Five years have passed since the defeat of Piccolo Junior...not to mention the single year that passed following the seeming demise of Garlic Junior—and since then, life for Goku, Chi-Chi, and their son, little Gohan, has been uneventful. But a new specter was creeping its way forth, onto the horizon…

Episode #1: The Arrival of Raditz

Featured Voice Talent:

Son Goku: Peter Kelamis

Son Gohan: Saffron Henderson

Chi-Chi: Grey DeLisle-Griffin

Raditz: James Arnold Taylor

Piccolo Jr/Ma Junior: Scott McNeil

The Farmer: Andre Stojka

Garlic Jr: Michael Bell (flashback)

Krillin: Terry Klassen (flashback)

Yamcha: Terrence "Terry" Scammell

Puar: Pauline Little

Narrated by Peter Cullen

This episode is included on the DVD and VHS release "Volume 1: Brothers in Arms". The cover art has Goku and Raditz, standing back-to-back with one another; on Goku's half, Piccolo and Yamcha look on in surprise. On Raditz's half, Nappa and Vegeta are shown glaring.

NOTE: In the films, Toronto voice actress Sonja Ball (Arthur's mom on Arthur, Spookley from Spookley the Square Pumpkin, and Polly Esther of the Samurai Pizza Cats) voices Chi-Chi, but in this re-dub/revisioning of the TV series, Grey Griffin voices her, due to sounding a LOT like Cynthia Cranz's take on Chi-Chi.

NOTE #2: This episode is a somewhat-condensed version of The New Threat, but I cut out most of the Gohan subplot stuff because that wasn't really accomplishing much except filling out the time slot.

NOTE #3: The dialogue for the stories is based on the subtitles, Viz Media's translation of the manga, and the FUNimation and Ocean-dubbed versions...as well as a little bit from Dragon Ball Z Kai.

In the forests of Mt. Paozu, the deer grazed, and the birds chirped as they flew across the skies. Next to a tiny, one-room house stood one that was significantly larger.

"Go-haaaaaan!" called a female voice. "Lunch is ready; time to come inside!"

Deeper into the woods, a 24-year-old man was leaping from tree-to-tree, in search of the right one. This was Son Goku, and he was searching as hard as he could. Finally, his search came to an end as he laid eyes upon a mighty oak tree.

"Ah...yup, this is the right one!" he smiled. Then, he squatted down, drew back, and with a shout he launched a furious punch that brought the oak to the ground in seconds.

Standing outside the house was Goku's wife Chi-Chi, who'd been calling for their son to come inside for at least seven minutes now. Though she gained a reprieve when Goku arrived, carrying the enormous tree towards the front doorstep.

"Welcome back," she smiled. "Have you seen Gohan around?"

Goku dropped the tree to the ground with a thump. "I'm famished already! Especially now that I got us some firewood!" he exclaimed.

"What're you going on about?" asked Chi-Chi. "I was wondering if you'd seen Gohan!"

"Can't say I have, really..." replied Goku with a sheepish expression. "Where could he be?"

Chi-Chi looked nervous. "I'm not certain...but if you don't find him and get moving soon, Master Roshi and the others will grow old (in Roshi's case, even OLDER) while waiting for you!" she exclaimed.

"He couldn't have gone too far off," Goku smiled. "And I'll be sure to take the Flying Nimbus, so I can search from the air!" Even though he had already learned how to use the Bukūjutsu technique during his battle with Piccolo at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, he preferred riding on the Nimbus, as it reminded him of his youth. "Bye, Chi-Chi!" And with that, Goku took off down the hill.

"I'm counting on you; be careful!" Chi-Chi yelled to her husband as she watched him leave. "Really, what am I goin' to do with that man? I'm gonna end up worryin' mahself to death ovah him..." she sighed, slipping into her country dialect.

MEANWHILE...

Out in a field somewhere, a farmer was pitchforking hay chunks into the back of his blue Chevy pickup truck. He gave a great sigh, and fanned himself with his straw hat.

"Phew...this job's bigger'n I thought..." he remarked. "But just a little bit more...then ah'll be done fer today..." Just then, the farmer blinked, as he suddenly heard a humming, whirring sound, which seemed to actually be getting louder as its source got closer to Earth. Said source began to manifest in the sky, in the form of a tiny red dot with a white center.

