Gathered Warriors

A warm breeze blew across the West Wastelands.

Three Saiyan warriors stood together across from Earth's strongest fighters. Tien, Krillin, and Yamcha had completed their training on Kami's Lookout and had journeyed to meet the invaders. Kakarot had been wished back to life the previous month and was almost back to Earth. He should already have been back but wanted to do some extra training and lost track of time.

They were shocked to see Piccolo and Gohan, who were already there ahead of them. They could sense Piccolo and Gohan's respective strengths had taken massive strides. However, they also knew that their opponents were no joke. When the Saiyans landed one of them blew up South City. Due to the early warning satellites the population was notified of the incoming ships. Not that attempted evacuation helped matters; they were still too weak to survive the blast.

"So, are you the humans who fought Turles's men?" the spiked haired Saiyan in the middle of the group asked.

"If they are, Prince Vegeta, then I should make them suffer." the Kakarot lookalike added.

"Yeah we did." Tien answered, "You shouldn't think we are pushovers."

"Who knows we might not even need Kakarot or Raditz." Yamcha joked to calm his nerves.

The group shared a quick laugh before it was interrupted by a newcomer to the group.

"I guess I could've taken my time, then." a familiar voice joked.

The group of friends peered around to see Kakarot back on the side of the living. They all felt they could relax much more now that their friend had returned.

Vegeta and Turles shared a glance before the Saiyan Prince took a step forward. He was amazed by the uncanny resemblance Turles and Kakarot shared, one was bad enough for the Prince.

"Did you say Raditz?" Vegeta asked his sharp gaze on Yamcha.

"Yeah, Kakarot's older brother Raditz should be on the way." the former bandit answered.

Vegeta remembered the name of Raditz because he turned down a position on Vegeta's squad. He was the reason Turles ended up joining. He had presumed Raditz died on the mission he took, instead. If Raditz also planned to oppose him he would just have to show him the power of a Saiyan elite.

"Nappa, Turles we aren't in a rush. Plus, I'm curious to see this Raditz." Vegeta hopped back onto a boulder. "Turles we should test the humans with your pets."

"I was hoping you'd say that." Turles walked forwards and removed a pill bottle from his armor. He made four holes in the dirt and dropped an equal number of seeds in them. "These are the bulbs of plant lifeforms called Cultivars. Saiyans used them as weapons at one time. These are a special breed cultivated by me. I call them the bad batch. They have around the same strength as Daiz and Amond."

No sooner than he finished speaking, the Cultivars erupted from the dry dusty ground of the wasteland. The creatures were short with bulbous heads and red eyes. Their hands and feet had three white razor sharp claws. The armored skin of the Cultivars' torso, head, hands, and feet were midnight black; while its arms and legs were a dark gray.

"So human... want to try your luck, since you were so cocky before?" Turles asked Yamcha.

"Why not." Yamcha stated with confidence.

He approached the area in the midpoint between where the Saiyans' group was and his. When he was in position, he dropped into his fighting stance. His friends gave him a few words of encouragement and awaited what their friend was going to do.

Nearby, over the battlefield, a hovering helicopter was bearing witness to everything that transpired. On the side of the yellow helicopter was a ZTV logo. Inside a man with a red baseball cap trained his camera on the scene before switching his view to his boss seated beside him.

"Folks, this is Jimmy Firecracker broadcasting to you live at the scene of an alien incursion." the thin mustached anchor announced. "We've just witness one of the aliens grow creatures from the ground. Stranger still, the aliens looks almost identical to former world champion, Kakarot." Jimmy informed his audience.

"It now appears as though, Yamcha, another World Martial Arts Tournament contestant is going to fight first." he concluded.

The Cultivars chattered among themselves for a few moments. It seemed they were deciding a plan of action because when they finished, one charge over at Yamcha.

The Cultivar moved with dizzying speed. Its arms were outstretched with its claws poised to strike. When it drew closer to the pony-tailed warrior, it made a slashing leap. Yamcha waited until the last moment to vanish from the monster's sight while it was in midair.

CRASH!

Yamcha reappeared to the side of the creature driving it into the dirt with a downward elbow. A cloud of dust filled the area obscuring everyone's sight. The body of the Cultivar flew from the cloud in a large arc. It left a trail of dust leading back to its group.

"My scouter showed a power spike." Vegeta said to his allies, "I think these Earthlings can hide their powers."

Turles nodded in agreement with Vegeta's assessment of the situation. He looked angrily back at his three remaining Cultivars.

"Don't just stand there! Kill!" he shouted.

"Grrrk! Grrk!" the three responded and charged as a group at their target.

SWIPE! SWIPE!

Yamcha gracefully flipped back to avoid twin slashes from the nearest creature. While he was airborne, another tried to grab him in bear hug. It attempted to lock its arms and legs around Yamcha, but it was moving too slow.

SMASH!

Yamcha caught the wrist of the Cultivar and twisted it around slamming the creature into its ally that was trying to pull off a flanking maneuver. The creature he flipped to avoid came back for another round. This time, its attacks were twice as ferocious. Yamcha used a side kick to create some distance from the monster. When this was achieved; he charged up the Kame School's signature attack, the Kamehameha.

