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Going Native (Rewrite) (DBZ/DC)
🕑 Added 2025-03-13 15:04:54 +0000 UTCA quick note before anyone gets their hopes up: this isn't Going Native coming back. This is a potential rewrite in the Idea-Pile. There's an AN at the bottom that'll explain more.
...
“How dare you be born with a powerful level of a pathetic two hundred!? Your brother was born with a power level of ten thousand, making him the second strongest Saiyan alive by the time he took his first breath!” King Vegeta raged at me, slamming a fist upon the arm of his throne which shattered under the assault. The air was filled with a palpable pressure that I felt upon my skin with an almost physical force. I looked up at the man from where I knelt, drinking in his visage -- from his spiky hair, to his goatee, to the lean muscle that strained against his skin-tight bodysuit, and finally the white armor with the crest of the Saiyan royal family emblazoned over his heart.
There was a part of me that understood that he was powerful. Not as powerful as the strongest of the setting he was in, not even remotely, but still so outrageously powerful that he wouldn't have any difficulty at all killing me.
That part of me was overshadowed by the fact that the guy, my father, was berating what amounted to a newborn infant about not being born swole enough. Like, he wasn't technically -- I was a grown man who had tripped and fallen into the body of an infant from across the Multiverse, but he didn't know that. From his perspective, I had just been ejected from an incubation pod and marched across the palace before he decided to yell at me because… I guess I didn't get the same winning genetic lottery ticket that Vegeta did?
“I'll get stronger?” I tried, not really sure what King Vegeta was looking for. Didn't feel like I should apologize. That felt like showing weakness, and I don't think he would tolerate any more of that from me.
“That is no concern of mine, boy,” King Vegeta replied, though he did seem a little mollified by the response. “I will not allow the royal bloodline to be tainted by your pathetic genes. I will not kill you, as you are of my blood, but that is the only mercy you shall receive from me. Begone from my sight -- die in obscurity, or return worthy of your royal heritage.” He made a dramatic gesture before I felt one of my escorts behind me grab me by the tail, causing every muscle I had to go numb.
Then the guy straight up just flung me through an open window.
And off a cliff, as it so happened, as the palace was built on one.
My heart lurched in my chest as I felt the wind whistling by my ears. I shifted to look down at the ground and found that it was rapidly approaching. Instead of panicking, I took a sharp breath and closed my eyes.
Back in my last life, I’d read the start of a cultivation novel that had a reincarnator gain awareness in the womb of his mother like, three seconds after being conceived. And the first thing the guy did was start training. I never got past the first chapter, but I remember it vividly because it was the most extreme example of the tropes that cultivation novels are accused of, and it was so blatant about it that it was oddly charming. I never imagined I would have found myself in a similar position, but as I had gained awareness in an incubation pod, the only thing I had to do was train.
I couldn't train my body, so I trained something else.
Ki.
I don't know if I had ki back as a human, but as a Saiyan, it was impossible not to be aware of it. If I as a human had a drop of ki, then as a Saiyan, I had an ocean. The only difficulty there was that it took some effort to get an ocean to heed your calls. But, after months, years even, of endless practice to avoid boredom, it obeyed my commands like a well-trained dog.
Slowly, I felt my speed bleed off as my momentum slowed until it stopped entirely. Opening my eyes, I saw I was about a foot off the ground, hovering in mid-air. I was flying. Thanks, vague instructions from Gohan. Letting myself fall the last foot to the ground, I looked up at the palace for a moment, mulling over what had happened.
“What a jerk.” I summarized my thoughts pretty well. I wasn't expecting him to win any father of the year awards or anything, but seriously -- the guy really just tossed a baby out a window and off a cliff. Be acknowledged by the royal family? As if. First chance I get I'm gone, suckers. Have fun getting blown up by Frieza.
Tearing my gaze away from the palace I had just been ejected from, I saw… a whole lot of nothing in just about every direction. Well, nothing beyond barren reddish stone. However, a skill I’d developed in the incubation pod came in handy there as beneath King Vegeta's overwhelming presence, I could sense the presence of others beyond the palace.
With nothing else to really do, I started flying over that way. I had some time to come to terms with everything back in the pod -- that I’d died, been reincarnated, and that I was now a Saiyan. I’d thought I had been pretty clever with my training in the pod to avoid Tarble's canon fate, but I really hadn't expected this once I finally got free of the pod. I figured I'd be sent on a mission that I could immediately defect from, head to Earth, and lie low there until Frieza took the Saiyan race out behind the barn.
From there, I figured I'd go the generic SI route of metagaming with my superior Saiyan genetics, become super outrageously overpowered, and then… I don't know. Go on the run-of-the-mill power fantasy route. Instead, I was tossed out like yesterday's trash with no direction to go in. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, though it left my half-baked plans scuttled unless I could get back on track. Maybe I could just… steal a spaceship and be on my way?
“Maybe I shouldn't have bothered training at all?” I wondered, thinking maybe it would have been easier if I had been dismissed from the start. I could already be off to that planet Tarble had been exiled to. You know, provided that King Vegeta didn't kill me outright for being too weak.
Oh well. No point in crying over spilt milk, especially when there were other opportunities on the horizon. Like the one I was closing in on at high speeds.
I arrived at a crag in the barren terrain that could have given the Grand Canyon a run for its money, and it was at the bottom of it that I found the ki signatures that I had sensed. There, I saw what I could only describe as Godzilla’s four-legged cousin -- thick rough scales, a row of jagged spines down its spine, with a maw filled with sharp teeth that snapped at one of the Saiyans hunting it.
