1. Dystopia
The planet is a razed, bleeding mess. Smoke has long-since blotted out the single, yellow sun. What he had heard was to be a blue sky is close to black with hints of sick yellow.
It reeks.
And yet, nothing here is out of the ordinary.
Nothing, but the missing corpses. And of course the distinctly worrying fact that he, nor his men, were responsible for any of it.
Had he been any less experienced, any less naturally inclined to paranoia, Vegeta might well be contacting mission control via his scouter now, jubilating on finishing his mission early.
As it is, he races around the dystopian planet, looking for a clue as to what rooted out the population of this mudball they call earth. He finally finds an answer in the form of a single, still figure on top of the last intact skyscraper.
2. Replicant
Her blue hair whips in the wind, the only movement as he silently touches down. It is a female, her features so close to Saiyan it is painful even before she speaks. But to him this is a distant note note; something to examine later, when he is back at Frieza's base. When he has time to wonder about the 'baby steps', and where his master would have them take him.
"I have been expecting you." she calls out, her eyes locking with his as he taps his scouter. He hums, worriedly, as her power level does not register.
Is she not alive? But her smile seems eerily Saiyan as she chastises him. "Don't bother. I am not here to fight you."
3. Synthesizer
The woman-shape loses her friendly manner quickly, as he stalks around her, sniffing, putting two and two together as he disregards her words.
"Am I offering!"
The smoke is heavy in his lungs; worse if anything up here. Yet he is reasonably sure she is odorless.
"Hey!"
Something in the way her skin gleams is also wrong. Too clean? Or too smooth.
"Listen to me, you brute!"
Vegeta finally takes a chance from behind, giving her a shove. She teeters, and staggers back to her stance in a off-putting, robotic way.
-"You are a machine!" he concludes in victory, pleased he has won the game. Yet the thing denies; lies. -"No!"
"Well, sort of, the thing you see is a replica I synthesized. But I am talking to you through her, and I assure you I am real."
Huh. how annoying. "And where is the real you?"
- "Somewhere you cannot get at."
He disagrees, is already trying to think of how to figure out her location. Yet, she finally does get his attention.
4. Rebellion
"Last chance, we know all about the PTO. Will you join our rebellion?"
He snarls at her, as the words hit so close to home, to his dreams. Yet, it would only worsen things for the Saiyan race. He has a duty to do what is best for them. Perhaps, if the humans had enough strength. Yet, they are weak. Worthless.
"Just tell me where you are. I am in no mood for games."
The fake human shrugs at his scowl, and he blinks. "And here I was going to offer you the blue or the red pill."
-"Do not kid yourself. I would not eat anything my enemies offer me."
Her toothie smile is the first thing that has scared him for a while.
"And yet, here you are, breathing our air without a care."
When he blinks again, her figure breaks off into a double, and his mind needs too long to figure out that the real woman has not shown up, but it is his eyes that refuse to line up and form a single image. And then, his vision drops away completely.
5. Virtual Reality
When he wakes up he is in a different place, but the replica is still there. Or he thinks it is the replica. When he jumps from the pluche bed to pull her limb from limb, she seems real enough though. Blood spews from her neck, along the walls, soiling sheets and pillows. He stares at her severed head, but drops it as it sighs. Sighs!
"I had kind of hoped you would listen at least now," the head's muffled voice calls from the bloody ground, face turned downward and thankfully away from Vegeta as he backs up, all the way to the window.
He does not bother to open it as he jumps through the glass and attempts to fly away.
He crashes to the ground instead.
6. Neon Underworld
The streets are clean, pristine and untouched this time. There is no one here either. No one but the woman. He soon finds himself hiding from her in the underground transport tunnels. An empty subway runs through it, every now and then. But it is easily evaded.
The woman is not.
"Vegeta!" she calls to him.
"Vegeta! Don't be like this."
His ki has returned now, and he blasts. Her body disappears, but he can see no damage to the walls around him. He has little time to worry about this as doubles of the woman appear from everywhere.
"Why won't you just help us? You are so strong! Together we can take down Frieza easily!"
"No!" he screams at them. He does not explain that it is useless. That nothing can defeat Frieza.
7. Augment
She is everywhere now. Seems even more real. But perhaps that is because he got knocked around pretty hard at some point. By a giant, pinkish version of the woman, her serene face plastered on a giant round body. The woman is everywhere, in all sorts of bodies in varying shapes and sizes. Another battlefield full of her. She stops asking him to join her though.
"You are doing so well!" she calls out. "Look how strong you are getting!"
He blasts another ten of them. Then calls out to his men for another formation.
When had they got here? He does not care. It is a battle. He fights it now, worries about logics when he is safe. Whenever that might be.
Finally, when there is a lull in the fighting and his men sit down in exhausted heaps, he takes a leap.
"Frieza transforms, like we do. But he needs no full moon for it. And he does it four times. Four times, growing exponentially more powerful every time. Do you see now?"
She is there suddenly, sitting down in an ethereal form that finally helps him remember she is not real; that attacking her will not help.
8. Hackers
"I have some records that would confirm this," she amends. "I guess we will need a few upgrades to the system. And the lot of you in great ape form for the final push. It will not be a problem."
He shakes his head at her. "My planet."
-"Is perfectly safe. The PTO has lost all forms of interstellar communications." she looks her her nails, and he cannot miss the pleased quirk of her mouth. "We have been picking off groups send to purge earth as I send them our way one at the time. Well, I guess I should say, you have."
9. Cybernetics
There is a full moon shining in his left eye, and it's been there for three days and three nights. It's fake, of course, and he feels like tearing away the debased scouter that projects it straight into his retina. The reason why has little to do with the way the device makes his eye water, or the strain keeping up the transformation for so long puts on him. "This isn't a fair fight." he grumbles.
The woman looks down from his muzzle to shrug, her team happily continuing their work on his arm, on his tail. All his men have their own teams, the little humans crawling over them as they affix metal to them as if they were just the chassary of a car that needed outfitting.
"Now you care about a fair fight? We agreed to this. Don't backpedal now."
10. Lightcycle
He winces, not putting it past her to put him out and somehow move his body without his consent. "I'm not backing out."
Even if it is not fair, he would not miss this for the world. Frieza might have had a chance against his squad in full apeform, but their strength is augmented now. And the tirant is coming in blind. He will not be expecting this. They will win; a coward's way. But he has little choice in the matter. "What happens after."
She looks a little sad. "Don't worry. I am not as evil as I seem. But for now, just focus on the battle. Frieza is just a day away."