Going Native: Rewritten: Namek 3.2 (ch. 13) (Patreon)

Every sapient species that managed to reach the stars usually dominated their own planet first. And it is how they dominated their planet that determines their trajectory when they join the galactic community. 

Which is why the galaxy was almost exclusively filled with genocidal warmonger jerks, like the Saiyans. Sure, it was possible to dominate your planet with good vibes, but it was rare. Rarer than the technological path that humanity took. So most that made it up the ladder were the… predator variety. 

Others lucked out. Like the Guardians of the Universe -- I didn't know much about them, but I always thought it was hilarious that they won the space race because they found germs that made them smarter. It felt so redundant. Others were a bit more unique. 

Like the Kryptonians. They won a science victory to dominate Krypton -- they were one of the most scientifically advanced races in the galaxy, or so they say. They also had a weird genetic quirk that allowed them to gain the power of a god when exposed to a yellow sun. It was a quirk that they took full advantage of with their science, and together, they used those advantages to carve out an empire. 

In a galaxy full of sharks, the Kryptonians were a megalodon. 

“That's not good,” I muttered, trying not to show how much the words shook me. I hadn't encountered a Kryptonian yet. I didn't particularly want to either. I kept a close eye on them, though -- for the past five hundred years, they had been embroiled in a war. Against who? 

The New God of Tyranny himself.

Darkseid.

By all accounts they were losing, but the fact they were going a full twelve rounds with the New Gods really told me all I needed to know about what the Kryptonians were capable of. And as much as some might bluster, I didn't fail to notice that the five hundred years that the Kryptonians were at war was the same time period that the Saiyans rose to prominence and carved themselves a slice of the galactic pie. 

“Boss? What do we do?” Cabba asked, looking at me. 

I took in a breath and pushed my stray thoughts away. “We can't defeat them both at the same time. We divide and conquer. The Kryptonians are the bigger threat.” I looked to Jaco, then to the others as a plan quickly came together. “I have an in with the Frieza Force that I can use to get my foot in the door. Caulifla, you'll be with me.” 

Rath made the offer for me to join up. Ada said that she didn't detect any outgoing transmissions, so I didn't know how isolated they were prior to the Kryptonians' arriving. But I had read the Kryptonian playbook cover to cover, and the first thing they always did was set up a jamming field across the planet. They isolated their targets, prevented coordination, and then they hit hard and fast so the fight would be over before most realized it was even happening. So, the Frieza Force wouldn't be able to confirm anything that I said. 

“And the rest of us?” Kori questioned, her hands clenched and ready to fight. 

To that, I looked at Dendan. “Do you know where the other artifacts are?” 

“I do,” he admitted with a nod. “I can give you their coordinates if that is what you need.” 

“Perfect,” I said with a nod before looking at Cabba and Kori. “While I'm linking up with the Frieza Force, I want you to grab the other unclaimed artifact. But, when you hear chatter about a confrontation with the Kryptonians, I want you to hit the PTO and take the artifact they have. I'll do what I can to get you that location, but I can't promise anything. Try ki sensing. Or, if we’re lucky, they’ll lead us right to it.” 

I got a few nods, but Raditz frowned, “Confrontation?”

“I'll lead the Frieza Force to an unclaimed artifact, but I'll make sure that the Kryptonians are able to follow us. We'll escape with the artifact in the confusion,” I elaborated. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it was solid enough for our circumstances. “Any questions?” 

I looked around, in particular at Jaco, who just seemed relieved I wasn't going to bail on them. However, it was Dendan that spoke. “If I may be permitted one… you have not asked what the artifact is. Are you not curious why both the Frieza Force and Kryptonians seek it so?” Ah, I suppose not asking questions gave me away. 

Caulifla nodded, “I am a little curious…” she admitted. 

“I mean… yeah, but I don't want spoilers. You telling me would ruin the surprise,” I replied with a shrug. “You can tell the others if you want. I just don't gotta know to get the job done.” 

Dendan offered a kindly old man kind of smile before he inclined his head, but Caulifla plugged her ears. “I don't want to know either!” 

“Well… if you're going to make contact with the Frieza Force, that might be a good call. I hear they use telepathy a lot to read people's minds, so not knowing could be an advantage,” Jaco said. And that was a concern, admittedly. “Is there anything you want us to be doing in the meantime?” 