"What IS that...?" asked the farmer, gaping in shock. But his shock wasn't without justification, as the red dot came even closer...though by now it looked more like a big, red fireball, streaking through the sky. The farmer and his truck were briefly engulfed in a red glow as the large object shot over their heads and crash-landed several miles away. The resulting impact sent the farmer's birds scrambling and squawking, leaving the farmer shaking at the knees.

"Wh-what WAS that just now?!" he stammered. "A m-m-meteor? Sum sorta UFO?! G-guess I'd b-b-better ch-ch-check it out...; oh, why me...?"

But he had little time to pontificate on his miserable state of events, while he went cruising over the hills in his truck, moving towards the crash site at full speed.

"Okay, now..." said the farmer as he brought his vehicle to a halt, and climbed out...only to turn back. "Better bring muh peashooter..." And so, shotgun in hand, he curiously approached the massive crater that had been left by the impact of the fallen object.

It was shaped like a kickball, and was colored white with a bluish tint; its front door had a circular translucent red window, and the whole thing was still smoking.

"Ah don't like this..." the farmer gulped, but he kept on approaching anyway.

Soon, he got a good look at the alien craft. "It ain't no meteor...it's made o' steel 'r sumthin'!" he exclaimed. "What 'n th' world is it?!"

As if indirectly providing him an answer, the craft's door opened itself. And out of that spacecraft emerged a rather tall young man with long, spiky black hair with a very noticeable widow's peak, wearing some strange-looking armor. The farmer could only vocalize in terror as the man floated out of the crater before his very eyes, and then landed on the ground in front of it. The man's face bore a stern, focused expression, greatly contrasting the farmer's look of abject terror.

"So, the creatures inhabiting this world are still alive..." he observed. "Damn that miserable Kakarrot...he's failed us!"

"W-who are you...?" asked the farmer, gripping his rifle like a spelunker would a rope. "Y-you're on muh property..."

"...is that so?" The man asked, pressing a button on a strange eyepiece over his left eye. The eyepiece began to beep for a few seconds, and then stopped. "A power level of 5? Talk about puny!"

The farmer yelped as the man began to approach him. "D-don't come any closer!" he stammered as he fumbled his shotgun. "I'm warning ya, ah'll use this thang!"

The man took one step. With a cry, the farmer opened fire; however, quicker than the human eye could see, the man caught the bullet in his hand with blinding speed.

The farmer screamed in terror; he'd met a lot of people over the course of his career...but none of them could ever catch bullets!

"Here...catch," smirked the man, as he flicked the bullet like he was flipping a coin. Akin to some sort of pint-sized heat-seeking missile, the bullet shot right back at the farmer, knocking him out, and shooting right through the grille of his truck. The farmer let off a dazed mumble before he collapsed.

The man scoffed. "What a fragile breed..." he remarked before his eyepiece started to beep again. "There's someone with a high power level...distance: 4,880..." he muttered. And so, he took to the skies once more. "If that's you...PREPARE YOURSELF, KAKARROT!"

Meanwhile, Goku was flying over the forest, looking for Gohan and calling his name. Suddenly, he spotted his toddler son, hanging on for dear life aboard a log that was being swept down a raging river.

"GOHAN!" he exclaimed as he realized his son was in peril. Down below in the river, the boy's fear gave way to joy when he saw who was flying overhead.

"It's my daddy!" he exclaimed before he was briefly submerged, only to pop up on the other side of the log.

"Just hang on; dad's coming to save you, son!" Goku called as he swooped down and extended a hand. "Just a...little further..." he grunted, before he saw that the river's path was leading into a swiftly-approaching cave tunnel with a very low ceiling. With Gohan and the log being swept into the cave, Goku had no choice but to fly upward on the Nimbus, hoping that it'd be fast enough to get to Gohan before he went over the waterfall at the other end.

Finally, the log flew out the other side of the cavern, over the waterfall, with Gohan screaming for help. Faster than a rocket, Goku sped to the bottom of the falls, but only found the empty log. Right when it seemed he'd be forced to throw in the towel, he heard some very familiar cries for help.

Up on a branch, was little Gohan, screaming for help as he clung tightly to the wooden piece. His eyelids were shut so tightly that he didn't see that his dad was now floating directly in front of him.

