DB SF CH3: a new life

It was already the evening of the next day when Goku finally and with some effort arrived at the Western capital City where Bulma lived. The spacepod weighted more than 400 kilos, but carrying it half over the globe was quite a task, even for him. The sun was setting though red clouds when he flight over the area of the Capsule Corporation, the first person he recognized was Bulmas dad, Dr. Briefs, who was working on something on the little meadow in front of the gigantic house. Goku landed next to him and called out:
"Hi, Mister Briefs! It's me, Goku! Can I talk to Bulma please?"
The older man looked up at him and jumped a bit from the surprise, he had appeared almost out of nowhere. And he hadn't noticed the luggage yet…!
"You scared me, son! Where do you come from?"
"Sorry! Bulma, is she here? I have to show her something spectacular!"
"Why all this rush? Com on, I have a cold beer in the fridge… We haven't seen each other in years, let's celebrate it!"
"I don't like that beer…" grumbled Goku and he allowed himself to let the spacepod slip down to the ground. He was massaging his aching shoulders when he saw Bulma coming out from a lab or something, and heading to him. "Bulma! Finally! Would you come over here please?"
The young woman waved shortly and followed that request. "Finally for me! You could have told me that you would make a trip back home, no? I was waiting there for hours, with that Indian boy! He was cute, but… Wait a minute, and what is that…?"
Her eyes finally had discovered the metallic sphere behind Goku, and her interest was caught in that very moment. Even if she didn't know anything about it. Goku smiled and explained:
"This… is a Saiyan spacepod. With this I was sent to Earth when I was still a toddler. I thought you would like to study it. But be careful, I still need it afterwards!"
Bulma and her dad examined the sphere as it was the Holy Grail or something like that. Goku opened the door, without hesitation Bulma entered and sat down in the pilot chair.
"Incredible! Amazing! They are so far ahead of us… I guess more than a century! Let's see if I can gain access to the main functions of the pod…"
With expert hands she typed in some commands, even without knowing a thing about those symbols she saw, she had full confidence in her scientific instincts. After some minutes they heard a confirmative sound and some part of the system came back to life. "Yeah! I knew I'm a genius!"
"Super! Ah, do you know what this might be?" asked Goku handling her the scouter over. The woman grasped it too without hesitation.
"Oh, this is a great piece of technology too… But… If I remember correctly the Saiyan had something similar, not? But this one seems to be a bit older…"
"Exactly. With this tool you can detect both the position and the strength of an opponent."
"Uhm… Interesting. Shame I cannot read this language…"
"Don't asked me why, but I can. It's the language of the Saiyan, I guess." she was told by Goku. Before she could ask him what he meant with that statement, the man continued: "Ok, I let you do your work… I will come back in one or two months. I hope you can repair it until then. Have fun! See ya!"
The Saiyan had already turned away to go, but he stopped midway holding his growling stomach. "Do you have something to eat? This morning I had already a tiger, but now I'm hungry again…!"
"And I already wondered when you will say it! But, have all Saiyans such a gigantic stomach???" laughed Bulma out. "Come, let's see… but you will have to translate me something for it…"

In that very moment, far far way, a sleeping Saiyan was woken up by a loud alarm signal. Annoyed like no other he opened an eye and growled: "What the hell…? Damn…"
Gohan continued to sleep innocently upon his legs, but behind him he saw a blinking light, the indication light of the communication system. His first though was that Nappa or Vegeta had called him, but then he read the message that it was found a new pre-installed connection. Radditz double-checked the message and the ID and was quite surprised, even a bit scared. The ID was identical to Kakarots spacepod! What did that mean? Somebody must have activated his brother's pod. Yes, but who? Kakarot? Sure… maybe. Then he was still alive? If the others discover that…!
After some seconds the com-canal was closed again, meaning that this somebody had shut down the pod and with it the com-system. In time? But… if it wasn't Kakarot, who can it be? On that primitive planet there cannot be somebody who can gain access to a Saiyan space pod…! He swallowed down the rising agitation and cancelled all the notions of that communication, but he still had a doubt: what if Nappa or Vegeta had received the same communication? He could only hope that it wasn't so. Lost in thoughts he watched the child in front of him, as he mumbled in his sleep: "Daddy…" Without knowing the reason he caressed the boy's hair, tranquilizing him.
"You have to forget you father. Maybe one day you will see again you planet… but on that day you will help us to conquer it…!"

