Raditz lay on his stomach, a patch of cool dark green grass at his face. His eyes glared up towards the strange blue sky of the alien planet on which he was dieing. To be honest, it was pissing him off a lot. It looked so peaceful and gentle, almost mocking him. Initially, when he first saw the blue planet from space, he thought it was home to a race of weaklings and the act of retrieving his younger brother would be a cinch. His first encounter of a being from this world reinforced his confidence, a feeble farmer with a power level of five. Then the meeting of the strange green creature, his brother called him “Piccolo”, showed slight potential, but that was all. And finally, he found Kakarot, his long lost little brother. What a disappointment. Not only had he failed his one and only mission, to rid the weak planet of all it’s life, he had joined the race of its people, forsaken his saiyan roots and spawned a half breed whelp. This was the saiyan he was seeking that was to tip the scale of power to conquer a rival world?
A last sharp blast of pain shot through his body. He clutched a handful of the green blades of grass fiercely in response. The hole that the green alien Piccolo burned through his body was starting to go numb. An eerie coldness was now overtaking him. He could see the green creature waking towards him. He had a dark smile on his face, obviously pleased with himself, despite only having one arm. He had proved his true potential grandly, taking down both he and Kakarot at the same time, an unexpected ending to a simple act of persuasion. Who would have guessed this would be the outcome of simply “borrowing” his young nephew, who was secretly abnormally powerful. Instead of Kakarot settling this whole little ordeal himself, he had to go and ask for help from a green lizard man. How un-saiyan like.
Raditz gave a gurgled cough and spat out blood,
“Damn you…little brother. But…I take pleasure…in knowing you’ll…be dieing with me”. The green alien Piccolo now stood before him,
“Save your satisfaction, saiyan. Unlike you, he won’t be dead for long” Raditz couldn’t hide his disbelief,
“…what? How is this possible?!” Piccolo grinned,
“With the Dragonballs of our world, seven mystical spheres that when brought together will grant any wish. No doubt Goku’s friends will gather them and wish him back to life”. How was it possible this quaint meager world could posses such objects of fantastic power? How interesting. Raditz smirked, a realization ran through his head,
“Is that so…green one? Well…I’m happy…you told me” Raditz laughed despite the blood in his mouth, “I just…transmitted…every word…you said to my partners in space. They’ll come for your Dragonballs…they’ll wish me back to life…and then…together…we will take this planet and all…the lives on it”. Raditz smiled grimly to himself. He knew both Nappa and Vegeta would be intrigued by the opportunity to have any wish of theirs come true. But in the back of his mind, he also knew that they wouldn’t use one to bring him back to life. Through out the years of him fighting alongside them, they made it clear regularly how lowly they thought of him, the weakest of the group. The assignment to bring back Kakarot with him was supposed to prove his worth to them. And now he has failed that. He only managed to prove that he wasn’t worth anything at all much less a wish.
“W-when…will they get here? How long?” gasped Goku, a few feet away.
“In your terms…maybe…a year” Raditz answered, “But you’ll have twice the saiyans…with more than…twice the power…I have…to contend with. Enjoy living in fear…in your last year” Raditz snickered. He could see the rage building on Piccolo’s face. His right arm shot up, a split second from releasing an attack, but stopped abruptly. His hand flew away from his arm at the wrist as if it were sliced cleanly off; he watched it fly upward in utter shock. A figure swept up behind Piccolo and severed his head from his body; it landed a foot from where Raditz’s head rested on its side. Raditz watched dumbfounded as Piccolo’s face twitched randomly at the eyes and mouth, his alien blood flowing down his nose. A boot suddenly smashed down on it leaving only a mass of blood juicy green skin and bones. Raditz blinked slowly. His vision was starting to falter. He could only make out a lean figure before him, a short mass of dark hair, body armor…a tail!? Raditz strained to focus his eyes. He looked up again and saw a black haired male saiyan with rough stubble around his jaw. His eyes were narrow yet laid back.
“Are we having a tough day, chief?” he asked casually. Raditz could only cough slightly, the blood not so thick now, “I’ll take that as a yes”
“You…said they’d…be here in…a year!” Goku called out.
“Hey Tuce, this one looks like one of us, but he ain’t got no tail” said another voice, Raditz couldn’t see him.
“If he doesn’t have a tail, then he isn’t one of us” answered the stubbly saiyan, “Kill him”. Raditz could hear his brother screaming, then a loud snap, then silence.
“What a loud mouth” said the voice. Another male saiyan landed next to the stubbly one, “Whoa, what have we here, Swiss cheese?” laughed the second saiyan. He was larger, rounder and had hair only on his chin and he had a blue scouter over his left eye.
“You wish, Otoke” answered the stubbly saiyan.
“…w… what…is…this?...who…are…you?” groaned Raditz. He was completely confused and wanted just a few things cleared up before he bit the dust. The saiyan named Tuce knelt down beside him,
“It’s for the best that you don’t ask questions right now. Instead why don’t you answer one for me? You interested in living?” Raditz furrowed his brow in uncertainty. There was a hole of a reasonable large size trough his ribcage, it seemed inevitable that he was going to perish right here. But if he had the option to live, then the choice was obviously clear.
“…yes” Tuce grinned smugly.
“Well Otoke, I think we just found us a candidate for the Prince’s ‘request’. That gets us off the hook”.
“You think the Prince is going to be happy with a dead man watching over that freak half breed girl?”
“Oh, he’ll be just fine”. Tuce pulled out a small spray canister from a pouch at his side. He then pushed aside his hair and sprayed the lining of the hole through Raditz’s torso. The blue spray clung to the damaged tissue of the wound and phased into a firm jelly like substance that prevented anymore bleeding. Tuce grabbed Raditz’s left arm and pulled it around his neck and yanked him to his feet as he stood up again. Raditz, surprisingly, was able to keep his weight on his feet while leaning against Tuce despite being unable to feel them completely. He did however have an extreme case of light headedness and swayed a bit. The blue gel on his injury remained undisturbed and stayed where it was originally sprayed. It had formed a blue ring barrier, the middle remained empty space straight through him. Raditz starred at it, astounded,
“…how?!”
“What did I say about asking questions? Besides that’s only very temporary. We need to get him to the medic ward if he’s going to survive to take our place, Otoke. Let’s go” said Tuce as he slowly rose into the air supporting Raditz.
“What about that distress signal we detected near the northern pole? We still have to check that out”.
“We don’t have time for that now. We can report it to one of the other scouts to handle. But if we return without a fresh recruit, we’ll be responsible for that psycho kid. You want that job?” asked Tuce.
“Ok, I get it. I just…hold it” said Otoke, “there’s something else lying over there. I’ll go check it out”
“Just make it quick, were on a short time limit here”. Tuce flew steadily through the sky while carrying Raditz, his left arm going under and around the back of his shoulders while his right hand kept his chest up. Raditz could feel the exhaustion of his body reach his head, his eyes started to go out of focus.
“How is this possible?” he thought to himself, “Two more saiyans have appeared out of nowhere… instantly dispatch Kakarot and that green being…and recruit me for some unknown task…requested by the ‘prince’? Prince Vegeta? What other information have they neglected to tell me? What is this strange blue substance on me? Am I going to die?...am I going to live?” Raditz then drifted into unconsciousness, the last thing he heard was the wind in his ears and the sound of the round saiyan calling out from behind,
“Hey Tuce, get a load out of this! There was a kid knocked out and he’s got a tail!”