There were a dozen of them in the valley, darting in and out of the lizard’s range when it swiped at them with claws the size of a minivan or its tail that effortlessly smashed through boulders. All of them wore the same bodysuits that I did, their tails curled around their waists, as they gave the lizard their full attention. Some of them had scars on their faces, telling me that they weren’t exactly fresh out of the tank.
However, despite that, I could sense that they were weaker than me. If only by a little. If my PL was 200, then theirs was around 100 to 150.
I also didn’t see a single one of them flying. They dodged and flipped out of the way of the thrashing animal who fought to escape them hemming it into a corner, but they didn’t fly. Nor did they use any ki attacks -- they just darted in, punching and kicking, before they darted out. The attacks were doing damage, the scales were cracking and blood splashed on the stone, but they were killing it by a thousand cuts.
They didn’t seem to need my help exactly, but it did seem like an excellent opportunity to introduce myself.
I allowed myself to drop like a stone over the lizard, and since Planet Vegeta had ten times Earth’s gravity, I fell fast. As I did, I channeled my ki to my hands, and in response, beads of dark blue light flickered to life. With a flick of my wrist, I threw the first down at the lizard, and its head bounced down as an explosion rattled its head around -- it wasn’t a big one, but still like a hand grenade went off.
Naturally, the lizard looked up to see what just hit it and it was then I thrusted my hand forward as I closed in. A slit pupil had enough time to narrow as ki erupted from my palm, punching through its eye and directly into the brain. But, to make sure that it was dead, I did a little flip to drive an axe kick into the crown of its skull, and I felt it buckle under my heel as the head slammed into the stone hard enough that a crater formed.
Landing lightly on it, I found the lizard collapsed like a puppet with its string cut. There was a beat of silence as all the other Saiyan kids looked up at me, and my gaze went to the strongest among them. A girl, a mane of spiky hair that went straight up almost, with two large bangs that split to frame her face. She looked up at me with an expression that told me she was ready to fight, so I threw on a smile and waved, “Yo! I’m Tarble. Nice ta’ meetcha.”
“Who the heck are you?!” The girl spat in my direction, making my smile strain just a bit.
“I… just introduced myself?” I tried, tilting my head. They were wary, I saw, some glancing between themselves. They were gearing up for a fight.
“By stealing our prey?” The girl questioned before faltering when I shook my head.
“Nah, you’re welcome to it-” I started, and the rest of the Saiyans pounced on the carcass like a pack of wild animals. They tore at the scales with their hands, carving out chunks of bloody meat that they immediately started shoving into their mouths. If one Saiyan ventured a little too close, then a brawl erupted. It was savagery at its height. Even cavemen were better than this.
The only one that didn’t join in was the girl, who I flew over to. Her eyes watched me carefully, her eyes narrowing when she noticed that I was flying. Behind me, the two-ton lizard was rapidly vanishing into the stomachs of a dozen hungry Saiyans. “You… you’re fresh out the tank,” the girl remarked.
I blinked, “Yeah, I am. How’d you tell?”
She pointed at me, “Your undersuit is clean. No rips or nothing,” she noted and I glanced down at myself to find that she was right. Glancing at hers and the others revealed that their clothing was in much rougher shape. “So, how come you can fly and use ki already? Did you manage to convince someone to teach you?”
There was so much suspicion and doubt in her tone that I felt compelled to ask, “Teach me?” I echoed -- she made the thought sound absurd. Like the level of absurdity for thinking that the moon was made of cheese or Earth being flat.
“Yeah! All the warriors just say we’d figure it out if we lived long enough and got strong enough,” The girl said, and I processed that for a moment. From the sounds of it, much like me, the other Saiyan kids were unleashed into the wilds with nothing resembling guidance. “So, who did you convince to teach you? Parsley?”
“Ah, no. I figured it out,” I admitted, making her eyes widen dramatically. “I can teach you, though? If I knew your name, at least?” I tried and there was no mistaking the hunger in the girl’s eyes. It was something beyond want -- it was more of a need, just as she needed to breathe and eat. She needed to get stronger.
“Caulifla,” She introduced herself, and I tried not to react to that. I hadn’t expected that, I could admit to myself. Although, looking at her, she did look like the version of her that was in Universe 6. Mostly the hair, really. I guess she had the same general face shape, but it was more girlish than womanly since she was just a kid. “What do you get out of teaching me? S’not like you need any help hunting.”
That was actually a good question -- what exactly was my goal here? Part of me wanted directions to the quickest way off planet, but another part of me… I stole a glance at the Saiyans, who were covered in blood, still scarfing raw meat down their mouths or crunching on bones that were bigger than they were. It was… sad. Like in a visceral way that I didn't know how to handle.
“I… could use some help myself. I just left the pod and got tossed out a window, so… you're all the first Saiyans that I've met.” I admitted, and now Caulifla seemed intrigued.
“You weren't part of a batch?” She asked and at my clueless expression, her brow furrowed. “Low-Class like us get made in batches. If we're too weak, we get sent off on infiltration missions. But, if we're not strong enough for missions, they send us into the wilds to get stronger. Once we have our first growth spurt, or our PL hits a thousand, we can start taking missions!” That… almost sounded like… something.
They had the framework of an idea to help the children develop, but they didn't actually do anything to help them. The whole infiltration baby thing wasn’t news to me, but it was mildly more disturbing when I realized it was an actual thing being done now instead of a bit of lore about one of my favorite settings. Same for what amounted to sending newborn children on missions to commit genocide as a form of employment.
Frieza wasn’t a good guy by a long shot, but maybe he was onto something about blowing up the whole Saiyan race.
