[ Contents | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 ]

Chapter 2

When he returned from running errands in town for his mother, Gohan found Goten and Trunks sitting glumly on a bench in the garden, watching the dinosaurs walk by.

"What happened? I thought you two would be playing outside!" The older half-Saiyan boy was fourteen (fifteen, really) and had nearly reached his adult height, though he was still slim, not yet filled out with the solid muscle he would have by the time he entered senior high school. He moved with an easy grace; there was no trace of the usual adolescent awkwardness. Eleven years of martial arts training had seen to that.

Goten cringed and tried to hide behind Trunks. "You tell him," Goten urged his lavender-haired friend.

Trunks looked at the ground instead of at Gohan. "We, uh, got in a little bit of trouble."

Gohan broke out in a cold sweat. Chi-chi had made him responsible for his little brother; what had he done, and how would mom react when she found out? "What kind of trouble?" He asked cautiously.

"We were just playing," Goten said plaintively. "And it wasn't my fault that Trunks blew up Dr. Brief's 'speriment!"

Gohan paled. "You blew up something??"

"Not me!" Goten said indignantly. "Trunks did! But Nan Bulma said we couldn't play outside anymore, and we can't really play in here."

"Huh? Why not?" asked Gohan, puzzled.

"'Cause we don't want to play girl games, we want to spar. Mom said we can't spar anywhere but in the gravity chamber, 'cause I do too much damage and we're too little to go off in the country by ourselves like your dad," Trunks explained. "Only Papa is always using the chamber, and when he's not using it, Raditz is."

Gohan scratched his head. "That's pretty simple to solve; come visit us and spar at my house. As long as you don't wreck the house, we're far enough out in the country that it should be okay."

Goten jumped up, smiling. "Oooh, can we?" He looked at Trunks encouragingly. "Mom knows some really neat moves, maybe she could teach you, too!"

"Huh?" Gohan blinked. "Mom's been teaching you?"

Goten nodded. "Yeah, Dad's been spending all his time sparring with you an' training Uncle Raditz, so Mom's teaching me the basics." Goten struck a pose, then slipped into a fighting stance. "See!"

"I see!" Gohan said, eyes wide.

Trunks sniffed. "Papa has been teaching me how to fight like a Saiyan! One of these days I'll be strong enough to train with him in the gravity chamber at full strength!"

Goten looked thoughtful. "I bet we could train with Uncle Raditz in the gravity chamber!"

Trunks considered the idea. "We probably could; he's not as strong as Papa, and he doesn't turn the gravity up so high."

Gohan looked nervous; he'd made his own peace with Raditz, but he knew Chi-chi still did not approve of her long-haired brother-in-law. "I'm not sure Mom would agree, so let's just plan on sparring at our house next time, okay?"

KRAK-BOOM! Everyone jumped as a sonic boom cracked; a big black wedge wreathed in flames flashed by overhead.

"Wow!" Goten's eyes were wide. "What was that??"

Trunks squinted at it. "I think it was a spaceship!" He levitated into the air for a better look. "It's way over there--oops, there it goes. I can't see it any more." Power gathered in Trunk's aura as he prepared to fly after it.

"HEY! No fair!" yelled Goten. "I can't fly! You gotta take me with you!"

"Goten, I can't fly carrying you, you know that!" Trunks looked down at his little friend with some exasperation.

"Hey! No one is going anywhere!" exclaimed Gohan. "It might be dangerous!"

"But--"

"No." Gohan asserted his authority as the near-adult of the group.

Trunks folded his arms and scowled. "I don't see why not! We're Saiyans, and I'm the young prince! We're not scared of any aliens!"

Gohan raised one eyebrow. "That's exactly why you're staying here! The last time a big spaceship came to Earth it belonged to Frieza and King Cold. This is your father's business and mine and Dad's until we know what's going on."

Goten shivered, and Trunks looked nervous. Frieza was a very bad name in the family stories.

Only a few minutes later, Raditz found them. He was already dressed in his black and white armor instead of the dark jeans, silver-grey shirt, and black Capsule Corp jacket they usually saw him in. Even as he walked toward the three boys, Raditz fitted his scouter over his ear and tapped on the main control, glancing toward the east, where the black wedge had vanished over the horizon.

"Nunk Rats, did you see it? Trunks says it was a spaceship!" Goten ran to his uncle excitedly.

"Yes, I saw it," Raditz said. One look at his serious face told the boys that Raditz would be no help, either; his next words confirmed it. "Trunks, go to your mother and stay there; Bulma will go nuts if she doesn't know where you are. Goten, you go with Gohan. Gohan, take him home and ask Goku to meet us; Vegeta and I will investigate the ship."

"Yes, sir," Gohan said, looking slightly disappointed.

Trunks jumped up. "Hey! Can I go with Goten? That'll be lots more fun than sitting around here, and you know it would be okay with Mom!"

Goten brightened up. "Yeah! Please, Uncle Raditz, Gohan? Pleeeeease?"

