It didn't happen often, but occasionally there was a time where Vegeta found himself at a loss.
As the Saiyan Prince crawled through the vents of the large fortress that trapped him, with Raditz and Nappa on his trail, he tried to devise a plan for dealing with Kabnet.
They were outnumbered. Scouters gone. Gohan captured, possibly dead. Spaceships destroyed. And Kabnet was a Ginyu-level threat.
Worst of all was Vegeta's power dilemma. Raditz hadn't just been speaking for himself when he said his power was slow to return. It had taken Vegeta an alarmingly large effort just to fire a blast that could blow a hole in the ceiling. In his current state, he couldn't even take a full-throttle Nappa. The flame-haired Saiyan had always prided himself in his cunning, but his doubt crept up on its ability to overcome this pinch as he crawled through the cold vents.
The Great Ape was his only option. But that was burying the lede - how the hell were they going to get off the planet if it worked? Common sense would say the planet was rife with space pods, but the Ape and its destructive power made things dicey. What if they destroyed them all? Just one wayward blast, one outburst from the ill-controlled Raditz, and they'd be stranded. Coercing one of the low-level peons was an option, but that posed its own problem:
I could never show my face on that damn base asking Frieza to clean up my mess, Vegeta thought to himself, a scowl bending his face. The incorrigible humiliation aside, there were few things Frieza hated more than doing actual work, as asinine as it sounded. He and his men would be due a hell of a punishment.
On top of that, it would be their word vs. Boysen's. No mole digs around with no outs.
These were the times he cursed his tail. He saw the armor Kabnet and those two others wore - their formal attire, obviously. Another option would have been assuming those outfits himself and destroying the army from the inside, but their tails would give them away.
Feh, no use dwelling on it, now. It's not like luck is ever on my side, anyway…
As he kept crawling, Vegeta could overhear something underneath the vent. He froze in the middle of the cramped space and lowered his head so he could get a clearer listen.
A loud thud. "What do you mean the Saiyans are gone?" a voice shouted. Kabnet's for sure.
"Sir, I am not mistaken – the shackles were all lying on the floor and the guard overseeing them was dead!" the other man answered, his voice panicked, "On top of all that, there was a hole in the ceiling."
More thuds. "So you saw a hole in the ceiling and didn't think, to, I dunno, climb it and follow them?"
"Well, sir-"
The apparent sound of an energy blast and a fatal scream reached Vegeta's ears. "Shrewd little monkeys! Peconne; send an alert to all soldiers to meet outside immediately! Those Saiyans aren't getting out of here alive. As soon as they come out, we will blast them to kingdom come!"
"Shit," Vegeta whispered as sweat dripped down his head.
Nappa and Raditz heard the conversation as well, and anxiously looked ahead to their master. When Vegeta overheard emphatic footsteps drifting further from earshot, he looked over his shoulder at his two subordinates. They were as confused as he.
Feeling all the frustration swelter, Vegeta growled like a rabid wolf, slamming his fist against the bottom of the vent hard enough to leave a dent.
"Dammit, they're onto us! Well if these bastards want a war, then a war they will get!"
His sanity checking out, Vegeta mustered up as much strength as presently available to blast a hole in the vent and jump into the room beneath. Though Nappa and Raditz exchanged confused glances, they followed their prince's frenzied lead.
Not even acknowledging the feathery, beaked avian alien squawking at him following his tumble, Vegeta reached the door at the end of the room in the blink of an eye and slammed it shut.
The frazzled staffer reached out to jam his finger into a button on the large control panel in front of him, but a fuzzy brown tail coiled his neck when his finger was just a centimeter away. He faintly grabbed whatever squeezed his neck as he wheezed for air.
"Don't even scream," warned the chilling voice behind him, almost directly into his ear.
The bird-headed alien, Peconne, drifted his eyes left into the object of his worst nightmares - a snarling, flame-headed Saiyan warrior. Veget's glare was downright murderous, his eyes harboring an intense bloodlust. He raised his right hand, engulfed in glowing Ki shaped like a blade, until it was just inches from Peconne's beak.
"You are to do exactly as I say, understand?" Vegeta ordered.
No answer. So Vegeta tightened his tail's grip around Peconne's throat.
"UNDERSTAND?"
The bird weakly nodded. Satisfied with his answer but amused by his struggle, Vegeta relinquished his grip around Peconne's neck with a snicker.
"Now then, I have some good news for you; you're about to participate in your first battle." He announced it like a wistful afternoon reporter.
"Your answer to the question I am about to ask will determine how many more seconds you draw breath." Even in the face of Peconne's panicked shudders, Vegeta's ironclad gaze wouldn't yield. "What is your role in Kabnet's army? You don't look like any fighter to me."
Peconne didn't coherently answer, only stuttering while the words failed to reach. Having previously been a scientist from Cooler's branch, he'd heard stories of Vegeta and the Saiyans even before Kabnet; and quite frankly, they undersold the man. With patience for his hesitance, Vegeta seared his wrist with a small but vicious energy blast. Following an agonized shriek, Peconne finally said, "T-top scientist…please don't kill me…"
Intrigued, Vegeta leaned back and smirked. "Scientist, huh? So how far does your genius go? Did you design those disgraceful shackles that my men and I were locked in?"