“But you were born solo?” Caulifla questioned, crossing her arms. “So, you were the kid of some upper-class warrior or something?”
“Or something,” I replied. I had no idea how she'd respond if she learned I was King Vegeta's kid, but I knew that King Vegeta would absolutely kill me if he found out I was calling myself his kid. The prick.
Caulifla shrugged her shoulders, betraying that she wasn’t that interested. “Whatever. If you’re here, it means you weren’t strong enough to acknowledge, so it doesn’t matter.” That stung a little, even if it was true. “Alright. Okay- if you teach me how to fly and shoot ki blasts, I’ll accept you as my underling.” She nodded to herself, and I guess that made a lot of sense to her.
“... Since I can fly and shoot ki blasts, shouldn’t that make you my underling?” I felt compelled to point out. A mistake, as it turned out, as Caulifla immediately switched from smug satisfaction at her own cleverness to murderously angry and glaring in my direction. Then a fist that I just barely managed to jerk my head out of the way of.
“There’s no way I’m going to become the underling for a pipsqueak like you! I’m the strongest, so that means you gotta’ obey me!” She declared before she started swinging for the fences. Her fists came fast, blurring to my face and, despite myself, I felt a grin tugging at my lips.
It felt like a jolt of lighting down my spine and my heart lurched in my chest -- I should be alarmed. Afraid, even. Caulifla fought like a wild animal, and she was attacking me with the intent to beat me into next week. And yet, instead of fear, there was a primal excitement that had me curling my fists. It felt a bit like going on a roller coaster -- a little bit of trepidation, but once the ride started going, you didn’t want it to end.
I didn’t try to persuade her any further.
Darting in, I slipped beneath a hook to plant one square in her diaphragm. Caulifla gasped, but she barely missed a beat as she threw herself at me. I was light on my feet, but I was coming to realize that she was probably faster and stronger than me. Her issue was that she fought savagely -- there was no real form to her style, just a wild rhythm that only she could follow.
I was hardly an experienced fighter myself, but even the basics that I had put me three steps ahead of her. It helped that my body seemed so in tune with my mind and instincts. I tucked my hands up, weaving around a handful of punches as I steadily gave ground, and Caulifla pounced on the perceived opening and kicked at my legs. I jumped above the kick, attempting to land one of my own-
“Caulifla! Incoming!” I heard one of the other Saiyans shout out. Instantly, Caulifla glanced to the side and I got so caught up in the fight I realized I stopped with my ki sense. I resumed as I followed her gaze, sensing and seeing six figures racing towards us. One of them was a little stronger than me, but it was hard to believe it when I saw the six. They were in rough shape, covered in bruises, and they looked like they were on the verge of starvation.
Caulifla tsked, “We’ll finish this later! We have to defend our lunch!” With that, she broke into a sprint at the other Saiyans with her own group right behind her. They unleashed war cries as they clashed, and while the smaller group was weakened, they fought with an unnerving desperation.
It was a matter of life and death for them. And so they fought to kill, so that they could live.
I'm not sure what I would have done if I didn't see one of the wounded Saiyans going to stomp on the neck of another, determined to kill him. It didn't feel like there was a right side here, but I couldn't just let that happen. So, I threw myself into the fray, my side picked, and fought.
I knew I shouldn't enjoy it as much as I did, but the taste of blood in my mouth after taking a punch to the jaw was nearly intoxicating. Almost as intoxicating as returning the favor, punching another Saiyan so hard in the mouth that blood sprayed across the canyon floor. The feeling of my knuckles impacting flooded my brain with all the right chemicals and the pain I felt when I was hit back wasn't a deterrent in the slightest. It just spurred me on, fighting harder and harder until, before I knew it, the six Saiyans were defeated.
They laid on their backs and stomachs, bloodied and bruised, but alive.
The victors unleashed a war cry, celebrating their victory while I flipped the Saiyan that had been at the head of the pack. He groaned and looked up at me through one eye as the other was swollen shut. My lips thinned. “Why'd you attack us?”
“Hungry… we haven't eaten… in days…” the Saiyan groaned. Honestly, he looked like he hadn't eaten in weeks, but I guess Saiyans needed a lot more food than a human.
My blood stopped feeling so hot in my veins, and the satisfaction of fighting was fleeting. Now I feel bad. I glanced up at Caulifla, and I didn't see an ounce of pity in her eyes. And I knew why, even if no one said it. Everyone here had been in the same position, and no one had offered a helping hand to them, so they weren't going to help either.
“Alright. Well, we can't share the prey we already have, but I can help you hunt something else,” I decided, earning sounds of surprise from everyone, victors and defeated alike. The idea that I’d just help them was so utterly unfathomable to them that they looked at me like I just sprouted a second head that started speaking in tongues.
And that was sad.
“Bwah- wait- you can’t! You’re supposed to teach me how to fly and be my underling!” Caulifla immediately protested as I stood up, offering a hand to the fallen Saiyan. He looked up at it, most of his expression hidden behind swelling, but there was confusion shining in his eye. Tentatively, he accepted the hand and I pulled him up.
“I will,” I reassured her. “I’m just going to take care of this real quick. It shouldn’t take that long. Plus, you could use something to eat yourself, right?” I said, glancing at her. She was the only other Saiyan who hadn’t rushed to gorge herself on the fallen lizard.
The offer made her puff up, “I can hunt for-” she started, only for her stomach to growl. Loudly. Loud enough that it echoed in the canyon. “I… fine! Since you're my underling, it only makes sense that you'd get me food.” I'm not even going to address that.
