The light faded from my eyes, allowing me to see the shocked face that Vegeta wore from behind a green screen of energy. The Wednesday Wall had worked perfectly. Now to take advantage of his shock, I blasted through my own defense delivering a hard elbow to his chest sending him flying back.
We entered a game where I had had him on the retreat. His limbs barely managing to block every third or fourth blow I sent his way. He latched on to my 12th thump with a vice grip in between two of his hands. Then Vegeta's head came into contact with my own, the resulting impact shattered whatever hold he had on my hand.
Vegeta followed this up with a kick to my ribs to which I barely managed to grab hold of his limb. Ignoring the pain of the attack, I let my arm down locking his leg in my armpit. I saw the face that he wore at that moment when he realized what was about to happen. Picking him up by the leg I slammed him down into the ground.
Again.
Again.
And again, until I decided to end this part of the assault before he could discover how to counter-attack. Spinning around and around now, I sped up so fast that we were nothing but a tornado to those with lower power levels than me. After a few seconds of this, I let go of him.
He flew off away from me in an uncontrollable tumble.
While I had the chance, I gathered ki up in my two hands separately. Bright yellow spheres exploded from my palms into long thick beams that were aiming right at Vegeta. It was just as they were closing in on him that he finally regained control over his own flight path that beams smashed into him.
"Double Sunday!" I yelled out at the moment of contact.
Vegeta just managed to put his hands up to block the beams. He was shoved back slowly as he worked up the strength to fight against the dual beam attack. So before he could bounce it away, I rushed him. An attempt to keep the pressure on him as that was going to be the only way I would win this.
I just about got close to him as he flung the beams off him. I was under his flying form, so I attacked him an uppercut, striking his chin with mechanical precision. There was a crack as the Royal saiyan was thrown further into the sky. My advantage didn't last for long, as his superior strength allowed him to take these attacks with little damage, and his speed allowed him to quickly send down a ki blast towards me, slamming me back on to the ground with all the force of an avalanche hitting a small village.
Then Vegeta managed to knee me right in the stomach. I could feel my organs being crushed under the newtons he had shoved into me. He leaped off me, charging up a beam attack in his hand as he did so. I rolled away, dodging the attack by just inches.
I barely managed to leap back up before Vegeta's came at me with a leg sweep. It flew just below me, just scraping across my knees as I flew above it. He hurled a right fist at me, smacking me across the face with enough force that I could feel my vision blacken. Then I was hit with another one, this time I fell to my knees. I needed time to think of a new strategy.
"RADITZ!" I could hear Turles scream out. "GET OUT OF SIGHT!" Out of sight? Wait! That is it. I braced myself for another strike and gathered the power needed to my eyes, I'd have only one shot at this. Looking Vegeta right in the eye I shouted:
"Summer Solstice!"
Light shot out of my eyes, this time much stronger than the one that I used against Slug. In fact, I hadn't realized that this would also blind me. It wasn't too much of an issue though, given that I could sense Vegeta. I leaped back a few paces, getting a good amount of distance away from Vegeta.
Then as I charged up an attack to finish him, something unexpected happened. Vegeta moved faster than he ever had before this fight. I barely managed to duck his swipe at my head, so in retaliation, I snapped a kick to the back of his knee. He just took the blow without an issue, returning my kick with one that sent me off my feet.
Jumping back to my feet I quickly put my guard up, waiting for Vegeta's attack as my eyesight recovered from the Summer Solstice technique. That was when he spoke up.
"What an underhanded move," He laughed out, his head pointing up. I wasn't going to take that as his guard being let down, I was no fool. "I'm impressed, but don't think such moves will work on me. I have seen such moves before, I know to close my eyes."
Fuck!
With that said, Vegeta went on the offensive once more. He almost twirled over to me, delivering a kick to my side that caused me to lose my breath. That was followed up with an amazing series of kicks that ended with me up in the air. So I used my power to keep myself up there, forcing Vegeta to follow me.