"For goodness' sake, Raditz, let him go with Gohan and Goten!" said Bulma as she joined them. "With both you and Vegeta gone, there's no way I'll be able to keep him from driving dad crazy--that's if he doesn't manage to send himself to another dimension by jumping on the wrong experiment at the wrong time," Bulma said with some exasperation.

"You're still upset about this morning?" Raditz looked slightly surprised.

Bulma put her hands on her hips and glared at Trunks. "Well, yes! Dad had been working on that experiment for months, and now he'll have to re-build the whole thing! Not to mention Goten was nearly turned into a pancake!" Bulma pushed back her still disarrayed hair; the very tip of Raditz's tail twitched back and forth.

Raditz stiffened. "Goten... was hurt?"

"No, but it missed him by about an inch!" Bulma waved her arms around. "Some of dad's experiments aren't exactly safe to just blunder into and start throwing gigajoules of energy randomly about, you know!"

"I think there's some details Mom doesn't need to know," Gohan muttered.

"I ducked good," Goten volunteered.

"I agree; it would be a very good idea if Trunks stayed at your house for a while," said Raditz. His tail shifted nervously about his waist. "And I think Chi-chi should know every single detail." Raditz smirked cruelly as he looked at the two suddenly worried children.

"But Mom will ground both of them for a year, and probably me, too!" Gohan protested.

"Exactly," Raditz agreed, still smirking. "But at least she'll feed you well."

* * *

Miles away, Perejil pushed the hatch open and scrambled out of the crater made by the pod's landing. At his age, flying still took a lot of energy, and he wanted to stretch his legs anyway. At the lip of the crater, the Saiyan boy looked around. The thickly-matted grass at his feet was green, but not so biliously green as the jungles of Jinkousei. The air was different, too--it smelled better, cleaner, and was definitely cooler. He uncurled his tail and took a deep breath, swishing the cramped appendage from side to side.

He'd made it! He was here, wherever 'here' was, away from Jinkousei, away from... away from... Perejil wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. "Zana!" he whispered; tears gathered in his eyes. He swiped vaguely at his eyes with one hand, pushing back from his eyes part of his explosion of neck-length, black, spikey hair.

Saiyans did not cry; crying was weak. He would not cry. He and his sister Zana had made the decision, knowing one of them would not make it, but the other would survive. Either he would be pursued and killed, while Zana hid back on Jinkousei, or--Perejil shuddered--Zana would be hunted to her death on Jinkousei while her brother got away.

"ZANA!" A single shout of rage and grief tore the sky. Perejil clenched his fists; someday, when he was strong enough, he'd go back to Jinkousei and--

WHIRRR-CLANK! WHIRRR-CLANK!

A horribly familiar sound cut across his thoughts. Perejil whirled to face the source of the sound, sudden terror gripping his heart. He caught a glimpse of massive, crab-like metal legs--

ZZAAAKKKK!

Twin plasma beams slammed into his back, lifting Perejil and flinging what was left of him to the ground, yards away. I can't feel anything, he thought, staring at the hand resting next to his face. The hand might have been his; it was charred down to the bone. Shouldn't it hurt?

The heavy tread of the crab-like warbots shook the ground; Perejl could feel them drawing near. I'm sorry, father, he thought; I was too weak. I couldn't fight them-- They followed me! Me! Not Zana! The sudden realization struck him with the impact of revelation. Zana is safe!

Then the world turned white--

* * *

Vegeta sensed the fight long before they could see the explosions, and frowned. The power he was sensing--it was weak, strangely familiar, yet unknown. It felt like... a Saiyan; a Saiyan he did not know. For a moment, he thought he'd sensed two Saiyans, but no, there was only the one. "Impossible!" he snarled to himself. The Prince of the Saiyans turned his head toward his companion. "Raditz, what does your scouter show?"

Raditz hurtled through the air just behind and to the right of Vegeta. They were alone; Gohan was taking Goten and Trunks to his house, and Kakarott had not yet joined them. Raditz touched his scouter controls prefunctorily; he'd been monitoring the readings since they left Capsule Corp and didn't really need an update.

"Low power, around 4800 or so, fighting something with no ki. I'm picking up energy readings from some kind of power plant, so whoever it is may be fighting either robots or weak guys in powered armor." "I thought I sensed another ki--" The long-haired Saiyan tuned his scouter again. "No, no other life forms bigger than grass around--must be robots."

Vegeta chuckled. "Low power? You used to call 4800 'elite'--but even my father was low powered compared to me!"

Raditz frowned, looking at Vegeta. "Compared to you and Kakarott, 4800 is weak--the children will soon be that strong!"

Vegeta looked at Raditz with interest. "So you've been taking readings with that scouter of yours! Is Trunks stronger than Goten?"

Raditz smirked. "Yeah, of course."

"Of course." Vegeta lifted his head, haughty and proud. "Have you bothered to turn that thing on yourself and check your own power lately?"