The remaining ten days passed by really fast, after 13 days in total the system woke up Gohan and Radditz from their slumber. The adult warrior was the first one who regained his senses; when Gohan opened his eyes the very first thing he saw was the annoyed face of his uncle.
"Finally you managed to wake up! We will land in a few minutes!!!"
"Were… are we… land…? What…?" mumbled Gohan still half asleep and yawned a few times. He looked around until his eyes rested on this strange man in front of him. Only now he recognized him, and started crying and screaming: "Ahhh!!! You're tha bad guy!!! Wuahaha!!!! Lemmi go!!! Daddy!!! Help!!!"
"I don't believe it! Again with his crying?" growled Radditz full of anger. "First. Don't even think about running away, we still are inside a space pod. Second. I already told you that now I am your father! And third! Be warned. If you start crying out again, I can show you the real bad side of life! Got me? I don't make jokes!"
The boy's look still showed his fear, but he tried to stop crying, he only sniffed- but doing that the snot dripped out if his tiny nose and risked to drop on Radditz armor.
"Damn! Disgusting! Take a hold on yourself! Where have I… c'mon, take this!" he growled again- this time not so loud- and passed him a piece of textile, which he had found under the pilot chair. Gohan took it and sneezed twice in it like an elephant.
"Thank you." he said politely and held the wet cloth in front of Radditz' eyes, who took it with two fingers and threw it on the floor, quite disgusted. He knew that after the landing the speacepod would be cleaned from the out-and inside, so he didn't care.
"You're welcome…" answered the Saiyan mindlessly, only some seconds later he realized what he had said und shook his head. This boy started to make him weak!

"Attack Ball 23-44 has permission to land on dock 12-B!" said the lisping voice of the fight controller out of the speaker.
"OK. Radditz out."
The pilot entered a code in the system and the pod changed it course to one of the bizarre towers, on which where attached some platforms. On each of them there were 3 round areas, his aim was the middle one. The spacepod raced there with some hundred kilometers per hour, but instead crashing into the surface he floor of that platform gave in like rubber and absorbed almost all of the impact energy.
Before opening the hatch Raditz reminded his nephew: "I warn you! No crying, no screaming, and most of all, I don't want to hear any "I want my dad!" You are a Saiyan and Saiyans don't know the word "fear". We are strong and fearless, the only thing we respect is our prince! Have you understood??"
Gohan nodded, and again he had to fight against his tears. He was very very afraid…more of the strange world out there than of his uncle, which was already something. The warrior opened the hatch and was confronted with two strange creatures, almost reptile-like, who wore an almost identical armor like Raditz. They greeted him.
"Mister Raditz! Lord Vegeta is waiting for you in the canteen!"
"Understood."
Raditz looked at his nephew, who had hid behind his legs as he saw this strange warriors. One of them- one with a big snout like a lizard- followed his look and teased him:
"Who do we have here? Is that boy yours? Didn't you have enough with Sedri?"
"It's not your business!" growled Raditz quite angered. The solder didn't get the message and didn't back up in two seconds, so the Saiyan kicked him full force against the next wall. Without wasting a gaze on the wounded warrior he passed by the other one, Gohan followed him hesitantly. It was his luck that he didn't start an argument, at least until they were alone.
"Why did you do that?" the boy asked, and again his eyes stared watering.
"Lesson one. It's not good for your health if you are too curious. It's the fastest way to land in sickbay or in the morgue. The best thing is to mind your own business. And what did I tell you about crying?"
"Yeah, OK, but… but… who is Sedri?"
"Gohan… just… shut it up!"