Sending a kick to his head, Vegeta barely leaned out of the way, the smirk clear to be seen. Dodging his counter kick I gathered ki to my right forearm and grabbing onto it. I started to use Dad's Heat Phalanx technique in an attempt to mask the difference between the punching power between the two of us.
The first attack with it was dodged, Vegeta using some caution not wanting to take a chance with the attack, that was until he saw what move I was using. He smiled and beckoned me forward with a wave of his hand. I charged, but each of my attacks was being dodged with ease by the saiyan prince. He then moved, much faster than I thought he could, but I was ready. I threw the Heat Phalanx right into the direction that my ki sense pointed to him going.
"What!"
The attack sliced through his armor, tearing the cape from his shoulder. Sadly he had reacted fast enough that the Phalanx just barely scrapped across the armor's chest plate taking off his left shoulder guard. Vegeta's surprised face told me all that I needed. He hadn't expected for me to react that quickly.
Vegeta erupted with rage, ramming me like a rugby player. The two of us slammed into the ground, the tiled ground of the ring soon became smashed to bits. I could feel chunks of a rockish material dig into the surface of my skin. I managed to kick Vegeta in the head and used this moment to spring away from him.
If I was going to beat him, then it was time to use my new technique.
Turles gripped the arms of his seat. His face that of worry and frustration, he should have been able to see most of this fight, but even simple movements from the two fighting were like blurs. At times he could barely make out where they were, but it was like someone had smudged his eyes with vaseline.
At the start, it looked like Raditz was going to keep up with Vegeta. Then the younger saiyan seemed to gain in speed and strength, Vegeta must have been going easy on the older saiyan boy. Every once in a while Turles would catch them meeting in the air and see a blur of blows that he couldn't tell if they were kicks or punches.
"This isn't looking good," Fasha spoke up. Her eyes were darting about the arena in an attempt to keep track of the fight. "Raditz is on the backfoot," She winced at what might have been a deep kick to Raditz's ribs… or a slap to his face, Turles couldn't tell. "He going to need to pick his spots better if he wants to make a comeback.'
"Nah," Peppa glared at the older woman, her eyes soon turning back to the fight and Turles was sure that there was now stars in her eyes. "Raditz still has a trick up his sleeve."
"Oh, is that right?" Bardock sounded surprised at his place by Gine. There was a sudden refocus on the fight from him when earlier he was focused on more… feminine subject. He didn't seem too worried about the outcome of this fight "I hadn't been informed that he was working on a new technique."
"Yeah, it's a… soft technique." She seemed unsure of the term she was looking for. "So he has been working on it all week."
"A soft technique?" Turles was still a bit confused and hoped for more information. "What kind of technique is soft?"
"You really want to know?" Turles nodded, she waved him closer to her. "It's a secret." She smiled her teeth showcasing a rather deadly smile.
Before he could push for more she shoved him back to his seat.
"Here we go!"
Turles looked down at the fight again. There was a moment of peace between the two, Vegeta was wiping just a bit of sweat off his brow, other than cut across his armor and his lack of cape, the Prince was in good condition. Oddly while being bruised Raditz had a large grin on his face. As if he knew some great secret.
"I'll admit," The proud Prince pronounced with a smile. It seemed he had liked to the slight amount of challenge that Raditz had managed to put up so far. "You've put up more of a fight than I thought you would have, but the game ends here." Just as Vegeta was about to once again charge the Low-Class, Raditz seemed to ooze some kind of orange haze from his body.
It wasn't solid, but it seemed thicker than a gas. The orange didn't cover Raditz, it just came off him, like waves. Vegeta flew at Raditz with little regard to his new state. Suddenly things returned to state previously for Turles, he could now not see the amazing feats that were happening before. But what he did see was the screen with the power levels on them.
The Prince Vegeta: 6,450
That hadn't changed. It seemed the Prince was good at pacing himself.
Raditz: 5,499
"How is that possible?" Turles pointed at the board. "Has he been hiding his power all along?"
The group watched as Vegeta rammed through the spot Raditz was standing, but he never made any contact with Raditz. The Prince seemed to fade through the older boy, as though he had ran into a beam of light rather than a person.
