Okay, here's a note that you all should be aware of. The information below is sourced from the magazine called "Protoculture Addicts", issue 23, published by Ianus Publications, 5000, D'lberville St., Suite #332, Montreal, Qc., Canada, H2H 256. Some of the spellings that were originally printed are going to be modified for romanizations.
Also, please excuse any grammar and spelling mistakes. Since the article from which I've sourced only covers up to the part when Goku steps up to fight Cell, I have filled in some details about the fight. If anything is incorrect, please notify me so I can make the changes.
The story starts out with Son Goku as a young boy -- very naive and innocent. Secluded in the depths of a forest, he has never seen another human with the sole exception of his late mentor, Son Gohan. A girl almost drives over Goku and the fish (about twice his size) which he had caught for dinner. After observing the damage that the boy causes to her car, she persuades him to serve as her protector (although here intentions are not clear) on her journey to recover the Dragonballs. She explains to him that the Dragonballs are crystal-like balls with stars embedded in them. Scattered across the globe, all seven ball, when united, summon a dragon (the Sheng-lon) who will grant any wish. The girl's name is Bulma and she is an electronics whiz. She invented a Dragonball radar to faciliate the search.
And so their adventures begin, in search of the Dragonballs. We soon meet new friends such as the Kamesenin (Turtle Master), Yamcha, and a shape-changing pig named Oolong. Kame and Oolong are two characters who seem to share the same dirty minds. Goku is soon taken under the wing of the great Mutenroshisama (AKA the perverted Kame-san) joined by another boy, Klilyn, who comes to train with him. The provide refuge to a girl on the run, named Lunch who has a split personality. One side of here is as innocent as an angel, but the other persona is a violent, foul-mouthed, criminal. Goku and Klilyn participate in their first tournament--the Tenkaichi-budokai--yet they fail to win by a narrow margin, thanks to Kame who has disguised himslef to enter the event. They part ways to begin training on their own. Goku soon runs into trouble with the world terrorist movement, Red Ribbon. He then finds himself training with his next teacher, Karin (the Cat Master). After training for three days, his power increases to the extent that he manages to annihilate the Red Ribbon HQ. He soon makes his first wish, by using the dragonballs and ask that a little boy's murdered father to be ressurected.
Once again, Goku trains and signs up for the next Tenkai. At this tournament, we are introduced to Tenshin-han and Choazu, the pupils of Kame's nemisis. The final match is between Goku and Tenshin-han and by the stroke of bad luck, Goku loses. Suddenly, Klilyn is murdered just before Goku is about to meet up with him and the rest of the gang. Goku, burning with rage, pursues the assassin, but gets beaten to a pulp since he has used up all of his energy during the tournament. In the meantime, we learn of Piccolo--the Devil himself-- who brings a reign of terror upon the world. Fearing the possibility of Goku's death when he fails to return after many hours, Kame and Tenshin-han join forces. They search the dragonballs to prevent the Devil from gaining whatever he wishes, and by manga issue #13, Kame has died. Tenshin-han is about to be killed by Piccolo when Goku appears, after having taken the senzu pill from Karin which instantly restores all of Goku's power. He defeats Piccolo. Befor he dies, Piccolo gives birth to his successor. God, knowing this, offers to train Goku and this is an opportunity he obviously won't refuse. Kame, Klilyn, and Choazu are brought back to life by the dragonballs. At the next tournament, Goku appears as a fully grown man, and he has become a completely new person. The main focus of the games is the climatic confrontation between Goku and the reborn Devil. After a fierce fight, Goku finally wins. Goku then gets married to Chichi-- a minor character who appears briefly in manga issue #1 and who reappeared at the fight.
About five years after Goku's last fight with the Devil, we find out that he has a son, Gohan, named after his "grandfather" and mentor. Gohan has a tail just like his father. A powerful alien (Raditz) soon descends on Earth and defeats Goku with astonishing ease before revealing the truth about his identity. Goku is a Saiya-jin, one of the few survivors of the now extinct planet, Saiya. The Saiya-jin are a military race who are among the strongest in the entire universe and go about conquering and selling planets. Goku was assigned to destroy Earth, but a childhood head injury had erased all of his Saiya memories. Goku and Piccolo reluctantly cooperate to beat Raditz who claims to be Goku's brother. For a moment, it seems that the two are losing, but suddenly, Gohan becomes enraged by the sight of his father being tortured and attacks Raditz. Gohan's attack creates a crack on Raditz' powerful armor which Piccolo, with Goku's suggestion, took advantage of. Goku sacrificed himself by holding Raditz while Piccolo uses one of his powerful fireball aiming at the crack that Gohan made. Goku, after being shot along with his brother, tells Piccolo to take Gohan and train him. He dies knowing that his friends will revive him using the dragonballs.
During the fight, Raditz mentioned about two other Saiya-jins coming to Earth. This message shocked the others who did not see the fight but know about Goku's death. They begin training to prepare for the fight against the incoming Saiya-jin.
In his life after death, Goku meets Kaioh and begins training under him. Meanwhile on Earth, Gohan begins rigorous training under Piccolo's strict observation, and they gradually become friends. A year have passed and the new Saiya-jins have arrived, named Vegeta and Nappa, who have come to finish Raditz' failed mission. Due to miscalculations, Goku is running behind schedule and fails to intercept Vegeta and Nappa upon their arrival. While he catches up, his friends try to keep Vegeta and Nappa busy until he arrives. During the fight, Yamcha dies trying to kill the little green alien. Then Klilyn uses his power move and destroys the little aliens in the rage of Yamcha's death. Everyone took cover but Nappa and Vegeta just stood there. The fight agains Nappa begins and Choazu dies trying to blow himself up along with Nappa. Vegeta stands there waiting to see the result. Tenshin-han, in his anger of his best friend's death, channels all of his energy and uses his "Ki-ko-ho" on Nappa. Since Tenshin-han uses all of his energy, he dies needlessly trying to defeat Nappa. Gohan, using his great strength momentarily, kicks Nappa in the face and angers Nappa greatly. Nappa's about to kill Gohan. That is until Piccolo steps in to save Gohan and dies protecting. In his last seconds of life, he laughs in irony of himself dying to protect the son of his nemisis.
