Chapter 25: Rikuum Vs. Vegita

"Well now," Jees said to his cohorts. "Since Veggie-chan has been so kind as to bring along some of his friends to meet us, I think it's only right that we properly introduce ourselves. Don't you agree, Veggie-chan?" he asked, sneering at Vegita. Vegita's only reply was an expletive hurled in Jees' direction. Jees grinned back at the rest of Team Ginyu, and they both nodded in assent. They neatly lined themselves up before their opponents.

"God, I detest it when they do this," Vegita muttered, glaring at them in utter disgust.

"What?" Bulma wondered to herself. Could there be anything more ridiculous than playing Jan-ken before a battle?

Suddenly the large orange-haired one stepped forward. "Allow me to introduce myself," he said, poising as if to attack. "I am Rikuum. The first member of Team Ginyu!" As he finished speaking, he jerked himself into the oddest position Bulma had ever seen. He had his back to Bulma and her friends, but he'd craned his neck around so that he was looking back at them. His right arm was pointing straight out away from him, slightly raised, and with his hand rigidly pointing in the same direction, palm down. His other arm was raised in such a way that he appeared to be flexing his bicep, except his hand was pointed in the same direction as his other arm, also palm downward. His right leg was extended far to the right, and it was straight and rigid, all the way to his ankle. His left leg was somewhat curled, pointing more to the left, and he rested it on the ball of his foot just behind the toes. All things considered, he reminded Bulma of an Egyptian hieroglyphic.

Next the really tall blue one stepped up. "I'm next!" he cried, sliding in next to Rikuum. "I'm Baata! Don't forget it!" Then, just as Rikuum had done, he placed himself in a strange position. He held his arms out straight like the wings of an airplane and raised his left leg - bent at the knee - out in front of him, with his toes pointing downward. His other leg pointed straight down, and it held all of his weight up.

Bulma was beginning to wonder what kind of fighting stances these were. They certainly didn't look very guarded, or even very comfortable, for that matter.

"And then there's me!" Jees cried, sliding in to the right of Rikuum and in front of Baata. "I'm Jees! I won't mind if you forget, considering the fact that you're all going to die before long!" Kuririn and Bulma gulped as they exchanged glances. Jees then assumed his own weird stance, which was quite possibly the strangest of them all. He curled his right arm in much the same way that Rikuum had curled his left, except Jees' hand was balled in a fist, and it pointed down at his shoulder. His left arm pointed straight up, fisted at the end, and really made him seem like he was about to punch Baata in the jaw. He was squatting down a bit, with his left leg pointed straight and jutting sharply out to the far right, while his right leg bent at the knee and pointed, with his foot flat on the ground, in the opposite direction, as it was balancing him and holding up most of his weight. He, like the other two, looked absolutely ridiculous.

Then, as if they had rehearsed it, they all cried out with a big flourish, "Behold the awesome power of... Team Ginyu!"

Bulma stared at this incredible coordinated display in utter astonishment for a few seconds. Then she began to snicker. She tried to rein it in as best as she could, but her chuckles soon grew much more persistent, and she couldn't contain them any longer. Much to Kuririn's horror and Gohan's surprise, she exploded in a wild fit of laughter.

"Bwahahahaha!" she laughed loudly, holding her side and pointing at Team Ginyu. "I just can't stand it; you three look absolutely hilarious! What kind of ridiculous fighting stances are those, anyway? Have you lost your minds? Do you have any idea how many vulnerable spots you've got open in those positions? Wahahahahaha!" She fell onto her back and rolled on the ground as she laughed at them. Tears began rolling down her cheeks. She'd never seen anything so ridiculous in her life!

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Baata yelled, sounding very insulted indeed. "Don't you know a good pose when you see one?!"

"What?" Bulma cried, forcefully suppressing her giggles long enough to sit up and stare at him in surprise. "You... *snort* you mean to tell me you're posing?!"

"Of course!" he replied impatiently. "Team Ginyu is the most stylish group of mercenaries in the universe! Why shouldn't we pose?"