A flash of color was all Turles saw before Vegeta was smacked by some unseen thing. Not a blur, Vegeta looked to have been smacked by nothing at all as far as Turles could see. Bardock, on the other hand, could see this event much clearer.
When Vegeta was seconds away from landing his attack on Raditz, the boy just stepped to the side. Then he simply threw a fist at Vegeta's face, smacking the Royal away from him. Only to then speed off, moving at fast enough speed as to allow Raditz to stay out of sight to anyone not capable of viewing such high-speed movement.
"I can't see him," Peppa near whined, squeezing her eyes and leaning her ear out. "I can hear him though."
"Yes, he is making a lot of noise," Bardock's eyes didn't just follow the noise, but predicted it. "It's also unnecessary, it's not like he needs a lot of speed for this," This statement grabbed everyone around him attention. "He's already much faster than the Prince, this kind of build up is just wasting energy."
"Yeah, he should be dealing heavy blows now, before he runs out of power or Vegeta gets used to his new level of speed."
They could see Vegeta taking a kick to the face at that moment, but unlike prior blows in this match the Prince clinched his teeth and stood his ground. Allowing him to go for a counterattack by shooting a yellow beam out of his left hand. Once more an attack from the Royal saiyan went right through the other fighter.
It was another afterimage.
"I WILL NOT BE-" A knee to his gut stopped the Royal's proclamation. Then Raditz sent a charged blast to Vegeta's chest, flinging the boy into a nearby wall that separated the audience from the fight. A sphere of ki was the Prince's counter, but Raditz calmly stepped to the side.
Raditz took a large breath, his chest heaving up and down like a piston. The odd orange coloring coming off Raditz seemed to have stopped. The situation had seemed to have changed, Raditz had the upper hand for now, and Vegeta was now on the back foot. The Prince's armor had taken a lot of damage now, missing the entire top section, but oddly the undersuit was lacking such indications of combat.
"Hahaha," Vegeta laughed, his hands on his hips and a bloodthirsty grin on his face, Turles could do nothing but stare at the sheer brokenness of that face, Vegeta was about to do something and Turles was sure that it was going to be messy. "I'll admit, you have certainly increased your speed, but you are never going to hurt me like that."
Vegeta tore off what remained of his armor, leaving him with only the boots, gloves and the undersuit. This gave him a clean look, almost like Raditz hadn't been smacking him around for a while.
"What does he mean?" Peppa asked Bardock, who turned his attention briefly away from the fight. "That Raditz can't hurt him like that?"
"He's fast like that, much faster than he should be," It was Toma who answered her question. "But it seems that that increase of speed hasn't increased the strength of his blows to the same degree."
"That… what about mass times acceleration?" Turles was confused with this outcome. "Shouldn't that factor in? Make Raditz's blows that much stronger?"
"Haha," Peppa shook her head the older boy, amused by his statement. "Sure, it could if Raditz was hitting him as hard as he could like that… but that would break his hand," Peppa placed an arm on Turles shoulder, which was quickly knocked off by the older boy. "You have a lot to learn bocko, but don't worry Big Sis Peppa will teach you in boot camp!"
"No, you won't," Gine contradicted her. "I've seen you train, that is more like healing tank sessions without gains, you don't get to teach anyone until you stop breaking peoples arms."
"Ahh."
This brief talk was brought to a halt due to the reengagement of the two young fighters. Another burst of speed between them ended with Vegeta sending a boot into Raditz's chest, a soft follow up of a ki blast was swiftly dodged by a Raditz who once more oozed orange from his body. Then it became a game of Raditz moving around every melee attack Vegeta sent his way, every strike that the Prince was accompanied with a blow to him by Raditz, with each strike with having much greater force than the one before.
It looked like the fight was heading Raditz's way now, but then Vegeta's smile just grew.
Raditz came in with a deep punch to Vegeta's unprotected stomach, but the Prince just moved to left enough that the arm passed by the underside of his armpit. Vegeta locked his limb down on Raditz, trapping it within a hold that was all too familiar to one that was in it.
