Chapter 21

Bulma eyed Rikuum warily. He was at his max right now, which was indeed an extreme level
of ability, which also made her even more amazed at how calm Goku was. She just couldn’t
explain why, but it seemed as if Goku was undaunted by this giant, and completely
confident that he could defeat him. Bulma sighed happily. Somehow she was able to find
reassurance in Goku’s calm demeanor. Perhaps Rikuum had simply turned out to be another
Nappa for Goku to beat the stuffings out of.

“Goku,” Bulma said quietly, deciding that he knew what he was doing. “Would you like for
us to give you some space? If you want to take over, then we won’t stay inyour way.”

“Yes, Bulma, I think that is best,” Goku said, looking down at her and smiling kindly.
“Besides, you guys deserve a break after all you’ve been through. Just leave things to
me. I won’t lose.”

She nodded, and so did Gohan and Kuririn. They had all decided that Goku probably knew
what he was doing, and in any event, they wouldn’t be all that much help to him right now
anyway. Bulma led the way for Gohan and Kuririn, and they flew to the top of a nearby
hill that promised an excellent view of the impending battle. Bulma could hardly contain
her excitement. She beamed happily at the guys, and they beamed right back at her. They
couldn’t wait to see Rikuum finally get the pounding he deserved!

Rikuum must have decided it was time to draw attention back to himself. He made a short
introduction, and he then struck another one of his ridiculous poses.

Goku gaped at him in confusion for a couple of seconds, and then he scratched his head.
Maybe he hadn’t remembered any of this from Kuririn’s memory.

“Can you guys believe it?” Bulma asked excitedly. “It’s like we’ve been given a second
chance! I’ve never felt happier!”

“Yeah!” Gohan exclaimed. “And doesn’t Daddy look great? You can tell he’s been training
really hard!”

“I am definitely glad Goku’s here,” Kuririn said, crossing his arms and looking at the
ground thoughtfully. “But this doesn’t solve all our problems, guys.”

“You mean the fact that Freeza still has the dragonballs, right?” Bulma asked. “I was
just thinking about that, myself.”

“Exactly,” he replied, nodding. “But to tell you the truth, I really don’t think Freeza’s
used them yet.”

“You know, you could be right,” Bulma replied, looking around. “Nothing’s happened to
signify that the Namek Shenlon’s been summoned yet. Do you think Freeza knows how to use
dragonballs?”

“Let’s hope not,” Gohan said. “We’ll need every advantage we can get.”

They all nodded, and then turned their attention to Goku and Rikuum. Rikuum was done
posing. He and Goku were in fighting stances, and were ready to fight. One strange thing
that Bulma noticed right away was that Goku’s battle power was extremely low. Oh, he
looked confident enough, but Bulma knew as well as anyone that it took a little time to
charge up one’s ki before attacking, and the intensity that Goku was exhibiting was
astronomically lower than what he’d need to work up to in order to fight Rikuum. Could
he possibly be underestimating Rikuum’s speed? Surely Goku was smarter than that!

Suddenly Rikuum darted forward, and with cruel precision and speed, he swung his right
fist at Goku’s left side. If she’d had time for prediction, Bulma would have guessed that
Goku would come in contact with with Rikuum’s fist, whether by blocking it, or by being
hit. Either way, she would have been wrong. Almost magically, it seemed, none of these
things occurred, and Rikuum’s fist actually appeared to sweep through the unmoving Goku as
if he were a hologram! Rikuum let out an exclamation of surprise, and he tried punching
Goku in the face. Once again, it appeared as if Rikuum’s fist just passed unhindered
through Goku’s image!

Bulma, Kuririn, and Gohan shared a gasp of surprise. How was Goku doing that? His
movements were so fast that they weren’t even be able to pick him up, whether by sight or
by ki sense!