"Y-yes, I designed that," Peconne hoarsely answered, tending to his injured wrist, "Blueprinted all of the technology and weaponry…this army employs…"
"Really, now?" Vegeta asked, his voice glowing with curiosity. "So suffice to say - you're invaluable to his army, aren't you?"
Peconne nodded, which was all the answer Vegeta needed. He and his two cohorts exchanged looks with each other in silent conversation. Without warning, Vegeta hauled Peconne up by his wounded wrist and audaciously blasted the window across the room to pieces.
Dragging Peconne helplessly behind him, Vegeta advanced stepped forward to observe the scene out below the orange sky. There were soldiers – hundreds of them. All of them donning armor with a variety of weapons in tow. When that window shattered, all of their heads lifted up, and then all of them scowled when Vegeta revealed himself from the windowsill.
Kabnet stood in front of the swathe of soldiers, the angriest of them all. "So you've finally shown yourself, Vegeta! You were a fool not to join me!" With a twisted grin, he turned to face his loyal soldiers. "Now, men?!"
"Not so fast!" Vegeta boomed from above. He swung Peconne out in front of himself, blithely dangling Kabnet's prized technical genius above the windowsill like a diamond above a raging flame. "It is to my understanding that this rooster in my hands is the architect of all the weapons your men wield! Unless you want to see all of your future progress go straight to hell, I suggest you fall back!"
Circumstances had gone to the left of Kabnet's expectation. 'Cunning' was the last word he thought he'd use for a brutish Saiyan, but that's what was displayed before him. He'd gathered the soldiers expecting the Saiyans to resort to their loathsome Giant Apes and leave themselves open to wide range missiles. Instead, they were playing the hostage game?
Though he dangled precariously, Peconne quivered in Vegeta's grip. If he had known he would be used as leverage like this, he would have never even mentioned his scientific prowess. There was not a doubt in his mind that Vegeta would follow through on any threat made.
To Nappa and especially Raditz, Vegeta's actions warranted admiration. "Yeah, that's more like it, Vegeta! Always a step ahead!" Nappa remarked.
Triumph filled Vegeta's smug face. Right where he wanted them, with no wild apes needed. "Now, onto my demands. Not only will you show me how to get off of this planet - you will have your little bitch Boysen fess up to his misdeeds and I'll see to it he mentions not a word about you." Not that he cared to ensure it, but he was working here. "You attack me, and birdman here dies before you or any of those rodents can reach me."
On top of his shrewd threats, Vegeta made sure to leave himself inside with Nappa and Raditz watching his six; Kabnet struck him as the sniper type.
Kabnet had to admit it. The Saiyan was more than just smart, he was brilliant. But one problem - there was no way he could trust Vegeta to completely hold out on his end of the bargain. He knew Vegeta to be the spiteful type; in other words, the kind that had no problem leaving his fate in Frieza's hands.
Finding himself at a standstill, Kabnet realized it was time for the as of yet unfinished nuclear option. He pressed a button in the center of his armor...
As Arepa led Gohan away from the torture room, she killed any solider that came their way. Being a rookie, she was far from the strongest among the ranks; so she relied on stealth and avoided popular hangouts. With her pep it was a challenge, but Gohan kept up with her frenetic pace.
Arepa busted a door open, startling a soldier who sat atop a stool in the far corner of the room it led to. The sight of him stopped the two children dead in their tracks. Even from his seat, his enormous size and missile-like arms instantly captured the eye.
The soldier narrowed his eyes at Gohan specifically. The tail, the armor…he was…
"One of Frieza's men!"
Gohan assumed a defensive position whilst the soldier leaped from his stool to attack. As the soldier dove, he reached for a gun from his pocket. Noticing before the tunnel-visioned Gohan, Arepa leaped ahead. Both Gohan and the soldier halted in surprise at the girl standing in between them.
"Oh no ya don't! Ya gonna have to go through me first!" she shouted.
With a dismissive scowl, the burly soldier only said, "You traitorous runt! Get out or get gunned!"
"Gun me, then!"
Not wanting the girl in his sight for another second, the soldier pulled the trigger. To Gohan's shock, she took the shot head-on; right to her left shoulder. She clutched it as she screamed and sank to her knees, whilst gently Gohan grabbed her and stared dismally at her wound.
The soldier smirked maniacally and fixed his eyes on the little Saiyan. "Your turn, kid…"
"F-forget about me…" Arepa muttered. Pointing his scornful glare at the man behind the gun, Gohan emphatically stepped away from Arepa. His dark eyes sparkled with enough anger to make even the musclebound tank of a soldier wilt before him.
"You'll pay for that!" Gohan spat through his teeth.
A half-second later and Gohan had the soldier spiraling backwards from a punch delivered with free shipping & handling to his jaw. The feeling of that man's clavicle cracking against his knuckle had been quite welcome. Having been leveled by the pint-sized force, the soldier flew through the wall and didn't stop until his back smacked the wall at the end of the next room.