I thought about it for a moment but I shook my head. “With the Kryptonians here, it'd be best if we leave the planet together. Stay here for now. We'll use the Attack Balls to get back to our ship, then we'll jump out of the system with the hyperlane. Ideally with all of the artifacts.” 

“Right! Well, you'd know better than me!” Jaco said, pretending that he wasn't relieved but I saw him blowing out a breath he had been holding- 

A loud explosion rang out far off in the distance and I felt the ground tremble under my feet for a split second. My gaze snapped in the direction of the explosion and through the canopy of trees, I saw smoke rising in the distance. “Looks like the fun has begun. Give me those coordinates and hide. We'll be back soon,” I said, starting to fly up. 

Sensing the situation, Dendan did as asked. One was relatively close, the other was almost on the other side of the planet. The latter was the one we would grab. “I'll shoot you a message when I find out where the PTO is keeping their artifact. ‘Till then, be careful. This situation is messy.” 

With that, me and Caulifla blasted up into the air. Far off in the distance, I saw the warp gate that the Kryptonians were entering through. It was shaped much like the shields they wore on their chests, and coming through it was a lone warship. From the warship came a stream of drones that flew down -- it was out of my range, but I couldn't sense any Kryptonians. 

However, as smoke rose from the emerging battlefield, it revealed where the Frieza Force was hiding. 

Blasting off in that direction, we raced towards the battlefield and even with it being mere minutes since the fighting began, I could see the ruinous effects on the forest. Smoke billowed up to the sky as the lasers and plasma started fires, and scrambling between them were aliens. The Frieza Force. They came in all shapes and sizes, all wearing the same general style of armor I had seen on Rath, as they fought against the drones that flew down from the sky. 

Only a portion of the drones from the Kryptonian ship came their way, with the rest flying off in every other direction. The Frieza Force outnumbered them maybe a hundred to one, but as we arrived, I saw that it barely mattered. 

The drones came in two varieties -- small featureless floating crystals that fired small red lasers that punched through the Frieza Force armor like it was nothing. Those numbered in the dozens, shrugging off small arms fire with ease. The second variety were larger and came in fewer numbers -- they were nine feet tall mechs that were walking death machines as they slammed through the scrambling fortifications put up by the Frieza Force. 

It was a complete one sided slaughter by the drones. Their war AI, Brainiac, coordinated them perfectly. Perfectly. The whole battle was a mere formality -- the moment the drones arrived, the battle was already won. It was just killing enough of the enemy for them to realize that fact. 

“Darts,” I muttered under my breath, forming the technique. There were no ki signatures to aim at, so I had to eyeball it. But my aim had improved significantly since I first developed the technique. Flicking the Darts forward, the beads of green ki unfurled and raced towards their targets. 

They struck the crystals, punching through whatever energy shield that they had, and made them explode. The mechs, however, were more durable. The ki still punched through their armor, but they remained operational. As one, they turned to face me, just in time for me to smash through one with a fist. The dense armor plating put up some resistance, but not much. 

Caulifla followed my lead, smashing into another. She slammed it into the ground like a meteor, sending out a shockwave, and she rode the momentum into smashing the last mech. The battlefield was still everything but silent -- there were shouts of confusion, screams of the panicking, and cries of the dying that rang out. However, it became quieter as the Frieza Force recovered from what just happened. 

It was then that a presence made itself known. 

“I am Jeice of the Ginyu Task Force!” I heard from the dust before the one speaking revealed himself. Most of his body was covered by armor, but there was no mistaking him. Bright red skin with snow white hair. He was undoubtedly Jeice from Dragonball. “Vice-Captain of the Ginyu Squad. Who are you and what are your intentions?” He asked, and a glowing red ball emerged from his hand. 

He was stronger than his Dragonball self, I swiftly noted. In the anime, he was around 50,000pl. He felt closer to 80,000pl. And his suit was different than the others -- I noted seams in various places that indicated something could pop out. 

“My name is Tarble!” I introduced myself casually as we floated above the battlefield. “That's Caulifla. Rath sent us here to talk to you about a recommendation? Seems like we arrived at just the right time too!” 

Jeice recoiled a bit at my lie, “Rath sent you here?” He asked, the frigid authoritative tone melting away. 