Vegeta slammed his fist onto Raditz's right eye. Raditz kicked the Prince in the chest, over and over again. It was such a blur of motion that only Bardock could see how many times Vegeta was struck by Raditz. The answer was fifty-two.
The pain these hits caused Vegeta was enough to make him let go of the limb he had a hold of. Raditz's next move was mirrored with Vegeta's, the two had landed a fist in the other's face. The force threw them back, and they slid across the ground, tearing up even more of the area's landscape.
"You're slowing down," Vegeta exclaimed. He bent his shoulders back, his knees pointing to the ground. It was then he started to spark and erupted into a purple flame that enveloped his entire body. "I WONDER IF YOU CAN STILL DODGE THIS!"
Raditz stopped for a second as if some thought had entered his head. There was a crowd behind him. He could dodge this attack, but none of them would be able to get out of the way in time. In his hyper-reactive state, he made a decision. To the shock of Turles and Gine Raditz brought his hands to his side.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"
"GET OUT OF THERE YOU MORON!"
"KAAAAA." He went on to yell, heedless to their yells.
"BARDOCK DO SOMETHING!" The father did nothing just stared at this ongoing conflict. This was something that Raditz needed to teach him a lesson. Raditz's kind nature was kind for comrades, but there are times when it should be discarded
The rest of Bardock's team looked on at both their leader and his son in shock. This was not behavior they had come to expect from the man given his past actions with Gine.
"YOU CAN DO IT!" There was one person other than Bardock that wasn't worried about this section, but unlike Bardock's static refusal, Peppa's energic nature allowed her support for this action of Raditz to be on clear display.
"MMEEEEHAAA."
"GALICK."
"HAMMEEHAAA!"
"GUN!"
Two beams, one of brilliant azure, the other a magnificent mauve, clashed in the dead center of the arena. Then the entire arena was bathed in the colors. One side was blue, the other purple. They started to bend one way, then the other. Every moment the tide of which color was overtaking the other changed. Then things started to shift.
Suddenly, Raditz lost his orange shading and Kamehameha decreased in size, it no longer had the power to match the size of the Galick Gun. His feet began to slide back towards the people behind him. He struggled against the pressure Vegeta was laying on him, with both his feet in an attempt to walk closer to the center and his energy by sending out more.
"THIS IS THE END!"
Then the Galick Gun overtook Raditz completely. For just a second, Raditz became purple colored. The blast charged him back into the wall, blanketing the area with a cloud of smoke and debris.
"RADITZ!"
When the smoke cleared, Raditz was revealed to be in the wall. Embedded in the wall, a large cut above his forehead blanketing his face in blood. His armor was a weck, just shattered remains of a chest piece that only held together with prayer.
"Hahaha, you were much too soft," Vegeta gloated, his stance told all that this was over, Bardock stood up to leave, telling the others it was to get Raditz's unconscious form. "With methods like that… you'll get everyone killed on a mission." With that said, Vegeta turned his back.
Then he heard a beep, the beep of the massive screen's power level ratings.
"NO!"
The world was pretty dark where I was. I could barely feel my arms, they were heavy like they were made of lead. The ground beneath me felt distant and when combined with the ringing my ears were struck with, made the world feel hollow. Like this was all a dream I was soon to wake from. I was strangely not feeling any pain.
But I could still hear Vegeta.
"Hahaha, you were much too soft," He gloated at me. Was he right? I could have won I had just let the people behind me die."With methods like that… you'll get everyone killed."
That sounded so familiar… I'll get everyone killed? It was a nightmare, or was it the future? Even with the massive improvements I'd made to my life, compared to how things should have been, would this just lead to even more people dying? Will the universe be doomed to Frieza's rule because I went off script because I felt like I could be important. I could feel the world fade away.
A vision entered my mind. Dad was bloody, his armor was broken and a headband around his head was as red as the blood. I could feel how dirty it was just from here. He was floating above the planet, the red skies revealing that it was Home. An army was behind him. One of Saiyans. Had I changed things so much?
"It's Freeza!"
