Loplop, border of Freeza's Empire
January 4, A762

"Welcome Back, Prince Vegeta," an attendant bowed to Vegeta as he stepped off the ship, alone, "It has been far too long since you have graced us."

"I am here to make a withdrawal," Vegeta announced, not looking at the attendant.

"Of course, Prince Vegeta. We are here to serve our customers' whims," the attendant said, leading him to a hover vehicle. The attendant opened the door for him, and scrambled inside. Within the vehicle, a literal feast was presented to Vegeta. With a disinterested look, Vegeta picked up a hunk of meat and began to eat it.

"We have been careful with your investments. Your fortunes are indeed great, Prince Vegeta. It is an honor to handle your finances," the attendant said.

"I have no interest in numbers or finances. I am interested in being served," Vegeta said.

"Of course, Prince Vegeta. Such is our pleasure," the attendant said, bowing to Vegeta, "May I boldly ask, what is your whim?"

"Nothing that concerns you."

"If we were to know, Prince Vegeta, perhaps we could help?"

"I require hard assets at this time. I expect to be withdrawing a considerable amount."

"Would this have anything to do with the New Saiyan Empire, your Highness?"

Vegeta glared at the attendant, "I said I was not interested in discussing my matters."

"I understand, Prince Vegeta. But you must understand the bank's position and interest. There is a power out there capable of opposing King Cold. It has already destroyed the Emperor, and in Freeza's wake, a new Empire has been born. We can only assume that you are responsible, and are head of your new Empire, your Highness."

Vegeta scowled, "It is none of your concern."

"It is merely rare for you to personally attend to your finances, Prince Vegeta. Forgive my impertinence," the attendant bowed. Vegeta gave a dismissal grunt, and continued eating. Within a few minutes, they arrived at the main bank, which had been cleared of other customers. It was an ostentatious building, with long columns of fine marble separating sections. Everything else was either gold lined or gold plated. Precious and priceless artifacts lined the walls. Vegeta could tell which of the workers were the heads of the bank, as they were the ones dressed in the shiniest, most ridiculous outfits.

"Prince Vegeta, it is an honor to receive you. We are forever grateful to you and your family for its patronage. Allow me to be-" the head of the bank began. Vegeta held up his hand.

"I am interested in making a withdrawal, not in listening to your platitudes. I require fifteen billion credits," Vegeta said.

"Fif-fifteen billion? That is quite a sum, Prince Vegeta, are you sure?" the head of the bank said.

"Are we speaking the same language? Fifteen billion! Retrieve my credits immediately, or do I have to go to the vault and retrieve them myself?" Vegeta snarled. The bank head yelped, and began ordering around his subordinates to retrieve Vegeta's withdrawal.

"There is, of course, a matter of verification, a formality, you understand, Prince Vegeta," the bank head said, presenting a datapad, "Please, your hand."

Vegeta, with a slight huff, pressed his hand against it. The bank head grinned.

"Excellent, thank you, Prince Vegeta. Now if you could do us a favor, and deal with my little test," the bank head said, grinning.

"What?"

Above Vegeta, he could hear something whirring. A humanoid machine dropped from above, leaving a crack in the floor. It was covered in white armor, with no discernable 'face' on its head. It had the bank's logo painted on the front chestpiece. It stood about a story tall, and its fists were the size of Vegeta himself.

"You see, Prince Vegeta, it has been a long time since we've dealt with the Saiyans without King Cold or Lord Freeza. If it's true you destroyed Freeza, then we need to be sure the Galaxy is ripe for proper investment. This machine was intended to destroy Freeza if he ever chose to come for us. Go on! Show us the power of Saiyan Royalty!" the bank head declared.

Vegeta studied the machine, and grinned.

"I assume this machine was meant to destroy Freeza in the form everyone knows, then?" Vegeta said. The machine swung its fist at Vegeta, who jumped up onto its arm.

"Time to really test all this training, then!" Vegeta chuckled, running up the arm. A turret popped out of the bicep of the machine, firing lasers at Vegeta, who deftly dodged them. As he reached the shoulder, the arm reached up and tried to swat him off its shoulder. Vegeta dropped off the machine, pushing himself over to the other shoulder.

"Too simple," Vegeta chuckled, and he punched the head of the machine. Instead of breaking, there was a shimmer of green light, and Vegeta was sent into the wall on the other side of the bank.

"As I said, Prince Vegeta, this machine was meant to destroy Lord Freeza himself. It won't be that simple," the bank head said. Vegeta chuckled; now this machine was interesting. He launched himself off the wall, grabbing some rubble of the ground, and he pelted the machine with the rocks with all his might, causing the shield to shimmer. Vegeta followed up with a series of Ki blasts, testing the limits of the shield. Each one was absorbed, and the machine, with a sudden burst of power, swatted Vegeta into the ground.

The strike didn't even phase Vegeta, who lifted the machine's fist off of him without much effort.

"Impressive piece of tech you've managed to buy here, I must admit," Vegeta said. He grabbed the machine's hand with both arms, "I'm almost impressed."