Bulma just stared at him for a few seconds, quite taken aback by his logic. She kept expecting him to say it had been a joke, and that it was really a tactic that was building up to a powerful attack. She glanced up at Vegita as if to say, "he's kidding, right?" He only ignored her and glared in absolute disgust at Team Ginyu. Bulma wondered for a second how she was supposed to take these adversaries seriously after that, but then reason told her that they wouldn't be able to get away with stunts like this if they didn't have the power to back them up. Shaking her head with a wide-eyed, puzzled expression, she got up and brushed the dirt off of herself. She wondered what other ridiculous things these guys did during their battles.

"All right then," Rikuum said, as they assumed more practical and comfortable stances. "Now that the introductions are over, it's time to get down to business. Guess what, Veggie-chan? It's your lucky day! I get the pleasure of being your executioner!" He struck another hilarious pose, this one being more reminiscent of a ballet pose.

Vegita didn't reply, but he seemed to have had enough. He began to seriously charge up his chi. After only a few seconds, Bulma, Kuririn, and Gohan had to back away from him, since his aura was becoming too forceful and volatile for them to remain in close quarters with him.

"Geez!" Bulma yelled to Kuririn. "Vegita's really turning up the juice, isn't he?"

"No joke!" Kuririn called back. "Maybe we should just stay out of his way for this one. I have a feeling that this fight'll be way out of our league."

Bulma and Gohan nodded in agreement, and they turned their attention back toward Vegita. He was really pouring on the steam. His chi aura had turned bright blue, and he had a large vein protruding from his forehead. He started to scream, letting his chi explode in a huge surge of power. Growling, he glared at Rikuum, who was gaping at Vegita in surprise.

Bulma estimated that he was somewhere around 40 or 50 thousand degrees on a scouter. He still wasn't as strong as Rikuum was, but he might be strong enough to take him by surprise.

Vegita suddenly lunged at Rikuum - who had been caught completely off guard - and he punched him squarely in the jaw. As Rikuum fell backward from the impact, Vegita shot over and behind him and smashed him down into the ground with both hands. He then shot straight up into the air, and while Rikuum was still flat on the ground, he zoomed down and stomped both his feet into Rikuum's chest. Before the large man could make a move, Vegita grabbed his left leg and began twirling him around and around in a tight, rapid spiral. All at once, he let go of Rikuum - who shot straight into the side of a mountain, nearly half a mile away.

Vegita wasn't through yet. His arms were each engulfed by a huge ball of chi, and he held them straight out on either side of him. Screaming furiously, he smacked his hands together in front of him and charged up tremendously. Kuririn shoved Bulma and Gohan to the ground before diving down beside them, just as Vegita let his chi blast go. It hurtled toward Rikuum and the crumbled mountain with so much speed and strength that it dug a wide, deep furrow in the ground as it screamed through the air. Bulma glanced back to see Vegita, dwarfed by his enormous energy beam, and for the first time since Team Ginyu had appeared, she allowed herself to hope that they might actually have a chance after all.

As Vegita's blast connected, the ground beneath them shook violently, and Bulma's ears rang from the fierce multiple explosions caused by his blast. "Rikuum must surely be feeling this!" she thought excitedly, shielding her face from the gravel and dirt that was being kicked up in the wake of the blast.

"Let's see if you can handle this!" Vegita yelled, intensifying his blast even further. The terrain around Rikuum's mountain erupted in a huge mound of exploding energy, and Bulma knew it would have taken a truly exceptional warrior to have survived such a maddeningly powerful blast. She only hoped that Rikuum wasn't just such a fighter, because as Vegita finally slowed down and stopped, she could see that he was sorely winded. That bout had taken a lot out of him, and Bulma very much doubted he'd have much of a chance if Rikuum weren't at least seriously wounded.

Bulma, Kuririn, and Gohan got up and watched anxiously as the enormous debris cloud in front of them began to shift in the wind. They were all very curious to see what condition Rikuum was in.

Gohan suddenly gasped, and Bulma and Kuririn shared in his horror. They could all sense a huge chi in there, which was definitely Rikuum's. To make matters worse, it didn't seem even remotely weaker than before, either.

"Vegita didn't even make a dent in him!" Kuririn exclaimed. "Look at him! After all that firepower, the guy's barely got a mark on 'im!"