“You're really going to help us hunt? Why?” He asked with the same disbelief as Caulifla. The same suspicion. Even after the ass kicking, I could see him bracing for the rug getting pulled out from underneath him. And I didn't know what to say to make him believe that while I probably wasn't the best person, I just didn't have it in me to see a bunch of starving feral children and shrug my shoulders at them. It wasn't my problem but it wasn't a problem I could just ignore.
“Because I'm stronger than you, so I get to do what I want, and I want to help you hunt for something.” I said, looking away as I expanded my awareness with my ki sense. I had gotten pretty good at it during my time in the tank -- I obviously wasn't at the level of Goku, who could sense people across the galaxy, but I'm pretty sure my upper limit was around a third of the planet. Meaning that I could sense pretty much everything in our general area, including prey. “You got a name?”
The Saiyan didn't know how to respond at first, even when I tried to explain my mercy in a way he could understand. It took him a moment but his head perked into a nod, “I'm Cabba.”
Huh.
Yeah, he kinda looked like Cabba -- though, he was way less scrawny. His features were hidden behind the swelling, cuts, and bruises, but he did look like Cabba.
That was interesting. I'm not particularly sure what it meant that I had run into two equivalents of Saiyans from Universe 6, but it was certainly something. Neither of them were a fraction as strong as their Universe 6 counterparts, but I suppose everyone had to start somewhere.
“Well, you lot follow me,” I said as I started walking. Behind me, I knew the others were trading glances. But, given that I heard a bunch of footsteps, I knew that all of them decided to follow. Even if there was an uneasy silence behind me -- at first, I figured it was because they had all just fought, but I'm pretty sure it was because of me. They didn't know what to make of me.
I wasn't even sure what I was doing. It wasn't like treating them to a meal was going to fix their problems. Even if it was only performative and to soothe my own conscience, I had to do something. So, I ignored their not-so-quiet whispering behind my back as we approached the cliffside. While I floated straight up into the air, the others jumped up the side of the cliffside or climbed it like a bunch of spider monkeys.
Once we were out of the canyon, though, they started to get a little nervous. Our destination was a forest that started to rise up in the distance -- it was a little ways away, but I sensed that there was a lot more life there than there was in this barren wasteland. Honestly, I’m more surprised that they found something to eat out here at all.
“We can’t go there,” Cabba blurted behind me, slowing to a stop. He clenched his jaw and his fists, and even Caulifla was looking a bit tense. I glanced between them and the forest for a moment before I felt a bit silly. Of course, they wouldn’t be living out here if there were better spots available to them. “The older Saiyans claimed it as their hunting grounds. We can’t beat them.”
“Yet!” Caulifla corrected with an angry gesture. “We can’t beat them yet! Soon enough, I’m gonna get strong enough to kick their sorry butts out the forest and take it over for myself!” She boasted, shanking a fist in their general direction.
I looked to Cabba for an explanation, and he supplied one easily enough. “We have to survive in the badlands because all the better spots have been claimed. So, we have to either get strong enough to claim better hunting grounds, or we can move in when a spot opens up because a stronger Saiyan got killed or they got to enter the city.”
It was Darwinism at its stupidest, I realized. The Saiyan race really just chucked their offspring into the deep end right at the start. Either they would grow strong or they would die as they competed for resources. And given that a dozen Saiyan kids just devoured a two ton lizard all the way down to the marrow in about five minutes flat, I'm guessing food was a constant concern. And the Saiyans put their kids in that position on purpose to weed out the weak.
‘Fuck Frieza. I might blow up Planet Vegeta,’ I thought to myself, blowing out a sigh as I scratched at the back of my head. I glanced in the direction of the forest, sensing the power levels that dwelled within it -- there were quite a few that were much stronger than us, but all of them paled in comparison to King Vegeta. And given that 1,000PL was evidently the cut off, the strongest Saiyans in this Lord of the Flies hellscape of a trial by fire was ‘only’ five times stronger than me.
But it wasn't worth the risk. Not yet, at least.
“Alright,” I accepted the information with a shrug of my shoulders. Then I turned my attention to a much closer source of food that I initially dismissed because… well… I felt a bit bad at the thought of eating them. “In that case, let's go this way -- there's a nest nearby.”
“Huh? How do you know that?” Caulifla questioned and I just grinned.
“Ki,” I answered simply, earning a pout from her. And a kick to the shin. I ignored her, though, in favor of having everyone follow me along the canyon until I found that we were roughly near the nest that I sensed. I could tell it was beneath my feet an odd twenty feet, but I couldn't tell where the entrance to the cavern was, even when I checked inside the canyon itself.
So, with a hand outstretched, I channeled ki to my palm before I let a flurry of ki blasts fly free. The raw power that I had at my disposal was unlike anything I had ever felt before as chunks of solid stone just melted away, blasted to pieces as I tunneled my way down. Then, after about fifteen feet, the ceiling of the cavern gave way.
I dropped into the nest first, and unsurprisingly, the mother of the next had anticipated our arrival. She roared up at me, cradling the nest of a dozen eggs with her body and tail. Clenching my jaw, I offered a silent apology to the lizard as I flew forward, bypassing her snapping maw, to deliver a fatal ki blast through her eye and into her brain. With a quick kick, I made sure that the eggs weren't crushed by her body and by the time the others dropped into the hole, the fight was already over.
The Saiyans immediately lunged for the carcass of the fallen lizard, but they skidded to a halt when I held up a hand. They bristled and in their eyes, this was the anticipated betrayal they had been expecting. So, before they could do something stupid, I spoke, “Hold up. We have to cook the meat and eggs first.”