I nodded, “Yeah. I beat him during the Buduko Rashi tournament and he said he was recommending us to join the Ginyu Force since you're expanding your numbers? Then he sent us here, since you were apparently pretty close by hyperlane and you had apparently been here for a while?” I said, making it sound like I was confused that he was confused. 

“Rath- that idiot…” Jeice muttered, facepalming and I smirked beneath my mask. I had Rath pegged right -- Jeice didn't have a doubt that he'd do something like this. “This was meant to be a top secret operation-” He started to complain before he suddenly caught himself. 

His communicator was saying something to him, and nothing good based on his deepening frown. Then, with a grimace, he looked our way and I could see the calculating glint in his eye. “You want a recommendation from me? Well, it looks like you'll get the opportunity to earn one. The situation is developing and it's developing fast!” 

I nodded, “What's the mission?” I asked, feeling some of the tension ease out of me. Jeice bought it. Just how I hoped he would. The situation was forcing his hand and he didn't think to look a gift horse in the mouth, else he would have realized it was a Trojan horse. 

“Come with me to reunite with the rest of my squad,” he didn't answer before he suddenly blasted up high and took off in a direction. I glanced at Caulifla to see her nod and we raced up to follow. 

Jeice was fast, and he was being aided by his suit with thrusters emerging from his heels and back. But we were able to keep up easily enough, trailing behind him. I took a moment to marvel at how fast we were moving. It was easy to forget how far we all had come, but little moments like this made it clear -- I wasn’t even sure how many machs we were flying at, only that it was in the hundreds. Possibly even in the thousands. And it felt effortless as we flew over the continent like it was a brisk jog down the street.

As we flew, I kept an eye on the warship in the distance as it fully emerged from the portal. It was miles long, black as night, and held an odd mixture of grace and looking like a brick with guns strapped to it. The constant downpour of drones had ceased, however.

Still no Kryptonians, though. I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not. 

I wasn't sure what our destination was until I started to sense some ki presences, but I couldn't see them. At least not until Jeice flew through something, making him vanish. When we followed, I felt a weird sensation crawl over me. Like I was in water without getting wet. But, on the other side, I saw the source of the sensation. 

It was an illusionary field. At the bottom of a canyon was a saucer-like ship large enough to carry an entire army. A beam of wavering light emerged from the top, casting a curtain over the canyon to make it look like more of its surroundings. Inside the canyon itself, however, I sensed thousands of people moving with a hurried panic at the sudden attack. Additionally, I sensed two other notable presences within the ship. 

Jeice brought us down and I didn’t bother to hide my looking around, trying to avoid looking suspicious. It was only natural to be curious, and I could lean into my age a bit. Jeice marched through the halls, paying no mind to the scrambling aliens. A large double door slid open, revealing a central podium that had a hologram of the planet, and it was there that I found the two other presences. 

Both I recognized instantly. One was a tall reptilian alien with blue scales and red eyes. Burter, the self-proclaimed fastest alien in the universe. He was joined by Recoome, a very large alien that almost seemed completely human, with an unusually long head topped with red hair that kinda made him look like a pineapple. 

“Vice-Captain! Who are they?” Recoome questioned, looking down at us. 

“Potential recruits sent by Rath,” Jeice said as the three of them converged. Jeice sharply turned on a heel while the other two behind him struck a pose behind him. “We are the Ginyu Squad!” He introduced like I already didn’t know, striking a pose of his own. 

Recoome laughed, “They’re perfectly sized! We can put one on each side, and they’ll balance out Guldo when we’re together!” 

There was kinda a whole war going on behind them, I noted, seeing the hologram of Jangos between Burter and Recoome. And it felt like they weren’t bothered by it. Then I blinked, seeing one of the blue spots on the planet, where I’m guessing one of their ships were, suddenly go red. “Sounds good to me, but… uhh…” I trailed off, pointing at the hologram and the three of them looked at it. 

“Ah! That’s where Spitfire was!” Jeice exclaimed, facepalming with both hands as he looked up at the ceiling with despair. “Damn it! We have to completely rethink our formation if he’s dead!” He complained, and… I think they might be stupid. They didn’t seem to care about the loss of a comrade or the position. Which told me that the Dragonball in their possession wasn’t there. Leaving four other potential sights, including this one. 