Of course, Rikuum was surprised too. He was furiously throwing punches and kicks at Goku
from every angle – all of which sharing the results of the ones before – and he was
beginning to get frustrated. Not once did the expression on Goku’s face change, either.
At any rate, Rikuum worked himself frantic, and it wasn’t long before he had to back off
to catch his breath and gape angrily at Goku.

“Speedy little devil, aren’t you?” He panted, grinning at him. “Well, I suppose I’ll
just have to fight fire with fire, won’t I?”

Goku frowned disapprovingly. “You know,” he said, looking steadily at Rikuum, “it’s not
too late for you to change your mind. I promise that no harm will come to you if you
leave quietly. You’ll only get hurt if you keep this up.”

Rikuum chuckled sinisterly. “Oh, you’d like me to give up, wouldn’t you?” He said
slyly, curling his upper lip into a sneer. “Well, I hate to disappoint you, runt, but
I’m only just beginning!” He then proceeded to charge up his ki, and Bulma could see
that Rikuum was going to go all out on this one. He was crouched way down low, and his
aura was crackling like a fireworks display.

Bulma wasn’t so sure of what she should expect anymore. She was sure of this much,
however: if Goku could move as quickly as he had been, without even showing the slightest
sign of fatigue, then Rikuum was going to have to really take him by surprise to land a
good hit. She didn’t know what he was up to, but he was definitely building up to
something big.

“All right, Zippy!” Rikuum bellowed, finally reaching his peak. “You wanna see speed?
Well, don’t be too surprised if you miss this!”

Goku remained where he was, unsmiling, and watched Rikuum almost disinterestedly. With
one final triumphant grin, Rikuum disappeared, and then, almost instantly, he reappeared
again, only about half of the way to Goku. The place where he had taken off began to
cloud up with all the dirt and pebbles he’d knocked loose, but this went unnoticed. All
eyes were on Rikuum, who was hunched over unnaturally, his mouth agape and his neck
stretched far out in front of him. Bulma gasped as a figure in red stepped out from
underneath the lumbering giant and pulled his elbow back. He had taken Rikuum out with a
single elbow jab to the ribs!

With a strange gurgling sound, Rikuum dropped to his knees, and then he fell forward,
landing flat on his face, with his arms spread out behind and his rear sticking up.

“Good God!” Kuririn gasped, shaking visibly. “Did you see that? With one hit, yet! And
I never saw it until it was over!”

“Yeah!” Gohan breathed excitedly. “I can’t believe my dad has gotten this good so fast!”

Bulma looked down at Vegita. He had his usual scowl on his face, but it was combined
with a look of angry astonishment. He ground his teeth with contempt, and clenched his
fists as he glared at Goku. He was obviously not pleased to see just how powerful Goku
had become. Bulma wondered if it would be a wise idea to make Vegita immortal after all.
If he’d be able to kill Freeza, then he’d be able to kill Goku too. And they wouldn’t be
able to wish him back if that happened. Not with the earth’s dragonballs, at least. She
could see by the hatred and envy in his eyes that it wouldn’t take much to tempt Vegita
to kill Goku if he got the chance.

And would they really need Vegita? After seeing Goku just now, she wasn’t so sure. Maybe
Goku could defeat Freeza on his own. If that was the case, then it would be pure
foolishness to give Vegita such an advantage. Bulma nudged Kuririn.

“Huh?” Kuririn said, turning to the side. “What is it, Bulma?” He asked.

“I’ve been thinking, guys,” she began, “and I’ve come to the conclusion that we’d better
not make Vegita immortal after all. If he could kill Freeza, then he could kill Goku.
Besides, Goku’s a lot stronger than we’d ever dreamed he’d be. Maybe he could take care
of Freeza after all. Maybe we won’t even need Vegita!”

Gohan nodded eagerly. “I was thinking that same thing,” he said. “Do you suppose we’d
be able to get to the dragonballs without Vegita tagging along?”

“I kind of doubt it,” Kuririn said unhappily.

“Well,” Bulma said, trying to remain positive. “If we can, then I say we should have
three wishes ready, because we may have to make them in a short amount of time.”