“Cooking? What's that?” Cabba questioned and I had to take a breath to calm myself down. The ignorance was appalling. The incubation pods didn't just protect us from Planet Vegeta's gravity until we could handle it. They taught us stuff too by beaming information directly into our heads or… something. I wasn't sure how it worked. But that was why I was able to speak the Saiyan language, and knew how to operate an Attack Pod. And apparently those were the only two bits of information that the Saiyan race put any value in.
Heck, I'm not even sure if I could read.
“Just… do what I say,” I sighed, feeling a headache coming. “Cut off the legs and separate the scales from the meat. Take out the organs, too.” I instructed, fully expecting that some of them would sneak some bites. The cost of cooking with Saiyans, I guess.
If they were going to argue, they swallowed their protests when I channeled ki around my hand. Reasonable arguments wouldn't work on them, so I had to fall back on might makes right. It'd work for now, but once they started learning how to manipulate their ki… well, hopefully, I'd be long gone by that point.
The cavern was rough and well lived in, telling me that the lizards had been here for a while. I approached an uneven wall before I slashed my hand at it, carving a deep line in the stone. The others openly watched me as I carved a cooking stone out of the wall, catching it as it fell, and flying it over to the opening that I made in the ceiling. With it there, I repeated the process with a stone bowl.
I'd prefer cooking utensils, but it'd do in a pinch.
In the meantime, the other Saiyans did what I asked, and I pretended not to notice that most of them had bloody cheeks or that they were still chewing raw meat. I did have a little experience butchering rabbits, and while the lizard was a thousand times bigger, the same principles still applied. I cut along muscle groupings and bone, which would be cut further into cuts of meat. I severed the ribs along the spine and gathered the organs I knew could be digested safely -- heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, and stomach.
The job was done in a few minutes, rushed because I wasn't sure how long their patience would last for. I tossed the cuts of meat on the cooking stone before I placed a hand on it. Closing my eyes, I tried something a little more complicated than shaping my ki.
In the end, ki manipulation was simple in an… easy to do but difficult to master kind of way. It was the part of Dragon Ball that I had always loved the most, even if they never did much with it. Techniques like Multi-Form, Hypnosis, Power Ball or the more mystical stuff like the Clothing Beam -- they stood out in comparison to the common variations of ki attacks. There felt like there was a lot that could be done with ki itself, but DBZ was firmly a Shonen manga so unique applications of ki were more for new attacks or transformations.
What I was doing now was easy but complicated at the same time. I infused my ki into the slab and used that as a means to heat it up until the cavern became filled with the sound of sizzling meat. When I got a little more confident with the trick I would try flash cooking with ki, but this wasn't bad for a first try. My audience certainly approved because there were sounds of awe when I flipped the steaks over to reveal a nice char. It'd be nice to have some butter, some garlic, and rosemary but beggars couldn't be choosers.
“I can't take it anymore!” One of the Saiyans howled, lunging for a steak and grabbing it with both hands. He took a big bite, tearing off a chunk and he barely chewed before he swallowed.
The steak didn't have any seasoning to speak of beyond some dust and dirt that was left on the slab but the Saiyan looked down at the steak like he just found the holy grail. There were tears in his eyes. “It… it's so good…!” He whispered in a tone reserved for those having a religious experience. Naturally, that set the other Saiyans off and a brawl soon erupted over the cooking meat. I didn't even try to stop it -- I knew to pick my battles, even if there was a part of me that wanted to join in on the fun.
“Pass me one of those eggs,” I said, and Cabba snapped out of whatever daze he had been in before he did exactly that. The lizard eggs felt like ostrich eggs in the sense that they were kinda soft. Cutting the top of it off, I dumped the egg onto the cooking stone, directly on some of the sizzling grease released from the steaks. The egg whites cooked fast, with the dark orange yolk firming up before I flipped it with my bare hand. We had no plates to speak of, so we were going with an over-hard style. “Catch,” I said, tossing the egg like a frisbee to Cabba.
He stared blankly at it for a second before he took a massive bite. He breathed in sharply, savoring the taste for all of a second before Caulifla lunged for it, forcing himself to shove the rest into his mouth. There was a tear in the eye that wasn't swollen shut.
The next round of steaks was already on the grill by the time he was done chewing. “T-teach me your ways!” Cabba half demanded and half begged, throwing himself forward and bowing at the knee. “I've never had anything so delicious before!”
“Yeah!” Another Saiyan seconded, this one from Caulifla's group. “This is the best food ever! I-I’ll do whatever you say if you make more, boss!”
That got Caulifla to sputter, “He can't be the boss! I'm the boss! He's my underling! Und-der-ling!” She protested, making Cabba step forward.
“Don't speak that way to the boss!” He shouted, a fire burning in his eyes.
“Try to stop me!” Caulifla shouted right back at him, the two wore matching smiles a second before they started to fight. Which just made the rest of them start fighting alongside them -- not for any reason I could think of, but they were Saiyans. They didn't really need a reason.
Meanwhile, I just cut open another egg for myself as I ignored the conflict around me. I watched the egg sizzle, drinking in the rich scent of cooking protein, and I let out a breath that I had been holding since I woke up in the pod.
“I'm totally in over my head,” I admitted to myself in that private moment. Completely and utterly. But a Saiyan never backed down from a challenge.
And for better or worse, I was undeniably a Saiyan.
...