"Holy shit," Arepa muttered, her pain giving way to awe while she squinted at the broken man sitting stiffly against the wall with his neck dangling. Though she hadn't seen much in her short life, she sure as hell knew what made a corpse. And that was from one single punch.
Gohan knew it, too; the empty gaze reminded him of the piles of bodies he'd left on Planet Zuna - the bodies that triggered this mess. Those blank eyes, the slumped head, the occasional yelp from gases leaving the body. To his displeasure, Gohan found himself fixated on the blood spilling from the soldier's mouth. Yet another addition to his already millions-high body count.
But he challenged Gohan, and was weaker than him. And thus, he fell.
"Uh, Gohan, I'm a li'l hurt here!" Arepa yelled, snapping Gohan out of his haze.
"Oh, uh, sorry," Gohan sheepishly replied while he turned to Arepa and slung her slumped arm above his to lift her up. Out of odd principle, he refused to tear off his sleeve to cover a bleeding wound for the third damn time; so he looked around. "Is there any medical room or something close by?"
"Hell if I know," Arepa wheezed. "Who cares? Just wrap me up with the guy's shirt or somethin'."
"If you say so…" Gohan said with a sigh as he let Arepa go, scurried over to the dead soldier and tactlessly tore his shirt off. Arepa limped towards Gohan and allowed him to wrap the shirt around her arm, pressing down on it to curb any more blood loss.
With the knot tight, Arepa did what any normal person would do with an injured shoulder; she punched air. Her impudence nearly made Gohan stumble on his face. "Shouldn't you give your arm time to rest?"
Arepa just kept punching, snorting in disgust. "Please. I ain't nowhere near your level but I'm still one tough cookie!"
"If you say so," Gohan said with a shrug. He looked across to the left side of the room at a closed door. "So, what's that door lead to?"
After throwing one last punch, Arepa followed Gohan's line of sight and ponderously brought her hand to her chin. "Hmm…if I remember this place right…that's the armory. Let's check."
She brushed past Gohan and kicked the door down, revealing a vast hall with shelves on each side filled top to bottom with tools - guns, helmets, stray parts of armored vehicles, and various other weaponry.
"Well if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck..." Arepa said as she ran inside with Gohan close behind. The various weapons intrigued him; sure, Kabnet's army was every bit the lost cause that Vegeta condemned it to be, but there was no denying the preparation. It was like the armories he'd seen in history books but leagues more advanced.
Curiosity got the best of Gohan as he watched Arepa sift messily through the shelves. "So, how'd you end up here, anyway?"
Arepa hopped down from the high aisle she'd been scouring and dusted her clothes off. "Well, if you really wanna know, whatever. It happened 'bout...a year ago, I think?" she began, squinting as she tried to recall the experience. "Anyway, my pops liked to travel through the galaxy– that's how he met that Saiyan – and once I grew outta crawlin' he took me along for the ride. So one day we went to this really cool planet that had all sorts o' gadgets that my pops liked."
Arepa took a deep breath and blinked. "Only problem was, Kabent was in the middle of takin' it over. My pops managed to keep us hidden 'til some soldier found us. Asshole broke my fav'rite toy, too, and I wasn't havin' that."
"So what did you do?"
"I killed him, duh," Arepa replied like she'd been asked the sky color. "Only problem with that was, Kabnet saw the whole thing and figured, 'Well that girl'll be a sweet pickup, huh?'" Arepa had been unnervingly peppy describing the story, but that soon changed as her eyes wilted from regret. "My pops refused...so he killed him. And that's when I really lost it."
Gohan could see her balled up fists trembling as she recounted the story. He wasn't the only kid in the universe feeling trapped and sorrowful, it appeared.
"And I've been here since then, I guess. Kabnet likes to lay low so I take shit out on the weaker folks around here," Arepa said, her enthusiasm returning. "What about you?"
"Kinda similar to yours, except my dad wasn't killed. But, the guys that took me aren't that bad to be around. They don't treat me like garbage, at least," Gohan said, his own hand curling up. "It's our boss, Frieza. It's the same with you and this Kabnet guy. The other Saiyans found me because they're trying to take him down."
"Gnarly," Arepa said with a grin. She playfully slapped Gohan's shoulder. "You're alright, kid."
Gohan looked down at the hand of his shoulder with a smile. Like with Lemo and Kiyomi, he found himself at ease. It lifted his spirits to be around a kid his age who knew what he was going through, especially one who seemingly stayed on the bright side.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go look for the ultimate weapon. Trust me, it's a doozy," Arepa said as she jumped up to another high shelf. "I've only heard about it, though. Kabnet only lets really special people that he trusts in here 'cause it's so strong, so I've never seen it. It's his trump card against Frieza."
That strong, huh? Gohan thought. With how much Kabnet had invested in technology, Gohan figured the weapon had to harness large-scale destructive capabilities for Kabnet to only trust a few people with it.
