Dragonball Z: Saiyan Saga (Brief)

The first DBZ saga starts off with a reunion between Goku and some of his old friends. They laugh and chatter, as Goku introduces his young son – Gohan. He seems to be very shy, and everyone thinks that he is cute. Bulma, Krillen and Roshi are all there, having fun catching up on old times.

Elsewhere, Piccolo, a green, pointy-eared alien is training in the desert by himself. He is greeted by a tall, muscular character, whom he attacks upon site. The victim laughs at him though, and prepares to attack back. Piccolo looks on in fear, before a device on the stranger’s eye blinks, making him fly off in the opposite direction, telling Piccolo that he will finish him off later.

Goku and friends are on the island, still talking when the stranger greets them. He reveals himself to be a Saiyan named Raditz, Goku’s brother. He demands that Goku kills a load of Earthlings, but Goku refuses. Raditz then takes his son, and warns him that he will never see him again unless he gives in to his demands. Raditz then knees Goku in the gut, flooring him and leaving him winded badly, then flies off into the distance, carrying Gohan.

Goku remembers the Dragonball that was perched on Gohan’s hat, and gets the dragon radar to track his son down. Before he sets off though, Piccolo joins him, and says that he wants to help. The two put their differences aside, and fly off over to Raditz.

They find him, and attack. Gohan has been locked up in Raditz’ pod, a small spacecraft that he used to reach the planet Earth, from his home planet. The fight is strongly in Raditz’ favour, until he begins treading on Goku. Gohan hears his fathers screams, and explodes out of the pod, headbutting Raditz. This distracts him for long enough. It doesn’t knock him down, and Gohan immediately collapses, but Raditz has been weakened. Goku jumps onto his feet, and grabs his brother in a full nelson. Piccolo then charges up his special beam cannon, and shoots it at Raditz, with the beam going right through him and Goku. Piccolo then tells Goku that he will wish him back with the dragonballs, because of his noble feat. He grabs Gohan, and goes off to train him, just as Krillen arrives. Raditz tells everyone that his Saiyan friends will be along soon to avenge his death, and take the dragonballs, in about a years time. They are 10 times stronger than he is too. Goku fades into the next dimension, and everyone leaves, with Krillen wondering how he is going to break the news to Chi-Chi.

Yamcha, Tien, Chao-zu, Krillen, and Yajirobe, the planets strongest warriors trained with Kami, hoping to become strong enough to combat the Saiyans upon their arrival. Goku is told to run a long, winding road called Snake Way up in heaven, where he will receive martial arts training off the legendary King Kai upon completion of running the road. It is a very long way though, and will take him almost a year to get to the end.

Goku falls off Snake Way, and ends up in HFIL (‘Home For Infinite Losers’, better known as ‘hell’). Two ogres challenge him to a contest, with the prize being a ticket back onto Snake Way. Goku defeats them both, and they show him the way out, which takes the Saiyan back to the start. He must run even quicker now, because he has lost about 1-2 months worth of his journey after that.

Piccolo and Gohan train in the wilderness, hard at work in an effort to become stronger. Piccolo notices Gohan’s tail, and gets a bit of trouble when Gohan sees the full moon, and transforms into an Oozaru (All Saiyans do this, because their tail grants them the power to do so. Gohan is half Saiyan, because he is the son of the Saiyan Goku, and the human Chi-Chi). Piccolo manages to blow up the moon, and doesn’t have any more trouble with Gohan turning into an ape.

Goku reaches the end of Snake Way, and it takes him about three quarters of a year. The first task that he is set by King Kai, is to make the martial arts master laughs. He accomplishes this and goes onto his second mission. This is to catch Bubbles the monkey. The gravity is 20 times what it is on Earth, so Goku has a hard time adapting, and catching King Kai’s pet. He does so eventually though, and moves onto his third assignment – To hit Gregory the super-fast cricket with a huge, heavy mallet. This takes him a while, but he accomplishes it in the end. He is then taught how to do the Spirit Bomb (A powerful energy ball, where the power is gathered from all living things on the planet) and the Kai-o-ken (An attack which allows you to boost your overall battle performance by a set amount)

Goku finally ends his training a day before the Saiyans arrive, and is wished back. King Kai suddenly starts panicking though, and tells Goku that he still has to run Snake Way. It will take him about 2 days, meaning he will probably arrive a day late. The halo disappears from Goku’s head, and he angrily begins running Snake Way again, trying to get to the start as fast as possible, so he can help out his friends.

