DB SF CH 1: the battleplan

Chapter 1: Battle-plan

A few minutes after Radditz’ departure Bulma, Master Muten and Krilin reached at last the battle area in their aircraft. The first thing they noticed was this innatural silence the place radiated, but then they saw the giant crater as by a meteor impact.
“What the heck had happened here..?” asked Bulma questioned more to herself. “Where are they?”
“Look! There! There are two of them down there! Oh no… that is… Goku! And Piccolo!” Krilin gasped.
They landed hastily and rushed to the two bodies lying on the ground motionless. Seen them, Bulma swallowed hard and stepped closer to Gokus wounded body; she prepared herself for the worst as she checked the neck for a pulse. Her face brightened a bit, as she felt a slow irregular heartbeat.
“He… he is alive! Goku is still alive!”
“Really?! Unbelievable!”
“Quick now! We must bring him to a hospital, or he will die!” ordered the woman.
“It’s useless. He won’t make it ‘till then… he will die right here in your arms!” spoke a sinister voce from behind them. It was Piccolo. Muten Roshi, who just wanted to check his vital signs, jolted in fear and jumped back. Despite the hole in his chest he still moved, no, the hole started to heal right in front of their eyes!
“What…? You… How did you..?”
The green man sat up slowly, his face turned in the direction of the group. He focused once more his residual energy, and the hole was gone. He felt weak and out of breath, but he was alive. With an enormous for effort he stood up and looked at the unconscious Goku in Bulmas arms. For a moment he played with the idea of making the most of this situation to kill his archenemy, but he had to admit that now he would be even weaker than Krilin and Muten. But he couldn’t make a decision, as Gokus wounded body suddenly dissolved leaving only a pool of red blood behind.
“W… what happened…? Where has he gone?” gasped Bulma in surprise.
Piccolo growled at first in anger, but then he grinned knowingly. “It had to be Kami… he will take care of him…”
“Kami? Now stop talking nonsense and tell us what had happened here! Where is Gohan? And the Saiyan? Open you mouth!” ordered Bulma loudly. As soon as he words had escaped her mouth in this outburst of rage, she regretted it. Good Piccolo only took a brief sharp look at her.
“The boy is gone... the Saiyan won and took him away…”
“What?! O my God! No!”
“Well, that is none of my business… See ya… do what you want…” were Piccolos words as he turned his back to the group and walked away. Although he tried with all his might to act strongly, he was worn out and about to collapse from the exhaustion. He lacked even the power to re-grow the missing arm. As soon he had left the field of view of the humans he fell on the ground and rested behind a rock.
“This is bad! Goku’s almost been killed and his was kidnapped by this nasty alien, and Piccolo just cleared off???” screamed Bulma, Krilin had some trouble to calm her down.
“Bulma! Yeah, he is a demon, what did you expect? Let’s find Goku, we will visit him and talk about that, ‘kay? We have another problem!”
“What problem?” she said half angry, half puzzled.
“Listen, do you have an idea how Chichi will react if he learns about this? It will be like hell!”
Finally the penny dropped and she understood Krilins position. “Well, I won’t be the one who tells her!”
“Me neither!” said Roshi lightning fast, so Krilin was forced to take the unpleasant task as usual.
“Damn it! Why it’s always me…?”

The trio bordered their aircraft and went on the long road to the tower of Master Karin, which was located under Kami’s palace. The aircraft itself could not reach the palace, so they had to climb the tower. Krilin and Muten would climb to Karin, since Bulma had refused this breakneck daring stunt; she waited down on the ground with Bora and Upa. At Karin’s palace Yajirobei joined the group because he was bored. After several hours of climbing they reached Kami’s palace at last. Exhausted they took the last steps and then looked around. The palace had the form of a flat hemisphere whose smooth straight side formed the floor. In the part behind a very beautiful garden stood the actual palace.
“Wow… so this is Kami’s palace? It’s so quite here…” noted an astonished Krilin.
“Bah… you mean it’s boring as hell, right?” grumped Yajirobei not so impressed.
“Well, Goku had tree years of training here… so I don’t think it had been so boring.” Corrected him Krilin grinning. The samurai only shrugged his shoulders and muttered something incomprehensible.
“Ah, you guys are there!” sounded a familiar voice from inside the palace; it belonged to Goku, who was back in full power.
“Goku! You are already fit?”
The young warrior stepped from the shadows intro the sunlight, his body was healed, but his Gi was still in the horrible state as before. Krilin ran to his friend and was visibly shaken to see him back to health after the sight of just one day ago.
“Goku! Tell us! What happened?”
“Uh, well… I don’t fully understand it… I guess I was not strong enough and was stomped into the ground… literally. I don’t understand why I’m still alive…!” muttered Goku scratching his head while he searched for the right words. The question was answered by the figure which suddenly appeared at his side. It was Kami.
“He thinks that if Radditz has been serious 'til the end he would have been killed. But he was not.”
“Kami… I just wanted to say that… yeah, what he said.”
“Then open your mouth! Better if I tell them, I followed everything from here.” protested the Guardian of Earth against his former pupil, who shrugged his shoulders. Kami told them exactly what he had seen; he could track the space pod until the last edge of the solar system. But then he had lost it from his sight.
“What will these Saiyans do with my son?!” blasted Goku at once.
Kami shrugged. “I fear that they will do what Radditz promised. Make him one of them. That will be bad…”
“How can I prevent it from happen??? I want my son back! Better now than tomorrow!!!” rumbled the Saiyan; in his rage he grabbed Kami by the collar and lifted him up. After a few seconds he realized his rudeness and calmed down a bit. All the spectators ware surprised by this outburst of rage, but they could understand.
“That’s impossible! Forget it! You are not strong enough, Goku!”
“I can’t! Where are those Saiyans??? Where?!”
Kami took a deep breath and looked his pupil right in the eyes. “Again, forget it. You have neither the equipment nor the strength to face such a fighter, remember? You will just die this time. There will be no more miracles.” He tried to convince Goku.
The young warrior took at the ground and seemed to think about something, but then he suddenly greened widely. “The equipment is the smallest problem. And about the strength, then I just have to train, right? I know I will make it… I will bring my son back. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but one day for sure.”
Again there was silence as all this words went through the heads of the persons present. The first to regain his speech was Krilin as he asked:
“But… how will you do that…? I mean… what is your plan?”
“You heard my brother. I was sent to earth as an infant… in a spacepod. If it works only as half as Radditz’ I can follow him.”
Finally they understood his point. Sure, it has to be the silver sphere in which Grampa Son Gohan had found Goku more than 25 years ago.
“Then we can start immediately my new training, right?” said Goku enthusiastic and he already wanted to start with some warm-up exercises, as Krilin stopped him holding him at the waistband.
“Wait a minute. Haven’t you forgotten something?”
“Uh? What?”
“Now don’t play the innocent! You have to tell Chichi what happened, did you forget? That is your job, my dear!”
“Well… uhm... damn… must I really? She might finish what Radditz started… she will kill me!” stuttered the proud warrior now shy as a sheep. Moreover he began to sweat and kept his eyes on the ground. Than he asked: “Will you go with me?”
Krilin sighed deeply. Goku looked at him so pleadingly what he simply couldn’t say no. He couldn’t believe what he was saying after that. “Yes, OK. I’ll come with you. But you owe me really big time for this!”
“Yeahhh!!! You’re are a real pal!”
The others greened impishly, everyone who knew Chichi was happy not to be in Krilins place.