Arepa shuffled through the shelves, letting other tools fall to the floor. She finally came across a forest-green box branded with a skull and crossbones. She tried to pry it open, but it wouldn't budge.
"Shit, no dice on this thing," she said. Gohan walked over to observe it.
"Hmm, looks like it's encrypted," Gohan said, his eyes darting to a glowing stub at the box's center. He squinted to observe it more studiously. "If it's anything like those jail cells, I bet only a specific thumbprint can open it."
Arepa tapped it with her thumb, but it glowed a rejecting red light. "Yup, looks like it. Well, why don'tcha just smash the thing, then?"
"It could be a bomb or something," Gohan said. "If I make the wrong move, it might blow us up."
Nevertheless, Gohan took the box out of Arepa's hands and flipped it around. If the box were encrypted, then obviously it was electronic. He flipped it onto its underside and pried the bottom paneling open to reveal the circuit board. With his focus on figuring out the complexities of the wiring, Gohan flipped the box back to the button, and then back to the board. His eyes were narrowed in laser-like focus, putting some of the lessons he learned from Lemo and Kiyomi to the test.
After one last once-over to the button, Gohan undid one single plug from the board. The box popped open.
"Wha...how?!" Arepa asked, her jaw agape.
"I could kinda pick up the vibrations of the electric signal the button gave off," Gohan explained. "So I traced it back to the specific wire and gave it a shot."
"Sheesh…" Arepa said, though Gohan's technical finesse - while cool - wasn't the important matter. Instead, that was the weapon lying inside the box that made her and Gohan gasp.
"A grenade!"
After Kabnet pressed down on his armor, it emitted a bright, orange glow that captured the attention of both the troops standing behind him and Vegeta. An abundance of wires exploded from the suit, surrounding Kabnet and ballooning in size.
Though he didn't let go of Peconne, Vegeta's body went limp at the sight unfolding. Kabnet looked ahead with a twisted grin as the cables expanded around him and elevated him higher into the air. Not only did the cables grow, they took formation. First, two legs that on their own were half the size of the building in which Vegeta stood. A torso that submerged Kabnet's body came soon after, along with massive arms.
A head, shaped like a sphinx, topped this gargantuan cybernetic abomination. It released a flash of light that threatened to blind everyone in its vicinity. Still keeping Peconne in his right hand, Vegeta shielded his eyes with the left.
When Vegeta's eyes opened back up, they nearly popped out of his head.
A hundered-foot high mecha stood before him, Nappa and Raditz, in a sparkling orange-coated, blue-accented steel. Even Kabnet's soldiers were in awe, having heard about this titanic weapon but never seeing it for themselves.
Vegeta couldn't speak, only horrified breaths escaping his sunken jaw. Defying its immense mass, the robot smoothly bent down until its head was level with the windowsill Vegeta stood on. Through the glass of its head, Vegeta could see Kabnet's cackling face.
"I'd like my scientist back now, Vegeta," Kabnet said, his voice booming through the robot's speakers.
It was his army's most ambitious project - the KN-Titan. The pinnacle of their cybernetic research, but still incomplete. Kabnet's arms were hooked up to cables, supplying the machine with his very own energy. The key to its further development was figuring out a way to not only how to power it with outside sources to make it invincible, but to do so without exhausting Kabnet to near death. But with Vegeta having him in a bind, he had to take the risk.
"What the hell is that thing?" Raditz said, his vocal cords feeling they were being tugged.
The mech gently lifted its right arm and extended its hand out to Vegeta. The Saiyan prince found himself stunned by the size of its palm alone - as wide as the craters his space pods left in planets' surfaces. At the center of its palm, Vegeta could see the true reality of his circumstances grounded. Twenty-five years of subjecting himself to the indignity of being Frieza's favorite puppet crumbled into its surface. Was this where his agonizingly patient journey lay to waste?
He lifted his eyeballs back up to the massive head before him.
"Well, I'm waiting." Kabnet said, his smug voice shrouding Vegeta's eardrums.
Vegeta's eyebrows curled into a venomous glare.
No!
"WELL YOU BETTER CATCH HIM!"
Past the point of rationality, Vegeta chucked Peconne and his beaked head out of his hand and into the air like he were a spear. Though he was shocked enough to freeze for a moment, Kabnet spun his body around and reached out; the KN-Titan did the same, reaching out to catch its architect.
Vegeta spun around to his two frazzled companions. "NAPPA! RADITZ!" It was all he shouted before he dove out of the window. The two didn't need any clearer direction for their next action. They followed Vegeta outside, and with what little energy they could gather, all fired immense Ki blasts at the cybernetic Titan.
Even while taking the impact of the explosive blasts, the KN-Titan took little damage. Though he was hard to see, Kabnet found Peconne courtesy of the scouter-like sensors implanted all throughout the Titan that could detect someone's power level. It caught Peconne at the peak of his flight and used its wiring to absorb him into its hand and funnel him into the head where Kabnet stood.