The Saiyans arrive on Earth, and they immediately go to the two strongest powers – Gohan and Piccolo. The two Saiyans consist of one huge, muscular, bald one named Nappa, and a short, tall haired one called Vegeta. The small one seems to be the more powerful one of the two. Piccolo and Gohan prepare to fight, and are soon joined by Krillen. Nappa plants some seeds, from which sprout little green men. Nappa announces that they all have the same power level as Raditz. Before the fight begins, Yamcha, Tien, and Chao-zu arrive. With everyone there, the battle starts.

The little green men are easily beaten, although one attaches itself to Yamcha, and self-destructs, killing them both. Krillen used an attack, which killed the remaining ones, with his anger giving him extra power. The attack hit the Saiyans too though, and didn’t even leave a mark on them.

Nappa steps forward, and fights the Earthlings. He easily beats them up a bit, taking them one-by-one. He thinks that he has killed Chao-zu, when he realizes that he has attached himself to his back. Nappa desperately grabs for him, but can’t reach. Chao-zu uses a self-destruct attack, but only manages to kill himself, leaving Nappa in perfect condition.

Tien is so angry at his friends death, that he fights Nappa. He is easily defeated though, and dies of exhaustion, using one final attack, but not affecting the awesomely powerful Nappa.

Krillen, Piccolo, and Gohan all team up against the big guy, managing to rough him up a fair bit. After a while, Vegeta grants them a three hour period, where they may wait for Goku. The three hours end, and there is no sign of the Saiyan. Everyone fights Nappa, but in the end they are all destroyed, beaten to a pulp, but not quite killed. Nappa tried to kill Gohan with one powerful blast, but Piccolo dives in the way, sacrificing himself to save his trainee. In the time he spent training Gohan, he became quite attached to him. Piccolo fades away into the next dimension. Nappa goes to kill Gohan again, but this time he is rescued by Goku, who arrived just in time to come to his son’s aid.

Goku easily defeats Nappa, but leaves him alive. Disappointed at the humiliating conquering of his friend, Vegeta helps Nappa up, then tosses him into the air, killing him.

Goku and Vegeta fight on in another location, leaving Gohan and Krillen to go home. Goku eventually gets an advantage when his KameHameHa is more powerful than Vegeta’s Galic Ho beam, sending the evil Saiyan soaring into the air. He recovers though, and commends Goku on his strength. Vegeta then forms a bright ball in his hand, and throws it into the air. He looks up at it, and transforms into a huge Oozaru. The battle momentum shifts, with Vegeta crushing Goku in his fist, almost killing him.

Gohan and Krillen are back, after sensing that something is wrong. They try to cut Oozaru Vegeta’s tail off, but are unsuccessful. They know that without the tail, Vegeta can’t maintain his transformed state. As if from out of no where, Yajirobe bursts forth from out of the shadows, and slices the Oozaru’s tail off. Vegeta is reverted back to his normal state, leaving Goku for dead. Yajirobe hides for the remainder of the battle, scared of what Vegeta will do to him. Vegeta easily beats up everyone, until Gohan gets really mad. The two are almost equal. Goku tells Krillen that he gathered some energy for a Spirit Bomb earlier, but couldn’t throw it. He hands it to his friend, and Krillen throws it at Vegeta. The evil Saiyan sensed it coming though, and easily dodges it. Gohan looks on in fear, but Goku psychically sends him a message to bounce it towards Vegeta, as it wont hurt anyone with no evil in their heart. The kid does so, hitting Vegeta square in the chest. The evil Saiyan drops from the sky a while later, half dead.

Vegeta gets to his feet, and provides everyone with a complimentary beating, hurting them all greatly. Goku sends Gohan a psychic message to look up at the fake moon, that made Vegeta transform earlier. He does so, and transforms himself. He tries to attack Vegeta, but can’t quite connect. Eventually, Vegeta manages to cut the Oozaru’s tail off, but can’t get out of the way as the huge ape falls to the floor. Vegeta is squashed, as Gohan shrinks back to his normal size.

Krillen stands over the evil Saiyan with Yajirobe’s sword, ready to finish him off, until Goku tells him to spare the evil Saiyan. Krillen does so, and Vegeta crawls away, calling his ship over with a remote control, then climbing in. He vows for vengeance, then takes off. Bulma, Roshi, Oolong and Puar then arrive, taking the victors to a hospital. In the whole battle, only Krillen, Gohan, and Goku survived, although Goku barely made it through, such were the extent of his injuries.

And so ends the Saiyan saga, with the menace defeated, and the Earth saved, the Earth’s Special Forces heal patiently in hospital, wondering how they are going to wish their friends back without the Dragonballs (When Piccolo dies, so does Kami, and when Kami dies, so do the Dragonballs. It’s a vicious circle.)