"DADDY, GET ME DOWN!" he wailed. "I'M SCARED OF HEIGHTS!" Fortunately, he opened his eyes soon and saw his father floating on the Flying Nimbus before him, and quickly jumped into his arms.

Goku took a quick glance down. "But...how'd you get all the way up here?" he asked, but something seemed to click inside his mind. It was just like last year, when Gohan had managed to save them from Garlic Jr's Dead Zone vortex...

FLASHBACK: ONE YEAR AGO...

As Goku and Piccolo clung to the rubble of the Lookout for dear life, Garlic Junior let out a fiendish cackle while his body glowed with yellow energy.

"You arrogant toad...I'm gonna kill you!" Piccolo growled as he threw an energy blast, then clung to another chunk of rubble as he was dragged back. The energy blast just bounced off Garlic Jr, as if it were a rubber chew toy.

"You can't stop ME; let everything be sucked into this Dead Zone I've created!" Garlic Jr exclaimed. "Including YOU! You'll all be sealed into a hellish darkness that will freeze your bodies and souls for the rest of eternity, just like you did to my father!"

Piccolo strained to keep his grip, but the vortex seemed to grow bigger and bigger. Goku cried out as he was pulled towards the swirling vortex of death...and smashed head-first through several stone pillars on the way. Fortunately, he managed to grab onto the last one to keep from being dragged in completely.

A piece of debris conked Krillin on the head, and when he put his hands to cover himself, he lost his grip, but luckily managed to grab on to another part. Kami and Mr. Popo were hanging on with all their might, but they couldn't hold on for long.

Somewhere within the rubble, a young boy cried out, his sobbing somehow making itself heard over the howling winds and roaring vortex.

Goku's eyes drifted towards the pile. "...GOHAN!" he exclaimed. Garlic Jr raised an eye-ridge in curiosity. Suddenly, the mound of rubble burst like a balloon, and in the midst of it all, was Gohan...but something was clearly different about him. Gone was his childlike expression of fear; in its place was an angry, seething grimace. His fists were clenched like vise-grips, and his eyes had an almost primal, animalistic quality to them. If looks could kill, then Garlic Jr would have been dead a thousand times over.

"NO! GOHAN!" Goku called to his 3-year-old son, but his words didn't seem to be getting through to him. He merely stood firm, resisting the pull of the Dead Zone.

"How can this be happening?!" asked Garlic Junior. "That little brat isn't even affected by my power! I knew he was special...but how can he be so powerful? What on Earth would make him so strong?! One thing's for sure: he's no ordinary little kid!"

With a grunt, the brawny little man boosted his strength and tried to push Gohan back, but he only moved a little bit.

"I've got to use all my power! I'll hit him with everything that I have!" he proclaimed as he glowed ever-brighter, increasing the pull of the vortex and dragging Gohan even further towards it.

By this time, Gohan's eyes were completely blank, no irises or pupils to be seen. And finally, he began to let out a mighty scream of furious rage as his body glowed with a blue light.

By that point, Goku, Piccolo, Krillin, Mr. Popo and Kami were overpowered by the suction force of the Dead Zone, and were dragged towards it.

"DAAAAAADDDDDDYYYYY...!" Gohan roared, as he sent out a blast of blue energy, which hit Garlic Jr, head-on in the stomach, and sent him tumbling towards the swirling vortex which he himself had created.

Goku had gotten a first-hand glimpse of Gohan's true hidden power that day, and it had not only saved them, but the Earth itself. After that, everything was a bit quiet afterwards, but the fact that Gohan had somehow made it from the log to a dangling branch several feet above his head was yet another piece of evidence that there was much more to Gohan than meets the eye.

"Daddy...I lost my hat!" Gohan sobbed, before Goku plopped the headwear back onto his son's head.

"Don't be silly, it's on your head!" he replied warmly. "Now let's head on home and get you cleaned up, so that way you can come see all my pals at Master Roshi's!"

Gohan gave a little smile at that, wiping away some tears.

ELSEWHERE...

The strange man was still in pursuit of the mysterious power level, as he flew above a bustling busy city where its citizens were going about their daily lives. It put him in a contemplative mood. It made him wonder...if things played out differently in his life, would he be living a similar existence to these beings?