However, Vegeta wasn't seeking to deal significant damage; he only sought a significant enough distraction for his trump card. Along with Nappa and Raditz, Vegeta landed on the ground below. While his two subordinates brought the fight to the incoming army, Vegeta stood crouched with his arm raised, pouring out every last ounce of energy within him to form a ball of light from his palm.
When Kabnet finally regained his bearings, his heart skipped a beat at the display transmitted on the screen ahead of him. He knew exactly what Vegeta's stance meant: the artificial moon to trigger his Great Ape form.
Recognizing his master's panic, Peconne spoke into a microphone attached to the collar of his shirt.
"Parmesia, do you hear me? You must prevent the Saiyans' transformation!"
Vegeta could see the ball before him expand in size. Though his ploy worked, he was beyond furious at just how much time the damned ball was taking him. With his handicapped reserves, it took considerably more effort to gather up the sufficient amount of energy to mix with the planet's atmosphere. Nappa and Raditz urged him on, their focus halfway between the soldiers and Vegeta's struggle.
After moments that felt like hours, it finished. Vegeta smirked – his chance for victory, at last! Even though he would be at a power disadvantage, there was no way even a giant machine could take three, perhaps four apes. All he had to do was shoot to the ball into the sky, and-
One of the sharpest pains Vegeta had ever felt in his entire life surged through his lower back.
So badly it stung, that Vegeta relinquished the power ball entirely and sank to his hands and knees while his entire body throbbed. Coughing violently, Vegeta rolled over onto his back to see who or what dealt him such a blow. When the prince saw what lay down on the ground just inches from his face, he lost his ability to form words in his mouth.
My…my tail!
There it was, right in front of him. His tail had been cut off from behind him, a sneak attack courtesy of the woman who stood snickering above him, long hair waving against the wind as she held her sword in hand. When Vegeta made eye contact with the brash soldier, a tornadic rage touched down inside him. Never in his entire life had anyone possessed the unmitigated gall to remove his tail.
The shame in which he had just been dealt washed away what little remained of Vegeta's self-control. Releasing a scream that could be harnessed only by the universe's wildest beasts, Vegeta rose to his feet. The woman took a swing with her instrument of indignity, but Vegeta swatted it out of her hands like it was made of plastic. His calloused hands wrapped around her throat and slammed her into the ground, squeezing so tightly the fabric around his gloves tore apart. Not even the blood she retched onto Vegeta's face could disrupt his mania.
But the hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers drew while Vegeta raged on, stampeding past Nappa and Raditz. Crashing back into the rational world, Vegeta let go of the woman's neck and stood up to face the swarm - before he slammed his foot on it to deliver an instant death for her grievous butchering of his Saiyan pride.
Though the planet's conditions were accommodating, Vegeta's breath was ragged. The power ball drained nearly all that remained of his power. His body still reeled from the explosively thwarted landing. All he had left? The fists clenched at his sides. Even if they would do him no good, he'd wield them to the end.
Kabnet just laughed amongst the wires connected to him. Sure, he was still pissed off for even having to resort to the KN-Titan, but it had decisively tipped the scales in his favor. He set his eyes to his right-hand man, Peconne.
"Excellent work with those Ki-Absorbing cuffs, Peconne," Kabnet said. "It's third to this giant and the grenade in your library of brilliance."
"Of course, Lord Kabnet," Peconne said, long forgotten his frightful brush with the Saiyan who was now vainly battling their swarm of soldiers.
With a roar that defied his odds, Vegeta charged into the stampede. He, Nappa, and Raditz focused on the weaker fighters, using their faint energy reserves to subdue them with blasts. While those ones were rendered lifeless, the more formidable just popped right back up. One particular fighter leveled Vegeta's ribs with a knee that doubled him over while he sucked air. The soldier tried to follow his assault up, but Nappa blasted him away in just the knick of time. Vegeta silently thanked his oldest ally, but cursed that his weakness had gotten so far that he genuinely needed Nappa's protection.
The Saiyans chugged along, but their massive disadvantage became more apparent with every passing second. Vegeta tried to back several men away with another blast, but it went over like a weak fart in the wind, barely moving them. As more fighters swarmed the Prince, he decided to just rely on his hand-to-hand skills. He elbowed the fighter closest to him in the ribs and kicked another one yards away. Two men knocked him back with just a shockwave, and though Vegeta stood his ground and struck both down with formidable punches, he couldn't avoid a wayward energy blast to the face.
Vegeta hit the ground on his back. As soon as he even sat up, another indeterminable foot knocked back down. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Nappa and Raditz's progress; they weren't doing much better. Nappa's size ensured he could barrel through large swarms, but they were taking their toll. And Raditz was getting stomped out by a gang of fighters
Though Vegeta managed to grab a foot that bore down on his head and used it to propel himself back up, a flurry of blasts sent him back down. Much like Raditz, Vegeta found himself getting trampled by a barrage of steel-toed boots. Vegeta's grunts and hisses through the brigade weren't just of agony - but anger; he could probably count on his hands how many times he'd felt this close to oblivion.
It was all a nightmare; that was it. He was going to wake up a sweaty heap on his cot any minute now, right?