Goku finally arrives at the scene and, to his horror, finds nearly all of his friends dead. The knowledge of that people can be brought back to life by the dragonballs only once sends Goku over the edge. He fights Nappa and defeats him easily. But Vegeta steps in and kills Nappa himself.
The fight between Goku and Vegeta lasted for long time. The remaining survivors, Goku, Gohan, Klilyn, and Yajirobe, put all of their efforts in to defeat Vegeta. The fight finally comes to an end when Vegeta could not fight anymore and have to flee. Before he can climb into his pod and escape, Klilyn is about to deliver the final blow with Yajirobe's sword. Goku stops Klilyn and begs Klilyn to let Vegeta go. Klilyn reluctantly complies and lets Vegeta go.
The whole fight has left the remaining survivors in the hospital for a while. Gohan and Klilyn have some bruises here and there. Goku, who have the most damage, lays in the hospital bed, unable to move for the moment. Yajirobe, only doing one simple thing, have minor scratches and bruises. It's only then when the others start to plan for their trip to the planet where Kamisama and Piccolo came from. So another adventure begins...
To start things off, Piccolo and Kamisama used to be one. This means when Piccolo dies, Kami dies also. When Kami dies, the dragonballs disappears from the face of the Earth. Goku and the other survivors decided that to revive the people who were killed by Vegeta and Nappa, they would have to find God/Devil's planet of origin. Since Goku's hospitalized, Gohan, Kuririn, and Bulma go off to the planet Namek (where God had come from) hoping to ask another "god" to help restore the dragonballs. Unfortunately, they run into Freeza and his entourage of elite fighters who all surpass Vegeta in terms of strength. Freeza and his band of thugs had overheard, through Vegeta's communicator, about the dragonballs. Seeking immortality, they have come to the same planet. Knowing there's no way out, Bulma sends a destress signal to Goku. In the meantime, Klilyn and Gohan rescue a Namek child, named Dende, from certain death.
On his way to the planet, Goku trains in his space-pod in an eviroment that has 100 times the gravity he's experienced on Earth. After intense training, he arrives fully powered up, but in his first battle, his body suffers a lot of damage. Goku is put into a medical pod to speed up his healing process. To buy some time for Gohan, Klilyn, and Dende who must find the dragonballs that exist on Namek, Nail, the only fighter-type Namekian indigenous to the planet, plays a futile battle of endurance with Freeza. The heroes discovered that the dragonballs on this planet can grant up to three wishes. The first wish brings Piccolo back to life and the second transport him directly to Namek. One last wish remains, but the Cholon-sama dies and the dragonballs that were his creations disappears with him. Having lost his chance at immortality, an enraged Freeza comes to finish off Vegeta, Gohan and Klilyn.
Piccolo, who was transported to the wrong place, rushes to aid Gohan and, en route, encounters the dying Nail. Astonishingly similar in appearance to Piccolo, Nail offers his life-force, which could double Piccolo's powers. At first, Piccolo declines, but aware of Freeza's superior strength, they Yugo (merge), leaving no physical traces of Nail. Piccolo makes it on time to witness Freeza's first transformation. He then pushes Freeza to the limit, forcing Freeza to mutate into his superior form. Dende is senselessly killed. When Goku finally recovers from his wounds and returns to the fight, Vegeta, who is on the brink of death, tearsfully begs his fellow Saiya to see to it that Freeza is beaten by Saiya hands and wishes he might be someday be the warrior of legends, the Super Saiya-jin. When Freeza sees Goku's face he recalls that this opponent is the spitting image of the last warrior who resisted him when he destroyed the Saiya homeworld. That last warrior was Goku and Raditz' father, Badaku. Goku unexpectedly proves to be a tough match for Freeza and in the end uses his Genki-dama where he collects bits of energy from all living things on this and nearby planets to attack Freeza with. Unfortunately, Freeza doesn't dies as easily hoped. Still astonishingly powerful, Freeza drags Klilyn into the air and blows him to bits (literally). For the first time in his life, Goku reaches a breaking point and explodes with fury. Lightning crackles around him and the whole planet shakes like it's falling apart. Goku stands there growing more and more angrier by the moment. He then transforms into Super Saiya-jin. Freeza is at a loss.
Meanwhile back on Earth, when Piccolo was ressurected, so was God. The dragonballs were gathered quickly and used to revive the people who died at Namek. Thus Cholon-sama was also brought back to life and so were his dragonballs with its third, yet unused wish. The third wish was then used to transport all the people on the planet Namek to Earth with the exception of Freeza and Goku. This plan succeeds, also bringing the ressurected Vegeta back to Earth...
The battle between Freeza ensues and Freeza's plan to kill Goku backfires and ends up slicing himself in half with his own weapon, leaving him with only his upper half of his body, his whole right arm, and half of his left arm cut off. Satisfied, Goku almost leaves the planet, which is just minutes away from exploding, but there is still a tiny shred of decency left in him that motivates him to share enough of his power with Freeza to let them both escape. Nevertheless, Freeza tries to abuse this power, leaving Goku with no choice but to shoot a fireball in his face...
There are other matters of concern. The planet is about to self-destruct, but Goku's spaceship, as well as Freeza's craft are just useless scraps of metal...
Courtesy of Vermilion's DBZ page