But such thoughts were better saved for when he was off duty. "...miserable vermin," he spat, his curiosity masked by contempt.

Elsewhere, out in an empty wasteland, the man who once called himself Ma Junior stood firmly perched on a flat mountaintop, gazing out at his surroundings. This was none other than Piccolo Jr, but we all know who he is.

Suddenly, he spun around, a shocked expression on his face. "W-what kind of power is that?!" he asked himself. "It couldn't possibly be...Goku? No...while this power feels similar to his...there's something different about it!"

In a flash of energy, the man landed several feet in front of Piccolo. "Excuse me for dropping in...I'm looking for a fellow named Kakarrot. Thought you might be him." he explained.

"Well, you were mistaken," replied Piccolo. "So who are you? You have some kind of business with me?"

"I have no business with you," said the man.

"Then what've you come here for?" asked Piccolo. "You got some sort of death wish?"

"My, aren't we high-spirited today?" the man chuckled before pressing his eyepiece to scan Piccolo. "Ah...a battle power of 322. Definitely impressive, but you're still no match for me."

Piccolo clenched his fists. "What'd you say?!" he asked. "Do you know just who you're talking to?!"

"Not really..." replied the man with a flippant look on his face. From how he responded, one would think he was at the check-out line of his local supermarket.

The green-skinned demon gritted his teeth as sweat began to bead upon his forehead. W-what's the deal with this guy's power? His arms briefly swelled with energy before he put his hands out in front of him and let off a fearsome blast of energy which seemed to engulf the man entirely.

Piccolo's stress soon melted away into a self-assured smile...which soon gave way to one of curiosity. As the dust cloud began to clear up, he caught a glimpse of the man's boots. But when the cloud was gone, the man was still standing, barely even scuffed.

"That was a worthless technique, eh?" he asked. "I guess it's only good for kicking up dust."

The expression adorning Piccolo's face could be described as one of pure terror.

"Now it's my turn," said the man. "Allow me to demonstrate one of my favorite techniques." But before he could commence, his eyepiece began to beep once more.

"Well...guess it's your lucky day, green man," he said to Piccolo. "Looks like there's another great power here..." And he lifted into the air to get a better vantage point. His eyepiece beeped a little longer, until it finally came to a stop. "That way...range of 12,209. It's large...the largest power on the planet, even...this time for sure, it has to be Kakarrot!"

And like a jet plane, he took off in the direction of the mysterious power, leaving Piccolo. The green demon fell to his knees, mortified by what had just transpired.

"T-this is ridiculous...!" he exclaimed, panting. "I hit him with my full power and it didn't even stun him! Not to mention I was shaking so much after that, I couldn't move!"

In the clouds above, the mysterious man was flying at top speed towards the battle power he was tracking.

"Have you lost sight of your pride as a Saiyan, one of the mightiest warriors in the universe?" he muttered. "I still remember the day that you were sent to this world during your infancy...I was off-world with my commanding officer by then, but I know that my father made a brutal sacrifice against our leader..."

In his mind's eye, he saw images of a tiny baby boy who was the splitting image of...Goku himself!

"...so why haven't you carried out your mission...KAKARROT?!" the man roared as he kept on flying.

Who are the Saiyans, the mightiest warriors in the universe? And who is Kakarrot? It appears that this mysterious alien has some sort of connection to Goku. Next time, the secrets of Goku's mysterious past will finally be revealed!

NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW

Goku: Hey, Master Roshi, guys; you remember Gohan, right?

Roshi: Sure as shootin', Goku! How ya been, little guy?

Raditz: So, looks like baby brother is all grown up.

Goku: Just who are you, anyway?

Raditz: Be serious, Kakarrot; don't tell me you've neglected your Saiyan pride!

Goku: W-what?!

Yamcha: Next time on Dragon Ball Z Retold: Between Brothers!

Gohan: Daddy, do you really think I can become a great scholar?

Puar: Try not to miss it!

AFTERMATH

For anybody wondering why Raditz seems a bit different from his mainstream counterpart, it's because this time around he'll play a more vital role in the series instead of being tossed aside and forgotten about. Mostly because he's my favorite character, with tons of untapped potential.