Then he shook his head in disappointment, “Well, that’s fine. It’s time for us to earn our paychecks, mates. We’ve narrowed down the location of the Dragonballs to two general areas. We’re going to comb through them fast while the Kryptonians are fighting our men.” That sounded like a callous death sentence for their men. “It’d be nice if we could find the Namekian, but if he’s managed to duck us this long… the priority is three artifacts that Lord Frieza wants. We grab them, then we bug out, agreed?”

““Agreed!”” Recoome and Burter agreed as one, having no problem with the plan. 

Then Jeice looked to Recoome. “Recoome, I want you here to guard the ship,” he said and that clinched it for me. The Dragonball was here. Why else would he waste a guard here and not the other locations? 

Closing my eyes for a moment, I reached out to Raditz with my mind. 

Telepathy was pretty weird. Like, really weird. It was both overwhelmingly simple and outrageously complicated. Basically, you had to push your thoughts to someone with a little bit of ki. ‘We have the coordinates for one of their ships. It could have one of the artifacts. Guarded by a member of the Ginyu Squad. Power Level of around… sixty thousand. Possibly enhanced with suit.’ 

We didn't use the technique much on account that Kori couldn't send replies, but in moments like these? It was very handy. 

‘Understood. I can sense you. We'll hit it on your mark,’ Raditz replied and it was pretty weird hearing a voice that wasn't my own in my head. 

Opening my eyes, Jeice looked our way. “Here -- you two take these communicators. They'll bypass the jamming field that the Kryptonians love to use. Now, what we're looking for is a small orange ball about yay big,” Jeice said, miming the size of a golf ball. “We need to do this fast, but quiet, alright? You find it, and I'll make sure you get into the Ginyu squad even if I havta’ clear it with Lord Frieza himself, alright?” 

“You can count on us!” Caulifla said, thumping her chest with a fist. 

“That's what I wanna hear! Let's move out, Ginyu squad!” Jeice commanded. I started to move, but Burter vanished entirely. If it wasn't for the displaced air in the room, I'd think he teleported. 

Fast. Burter was fast. So much faster than I expected. If I wasn't careful, he could find the Dragonball before we did. The grid that the Frieza Force was looking at contained one of the Dragonballs, but they had apparently missed the one that I sent the others to. I was hoping the Kryptonians would complicated things a bit more for them to make this easier on us. 

“That show off -- always wants to look good for the rookies. Well, that was Burter! He's the fastest man in the galaxy,” Jeice said, ushering us out. and why did that open up a pit of dread in my stomach? That sounded awfully familiar and I think I knew why -- I knew that from a meme about the Flash show from CW. It was in the opening of the show and it got disproven pretty much every season. 

Burter had the Speed Force. Was that not a Flash exclusive thing? Because that could be a whole problem… 

Feeling a bit more uncertain about things, we took off from the base. The aliens of the ship were starting to mobilize, and I knew that they were being sent to be slaughtered. They were a smoke screen to buy us time to find the Dragonballs. 

The Kryptonians weren't the only ones that I had studied, I reminded myself as we flew behind Jeice. The moment I put Frieza in my sights, I started to study my enemy. 

The PTO had several divisions, all culminating on a Board of Directors which King Cold served on as what amounted to a CEO. There were a lot of big names on the board -- like the Blakksun mining company, or the Shinra power company, or Kolway Pharmaceuticals. But, more importantly, there was the Cooler-Force, the Frieza-Force, and the Frost-Force. Each heading their own divisions of King Cold's personal empire. 

The Cooler-Force primarily fielded robotic soldiers. The Frost-Force fielded soldiers that were paid a reasonable wage, as I'm guessing that Frost was playing the part of the good guy in this universe too. The Frieza-Force, however, exclusively used slave labor. 

Meaning the people that were being treated as fodder here were slave soldiers -- either purchased on the galactic market, or born in one of Frieza's breeding farms to produce more slaves for his empire. 

Just like that, I hated Frieza a little more. Along with Jeice and anyone else who would willingly work for a monster like him. 

I had to force myself to take a breath, calming myself down since Raditz wasn't here to scold me. I would do what I could, but in the end, I didn't even want to think about what Frieza could do with the Dragonballs. My best hope would be if he wished for something petty, like to grow two inches taller. Or he could wish for immortality. Or to become even stronger. 

