Ch. 26: 'Weakling' (2)

Nappa was confused, "But our wish!? Are you just giving up on our immortality?!"

"Obviously not, Nappa!" Vegeta shouted, annoyed that Nappa would even come to such a ridiculous conclusion, "It's clear to me now, that finding that Namek here wasn't a mistake. It's likely that all we need for our wish is a Namek. I've heard stories of the wish orbs of Namek, but I always believed that they were fictional... Until now. Once we're finished slaughtering these earthlings, we'll go to planet Namek ourselves and make our wish there."

"Immortality, huh? What a stupid wish... Fits your personalities perfectly." Raditz scoffed at Vegeta and Nappa.

"Better than the wish that you wanted us to make. You honestly thought that we'd bother wishing a weakling like you back to life when we could rule the universe forever?" Vegeta scoffed.

"Ruling forever with a power that isn't your own. Just like the proud Vegeta that I used to idolize, huh?" Raditz said. This hit Vegeta hard. Raditz had attacked his pride, and he wasn't wrong, either. He didn't have an answer for him, and that frustrated him immensely. He could say that he wasn't going to use the power forever... That he'd only kill Frieza with it... Maybe he'd even make the power his own, but they were all just excuses. The fact of the matter was that he was... mortal. He simply couldn't imagine himself shattering the barrier separating man from god by himself. He needed that wish to do so, and it irked him to no end.

Nappa had no such hesitations. To him, pride wasn't what defined his actions, but rather what drove them. He considered it something akin to stubbornness, rather than the 'honor' that Vegeta preached. That was why he had no compunctions about using the Dragon Balls to wish for immortality, "Who cares where we get the power from? We're Saiyans, the strongest race in the galaxy! We were made to have the rest of the universe licking our feet, and we will! By whatever means necessary." He told Raditz angrily.

"That's wrong, and you know it." Goku said. He knew that the Dragon Balls weren't meant to be used for something like that. They were tools, meant to help protect the planet that they belonged to. They weren't meant to conquer.

"Don't bother, Kakarot. There's no point in trying to sway these stubborn fools. Just like I was... nothing propelling them but their own arrogance." Raditz told his brother, walking up to Nappa with measured steps, "They'll learn the hard way... that true power comes from something far beyond yourself."

Raditz had gone through the same training as Goku. His aptitude for fighting was genetic, same as Goku's, yet his brother's true power level was higher than his own by a noticeable margin. When they sparred, Goku always won, and Raditz knew why. His brother had something... something invisible, a reason to fight, perhaps.

Raditz's reason for getting stronger was to honor his father's wishes and live his own life, devoid of other influences pushing him to commit atrocities, but Goku's was far simpler. He had something that he absolutely could not lose. When he fought, there wasn't anything else in his mind but the absolute need to get stronger, to protect his loved ones.

"Stubborn fools, huh? We'll see." Vegeta thought aloud, "Nappa." He released Nappa. 

The fight between Raditz and Nappa started out pretty similarly to how the fight between Goku and Nappa happened in the anime, from what Hanna could remember. 

"You're not strong, Raditz. I'll show you the true might of a Saiyan!" Nappa shouted, trying to heal his ego, which had been bruised by Raditz deflecting the energy blast that he had aimed at Krillin, Chiaotzu, and Gohan. He charged the younger Saiyan, intent on doing some sort of grappling move, or maybe a suplex or something, but Raditz was already faster than he was. Just as the bald, bulky Saiyan got within arm's reach of him, the younger Saiyan jumped clear over Nappa's bald head at speeds that Nappa's body simply couldn't keep up with, kicking the older Saiyan in the head and knocking him into the ground.

'How did they get so strong within the span of a single year? I've never heard of a leap in strength this immense. Before, Raditz couldn't take on two Saibamen at once, but now he's making sport of Nappa?' Vegeta watched, shocked at the hedgehog-haired Saiyan's incredible speed.

Nappa wasn't as bright as Vegeta when it came to analysis, though. Or maybe he just didn't want to admit that he was already clearly outmatched. Either way, you could see the vein pop out of Nappa's bald forehead.

"I'm gonna rip you apart, you weakling!" Nappa shouted, unleashing a barrage of punches toward his foe.

'He's already lost, huh?' Vegeta thought, looking on as Raditz dodged each punch with room to spare. 

Finally, Raditz counterattacked. He punched Nappa in the gut, so hard that the older Saiyan doubled over in pain.

"Yeah, Raditz! That's for Yamcha!" Goku whooped. Nappa wasn't so amused.

"I was commander-in-chief of the Whole. Saiyan. Army." Nappa told the younger Saiyans, "You're nothing compared to me." He looked Raditz in the eye, "Is this a joke to you? I'm going to kill you, you know."

"You'll have to try a lot harder, Commander, if you want to even remotely challenge me." Raditz gloated to the older Saiyan, watching him double over in pain. 

In rage, Nappa pulled back his fist, but he didn't punch him. Instead, he let out a roar, an energy wave appearing from his mouth. It hit Raditz at point blank range, throwing the hedgehog-haired Saiyan backwards, right through a rather large sized rock, which crumbled to dust under the force. 

Unfortunately for Nappa, Raditz wasn't hurt at all by the blast. As the dust cleared, Nappa saw a shadowy blue before something hit him in the face. Like a truck to a normal person, Raditz's fist blew Nappa backwards, embedding the brutish man ten feet deep into one of the rocky plateaus nearby.