“That’s good thinking,” Kuririn said, nodding in agreement. “Well, we already know what
the first should be, right?”

“Yeah,” Bulma replied. “We’ll use the first to wish our friends back to life. And I
think that we should use the second one to wish all the Nameks back to life. They didn’t
deserve to be killed by Freeza.”

“I agree with that,” Kuririn said, nodding emphatically. “That would definitely be a good
wish. How about the third?”

“I don’t know,” Bulma replied. “I was hoping you guys had some ideas.”

“Well,” Gohan began, “maybe we should wish all the Nameks to a safer place. Freeza could
always kill them all off again if they stay here.”

“Good point,” Bulma muttered, a little peeved that her wish had a flaw. “Where could we
wish them to?”

“How about earth?” Kuririn said. “I’ll bet that Kami would watch over them while we
were gone. At least there they wouldn’t be alone.”

“Well then, that’s it!” Bulma exclaimed. “We have our wishes! Now all we have to do is
get to the dragonballs. As soon as this battle is over we’ll have to get right to it.
Don’t say a word to Vegita, though. We’ll have to find some way to stall him while we’re
gone. Any ideas?”

“Yeah,” Kuririn said, pointing to the battlefield below and laughing nervously. “Let’s
have Goku beat him up.”

They laughed and focused their attention back to the events below. Now it was Jees and
Baata’s turn, and they’d decided to work together against Goku. Apparently he’d worried
them by defeating Rikuum so easily. Bulma smiled. So Goku had them scared. She hoped
Goku would pop Jees a good one for her.

Suddenly Jees and Baata took off toward Goku, with Jees’ red aura and Baata’s blue one
trailing ostentatiously behind them. Goku remained where he was, with them same stern
expression on his face. Jees and Baata zoomed down toward him, but when they got close
enough to take a shot at him, instead of attacking, they each shot off in a separate
direction. Then they turned sharply, and shot toward him again, this time only one at a
time. But once again, they each darted away when they reached him. Thus it continued,
and all the while Goku remained unmoving and seemed practically oblivious to them.
Perhaps that was why they were acting so strangely, Bulma mused silently. They might be
waiting for Goku to make the first move. They certainly seemed to be confused, judging
by their facial expressions.

Suddenly Jees flung a small, but fairly potent ki blast at Goku. It shot down swiftly,
reaching Goku in less than a second. But instead of hitting him, it sailed right through
him, just as Rikuum’s punches had done before! This agitated Jees and Baata considerably,
and they stopped zooming around. They each landed on the ground, about a hundred yards
away from Goku, on opposite sides of him. After nodding at each other, they began firing
off a long series of ki blasts at Goku. Despite the fact that they were firing them off
so rapidly that Bulma was having trouble discerning where one ended and the next began,
not one of them exploded until they had reached the ground far beyond Goku, which meant
he was dodging every one. Strangely enough, noone was able to see or sense his movements,
so it still appeared as if Goku was just a holographic image down there. Jees and Baata
continued their barrage of ki blasts for several more seconds before they finally figured
out that they weren’t accomplishing anything. They shot up in the air and Jees said
something to Baata. He grinned and nodded in reply, and Jees turned back down toward
Goku.

“There’s no way you’ll be able to dodge this!” Jees yelled down at him. “But in any
event, prepare yourself as best as you can for our ultimate technique! The Purple Comet
Crash!”

Jees and Baata began to power up, and finally Goku did something different. He turned to
face Jees and Baata, and Bulma felt a slight intensification of his ki.

By now, Jees and Baata had totally disappeared inside red and blue orbs of ki. Suddenly
they shot toward each other, and when they collided, their auras began to swirl around and
combine, until all that could be seen was a purple maelstrom of energy. Suddenly this
swirling mass began launching a long, fast stream of powerful ki blasts at Goku. He
stayed right where he was, however, and Bulma could sense a dramatic rise in the intensity
of his ki. Suddenly Goku began to scream, and a compact hemisphere of ki energy
materialized around him. The fast stream of ki blasts connected with it almost instantly,
and, through sheer ki energy, Goku blocked every blast that touched his ki barrier. Most
of them exploded on impact, but a few survived the barrier by ricocheting off in other
directions before slamming into various obstacles about the battlefield.