The idea I could be dealing with Golden Frieza, much less Black Frieza sent shivers down my spine. 

“Alrighty then -- we're in the area! Keep an eye out. The things are coated with a layer of magic that makes it hard to see them unless you're deliberately looking for them,” Jeice announced over the earpiece. As he spoke, he dove down into a forest. “Spread out a couple of miles. We’ll search in a grid pattern.” 

‘Be careful,’ I said to Caulifla telepathically. ‘I have a bad feeling about this.’ 

‘You worry too much!’ Caulifla dismissed my concern as we split up. We were pretty close to the coordinates that Dendan had given us. I chose to dive bomb right to it, landing on the forest floor. 

I looked around the general area, my gaze bouncing around but I didn't see it. Frowning beneath my mask, I looked over the area again, this time much more slowly. It was only then that I realized Jeice was right. 

“Damn,” I muttered, suddenly seeing the Dragonball where it was nestled between the roots of a tree almost directly in front of me. I had been looking right at it. “No wonder they missed it. I knew where the thing was and I still couldn't see it.” 

The Dragonball was small. Very small. Small enough that I doubted that it could be the set that had been in the Demon Realm. It was even smaller than a golf ball with three small stars grouped together floating underneath what felt like a glass surface. ‘Found the Dragonball,’ I thought at Caulifla. 

‘That's one part of the plan done. How do you plan on getting the Kryptonians’ attention?’ She thought back, and that was something of a conundrum. Honestly, I figured that the Kryptonians would be closing down on the position or something. They had like thirty kinds of visions without even factoring their tech, so I just assumed they'd sniff them out like a bloodhound. 

Wait, actually… Couldn't Superman hear every heartbeat on earth or something? 

Might as well give it a try. “Vice-Captain Jeice, I found the artifact!” I said loudly to my communicator that he gave me. 

“Excellent, mate! Hold tight and-” Jeice started but whatever he had said after that was lost to me as two ki signatures immediately rushed into my range. I had braced for it, but it was still a punch to the gut when I realized who they were. Almost in an instant, they crossed the thousands of miles my ki sensing stretched on for, and they were going to arrive in seconds. 

They were stronger than me. There were two ki signatures and the weakest of the two was fifty times stronger than me. The other was stronger than me two hundred times over. It was awe inspiring. It was terrifying. Even with a rough estimate, I would put them at around 5 million and 30 million respectively. 

At the same time…

“That's it?” I blurted, unable to contain my surprise. Sure, don't get me wrong -- the two of them were both absolutely fuck off levels of strong. As I was right now, I would need to go Super Saiyan just to match the weaker one. I didn't give myself a chance in hell of beating either of them, and I was anything but weak. But… like… that was it? 

Power Levels in the tens of millions? 

I had prepared myself for them being in the hundreds of millions. No, I had prepared myself for power levels in the hundreds of billions. Trillions even. Goku vs Superman had been a debate that had endured for decades in my last life, and the debate was ongoing even with every new transformation Dragonball introduced. 

But, apparently, Namek Saga Super Saiyan Goku could beat the brakes off the Kryptonians? Off Superman? 

No. No way. I had to be missing something here. I didn't know what, but I wasn't really in a position to start guessing why the Kryptonians were so much weaker than I expected as they were about to come to hand me my own butt. Weaker than I expected or not, they were still vastly more powerful than me. 

With a sonic boom and a gust of wind that felled every single tree around me with their arrival, I looked up to see the Kryptonians. 

They wore sleek black armor that covered them entirely, all except for a grayish-white chest piece that had a red shield on their chests. Their faces were obscured by a featureless black and white helmet while red capes fluttered behind them. Through their helmets, our eyes seemed to meet, and their shoulder pads broke off from their arms to go up to their helmets that started to glow an ominous red. 

I could sense Caulifla and Jeice converging on my position. And I was only slightly mollified when Burter seemed to appear right next to me. 

It was a cold comfort because my gaze was affixed firmly to one of the emblems emblazoned across the smaller of the two’s chest. 

There was no mistaking it for anything other than what it was. It was a shielded S. The iconic shielded S that everyone who knew a thing about  DC comics knew what that symbol meant and who it belonged to. 

The smaller Kryptonian belonged to the House of El. 