As Gohan followed Arepa's wade through the building, he could feel Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz's Ki dwindling. "We've gotta hurry!" he screamed.
When they reached a large window, however, Arepa did just the opposite and stopped dead in her tracks.
"Ho-leeeeeee shit," she whispered, her eyes like goose eggs.
Gohan had been running with so much momentum he nearly skidded to a fall when tried to stop. "What are you do-"
Then he saw it, too - the enormous, orange and blue robot that stood before a seemingly endless sea of soldiers. "What in the world is that?!"
"The KN-Titan," Arepa said, her voice still constrained by awe. "He'd been talkin' a big game 'bout it, but I thought it wasn't s'posed to be finished yet."
Trying to keep his eyes from wondrously gluing themselves to the gargantuan structure, Gohan stomped his foot and growled.
"Well if it's that big, it oughta be slow, so that makes him an easy target for the bomb!" Gohan's eyes darted to the green grenade Arepa held in her hand.
"Nuh uh," Arepa said. "I know it's big but it ain't no ordinary robot. It's powered by the energy of whoever's usin' it. It's s'posed to be as fast as they are."
"What?!"
"I snuck in Pecan or whatever's control room one day and saw the blueprints," Arepa explained. "Shit's got sensors all around, so there ain't no sneakin' up on it, neither."
That hopeless feeling that often shackled Gohan made its ugly presence known again. He'd allowed himself to cross a moral line in the name of survival, but in that cybernetic beast, he could see that survival withering as fast as Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz's ki signatures.
But it was those falling signals that shot urgency through Gohan's veins.
"Whatever! My men are dying out there!" Gohan yelled, snapping Arepa out of her awestruck trance. He was about to smash a hole through the window until a light bulb went off in his head.
"Hey Arepa, does this building have, like, a basement?!"
Arepa scrunched her brows in thought. "Oh, right! Yeah, it should be a door waaaaaay at the end of the last floor. Why?"
At the end of the bottom floor? Gohan thought. Of course - the basement was the cellar he and the others had been locked up in. "Just go out there and distract him, alright?!" Gohan ordered.
"Wait, wha-" Before Arepa could finish, Gohan snatched the grenade out of her hand and ran off. She peevishly stomped her foot on the ground.
"Oh yeah, sure, 'just go out and distract 'im," Arepa ranted to nobody in particular. "Ain't like I'm in the middle of shittin' my pants right now! Whatever…"
Nonetheless, Arepa blasted a hole in the window and leaped out of it, floating in the air. Getting an up-close view of the centuries high KN-Titan did little to quell her fears, but she was determined to not fail her new friend. She whipped out the only distraction she could think of: blasting the robot's back.
The KN-Titan turned around and swatted the blast away before it even hit. Yup, that was the sensor, alright.
Kabnet switched his screen from the action to the figure standing before the mecha. Arepa. What a belligerent little firecracker; always working his nerves, but with valuable potential. What the hell did she think she was doing?
"That better have been a test, little girl!" Kabnet shouted through the KN-Titan's speakers.
Arepa didn't give the answer Kabnet wanted, instead grinning and crassly flicking a booger at him. "Nuh uh, sorry! I just came out here to tell you that you suck, and I quit!"
The veins in his forehead swelling and his fists clenched, Kabnet growled ferociously. "You brat! How dare you!"
"Yeah, I said it; I don't want shit to do with you anymore!" Arepa signed off her resignation with a bold middle finger, though the sweat dripping down her head betrayed her true disposition. Any time now, Gohan!
"Fine! Consider this your severance!" Kabnet yelled as he lifted his, and in turn the Titan's, arms. He was going to reduce that miniature miscreant into ashes with the most powerful blast he could muster. The already hefty toll the Titan had taken of his body made it a lengthy task to gather up the proper energy.
And that's when Gohan exploded from underground, soaring high in the sky behind the KN-Titan.
The mechanical monster hadn't moved an inch. Gohan pumped his fist; he'd correctly guessed that the "sensors" were like scouters and detected people though their "power levels." Good thing he'd taught himself how to control and mask his Ki on Zuna.
He pulled the switch on the super-powered grenade in his hand and threw an All-Universe pitch. After the device that packed all his hopes left his hands, Gohan crossed his fingers…
Direct hit.
Kabnet never saw it coming. As soon as the grenade made contact with the KN-Titan, an astronomical explosion boomed through the atmosphere, filling the span of a mile with white light and smoke. The shockwave alone dispersed everything within its vicinity, forcing Gohan and Arepa down below; and mercifully blowing the soldiers away from their trampling of the Saiyans.
The light soon faded, while the smoke and ashes slipped into the skies. Where the KN-Titan once stood tall, now only a mile-wide pile of scraps lie. Kabnet and his trusted confidant, Peconne, were but ashes burned into the sand.
There was one figure who was the first of the hundreds of fighters to stand - he wore black armor with green plates, with long hair waving in the wind and tail that bristled back and forth.
That boy, was Gohan.
When his breath returned, and his eyes fully absorbed the vacant scrap heap before them, Gohan swung both arms high.