I've been in denial with Going Native for a long time -- I never wanted to say the story was dead because I always planned to return to it. Towards the tail end of Gone Native, I was heavily burnt out on DC. It was completely self-inflicted, as I was writing three DC fics simultaneously. I figured that once I got over my burnout, I'd dust off Gone Native and pick up where I left off. But now, as the years ticked by, I have tried to resurect the story several times, but I always ran face first into writer's block. Why was pretty obvious, but it was a question of what I was willing to do about it.
The biggest obstacle for me to return to Going Native/Gone Native was Tarble himself.
Tarble is not a fun character to write. Honestly, his character is exhausting to be in the headspace of because he's so serious, so awkward, and so lonely. Which, in turn, made writing his interactions with the DC universe not fun to write. At first, I figured it would be enough to rewrite Gone Native, start at his arrival on Earth, and completely shift gears from what I initially wrote. Something like Tarble finding Broly at the start and the initial arc would be them chilling and exploring Earth in a far less confrontational manner. I got a couple of chapters into that version of the rewrite before it stalled because the core issue was still there. Because of how I ended Going Native, Tarble is a character who is reeling from the revelation that he killed trillions for the sake of market share and Frieza's bottom line. Not to mention the more heavy spoilers: [ISPOILER]He watched his brother die at the hands of his team, who he then slaughtered in a fit of rage when he became a Super Saiyan.[/ISPOILER] So, no matter what, Tarble is in a super depressing headspace, and it kills any enjoyment I find in writing him.
The idea of Tarble appealed to me six years ago, but far less so now. And that principle could generally be applied to the rest of the Earth Saga -- because Tarble's initial confrontation with the Justice League and Earth was so hostile, it felt like that conflict still hovered over all his interactions with DC's characters. It never felt like I got to show off the good points of the DC setting because it was so... Tarble vs Earth.
So, the result is me looking further back, all the way to the beginning of Going Native. Because of the nature of rewrites, most of them die because it's boring to rehash the same plot points as before, so I knew that if I were going to attempt to fully rewrite it, then Going Native would need to be a very different story from its predecessor. The result of that is this first chapter.
As for the rewrite itself, with this version of the story, I'm looking to add a little more Dragonball into the mix of things. Looking back on Going Native, it feels like I missed some opportunities because I only wanted to import the Saiyan race and the things connected to them. So, we could see Namek, maybe the Androids, Cell, possibly Majin Buu, the Red Ribbon Army, and the Dragon Balls. My feelings for Dragonball Super have also softened considerably. I used to hate it, but while it does have problems, I've found that I enjoy what it does right more than I dislike what it does wrong. The result is I'll be pulling a bit from Universe 6, as seen with Cabba and Caulifla.
The tingle in the back to become Super Saiyan is still stupid, though.
I'm also changing my approach with how I integrate the DB elements into DC. How exactly will be revealed in future chapters, but I can give you a teaser: In this version of the story, the Saiyans were never conquered by King Cold.
On the DC side of things, I'm looking to change things up a fair bit. For example, the Kryptonians will be their Adventure's with Superman version, because they'll have some fun interactions with the Saiyans.
As for the initial arcs -- I don't intend to write another 500k prelude before we reach Earth. Honestly, looking back at Going Native, the entirety of the Reach war should have been 100k words max. There's a lot of unnecessary bloat that could be trimmed. So, I would say the initial intro arc will be spent on planet Vegeta, the second arc will be a mission or two, then by like... chapter 20, we'd be at Earth. Like I said, if I was going to do a rewrite, it would need to be very different than the original.
Let me know what you think of this one. I know Gone Native is a story that's been sorely missed, as I still get asked if the story is dead or not. I've certainly missed it as well, and while this isn't the continuation I know a lot of people wanted, I think I can be a much stronger story.
Comments
Tomas Marcolini
I hope you make this rewrite, it has a lot of potential
CB-Otaku
Oh please yes! I *need* more of this
Daniel
Few days late to this but i totally get it. Going Native was the first fic i read from you, and is the reason i subbed here. So looking back at the series i may have some rose tinted glasses. I still really like the OG version but if you aren’t able to continue it, this would absolutely be the next best thing. I dont want you to keep writing a series you find to be very flawed and have such a hard time with it. whatever you decide is good with me man.
The Panda Queen
It's probably a tad late for this, but I'd suggest DBZ/Marvel as Marvel is much more heavy with space travel and stuff between the Shiar, the Kree, the Skrulls, etc. Marvel's cosmic scene is much more detailed.
The_Heist
Give him a cheat
person1357
Love it so far, ki master all the way
Sleazebag
I loved Going Native, but personally I hate DC. So it being light on the DC elements was something I prefered. Your writing is great so I'll read anything you write regardless, but personally I would prefer more of your other stuff. :)
Kimvan
You did a great job with this. Im sad that earth saga won't be continued but it is what it is, but I have hope for this to be better
Apocrypha
I enjoyed the original a lot. I look forward to seeing how this one turns out.
Space Core
I love Going native and can't wait for this rewrite but I hope you change tarble a bit where he has fragments of his past life and not fully remember because that was what I really liked about going native is that while he has memories it's an incomplete reincarnation and that he doesn't have everything
DJC (MagicLover2128)
I like this more than your previous attempt on the story; I couldn’t get past the first few chapters of that one before getting bored and abandoning it for a different story or something. I hope to enjoy more chapters of this fic; It has good potential I think.