And Freeza sat on his floating throne, taking a glance at the remains of his own scattered Freeza Force. Not the appearance of any concern at the situation in front of him. He just looked bored. Which contrasted Dad's look of rage. Dad clenched his fist, a blue sphere surrounded it.
"ALL HAIL LORD FREEZA!" Was the cry of the last few men the demonic ruler had left at his command.
"No way!" Dad grinned, his teeth pink with blood. He looked like he had put through the meat grinder. "You've lived long enough!" He pointed a free hand at the tyrant, those behind Dad were yelling in support. "Actually, it's been too long for my taste! Freeza, listen up…we quit!" He yelled this to everyone that could hear, his army screaming in agreement. "All of us! Got it! We don't work for you! We're free! You can find someone else to do your dirty work!" He stopped from his yelling for a second catching his breath. "Oh yeah! There is one last thing!"
Dad pulled his arm back, the blue sphere growing in size.
"Now, everything changes! The fate of Planet Vegeta… my own fate… Kakarot's fate… Raditz's fate… Gine's… as well as your fate! This is where it ends!" Dad threw the attack, its light briefly granting him a blue glow. The attack grew to even greater sizes than I had thought possible. Then things got set back on track.
Freeza just pointed his finger up. In seconds a sphere of red became three times the size that Dad's blue one had become. Then he flicked it at the attack.
The blue sphere became overwhelmed by the red. Like it was nothing.
Dad had a look of utter peace on his face. There was no look of disbelief on his face as his death arrived. No yells of Kakarot or screams of vengeance. He just closed his eyes and smiled. His final words were:
"My sons… live on."
Before Freeza's Super Nova attack hit the planet below, my vision shifted to see someone else. Mom was looking up at the massive attack with tears in her eyes.
"You did your best," She whispered the last words she would ever say. She seemed to be as at peace as Dad. "They'll live on."
But that soon her peace shifted towards physical pain as she was consumed by the Nova's red-hot mass. Everything became red. This was it. The end. I will change nothing.
Then I heard Freeza's words.
"How wonderful! Look at it, Zarbon, Dodori! Behold such beautiful fireworks!"
Fireworks… he called killing my people and destroying my world that! Killing my Mom… my Dad. That was fireworks to him. Fireworks.
FIREWORKS!
I certainly saw red after hearing that.
"NO!" I screamed, the sight of the arena returned to me now. It was like stepping out of one world and returning to another. Blood ran over my eyes, it must have been from a cut on my forehead. My entire sight was bathed in red. "THIS WON'T HAPPEN!"
Vegeta turned to face me once more. His face was like that of a meerkat meeting a predator for the first time.
I summoned every ounce of strength I could muster. I was at Vegeta before he could mount a defense. I slammed my hands over his ears, my knee into his stomach. I followed with right thump across his face, then a left one. Over and over again, each blow moving faster than the last. He started to fly back, not to escape, but from the force of my attacks.
I followed after him, kicking him from below and thumping him from the back. He attempted to right himself in mid-air, but only to meet my elbow to his face crashing him to the ground instead. I lept to the sky, holding two hands out to the side, each with a purple sphere.
"Scattered Saturday!"
Vegeta just about pushed him out of their path, but the two sphere's split opened becoming dozens of spheres. They soon homed in on the Prince, each diving into him with bone-breaking force. Blood spat out of his mouth and he ended up on the ground again. Even his undersuit was torn to pieces.
I was not about to let up. I fell down, attempting to hit him with all my weight. He barely managed to roll away from me. I was ready with my next attack by the time he shakily jumped to his feet, but before I could launch it he blasted me back with a shove of a ki. Not really hurting me, enough to knock me out of my raged state.
Now that the extra strength that rage granted had left me. I felt heavy, I felt much more injured now, than even Slug had managed to do to me. My limbs shook, I could feel the burns on my arms and noticed that my left leg was missing the pant section that covered it. The rest of my armor was not unlike what Vegeta was left with after his fight with Reccome on Namek.
He came in with a left hook, but when I went to dodge it I could feel my ribs throb stopping me from evading the blow. It felt like an elephant rammed into my nose, I could feel it crack. I could taste blood pouring over my mouth. So I did the first thing that came to mind.
