooled his expression. "It makes no sense why you have no desire to go on the hunt and conquests with me. Neither of you have lost your ability to access your true power. Yet, you still go against your programming."'
"What are you talking about?" Goku blinked, confused again.
Raditz hissed. "You're hopeless! Every Saiyan transforms at the sight of a full moon! You have to remember that! Even a low level halfwit like you can comprehend that. This world has a nice big full moon, it shouldn't have taken you long after a year or two of being on this world to take care of the population."
Goku only looked in confusion before he frowned, growing angry with the newcomer. "I've seen the full moon a couple of times, but I don't remember..."
Raditz growled, a feral and savage sound that was driven home by supreme fury. "I can't believe this!"
"We'd never kill people like you say." Nia interjected.
"That's right." Goku took a step towards Raditz.
"A stupid hillbilly took two shots at me. Even with a pitiful power level of five. I wasted my time catching his bullets. There is no excuse for your failures on this pathetic planet!"
"You're trying to tell me my mission and my sister's mission was to kill every last living person on this world? Just to sell it? I'd never do something like that and neither would my sister."
"What you want us to do is just horrible." Nia struggled to keep herself calm.
Raditz scoffed. "Kakarot. Shaera...You both sound soft. It's quite unbecoming. I need to get you off of this world before it poisons you further."
"This is my home. I have friends and family." Goku said.
Raditz smirked slightly. "We've recently found a world that will sell for a great price on the galactic market. The only problem we have is that the locals are very powerful, even the current four of us may have some trouble. However, with you three on our side that would make seven, and while your power levels aren't impressive by any stretch going by our standards...I think with some training-"
Nia shook her head. "If by training, you mean us killing innocence...It's not happening, Raditz. Drop it."
"I'm not here to ask. We Saiyans were never high in number, and because our world was wiped out there's only a few of us alive still. Before I found you three, there were only four of us total."
"We're not helping you. Doing that is just wrong." Goku said, tone holding no levity.
Raditz would've kneed the two of them on the spot. There wasn't much they could do against him. He could easily overpower the two of them at the same time. Their powers were inconsequential in the long run. Fighting them would be a waste, but they weren't giving him much of a choice in the matter. They refused to join, and he couldn't return to his comrades without them.
Not like he wanted to return, but they'd come here sooner than later.
Taking a deep breath, Raditz slowly removed his scouter, and set it on the ground. It was a long shot, but he was going to go with it. Perhaps making an alliance with his siblings would be the smarter route. After all, they managed to overcome the weakness of their tails being grabbed. There was also the fact they weren't going to come along willingly.
"Kakarot. How well can you fly?"
Goku blinked in confusion, but quickly sobered up. "Not too well."
Raditz lifted himself up into the air a few feet, leveling a hard look with Goku and Nia. "Let's talk up here."
Goku was about to ask why, what could you possibly want, and give a stern reminder that the answer is no. However, Nia pointed at the scouter and Goku's widened with realization.
"Alright." Goku said, lifting himself several hundred meters into the sky.
Nia followed after him, keeping her eyes on the scouter, debating if she should destroy the scouter or not. It clearly was a means of communication and everything that had been said to this point had been heard. If she were to destroy it, cutting that link, it could lead to his comrades coming here sooner than they expected them to.
With that in mind she floated up towards Raditz and Goku, keeping her guard up.