"Let's go."
"Hm?" Shadow pokes his thumb at the sky. The first thing Vegeta does is look up before realizing the expression.
"There's a lagoon just north of here. I figured it would be a better place for us than this wasted place."
"Whatever you say, rat. I was never a proponent of animal burial, but this will be a special occasion made just for you." Shadow stares back at the chasm, eye twitching twice.
Nappa's body's gone. The energy to do that, especially for someone with such concentrated stores of energy... Truly the last time we use something as pointless and blank as television to judge anything. Shadow's jet shoes blare out, lifting the hedgehog off the ground. Vegeta doesn't need such technology as he follows him. The prince's ki explodes as he blasts off to the north, chasing Shadow.
"Sonic, you said you'd stop Goku. What happened?" Tails asks. Sonic chuckles and shrugs with an embarrassed grin.
"Ran the wrong way!"
"So you ran all the way back here instead of..." Amy begins, to Sonic's running off.
They speed over a variety of landscapes. Whole forests whiz under them just as do more canyons- one being the badlands that Goku and Vegeta were to fight in. Eventually, Shadow chooses to conserve his jet shoes' fuel and brings himself down to the ground. This comes to Vegeta's attention quickly, who is stunned to notice the hedgehog actually moving faster on the ground rather than in the air. They arrive in what's known as the Varu Badlands
On the land side, no trees are or can be grown here. Other than an occasional patch of green every few square miles, everything is a dirty, earthen brown. Ravines cut through some stretches, directly alongside a grand canyon digging over a mile into the earth- one spot in the canyon goes far deeper, in which all light seems to disappear into. Meanwhile, organic-shapen micro-plateaus and ridges jut into the air. On many different planes, however, towering plateaus reach high into the clouds of heaven. Digging into the rocks are a subterranean spider web of caves and underground springs. Near the shore, everything protrudes from the small sea.
A full 300 years without a single drop of rain save over the lagoon- where all of the clouds seem to magically end their journey- has meant that much of the ground here is cracked deeply, as much as a quarter mile in some widened spots, and the only greenery can be found near far-by oases.
Shadow stands level with Vegeta on a cragtop. Both of them stand erect with their arms folded. Around Shadow is a wispy golden aura; for Vegeta, a blocky, thick, and sharp violet battle aura rages.
"It's been bothering me, rat. How could a rodent from a trash planet such as this know of Frieza?"
"Does that really matter to you, Saiyan?" First part of the reply, Vegeta snickers before laughing.
"So perhaps you were simply bluffing? Because I have an offer for you." This again? Why do the depraved always make these? If they're willing to annihilate entire races and planets for power alone, who would be gullible enough to think they would share it?
"Any why should I say yes?" Shadow bluntly returns.
"Because I know of a way to dethrone Frieza! If you join me, together we could rule the universe!" "And here I thought you were a bitter square." He wants me as a new right-hand man? Bah. He knows I'm holding back. He's just testing me. Perhaps he thinks that I could wear down Frieza and when we're both drained, Vegeta will come in, destroying us both. He's an imbecile if he thinks I couldn't figure that out. "No."
That's when Vegeta crouches like a tiger. "That's all I needed to hear."
Piccolo is the first to fly up to the new battle site, with Krillin and Gohan lagging behind by twice a few seconds. This is it! For the first time, we'll see their true powers. He looks at Shadow. Why is he keeping his energy so low? Unless...
"I wonder if he's trying to get the Saiyan off guard," Krillin theorizes. "The big guy got crushed 'cause he didn't know Shadow could power up that high. But Vegeta... He knows, so he might be expecting this.
Fifteen hundred? What is that black rodent trying to pull? He brought his power up to six thousand with obvious stores left in him. Does he really think I wasn't going to figure this out?
"Listen, rat! I won't hold punches, so you had better bring your power to its limit.
"Darn it... If my power level isn't enough to hold one of his att-" Whap! In one blow, Shadow goes flying through karst after karst- six in total- before hitting the distant grounds. Dust becomes a monstrous cloud as it rises from the swath of destruction.
Goku is elsewhere, still on the way on the Nimbus when he finally comes to focus.
Something's wrong... One of the two huge powers just went blank, and another dropped off dramatically! Maybe they did it. Maybe the killed one of the Saiyans, but... that other power wasn't like the others. It was too small. AH! Gohan!
"Yo!" Sonic is keeping pace with the Nimbus the whole way through, and repeating calls out for Goku by name. After a few more tries, Goku realizes he exists and looks down. As he does, the whole Nimbus disintegrates as Sonic blasts through it. Goku, not expecting this, falls straight down to Earth, hitting the ground on his back with a thud.
"Ah... Jeez! What was that for?" Sonic points to him, prompting Goku to look confused. He looks left and right a few times before pointing back to himself. "Me?"
"Yeah, you. C'mon, let's go, man!" Initially, Goku is even more confused than before.
"I'm sorry, mister, don't have time for this!" he states in his usual innocent tone. When Sonic stands his ground, his arching eyes turn as he realizes Sonic's serious. Thus, he says this with far more umpth, "I said I don't have time for this!" Wait. The only Saiyan we know are me and Raditz! But what if... maybe...
Could this hedgehog be a Saiyan too?
"C'mon! Hit me with all you got." Goku chuckles as he rushes forward. He throws his fist, then lets his arms hand hands dance in high speed, finally getting a strike on Sonic's elbow. When he realizes not one punch actually struck, he becomes impressed. "Wow, you're pretty fast!"
"Yeah, I get it a lo-" BAAING! Sonic flies straight into the ground head first. It takes him a second to get his bearings again. "Ah! What the heck was!..." Goku loses his serious expression for a moment.
"Uh... sorry, I thought we were still fighting! You had way too many open spots so I just... attacked!" Sonic can't help but chuckle along with him, admiring the man's positive behavior. He could really befriend this guy...
Vegeta laughs when Shadow doesn't get up immediately. Then he stops and stands still. Shadow's been standing behind him this whole time, unscathed! Their backs face each other, both standing on the same platform.
"So you're not just a normal hedgehog, are you?" All things are silent. No birds sings. No frog croaks. No wave splashes. No wind blows. Not even a molecule floats. It's perfection ready to die in a fire of hatred.