Vegeta began to try and pull the hand in two. The other arm swung to grab him, but Vegeta jumped up, and the swing missed as he continued to try and pull the machine's hand in two. He felt the shield start to tingle his hands, and then actually begin to sting. With a loud zap, the shield shocked Vegeta, causing him to fall numb. The machine followed up by pounding vegeta with its fists again and again.

This time, it actually hurt.

"All right then," Vegeta said, grabbing both of the machine's hands this time, "Let's try something else."

He pulled the machine's hands together, causing the shield to shimmer and glow from the impact.

"Hmm, interesting," Vegeta muttered to himself. The machine began to fire arcs of energy at him, which he was able to keep ahead of.

"Sir, the machine is reading Vegeta's power level as it fights. It's only at eighty thousand! There's no way he defeated Freeza!" a bank attendant told his boss.

"I'm not so sure. I think Vegeta is holding back. Let's keep watching," the bank head insisted.

"I'll give you a show, then," Vegeta said, launching himself off the roof of the bank, which was starting to collapse from all the blasts the machine was making. Vegeta swerved, dodging the shots and allowing the chunks of roof to land on the machine. It didn't flinch when struck. It tried to swat at him again when Vegeta landed on its shoulder, turrets popping out of the arm and firing at him. He hopped off the machine when it swatted, and began to power up.

"Two hundred thousand?! Not even Captain Ginyu can reach that high!" the attendant gasped, watching the number climb.

"I'm not even beginning to use my power!" Vegeta declared, punching the machine. The shield continued to shimmer with each strike. It punched out of him with a burst of speed.

"So, it's absorbing the power of my blows to make itself faster. Let's see how much power it can take!" Vegeta said, giving it a flurry of punches, dodging its swings as he struck. The plates of armor themselves popped out to strike back at Vegeta, surprising him and putting him on the defensive. Cables reeled the piece of armor back in. Although it didn't have the movement of self-defense and finesse he'd been training against with Meys and Yamcha, it compensated with tricks like that to fill the same role.

"Hah! I have you!" Vegeta said as an armor piece popped out at him. He grabbed the cable, only to be shocked by the energy. Annoyed, Vegeta powered up, evidently past 400k from the shouts of the attendant, and began striking at different parts of the machine. Instead of striking with pieces of armor, the machine reeled in its arms, taking blows on its shield instead.

"So it does think of its well-being. Not enough, though!" Vegeta began pelting it with Ki, keeping the robot on the defensive. He kicked at its right fist, causing it to strike at the left fist, and, just as he expected, there was a brief gap in the shield covering as it 'shorted.' Vegeta took advantage of the weakness, and fired another Ki blast at the point of impact.

Instead of blasting the arm to bits, the armor glowed pink as the Ki seemed to 'melt' into the armor, and the machine began to hum. It struck out at Vegeta, knocking the wind out of him.

"Fine. You want power? I'll show you power," Vegeta growled, unleashing further pools. Desks and debris began to fly about, wrecking the bank and putting holes in the walls. Vegeta charged at the machine, firing Ki as he came at it, and lashed out with blows, striking its arms. The shield almost buckled, until the armor turned pink again, and the shield became localized to where Vegeta was striking at it.

"Seems like I've found your machine's limit!" Vegeta laughed, "Let's push it further!"

Vegeta pumped in more power into his strikes. The machine pulled one arm back and swung while pushing back against Vegeta. He caught the machine's arm, and ripped off a plate of armor, throwing it into the air and blasting it. The machine kept battering at Vegeta, losing more parts with every strike.

After losing its left arm, it 'dropped' most of the dead limb, and armor plates shifted to cover the 'injury'. They shifted again as turrets moved around its body, replacing its forearm with an array of the turrets. With its good arm holding Vegeta back, it began to fire at its opponent. Vegeta fired Ki at the arm, destroying the turrets and its arm. As it reeled, he took advantage of the twitching to get past the shield, and struck at the good arm's shoulder. The shield barely managed to relocate.

The arm swatted at Vegeta, who dodged, flew back, and slammed back into the robot's hand, forcing it back into its own shoulder. Its faceplate armor struck out, but Vegeta simply punched through it. With another hum, the last of the armor shocked at Vegeta, who reached out, conducted the energy into his hand, and fired it off into the sky.

"THIS IS THE POWER OF THE SAIYANS!" Vegeta declared, and began striking the machine in the face again and again. The robot, with less body to power, concentrated the shield on the face. Vegeta had planned for this, and began firing Ki into its collar, which the machine did not have enough power to protect. With a few blasts, the machine's head creaked, and peeled off, cables and wiring still thrashing about when it struck the floor.

The chest opened up, smoke and electricity emerging from the cavity, and another bank attendant crawled out of the chest, coughing and swiping at the smoke.

"Dammit!" the pilot coughed, "I didn't stand a chance!"

"No," Vegeta said, landing in front of the pilot, "You didn't."

"Well," the pilot held out his hand, "Good fight. I've got so many new ideas. Next time, Prince Vegeta, you won't be so lucky."

Vegeta considered for a moment, and then shook the pilot's hand. To Vegeta's surprise, he realized, once he held the pilot's hand, the alien had a tremendous amount of energy. It wasn't as much as Vegeta's, but the reserves were much more than what Vegeta was used to sensing.