BOOM!

The Cultivar was disintegrated from the blast, turning it to dust. Kakarot and his friends were impressed by Yamcha's display against the four monsters. Turles was extremely furious at the ease in which his work had been destroyed. Nappa took pleasure in Turles's anguish over his Cusher Corps. failing before it really began, and his prided bad batch losing.

"You wretched failures!" Turles spat, kicking the first Cultivar Yamcha defeated back over near its fallen brothers.

Yamcha turned and gave his friends the victory sign. In the chopper, Jimmy Firecracker was frantically trying to keep up with the action. The cameraman informed him that only the rumored Capsule Corp. high speed tracking cameras would have a chance of catching all of the action.

Jimmy knew if they made it back alive he was going hound his producer until they got better equipment no matter the cost. Even if they had to still the cameras right off of the Capsule Corporation assembly lines it would have to be done. He refused to miss out on another event like this due to inferior camera equipment.

"Vegeta, I'm bored of waiting on Raditz." Nappa stated. "Maybe i should go destroy another city while we wait."

"I'd be happy to take you on, but I think my brother is almost here." Kakarot informed the bald Saiyan.

Kakarot could sense a strong Ki nearing the area. He turned his gaze up to try and focus on the source. If he wasn't mistaken there were at least two Ki signatures and one of them belonged to his brother.

"Is this some kind of tactic?" Vegeta scoffed, "How could you know that without a scouter?"

"Just wait." Kakarot reaffirmed.

His allies could now also sense the Ki and looked to the sky, which turned out to be a bad move for Yamcha. The presumed dead Cultivar Turles kicked earlier was in fact still alive. When it noticed the triumphant Yamcha had lowered his guard it used its arms and legs to grip his body.

No one could react before the monster's Ki grew to extreme levels, detonating its body. A crater was formed from the aftermath of the explosion. Dust and debris obscured the area from view. The chopper crew waited with baited breath to see the outcome. The Earth warriors could tell by Yamcha's drop in ki, things weren't looking positive for their friend.

But as long as he survived, a Senzu bean could fix him.

As the dust settled, the various parties could see Yamcha's body curled up in the bottom of a the crater. His orange gi was in tatters from the attack.

"Haha... After all of that, the Cultivar wakes up and pulls it off... Pathetic!" Turles clutched his ribs from amusement. "How's that for entertainment, Nappa."

Kakarot was about to charge over and end the life of his doppelganger, when two consecutive explosions derailed his plan.

BOOM!... BOOM!

Two more Saiyan pods crashed down in the wasteland near the site of the battle. All eyes were trained at the new guests to the battle.

The doors of the pods opened, and the occupants made their entrance. A man with long, knee length, spiky hair made his way towards Kakarot's group.

It was Raditz.

He was wearing his usual Saiyan armor with his tail wrapped around his waist. Next to him was a small boy with knee length, spiky purple hair. The child was wearing a set of Saiyan armor, also, with his a tail wrapped around his waist.

"So this is the planet mother was born on?" the boy asked.

"Yes," Raditz responded, "This is Earth."

"It doesn't look like much." the boy continued, "We are going to see a city after this, right?"

"Yes." Raditz replied.

"And those other Saiyans, over there, are the enemies?" he pointed at Vegeta's group.

"Yes." Raditz answered with an even voice.

His questions now cleared up, the boy ran over to the group of Earthlings. Raditz followed the child at a casual pace. He noticed the crater containing Yamcha's body. It was hard for him to believe Yamcha was weak enough to die to a Cultivar.

He was not aware that what Yamcha battled against was far stronger than the what he would have fought in the normal timeline. If he did know, it still wouldn't raise his opinion of the man. Raditz almost did a double take when he saw Nappa standing next to Vegeta. He almost empathized with the man; he like the original Raditz, was also killed and forgotten about.

"Hey, Kakarot, been a long time." Raditz greeted his brother, "This is Reiss, your nephew."

Kakarot was surprised by this news, but refocused immediately explaining to his brother the events that had transpired. While Raditz listened to the details, Reiss decided to meet his cousin. Piccolo watched on as Reiss led the conversation with Gohan. He noted that the purple haired child had a streak of arrogance bordering on cockiness. It might be a benefit for Gohan to learn to have more confidence in himself.

"I hate to interrupt you fools, but we came here for a reason." Vegeta announced, "Turles and Nappa are ready to end you all, and I might let them."

Hearing their names called, Turles and Nappa stepped forward and each adopted an intimidating pose. "Raditz and Kakarot, you two are Saiyans. If you acknowledge me as your prince, I'll allow you keep your pathetic lives and join us." Vegeta smirked and concluded his threat.

HA! HA! HA!

Everyone's gaze turned towards the source of the childlike laughter. They were curious to about who thought Vegeta's threat was a joke.

It was Reiss.

"You think I'm funny, brat!?" Vegeta was angered by the response.

"Yeah, an emperor doesn't bow down to a prince." Reiss confidently stated crossing his arms, "Right, father?" he looked over to Raditz.