Silver flare
I liked alot of Going Native especially tarble delving more into how ki worked and at the end having a near perfect control over his to the point he could replace his damaged organs with it. Go super saiyan 4 and further. The super saiyan god and blue were just another palette switch to me. Didn't do anything 4 didn't. Why was there never an Apex Saiyan form? Like Super Saiyan 5 or Super Saiyan Silver? Like a silver back gorilla was literally a "Great Ape" the oldest and usually strongest. They never did it I don't know why. It'd be fun if at that point a Saiyan had CONCEPTUAL level strength. Like OG Sun Wukong holding up the entirety of heaven and the universe with only one arm.
Soren
Super excited for this rewrite. My biggest fear was that it would be another enormous story before getting to earth but getting there in 20ish chaps sounds very reasonable.
Robolo42
Will this Tarble still be at least somewhat serious? I get saying fuck you and following dreams, but I kinda liked the idea of king tarble, or a version of it.
Ben
I love your writing and I've read most everything I have found that you've written. I've tried to get into Going Native... I gave it a fair shake but it never felt like either DBZ or DC. It always felt like DBZ/DC got put into a OC universe. My thought is because for both DBZ and DC, Earth is the main setting, they may visit other planets but home is always earth.
aj0413
It was hard for me to put into words, but so much this
Mystic_Rising
I enjoyed going native. Gone native I havent finished cause ironically it felt like a prolonged fight of tarble vs earth where I left off. Anyways I do hope we get some more fun in this fic. I won't think to know the new plotline or anything, but I do hope we kinda avoid him going to war for freeiza simply because as you mentioned this already feels more fun, like an adventure type story. Maybe he can do his initial plan of stealing a ship, but instead of earth we see him have adventures in other planets with a pack of saiyans who follow him
Ramon Diaz
Great to see this come back. I only really have 1 request, especially since you mentioned softening up to Dragon Ball Super. If you ever get to it, especially with the Saiyan focus, choose the Super Saiyan 4 path, not the God ki thing, I always and still hate that. It was nothing more than an excuse to give super saiyan different colors to sell toys. SSJ4 was the only thing GT ever did right.
Joshua Santos
You know, I personally had a lot of suspense of belief issues regarding the original going native. I even mentioned before that I thought the whole soul mutilation stuff should have ended with an inability to go SS2+ until healed. Here's hoping your rewrite fixes that.
Jakob Mceldowney
I forgot just how fucking LONG going native was, I'm eager to see you take a crack at it again with fresh eyes!
SwiftFate
The only 'good' DBZ fic I have managed to find is a story called 'Dragon Ball Alternative'.. I wish there were more. I havent read this one to be fair, but it sounds like it does need a significant rewrite/do over. Looking forward to the future hahaha
Alain Espinosa
While I personally loved the pre-earth Going Native arcs I can see what you mean by there being ‘bloat’ 😂. While I’m sad that I won’t get to see the Saiyan empire that Tarble would build I’m super excited to see where you take this rewrite!
wretched Cat
Dude! I love going native! It was the first story of yours I ever read. I think I've reread it like 6 times so far? I would literally pay per chapter, I love the story that much.
REPOsPuNKy
I personally would love to see a rewrite of going native! Love the original, and I'm interested to see where else you could take the story with a clean slate.
aj0413
Mm. I’ll both echo how I joined this Patreon for Going Native, but I’ll also dissent by saying that one of the major appeals to me WAS/IS the way Tarble is characterized and what he has gone through. Changing the tone would be….not something I think I’d enjoy? Don’t force yourself to write something you dislike, but yeah, I much prefer the OG 😅
Ironwolfej
Going Native was the first story of yours I read. (As is true for many other folks, apparently. 😀 ) The idea of going back and starting it anew fills me with joy. The original had a lot going for it, but I feel like this version of Tarble will be a lot happier. And, thus, even more fun to read.
Diego C
I did Love Gone Native and a lot of early Going Native… but, I’m not gonna lie. At around halfway through, I skipped to the part of Going Native where Tarble and Vegeta have their final confrontation. The reach war is just too long. And yeah, Gone Native was really where it started to feel like you’d lost the plot. I like this, though. I like it a LOT.
Stephan Bucher
Just like quite a few people have already said, Going Native was the first story of yours I read and it hooked me I ended up reading all of it and Gone Native. I am excited for this rewrite and I'm looking forward to how it goes forward, as though I loved Going Native (even with how drawn-out certain sections felt) Gone Native was a hard read; especially when I did a re-read of everything like a year ago. I'm excited for the changes in the story,as it will give us a different Tarbles who hopefully won't always be two steps away from wiping Earth from existence in every bad interaction. All I ask, is that we keep some of the awesome interstellar fights even if (hopefully) Tarbles isn't on the side of murdering trillions for galactic trade profiteering.
Bud
Would honestly prefer you re-write your Dragon Age story over this, it’d ease the disappointment we felt at the hot mess that was Veilguard. Alternatively turning that intro you did for Fate/DND into a full story would be interesting, or the Warhammer Orcs in the Witcher verse.
valerio malgarini
Wasn't Broly the one with a power level of 10.000?
That Warden
I like this rewrite, to be honest going native had great moments but the in between stuff was just boring and depressing it got to a point where I disliked the main character and was hoping broly became the focus of the story.
MisterTubs
Honestly, the reason I joined your patreon was because I felt I needed to pay you back for how much I enjoyed reading going/gone native. You deserve to get value back for the great writing you have provided. I'd love to support a return for the series that introduced me to your work.