"You're a lot more powerful than you give off," Vegeta said.

"Yeah. I'm the most powerful person on my planet. My name is Gewak. We can't emit power like you can, but we can transfer it. It's why we use machines, we can't produce fighters like yours, but we can power our own craft. I've been training my whole life to defeat Freeza. But you've surpassed him, that's for sure," the pilot said.

Vegeta shook his head, "No. I didn't."

"What? But you defeated our machine, you must have killed Freeza!" the bank head said. Vegeta shook his head again.

"I know of almost a dozen warriors who could have defeated your machine. Yes, it's true, you could have defeated Freeza with what people know of Freeza's power, but he, and his father and brother, are capable of so much more power than what they show. Because the power they show is all they need. At only Freeza's second form, he could have crushed your machine. I didn't even reach a third of my power to destroy it, and I'm still not as strong as Freeza was at his full power," Vegeta explained.

"Th-then how? How was Freeza defeated?" the bank head asked.

"Freeza was defeated by a Saiyan, it's true, but it wasn't me. And until I surpass that Saiyan, until I obtain the power of the Super Saiyan like he did, I will not be worthy of my throne," Vegeta said, "I will not be worthy until I have undone the damage we have done. For now, I require fifteen billion credits from my family's account."

"Is it towards that goal, Prince Vegeta?" Gewak asked.

"Hmm?"

"The fifteen billion. Are you using it towards that goal, of undoing the damage you've done?"

Vegeta nodded. Gewak turned to the bank head.

"Then giving him his money is the least we can do, sir. If there's a chance the Saiyans can stop the Empire. Until it's done, though, Vegeta, I'm going to keep getting more powerful. We'll build a better machine, and you'll be the first we call to test it, hear me?" Gewak said. Vegeta smiled.

"I'm sure I'll be needing to make more withdrawals," Vegeta said.

"We'll get your money immediately, Prince Vegeta," the bank head said. He found the nearest attendant, and began barking orders.

XXX

Vegeta returned to the ship with a pair of bags and wearing a new set of clothes.

"What happened to you?" Tights asked.

"I think I've decided I like my banker," Vegeta said, tossing both bags onto the ground.

"I'm not cleaning that up," Tights said flatly.

"How much do we have?" Yamcha asked, opening one of the bags. He held up one of the credit tubes and shook it.

"Fifteen billion," Vegeta said.

"FIF-FIFTEEN BILLION?" Yamcha and Tights gasped together.

"It's a modest fortune, but it should be more than enough to pay for our operation," Vegeta said.

"A modest fortune he says," Tights scoffed.

"Wait, how much is a credit worth?" Yamcha asked.

"A credit is about twenty-five Zeni," Tights said, "Each of those tubes probably holds a hundred thousand Credits."

"Oh, wow…" Yamcha gulped, "Wait, holds?"

"Yeah, credits are about the size of a grain of sand. The tubes automatically calculate amounts and transfer credits. That's what that symbol right there means, it says a hundred fifty thousand," Tights showed.

"Oh, wow...All that money in one tube…" Yamcha said. Vegeta shrugged.

"It's just money. It doesn't matter. This, however," Vegeta opened the other bag, revealing suits of armor, "Is much more practical."

The armor was segmented as scales, rather than in rows like the Freeza Force suits, giving them a distinct look. Vegeta picked up one of the suits, and demonstrated its elasticity. It also didn't have the unwieldy pauldrons, so they could be worn under clothing.

"Shive will be interested in these. Complimentary gifts from the bank. One for each of us, plus a prototype for the New Saiyan Empire to duplicate it," Vegeta explained.

"That's very generous of them," Tights said.

Vegeta acknowledged with a grunt, and looked to Yamcha. He hesitated to say anything at first, but found the words, "Was training like this with the old man?"

"Hmm? With Roshi? I mean, kind of. We're not delivering milk or doing construction work, which is how he trained me, Krillin, and Goku. But I like to think he'd agree with what I've done so far," Yamcha said.

"It's made a difference," Vegeta said, flexing his arm, "The bank made me fight a robot intended to kill Freeza. I toyed with it. I'm more powerful than I could have imagined possible," Vegeta said.

"But it's not enough, is it?" Yamcha asked, grinning. Vegeta shook his head.

"There's so much more to gain."

"You sound like Goku. I hate to say it, Vegeta, but we've kind of reached the limit of what we can do with the gravity chamber. We've already reached 100-times gravity," Yamcha said.

"You guys can talk gym, I'm setting course for Liberty," Tights said, giving them a wave. Meys entered the main hall; Tights grabbed him by the shirt to get a kiss from him as she walked to the cockpit.

"It doesn't mean we stop," Vegeta said.

"Of course not. But I'm not sure what we can do to push ourselves further, other than coming up with games to keep us active and entertained. But it won't be the training we're really looking for," Yamcha said, "Other than getting a stronger gravity chamber, there's only one thing I can think of to do, and I'm not exactly a good teacher for it."

"What's that?" Meys asked. Yamcha took a breath.

"Meditation.