It was true. Out from the cloud of dust emerged Rikuum, still very much intact, exept for his armor, which had been blown away. He grinned, fully enjoying the looks of horrified astonishment on the faces of Vegita, Bulma, Gohan, and Kuririn. He walked casually back to them, and he stopped about twenty yards away from Vegita and began clapping his hands.

"Well done, Veggie-chan!" he exclaimed. "Bravo! You've improved a lot since we last met, haven't you? This fight may prove to be interesting after all! Now," he said, assuming a fighting stance and smiling brightly at him. "I suppose I should fight for real now. It is my turn, right Veggie-chan?"

Bulma glanced at Vegita. He certainly didn't look very pleased with this turn of events. She wondered how long he could last. She didn't want to think about it, but it did seem as though things had taken a very nasty turn for the worse.

The first thing Rikuum did was hop straight up in the air. At the very instant he had landed, he was already making a beeline for Vegita. Vegita didn't even have time to react. Rikuum kneed him viciously in the face, and Vegita went sailing backward.

Vegita regained his control in midair and pushed off an outcropping of rock to help spin himself over and land on his feet. He then rocketed straight up into the air at Rikuum, yelling in rage.

Rikuum and Vegita then exchanged some serious blows in close-range. Vegita was laying out the punches blindingly fast - much faster than Bulma could keep up with - but she was, however, able to see that Rikuum wasn't being hit by them. After about fifteen seconds of allowing Vegita's fruitless attempts to continue, Rikuum drew his fist back and pounded it violently into Vegita's face, causing the unfortunate Saiyan to slam down into the ground. Rikuum shot after him to hit him again, but Vegita flew back out of the way, just barely in time to avoid Rikuum's massive fist as it buried itself into the hard-packed soil.

Rikuum must have anticipated this, because in a flash he was right behind Vegita. Rikuum chased him at a pretty fair pace for a couple of seconds, before Vegita charged up and spun around, flinging an intense chi ball at his unsuspecting pursuer.

Bulma and the boys whooped excitedly, but Rikuum wasn't so easily fooled. He dodged the blast with incredible ease, and he flew - much too quickly for anyone to keep up with his movements - up and behind Vegita. He materialized upside down, right behind Vegita. He had snuck up on him so perfectly that he had no difficulty in landing a powerful kick on the back of Vegita's neck, sending him plummeting to a lake below. Rikuum grinned evilly as Vegita slammed into the water, the impact shooting a plume of foam and spray hundreds of feet into the air.

Bulma and the others gasped and watched the water intently for signs of Vegita's still being conscious. Thirty seconds and then a full minute went by with no more disturbances on the water's surface. It had since calmed to small ripples by now, and Bulma and her friends were becoming very nervous. It was nerve-racking to see someone get blasted into water, because it was nearly impossible to accurately sense chi through it. Bulma couldn't sense any trace of Vegita down there, but that could have meant anything.

Rikuum hovered overhead, grinning and studying the water. He lowered himself to just a few feet above the surface, and then he called out to Vegita, saying he couldn't hold his breath down there forever. Bulma suddenly noticed a line of bubbles forming way on the other side of the lake, heading toward Rikuum, and they were moving forward fast. Depending on how far down Vegita was, he was probably very close to being directly underneath Rikuum by now.

Sure enough, just as Rikuum noticed the bubbles, Vegita shot up out of the water, fists extended, and rammed into Rikuum's stomach. He rocketed him skyward for a good distance, and then, after slowing down, he began throwing vicious punches into the behemoth's gut.

Bulma thought that at last Vegita had gotten the better of Rikuum, but all at once she saw that she had been wrong. Rikuum had regained his composure, and after bending over, he grabbed Vegita around the middle. Poor Vegita kicked his legs around frantically, but Rikuum simply lifted him high above his head, and then he shot down towards the ground - with Vegita screaming and kicking in tow - at a tremendous rate of speed. As Bulma, Kuririn, and Gohan looked on in horror, he slammed Vegita into the ground with so much force that it felt like an earthquake even from the few hundred yards away where they were standing.

The dust cloud cleared to reveal Rikuum standing over a small crater, with Vegita buried, head-first and up to his waist, in its center. Chuckling, Rikuum bent down and grabbed one of Vegita's feet.