Raditz licked his lips. "Yes."

"And--?"

"I'm a lot stronger than I should be. I thought the calibration was wrong at first, but Bulma double-checked it against the readings she took with my original scouter years ago. I know I've been through a lot, but I can't figure--"

Vegeta laughed. "You are the only Saiyan I ever knew who'd complain about being too strong!"

Raditz looked back, confused. "Vegeta! I'm as strong as the damn Ginyu Force soldiers! I've gone way beyond Saiyan limits; I'm stronger than you were, back then!" He cringed, realizing what he'd just said.

Vegeta merely smirked. "But you're still the weakling, aren't you? Your little brother is so damn much stronger--and so am I."

"Yes," Raditz growled. "And you're Super-Saiyan. I'm not."

"Of course I am." Vegeta looked ahead, toward their destination, dismissing the topic with one gesture.

* * *

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Multiple explosions cascaded along the ground; white-hot plasma beams lanced up towards the tiny, dark figure in the sky. The figure zigged and zagged between the furious bolts of plasma, flinging ball after ball of energy down to explode amid moving glints of metal.

As they hurtled closer, Raditz could make out more details: armor, legs, arms, humanoid figure, and below it the shattered hulk of a great black metal wedge, smoke boiling from the ruins. Off to one side, a large, fresh crater holding the familiar shape of a one-man space pod. In between, things like huge metal crabs scuttled and sometimes stood still, raising stubby lances from which the plasma bolts lashed out.

Things like black metal wasps snarled through the air; the figure tossed a spray of small energy bursts at several that came too close to it. As Raditz and Vegeta stopped with sudden flashes of dispersed power, a wing of the small aerial robots peeled away from the main swarm harassing the lone warrior and darted straight for them.

Raditz dodged up and to one side, far faster than the swarming machines, which overshot and twisted like snakes trying to chase him--but only for a second. Vegeta had not bothered to dodge, but merely raised his ki, daring the impudent robots to do their worst.

WHAAAAM!

They exploded as one; everything turned white in the tremendous blast--the shockwave staggered Raditz, rocking him like a boat turned bow-first into the storm. The stranger fared far worse--he tumbled like a leaf in a hurricane, flung helplessly through the air to crash into the ground not far beyond the crab-robots. Intensely hot air blasted over Raditz, followed by flying grit and choking dust. His ears rang; he hadn't shielded them quite enough for the unexpectedly powerful blast.

"Crud! That was sub-nuclear!" Raditz cursed, and turned to look where Vegeta had been. As he expected, when the smoke cleared, Vegeta was standing calmly in mid-air, his arms folded across his chest, a bored expression on his face, completely untouched. Not one black hair had stirred from its proper place.

The remainder of the flying metal wasps had vanished, wiped from the air by the detonation of their companions. Not so the crabs; they had hunkered down during the blast and were now advancing relentlessly on the downed stranger, plasma beams lancing ahead of them to slam into the warrior now scrambling to his feet. The strange warrior seemed to be in trouble; his arms were crossed over his face and all he did was fend off the bolts with a ki-block.

Raditz double-tapped his scouter. The stranger's power level had dropped down to about 4000, and was still dropping. "Vegeta..."

"The weakling!" Vegeta snorted with contempt. "Anyone who can't handle mindless machines and a few tac nukes isn't worth my time. I'm embarassed that you sent for Kakarott; there's nothing here even you couldn't handle!"

That wasn't the reason I sent for Goku, Raditz thought, noting in passing that Vegeta had picked up even human military jargon from Bulma. It was ironic that a race as weak, as frail as humans considered sub-sized nuclear warheads to be mere "tactical" devices. Most races considered them to be anti-spacecraft weapons, though those who faced Saiyans found them to be barely adequate as squad support weapons. They were, however, adequate enough; a sub-nuke could take out a whole squad if the Saiyans were careless. Saiyans rarely were that careless; when facing technologically advanced opponents, they landed on nights of the full moon.

The massive, highly refractive armor on the crab-like warbots combined with their powerful plasma beamers told Raditz enough; these were exactly that kind of opponent--and there was no full moon in sight. The power those blasts packed could easily kill an untransformed second- or third-class Saiyan; the wounded elite down there was in serious trouble.

Elite? Raditz realized the import of what his senses had been telling him.

"Vegeta! That's a SAIYAN! Crud!" Raditz dove, pouring his own immense, far-beyond-Saiyan power into pure speed. Down he plunged to grab the wounded elite around the waist, then swooped up just as dozens of plasma bolts blasted into the spot he'd just left. The ground vaporized into smoke and magma; Raditz hovered high above, his arm locked around the elite's waist embarassingly close to his tail. No, not his tail, Raditz realized as he felt certain curves brushing against his arm, and looked at the surprised face turned up toward his own--her tail.

* * *

CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 3

[ Contents | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 ]

Disclaimer: See Credits.

Deceiver's Legacy

By Dragoness Eclectic

Chapter 2