"I DID IT!"
Though his body felt almost as wrecked as the KN-Titan, Vegeta somehow managed to stand back up, joining the sea of other awestruck warriors that included his partners. His jaw was frozen in place.
"G-Gohan…?!"
It was the first time he'd ever spoken the half-breed's name.
For one thing, he was shocked to find him alive. How had he escaped? How did he get the cuffs off? Actually never mind that:
How did he just destroy Kabnet?!
And how could somebody as powerful and resourceful as him have the same blood as Raditz?!
The sea of soldiers was stuck in a stunned silence. Did they really just see, with their own two eyes, Kabnet and his mech destroyed by a bomb thrown from a Saiyan child's hands? Where did such a thing even come from?
"Gohan, ya cute lil' son of a bitch!" yelled Arepa from the other side of the wreckage. Though Gohan did blush, there was a far more important matter at hand that his Ki sense had just picked up -
A drill like beam heading right for Vegeta.
"VEGETA!" Gohan shouted as he took off.
Vegeta swung around. The spiraling beam raced to him faster than his body could allow. I-I can't…!
However, Vegeta found himself on the dirt before it hit, a pair of diminutive legs kicking him down. He looked up, wondering who or what the hell had bailed him out.
It was Gohan, crouched down with his fists squeezed at his sides. Fortunately, he'd been short enough to both knock Vegeta out of the way and avoid the deadly drill's path. The only thing it hit was a window on Kabnet's fortress.
If he hadn't been quick enough, Vegeta would have been dead.
Leaving no time for the soldiers to stampede, Gohan swung his arms back and unleashed a barrage of Ki blasts upon them. Unlike his allies, he had more than enough in store.
Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz, who were all exhausted and lying on the ground, could only look on with wide-eyes. They'd never seen that shy, soft half-breed runt ever fight so efficiently, so effectively. They were as proud as they were stunned.
A smirk crept its way to Vegeta's lips. He owed that whiny little bastard his life.
Gohan realized that he couldn't hold these guys off with a few tiny blasts. An army called for an attack big enough to take them all out at once, and his father had shown him a move that could do it effectively. He ended his shower of blasts and instead focused diligently on all of the latent Ki within his body, power that even he hadn't fully tapped into. Unleashing a burst of aura, Gohan managed to blow many of the soldiers back. The force of his Ki held them in place.
He crouched down, concentrating all of that Ki he'd worked so hard on mastering into the palms of his hands. He curled his arms back and cuffed them together.
"KA…ME…"
Explosive blue energy radiated around Gohan's hands. The strange chants had piqued the curiosity of both Arepa and the Saiyans, Vegeta in particular; the stance was identical to his Gallick Gun.
"HA…ME…"
The glowing energy doubled in size. Gohan had summoned up so much power, the planet shook beneath him.
"HAAAAAAAAAAA!"
An enormous wave of Ki that could have rivaled all but Vegeta's best attacks exploded from Gohan's outstretched arms, engulfing every loyal Kabnet soldier who dared stand in its way. One by one, they fell. Those that didn't fall became atoms that toiled away into the atmosphere.
When the light and smoke faded, only a third of the bodies that had been present remained; and they all lifelessly rested on the ground.
Flabbergasted, Vegeta stood up to one knee, words escaping him.
"K-Kid, how the fuck…?"
Unfortunately for Gohan, he'd expended so much energy that he couldn't stand for much longer. He fell to his hands and knees, laughing triumphantly but also wheezing for air. His dad's signature move was every bit as exhilarating to pull off as he thought it would have, and more.
It was the power he'd always wanted to wield.
Nappa managed to stand back up on both feet. "How strong is this little bastard, really?"
Vegeta just shook his head incredulously, wondering how much more time he had as the strongest of the remaining Saiyans. A thought he wished to push back, but couldn't quite seize.
Standing again, but with his hands planted on his knees, Gohan turned to face his older, full-blooded Saiyan allies. "You guys okay?"
"Does it look like it?" Vegeta asked, his typical snide mood having returned now that the worst was behind him.
"My bad," Gohan replied with a weak laugh.
Raditz was the next to stand back up, dusting off his armor. "How the hell did you even manage to escape from that purple man, anyway? We thought you were a goner for sure."
Before Gohan could answer, he could already see a bundle of energy storming to him.
"Gohan, you're the friggin' man!" Arepa yelled, meeting Gohan and slapping him on the shoulder. The half-Saiyan shrieked in pain, forcing her to stick her hands out with a weak smile. "Whoops, my bad!"
After rubbing his aching shoulder, Gohan pointed his thumb at the animated girl. "She saved me."
Finally, Vegeta stood all the way back up, eyeing Arepa with his usual disinterest. "Hn. Figures you'd have another brat helping you."
Arepa scowled, not appreciating the older Saiyan's flippant dismissal. "Hey, I'll have you know Kabnet recruited me! I bet I'd be good enough in Frieza's army too!"
While Gohan shrugged, the other four Saiyans looked at each other and laughed. "Oh, this kid's a good one!" Nappa said. "Save it, brat."