I spat into Vegeta's eye.
"You dirty-" I crammed my own left hook into his face, smashing his nose into a gory bloody mess. He reared his head back and jumped at me. Slamming our foreheads together. We wobbled from side to side. Vegeta's attack leaving us both dizzy as hell. I could feel myself slipping, so I raised a fist and threw it at where he was. The Prince must have gotten the same idea.
We both walloped each other in the ear.
It was me that fell onto the ground, slipping it. Our blood was dripping across the ground like water on a swimming pool. It caused the surface to become wet. I reached out with a kick. Using all the energy I could muster to knock him to the ground from said ground. He fell with a thud and a moan. We both were heaving and wheezing. Out of breath and out of energy.
"This isn't the end," I agreed with him, but I would conserve my energy by not talking. "I will win this. You are a hard one. I admit this, but I am Prince Of All Saiyans, Vegeta! No one like you can beat me."
I shoved my hands on my knees, trying to get to my feet. Just as Vegeta was doing. We looked each other in the eye, each of squinting through swollen sockets at the blurry figure in front of us. He threw the first fist in this last exchange. I learned back just slightly, dodging the attack by just inches.
I lifted a boot up and slammed it down on his foot. I gave him a full boot to the chest sending him to the ground. The blood on the ground slipped me up again and I could feel myself fall backward again.
My head cracked on the ground. The world around me twirled in its red blurry mess. After a few seconds, I could hear the King's voice. It was loud and reminded me of his son far too much. I swear if he ends up down here, I might just have a go at him… that should solve something right. Then I realized the words he was saying were numbers.
"Three!" He yelled as I struggled to reach my knees. I had to get up, I was going to win. This action was much more painful that it should be, I hope that I'll get the healing tank this time. I do not want to heal from this the hard way.
"Four!" I'd managed to get to my knees, but the rules needed me to stand up fully. This was the moment that Vegeta used his foot to crack into my knee. I tumbled back down, luckily Vegeta didn't seem to have much more energy to move.
I went for it again, but time seemed to have speed up.
"Seven!"
I needed to move now!
Freeza sat by the screen. It was a massive one, big enough for the entire crew to watch something on at once, but the only people in the room were himself, Zarbon and Dodoria. The only ones on the ship that was allowed to watch the fight between the saiyan Prince and the Low-Class Warrior.
"I hadn't thought I'd see a child of that power," Freeza spoke out loud. Not to his lieutenants, they weren't meant to speak, but to himself. "Not a saiyan child outside of their… little royal family."
"It's impressive," The ruler looked at his blue companion. "What do you think?" It wasn't often that he asked them to give any real opinion.
"Just a few months ago the boy was barely nearing a thousand," Zarbon rubbed his chin. "Now this… Raditz has managed a feat that would take dozens of my own men to do," He looked up and away from the face of his lord. "He would never be a threat to you my lord, but I would be wary of more like him popping up. After all, his brother will be born soon, if the reports are true."
"Good point," Freeza turned his chair away from the screen. The sight of a bloody, battered Raditz standing over the defeated Prince. "I have to move up our timetable," He closed his eyes, breathing softly. "Dodoria get a few men ready. When it's time we will make a move, I want a target taken out before I deal with the rest of those monkeys."
The only response was a nod. The two men left Freeza to his chamber, he had wine to drink and they had work to set up.
Author's Note: Not the biggest chapter I've ever written, but definitely the most… hardest fought fight between just two people that I've ever written. I hope that is stood up to everyone expectations of me. I tried to keep to Vegeta's raw will, but at the same time reveal his biggest weakness. At this stage in his life, he has much more experience, even at a younger age, than Raditz but lacks one thing.
Equals.
Every fight he gets into he wins. He had never fought against anyone that could beat him. His father keeps his son away from those fighters.
Thank to thelurker -90 for betaing this chapter for me. You were a great help.
Oh, yeah. That orange move was not Kaioken. Just thought I would let you guys know that off the top of my head. Though I have yet to name it. Please review.
So any questions?