ADDM2017
Me gusto mucho el Capitulo, Going Native fue la primera cosa que leí de ti y me engancho desde el primer momento, me gustó mucho el ritmo lento pero constante del Arco Introductorio, y la Misión suicida (Le patearon el Trasero a Tarble tantas veces que verlo ganar se sintio satisfactorio). Esta Reimaginación de tu concepto Humano Self-Insert in Príncipe Saiyajin de Clase Baja me parece interesante, Tarble me parecía muy humano en el Original, no necesariamente algo malo, pero siempre me pareció desconcertante ver a un Saijayin afligirse como Humano por la Guerra cuando el resto de sus allegados amaron las Batallas y la Masacre, aunque este Remake Tarble no parece tener de su problema es demasiado temprano en la Historia para sacar conclusiones. Quiero ver como se desarrolla este Fic primero para dar un veredicto, pero hasta ahora me parece prometedor.
Velzon
I was first introduced to your work years ago with going native. Enjoyable experience nothing I reread like other stories. But it made a mark. I’m enjoying the fact that this Tarble it’s not trying to get into father‘s good graces. I look forward to seeing where you go with us.
Draconic Hermit
I'm glad that your considering rewriting this. I also first read Going Native, which got me hooked on the rest of your stories. And in hindsight it was a bit rough in comparison to your later ones. If nothing else, I hope you bring in Bulma, who's probably gonna be the smartest woman on Earth. Her Ego is gonna be huge. If your going MAwS, Lois probably likes her because she's bluntly honest and absolutely would let her in on some Mad Scientist shit. And so long as the Pairing fits with the over all story, I don't care if it's a Harem or not. Like how in Gone Native you were keeping it between Tarble and Raven due to how mentally scarred he was over having to kill his own brother and Raven is the only one who can actually *Understand* him due to her Magic empathy. If you decide to go the Harem route due to him not going through that Trauma, that's great! If he does go monogamous with someone who fits really well, that's also fine.
Wunderbar90
Honestly, Going Native doesn't grab my attention as much as the new stories and characters you've recently created. Your newer stories are more interesting, creative, and exciting. Instead of rewriting it, I think it would be great if you started something completely new.
NoMeme
Gone Native was the first story I ever read from you and I really enjoyed it. I'll admit that Tarble was a really depressing character to read but I also feel that made him interesting. Too many characters are either edge lords, horny bastards or Gary Stus so watching Tarble's journey and his struggles was interesting. I'm only going to ask for two things. 1. Maybe put some things from Daima in the story. Toriyama made Super Saiyan 4 canon before he died and that's all I'll say on that. 2. Please don't give Tarble a multiple romantic partners. I'm pretty sure I say this in all of my comments, I think that you're a really good writer, it's just that for a lot of your stories you give the MC a harem or a throuple. I personally don't like harems and I feel that it takes away from your stories weather than add to it. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to this rewrite if you go through with it.
Geese
I hope this does continue. A more personable Tarble on Earth would be cool.
Jerren
I will be honest I like pretty much everything you write (wouldn’t be here otherwise), but Im also a firm believer of „the best stories are those where the writer enjoys writing it as much as the reader enjoys reading it“. Going Native was great and intresting because of the concept and execution, not necessarily because of tarbles personality and character. I probably wouldve liked it just as much, or even more, if his character was like any of the other achetypes in ur currently updating stories. write the mc you like to write and its likely to be well received. I already like where this is going.
Metri Boomin
Must be a chef IRL. He's cooking.
Anh Duy Ly
This is definitely dope, but man I was hoping your return to DC would be the Risk it All rewrite.
LtDan
Honestly, as a reader, I was burned out by the same things. Tarble just wasn't that fun towards the end. I already enjoy "Sayan Cooking Hour with Tarble" more.
Kedrick Hebert
Very excited and looking forward to where this might go. Going native was what first introduced me to you, and I was always a bit sad with how it ended. That said, those are completely valid reasons to not do a straight rewrite, and the premise is still so interesting that I have high hopes. Tftc
Wofl Man
I love this so much. It's what's got me to subscribe to the patreon in the first place. So happy thats it's coming back.
Bellboy
Looking good! A big issue I had towards the end of the last story was that every interaction with the DC characters felt samey and dour. They all had the same undercurrent of barely concealed hostility which resulted in half the crossover feeling not so great. Hopefully a rewrite would allow for more fleshed out interactions instead.
Rampant_Radish
Super excited. This is why I joined your Patreon and I really want to see your new take on it since you’ve grown as an author.
Ozymandias
Woo! 🙌 I loved going native, I was contemplating re-reading the whole thing, it's great that you've decided to re write it.
AKi1red
My thoughts exactly I see this as a win
JR Castle
I can see the difficulty you share here about writing Tarble. Unfortunately, I think the things that made him hard to write for you are also the very things that made him such an interesting and worthwhile character. Everything he ever got in that first version of the story came so hard won, which is what created tension and depth. That includes all the combat stuff—the constant almost dying just to get a reasonable power level, the slow development of his ki techniques, the extreme risk and sacrifice he learned to take in his strategies and tactics—but it also includes that loneliness and awkwardness, the sense that he had to struggle just as much if not more simply making friends and building bonds than he had to learning how to fight and wage war. Here he overcomes these obstacles with much greater ease; you have our boy flying and making friends right away. I can see how this would make your job easier, but in character and tone I don't find it as compelling. Just my two cents, for whatever little they're worth.
IdeasGuy
A potential rewrite! It's not back yet, but this is me looking to bring back Going Native. I don't have a slot in my rotation open for it yet, but depending on the reception it gets, I'll probably focus on building up the backlog for it.
Kal Guillory
Thank God you decided to rewrite this. The concept was so good and you did good the first time but I could tell you weren’t the writer you are now. Cook sir!
The Panda Queen
WOAH! WOAH WHAT? A rewrite?!