Not letting their amusement towards her bluster her spirit, Arepa swept her finger under her nose with a haughty grin. "Bet ya won't be laughin' so much when I tell ya I know where Kabnet's ship is."
That earned the Saiyan's intrigue. "A ship? Where?" Vegeta asked. "And you better be telling the truth, or else your life will end here."
The coldness in Vegeta's black eyes left Arepa little doubt as to whom she was dealing with. Seeking to calm the tension, Arepa stuck her arms out and waved them around.
"Whoa, easy, shorty, easy-"
A vein nearly burst from Vegeta's temple. Nobody mocked his height. The Prince of all Saiyans menacingly marched forward, murder on his mind. "Why, you little brat-!"
Though Gohan prepared to jump in the middle to thwart him, it was Raditz who wound up grabbing Vegeta's shoulder to hold him back. His temper boiling, Vegeta glared at his subordinate.
"Easy now," Raditz said. "I don't appreciate this little shit's tone anymore than you do, but think about it. If we bring her with us, she'll be our witness to get Frieza off our ass."
Vegeta only closed his eyes and breathed through his nose. "Take your common hands off me."
Faster than Raditz could move, Vegeta swung around and punched him in the face. He landed on top of a dead soldier. Vegeta turned around to address him.
While he did that, Arepa poked Gohan in the ribs, then raised one hand high above her head and the other a good deal lower to illustrate the difference in height between Vegeta and the other two adults. Gohan lifted his hand to his lips to stifle his giggles.
After Raditz sat back up and rubbed his aching jaw, Vegeta folded his arms. "However, you do raise a good point." He turned around to face the rowdy girl. "You, girl. How do I know you're not leading us into a trap, firstly?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," Arepa scoffed, actually offended by Vegeta's suspicion. "If I was pullin' the lid, I wouldn'ta saved Gohan or given him the bomb. Screw Kabnet!"
Vegeta sighed. The brat had a point, however chafingly she'd made it. Given her shrill immaturity, she was probably too dense to even come up with a scheme anyway. Still, he gave her eyes one thorough stare in search for a sign of deception.
Finally, he relented, "Alright, lead the way."
"Cool beans!" Arepa spun around to Kabnet's fortress. "Follow me!"
The Saiyans followed the sprightly child into the sky, Raditz being the last to join as he continued attending to his throbbing jaw. After laughing at the lower-class when he caught up, Nappa raced ahead until he was next to Vegeta.
"So whaddaya think?" Nappa asked. "Sounds like Kabnet has a few planets out there. What should we do about the rest of them?"
"No matter," Vegeta scoffed. "When word of Kabnet's demise spreads, his whole army will collapse. Besides, this is Frieza's mess now. When he figures out one of his own people was helping Kabnet, you know he'll personally take care of what's left."
Nappa laughed. When they weren't on the receiving end, Frieza's glacial temper was hilarious to witness.
"And who knows? Maybe we'll get a hefty reward for taking down one of his most wanted men."
"Maybe even a promotion," Nappa mused before snickering dismissively. "Nah, who am I kidding?"
Arepa led the Saiyans to an area behind the fortress they'd been captured in, where a domed purple and gold spaceship stood atop a platform. She floated down below with the Saiyans following soon after.
"Yup, it's the big one alright," Arepa marveled. She darted to the ship and pushed the button that set off its entrance. A long, steel ramp unveiled itself and stopped just short of the party of five. "Well, come on in!" Arepa directed before hopping on the ramp. The Saiyans nodded and did as directed.
Just as Gohan was about to walk up the deck, however, a voice sprang to his head.
"Son Gohan?"
It was a voice of a deep, imposing timbre. Gohan looked around, wondering if his experience on this planet had driven him mad.
"Who's there?!" he shouted out loud.
"I am speaking directly into your mind. I am Shenron, the Eternal Dragon of the Earth's Dragon Balls."
Gohan froze. His eyes nearly burst from their sockets.
The Earth's Dragon Balls?
That could only mean…
"Your father, Son Goku, has wished for me to return you to Planet Earth. Such a wish is well within my power, but when it's for a being with no prior-known location whose life force I must search diligently for such as yourself, I will not do so without their permission."
All breath escaped Gohan. His fingers twitched restlessly, as if his nerves had ceased to properly function. He couldn't even see what was going around him anymore - it was as if the entire world was pitch black. Every last word the bass-rich voice spoke embedded itself into Gohan's pulsing brain.
This was real. His imagination had no concept of Shenron or the extent of its wish-granting capabilities. The Dragon Balls were just a cool thing his father had told him about and hunted down with him. One of them a prop for his hat. He'd never seen all seven gathered together. He'd never seen the ritual summoning.
This was real.
The escape he'd tried what felt like eons ago was now a split-second away. The consequences seemed fleeting when it was this close. Gohan opened his mouth, but words couldn't escape it. Instead he clenched his teeth, beads of sweat forming and drizzling from his forehead.
He just stood there.
"Do you wish to return to Earth, Son Gohan?"