The two Saiyans marched trough many bright corridors, meeting some other warriors, one more sullen than the other. Gohan felt like in the wrong movie, but he had understood that he had to act like he didn't mind. Not showing your fear… now he got Raditz's point. His uncle was the only person he could rely on, at the moment anyway.
"Where are we going?" we wanted to know at the end.
"You are going to meet the only other two Saiyans who still exist in this universe. Pay attention, those are not as friendly like I am. I hope you can control yourself once for all. But before that… I have to get you some new clothing, these are not practical for fighting…"
"What? I—I don't want other clothing! These…my mom bought them! No…!"
This statement made Raditz turn around like a tornado. He glared at the boy in such a dark way, that the Saiyan seemed him a demon. But he didn't apologize.
"What was that?"
"I--- I don't want… other clothing…" repeated Gohan abashed, while he held the jacked with his tiny fingers, on which was the emblem of his family. His past. His old life. Raditz felt the gaze of the other soldiers leaning on him, so he knew what he had to do: he slapped the boy so hard that he felt against the near wall.
"You will follow my orders!!! No backtalk!"
Gohan held his aching and reddened jaw, and again he felt like crying, but this time because of the pain. Raditz made a disgusted face and continued a bit more calmly: "I warned you. But this was only a taste. Nappa will go much further."
The boy shot an angry glance at his uncle, he struggled to contain the new tears. But the warrior turned around and walked away, while Gohan hesitated. After a few steps he stopped and called out without turning back:
"What are you waiting for? If you don't come with me now I'll let you here alone!"
Without having another choice, the boy stood up bravely and ran after his uncle, while still holding the aching face.

They stopped at a door, on which a sign in a strange language said "Clothing stockroom 2". Gohan wondered why he could read this at the first try, but didn't dare to ask. They entered the room, Raditz pushed a button and opened a fold, from which he took some dark clothing.
"Now change. Your other stuff will be sealed up here."
Gohan took a skeptical look at the tight dark blue pants and the black sleeveless shirt, he almost started to protest, but contained himself. He slowly started to give up hoping for a miracle which would save him. And he didn't want another slap like that before.
A few minutes after he was changed, Raditz gave him black boots and black gloves. There he stood, the little Saiyan, looking back at his terrestrial clothing, which now were going to be sealed up like his past on Earth was.
"At last! Now you look like a Saiyan! Com on, the others are waiting for us!

The two almost ran to the canteen, where Raditz spotted his comrades at the first glance. Saiyans are always to be found in a fight or while eating. They were a bald giant and a small guy with black pointed hair.
"Finally, Raditz! Were you sleeping while coming here?" hissed Vegeta quite annoyed. He gave Gohan only a brief glance, then he concentrated again on his meal in front of him. But his half second was more than enough to let Gohan freeze, he had never seen such ice-cold eyes! The other Saiyan, Nappa, examined him from head to toe and started to laugh.
"This is Kakarot's half-blooded son, hu? Pah, such a weakling. I hope for you that you won't regret this… I would like to take care of him by myself one day..!" He let his fingers crack as a demonstration, Raditz understood what he meant and stopped him.
"Let him alone… I will train him. How much time do I have until our next mission?"
"Let me think… Vegeta?"
"Have you already forgotten? Planet Tayara… we'll start in 26 days." growled Vegeta without looking up.
"Ah, yeah… more than 3 weeks of spare time… Boring… Do you think I can play a bit with you nephew in the meantime?"
"Hey! First I have to teach him the basics! You'll only end to kill him!" blurted Raditz out. He knew his comrade rather well in that sense. No auto-control.
"What? Don't tell me that you care about this brat?! That's something new for you!" laughed Nappa.
"Tsk… Cool down! Are you nuts? I just don't want you to cry in my ear because you are bored again after you killed him. Prince Vegeta, do I have you permission to train him?"
Still Vegeta didn't care to look up. "As long he doesn't get in my way. Do what you want. I don't care."