“Give us the Dragonball, and your life shall be spared, Saiyan,” the bigger of the two Kryptonians uttered. A woman, but her tone was ice-cold and authoritative. “Resistance is futile.”

I was afraid. I could feel fear pooling in my gut, but that fear set a spark that set my blood on fire. They were strong. So much stronger than me that it had my heart pounding at my ribs -- not because I was afraid, but because I was excited. “Why would I do something like that? I’ve never had the chance to fight a Kryptonian before!”

Ripping off my mask, I revealed the smile that was all teeth hidden beneath. A split second before I slapped the Dragonball into my mouth and swallowed. Thankfully, it was small enough that I didn’t choke too much as it went down. The two Kryptonians were silent during the whole affair, with what I could only assume to be dumbfounded disbelief. “There. Now, if you want it, you’re gonna have ta’ kill me. Or make me puke it up. Or I guess you could wait a few days, but you two don’t exactly strike me as the patient type.”

“...Gross,” the smaller Kryptonian muttered, and she was a woman too. Younger. At the very least, I wasn’t dealing with a Clark Kent that grew up on Krypton situation. But now I was thinking that I might be dealing with a Supergirl situation. It was hard to base her age on the voice, but with her size, I would put her… early teens. Maybe a preteen?

“Very well, Saiyan. Your resolve has been noted. Die for the sake of the Kryptonian Empire,” the other Kryptonian uttered like a death sentence, and I narrowed my eyes at the wording. For the sake of the empire, huh?

But, thankfully, before she could make good on her threat, another voice called out. “Now, wait a second!” Jeice shouted, arriving at the same latitude as the Kryptonians. Their attention shifted to him, and not a second later, Caulifla arrived at my side. She glanced at me from the corner of her eye, and I patted my stomach, to which she smirked. 

“Jeice of the Frieza-Force,” the larger Kryptonian noted. “I am Faora Hu-Ul, Lieutenant of General Zod’s army. I demand your immediate surrender. Or is the Planetary Trade Organization so confident in its victory against the Reach Empire that it believes it can survive a two front war against the Kryptonians?” The what now?

I subtly cast a glance at Burter, who started to float up to match their elevation. The PTO was declaring war on the Reach Empire? Or were they already at war and I somehow hadn't heard? The Reach Empire was another megalodon, but it didn’t originate from our galaxy. I’m not sure what was true and what was a rumor, but one thing that all agreed on was that the Reach Empire moved into our galaxy after conquering their own. Some said that they had dozens of galaxies under their empire’s control, but for the past couple hundred thousand years, they had slowly been conquering worlds or purchasing planets from the PTO. 

Honestly, I figured the two were as thick as thieves, as the Reach Empire was one of the PTO’s best customers. Frieza was going to war with them? Was that why the Ginyu Force was looking to expand its numbers? It didn’t immediately affect me or anything, but that was something to keep an eye on. 

“Perhaps. Do you think that the Kryptonian Empire could survive the wrath of Lord Frieza? I hear that you can barely hold onto your own worlds these days,” Jeice retorted, and on his back, I could see several of the segmented plates splitting, revealing some kind of weapon. “So, how about you leave the planet with your tails tucked between your legs, as that’s all you Kryptonians are good for these days, yeah?”

There was a shift in the posture of the Kryptonians at the taunt, but it was Faora who spoke. “The Dragonballs are property of the Kryptonian Empire,” she growled, speaking the words as if she were trying to will them into reality. “Kara,” she continued, earning the smaller ones attention and… yeah, so that was Kara Zor-El, huh? Right. Okay. “Extract the Dragonball from the Saiyan’s stomach. You have permission to kill.”

Kara began to float down to our level, her cape fluttering in the wind, “Understood.” 

I took in a slow breath as I looked up at her, feeling a clench in my gut as I knew that this was a time to do or die. I had some tricks up my sleeve, but I couldn’t rely on them. If I didn't take this fight seriously right out the gate, I really might die. I couldn't count on Kara being a hero like in the comics -- as it was now, she was a Kryptonian conqueror. 

“Kaioken,” I started, gritting my teeth as wisps of a shimmering red Aura escaped my body. Kara was undetected, the glass of her helmet starting to turn a dark red. “Times! Ten!” 