One of them whizzed up at Bulma, Kuririn, and Gohan, and each of them threw a separate
blast to meet it. The four blasts collided in midair and exploded loudly. They looked at
each other and laughed nervously. That was almost a little too close!

Jees and Baata soon discovered that their attack wasn’t having the desired effect, so they
disconnected and gaped down at Goku in astonishment. He had blocked their signature
attack! But they didn’t gape for long. Screaming furiously, they shot down at Goku and
began fighting him at the same time. Bulma was almost sure she saw a hint of a grin on
his face as Goku effortlessly blocked and dodged the fierce barrage of punches and kicks
they administered. They worked their way to either side of him, trying in vain to get a
good hit in. Suddenly Goku disappeared, but Baata and Jees were still going, and before
they could stop themselves, they punched each other in the face!

“Watch it!” Jees shouted angrily. “You’re not supposed to hit me, you damn fool!”

“Watch yourself!” Baata spat back at him. “That was no love tap you gave me, you know!”

“Wait a minute!” Jees said suddenly, turning around to see Goku watching them in
amusement some twenty yards away. “What the hell are we doing? We aren’t supposed to
fight each other! He’s the enemy!” Jees motioned for Baata to lean in closer, and he
began to talk more quietly.

“What do you suppose they’re up to now?” Gohan said with interest, unconsciously leaning
forward in an effort to hear them better.

“I don’t know, but man, that was great!” Bulma exclaimed, laughing happily. “Goku hasn’t
touched them once, but they each have a black eye already!”

Kuririn laughed. “I just don’t get it,” he said. “Goku just trained for 6 days, right?”

“Yeah, that’s how long it took the ship to get here, anyway,” Bulma said, nodding. “But
even if he trained nonstop the whole way here, I still don’t see how he could improve so
much so fast. It’s times like these that make me glad he’s on our side.”

“Well, at least now we can be pretty sure Goku’s got this fight won, right?” Kuririn
said excitedly. “We’d better not question it; just be glad he turned out to be as
powerful as he is.”

“Yeah,” Gohan and Bulma breathed excitedly. They suddenly caught sight of Baata and Jees
again, who shot back down to the ground and surrounded Goku on either side.

“Hey, freak,” Jees snarled at him. “What’s with you, anyway? Why don’t you attack us?
Is dodging the only thing you can do?”

Goku remained silent, but gazed at Jees attentively. Goku’s silence was obviously
annoying Jees. He drew closer menacingly, growling with contempt at the stoic Saiyan.

“What’s wrong with you?” He persisted angrily. “Can’t you speak anymore?”

Goku didn’t answer him. Jees had had enough.

“That’s it!” He exclaimed. “I’ve had it with this! If you don’t attack right now, I’m
gonna fly up to that hill and start pickin’ your friends off, one by one!” He pointed at
Bulma and the boys when he said it.

Suddenly, Goku punched Jees in the face. Bulma heard a strange crunch as Goku’s fist
connected with Jees’ nose.

Jees fell backward from the shock, but was able to stay on his feet. “What the fuck?!”
He yelled shrilly, grabbing his bloody nose. Goku had really caught him by surprise!
“Damn you, you freak! You broke my nose! You’ve damaged my beautiful face!”

Goku suddenly looked surprised. “I thought you meant you were ready. Didn’t you want me
to attack?” He asked apologetically.

“No! Yes! I mean… shut up!” Jees stuttered, suddenly at a loss for words. He glared at
Goku in frustration.

“Don’t worry, Jees; I’ll get him for you!” Baata yelled, leaping at Goku. Goku flew
backwards, out of his reach, but Baata kept right after him.



On To Chapter 21 Part 2
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