"Look, boys! I think this vegetable's not quite ripe yet! It's a awfully small!" Jees and Baata laughed riotously at this comment, pointing at Vegita as Rikuum yanked him out of the ground like a turnip.

Vegita groaned painfully and swung away from Rikuum. It appeared that he had been beaten, but without warning, he snapped his hands forward and launched a blast of chi right into Rikuum's face.

Unable to dodge it at such a close range, Rikuum bellowed in surprise as it knocked him backwards, and he let go of Vegita, who landed on his back in the small crater. From the looks of it, his attack had taken Rikuum completely by surprise, but unfortunately, it must have been Vegita's last bit of strength. He didn't look as though he'd be able to take another large hit anymore.

"Hey guys," Bulma whispered. "We have to do something about this. Vegita's going to die soon if we don't step in. It's not that I have any great love for the arrogant jerk, but I don't think I can just stand back and do nothing while this big doofus plays his sick games with him. Even if it is Vegita, there's only so much I can bear to watch before I have to make it stop."

"I agree," Kuririn replied, nodding gravely. "Besides, he's no good to us dead anyway. He'll probably double-cross us in the end, but we won't be able to beat Freeza - or even these guys for that matter - if we don't have his help."

"You're right," Gohan said. "I don't know how much of a chance we'll have against that big guy, but we were going to have to fight him eventually anyway after he killed Vegita, right? We might as well step in before he gets a chance to do it. We might even get lucky and surprise him."

Rikuum had gotten up again, and he looked a little worse for the wear. All of his hair had been burned away, save for a singed, jagged lock of it on the very top of his head.

"Well now, Vegita," he said, chuckling sinisterly. "I'd say your time is about up. I don't use this technique on many people, but then again, not many have given me this much trouble before. You should feel honored that you're going to get to experience my ultimate technique!"

Vegita had managed to stumble unsteadily to his feet, and what a mangled mess he was, too! There was no way he'd get up again if Rikuum attacked him again. He was done.

"Here's the plan," Kuririn said. "When he begins this attack, Gohan and I will sneak up behind him and cut him off. At the same time Bulma, I want you to teleport in there and get Vegita to safety. Then, you stick with him. Keep the other guys offa him, understand? Gohan and I will handle Rikuum!"

"All right," she agreed. "What do I do if you need help?"

"If that's the case, then let me or Gohan call you in first. Don't leave Vegita alone unless we say so. He's our only way to beat Freeza."

"That'll have to do it, guys," Gohan said. "Rikuum's charging up his chi for something big!"

He was right. Rikuum was hunched over, and his aura was crackling and sparking like crazy. "Prepare yourself, Vegita," he shouted, "for the Rikuum Eraser Gun!" He opened his mouth wide, and Bulma sensed an incredible surge of power concentrating itself there. He was going to pull a similar trick to the one Nappa had tried back on Earth, only on a much larger scale.

"That's it guys!" Kuririn cried. "Let's go!" As he and Gohan shot over behind Rikuum - who had already formed the blast by now, and was just beginning to launch it - Bulma teleported to Vegita's side, grabbed him around his waist, then shot back up to her former position, which was just out of reach of the small explosion caused by Rikuum's blast. She saw, much to her satisfaction, that Kuririn had gotten to Rikuum first and kicked him in the back of the head, causing his mouth to close right in the middle of his "Eraser Gun," which exploded inside his mouth! Not allowing him a chance to recover, Gohan began punching him violently in the stomach, while Kuririn held back in case Rikuum knocked himself loose.

"Damned fool woman!" Vegita cursed Bulma feebly. "Whatever happened to leaving my fights to me? I'll kill you for this insult!"

"Just shut it, Vegita," she scolded him. "I would have liked nothing more than to leave you down there to get obliterated, but we need you to beat Freeza. Besides, you didn't look to me like you were about to do any more fighting anyway. Just be patient. You'll probably get another shot in, at least against one of the others, if they're as strong as this one is."

"Worse," Vegita muttered. "We're about out of options by now. We'll simply have to fight them until they grow weary of toying with us. That's all we can do."

Bulma shuddered and looked at her watch. Goku was due to arrive any time today. She hoped it would be soon. The prospect of pitting herself against any one of their remaining enemies was not a pleasant one at all.