Dragon Ball Z: Taro

Prologue: Kakarot

"All alone on a barren planet. No fights. No cities to destroy. Nothing. How boring." A young saiyan boy stood alone on an isolated world. His squad was annihilated in the assault, their bodies and blood splattered all over the battlefield. The smell of the dead hung low in the air as he walked through the mess of Oozaru and alien native corpses. The short black spikes of his hair blew in the wind as he picked up a damaged scouter from the squad leader's body. "Let's see if this thing still works," he muttered to himself as he pressed the button. The device sparked and hummed, whirring to life as the cracked display came on. "Great! Now we're getting somewhere!" Looking back down at the body, the boy retrieved the remote used to control the pods that were his only transportation off this backwater world. Calling the squad leader's pod, an alert came over the scouter. The boy gasped in shock. "Planet...Vegeta... was destroyed by a meteor..," he said, his voice quivering in guilt and sadness. He couldn't fathom the amount of pain that shot through his heart in an instant. Everyone he knew and loved was most likely dead. With heavy dread in his heart, he opened the door to the pod.

"You little bastard!" A voice rang out behind him. The boy whipped around, blocking a strike from the final alien native with his wrist, reinforced by the armor provided to him. The alien was bleeding profusely. He had been wounded by the Saiyan squad leader, but not killed.

"Oh. You survived. That's surprising." The boy replied, jumping back. "Could've sworn we took you all out."

"You destroyed my race! My home!! Do you have any idea what you've done!? Do you have anything to say for yourself!?" The alien demanded. The boy just shrugged his shoulders.

"Good soldiers follow orders." He replied nonchalantly. His opponent, now outraged at his remark, charged at him at full power. In retaliation, the boy simply blasted a hole through his chest, watching as the body smashed onto the ground next to him, purple blood pouring from the hole. "I was just going to leave and let you live, but you had to fight back. Let this be a lesson for you." He sniffed, stepping into the pod. Pressing the scouter button again, he heard a voice.

"Erkin? Is that you? Report! What happened?" The voice rang out.

"No, Erkin is dead. This is Taro, the last survivor as his squad." The boy replied.

"This is Nappa. Report to Frieza Planet #43 for briefing." The man on the other end replied. Taro ended the call, looking at the controls for the pod. Pressing in the coordinates for Frieza Planet #43, As the pod ascended into the sky, Taro leaned back in the padded seat of the pod, contemplating what could have happened to those he knew. His thoughts went to Raditz and Ninjin, his only real friends. Were they dead too? Did they manage to escape the blast? His mind started to race and he subtly started to panic. The thought of his friends dying was too much for him to handle.

"No... no, Ninjin and Raditz are fine. They have to be. They have to be..." he thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep.

That was a distant memory to him now. Now, his scarred and beaten body was sitting in yet another disposable pod on his way to another planet, an identical pod containing Raditz next to his.

"Raditz, are you sure your brother is here? If we don't bring results, Vegeta will kill us." Taro asked over the communicator to Raditz. The long haired Saiyan scoffed.

"Of course I'm sure. Kakarot is here on this "Earth." It's been close to twenty years! I'm sure he's taken care of the locals by now!" Raditz replied with fervor. Taro rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"For your sake and mine, I hope you're right. Vegeta and Nappa will murder us if this is a bust." The young man clenched his fist as thoughts of the Saiyan prince and his bald thug flooded his brain. For years, Vegeta and Nappa had taunted Taro and Raditz for being weaker. For being a disgrace to the proud Saiyan lineage from their weakness. After every mission, Nappa would beat the two for not being as effective as himself or Vegeta. Taro would normally take the beatings for himself and Raditz, gaining more scars in the process. The most prominent of these going over his right eye. It was gained during a mission to capture a rebelling world. Taro was injured after Nappa miscalculated the trajectory of an attack, slashing Taro across the face with a bladed weapon before burying it in his shoulder. He spent a month recovering and training after that. Taro rubbed the scar over his eye, getting angrier before taking a deep breath, calming down.

"There it is. Earth. Once we find Kakarot, nobody will be able to stop us!" Raditz exclaimed. Taro rolled his eyes again, laying back in his seat as the blue and green sphere grew larger and larger through the view of the red window of the space pod. The sterile white ships broke through the atmosphere of the planet, shaking as they parted the clouds and landed on the surface with a mighty booming shockwave, a large crater forming in the ground. Taro exited his pod first, examining this strange new planet. Green grass greeted his boots as the sun's rays beat down on his armor. A native farmer roared towards him in a vehicle of an unfamiliar design. It had four small wheels, two doors for the cab and a bed just behind it for hauling goods and such. Raditz emerged from his pod, joining his companion.

"I thought you said Kakarot wiped out the native species. " Taro joked, nudging Raditz. The long haired Saiyan scoffed.

"Be quiet. It seems the natives of this planet are still alive. Pathetic Kakarot! Can't even do the most basic of jobs." Raditz snarled as the farmer aimed a weapon at the two.

"S-Stay back!" He whimpered, "I'm warning you!" Raditz pressed the button on his scouter.

"Tch. You only have a power level of 5? What trash." Taro folded his arms as the farmer fired a shot right at Raditz' head. This was no use of course, as even Raditz was many times faster than a bullet. He caught it between his index finger and thumb. With a shocked gasp, the farmer looked on in horror as Raditz flicked the bullet back at him, killing the poor farmer instantly.  Suddenly, Taro's scouter began to beep and whirr to life.

"Well well. There's a larger power reading. Distance... 4880. You think that could be Kakarot?" Taro asked, floating off the ground.

"It has to be. Seeing how weak this planet's people are, it couldn't be anyone else." The two powered up and flew off towards the power reading, ready to fight...