I blurred into action, appearing before Kara and punching her in the face hard enough the sound barrier shattered as she was flung away, teasing apart trees and ripping up mountains of dirt in her wake. That was the moment that the tension snapped and the fight began. 

‘Raditz! Cabba! Hit them now!’ 

…

Cabba knew he was a follower. He didn't mind it much. Not really. He looked to people like Caulifla, who desperately wanted to prove themselves as a leader, and people like Tarble, who led as naturally as breathing. Not everyone got to be at the front of the picture. Someone needed to be in the background, supporting their forward charge and trusting wherever their leader took them. 

Boss hadn't let Cabba down. While the situation had devolved a bit from their expectations, Cabba trusted Boss’s plan. They just had to follow the general idea of it, and they'd be fine. 

And things were already coming together as he found a small orange ball with a lone star floating beneath the surface. “Found it -- it was right where Dendan said it'd be,” Cabba called out to the rest of his squad. 

“Oh! I wonder what it does?” Kori asked, appearing with a burst of speed and peering down at the offered orb. “It must be most important if both the Trade Organization and the Kryptonian Empire desire it so!” 

“Why they want it isn't our problem,” Raditz remarked from above. “We just got to get the other one and get out.” 

“Not eager for a fight?” Cabba asked, offering a thin smile at Raditz’s dismissive snort. 

“Do I look like Caulifla to you?” Raditz asked, a scowl mostly hidden beneath his mask but he still saw it. “I don't even like the idea of pissing off the PTO. Adding Kryptonians to the mix? No way. Let's just grab the things, grab Dendan, and get off this rock before the Kryptonians throw it into the sun or something-” 

‘Raditz! Cabba! Hit them now!’ 

Both he and Raditz jerked at hearing Boss’s voice in their head. Their eyes met and they both traded a nod, which Kori caught and frowned. She didn't like getting left out of the telepathy, but her talents didn't extend to picking it up. They would have to find something else to help her. 

‘On it, Boss!’ Cabba replied, flying up and tucking the artifact into a pouch at his hip. It was given to him by Dendan, but it was weird -- the moment he put the ball inside, the pouch still felt empty. He thought he might have dropped it, but when he reached in, the ball was there. But, with it secured, they all flew off to the location that Boss had marked. 

“We need to hit them hard and fast. I don't want them getting word back to the others, and make Tarble have to fight both the Ginyu Force and the Kryptonians,” Raditz shouted over the rushing wind as the three of them raced forward. Cabba had the location memorized, so even when he saw the continued forestry, he knew not to trust it. “We’ll just have to find the thing in the rubble!” 

Cabba nodded as he focused his energy- Ki, as Boss called it. He taught them a lot of things since that first meeting. How to cook food. What rocks tasted good. He taught them how to train. 

He taught them how to sense ki. He even taught them some of his techniques. He shared it all freely, sometimes gatekeeping stuff behind challenges to spur them on to improve. For Raditz, he freely shared the Tri-Beam attack. For Cabba himself, he helped create an entirely new technique. 

Raditz gave him the nod and Cabba formed a ki spear in his hands. The red aura of the Kaioken flowed to it as he grit his teeth against the pain to flood the ki spear with more and more ki. He could sense the aliens hidden beneath their cloaking tech, and he took aim at the strongest one. Gritting his teeth even harder, he shifted his stance, hefting the heavy ki spear. Wordlessly, he had to slip into Kaioken x3 just to gain the strength needed to throw it. 

But when he did, the dark blue ki spear flew forward with the name Tarble had given the technique leaving his lips, “Lanza del Relámpago!” 

The spear vanished beneath the cloaking field before a giant pillar of light erupted from the revealed canyon. It stretched up high into the sky, sending out a shockwave that blasted back trees and tore chunks of rubble up from the ground and sent them flying. Cabba felt hundreds vanish from the canyon, being vaporized instantly. Raditz and Kori both continued forward, only to sense the same thing that he did when the light died down. 

They arrived at the canyon turned crater to see that almost everything had been annihilated. All except for one thing. 

An alien covered in a shimmering blue forcefield who clutched an orange ball in one hand. He was massive with a long face and red hair only on the scalp of his head. Despite the sudden attack, the large man was grinning up at them.

“I was worried that I, the mighty Recoome, would get left out of the fun! Let's see what you kids are made of!” 

It was exactly as Boss said. 

Things never went according to plan.