Chapter II: The Legacy of Vegeta
She stopped as she heard the explosion in the background. "What was that?" she asked, working her way over to the window of the small space capsule. All she saw was the serene setting of the Capsule Corporation. Confused, she decided to resume her training
There was another explosion, and this time she saw it, clearly through the window of the space pod. She sprinted towards the control pad. The red number "1000" reflected in her metallic blue eyes as the number immediately lowered to "1."
She almost stumbled over due to the sudden change in gravity, but she ran outside anyway. Tripping over her own feet, she cursed her own folly. No matter how impending this situation was, she should have lowered the gravity more slowly. Suddenly, she realized just how important it would have been to have lowered the gravity at a normal rate.
From out of nowhere emerged a giant robot! It had a fairly humanoid build and a fin on top of its head. Huge lasers protruded from just under its fists. The woman stared up at it, and it met her stare.
"Identified as combatant," it roared in a monotone voice. "It will be destroyed." It fired one of the lasers as the woman dodged.
"All right," she replied to it. "You're not that strong. I'll take you out." She began to gather an energy blast in her hand, but it dissipated just as she was trying to do it, and found herself falling down.
"What's wrong…" she asked herself, getting up and immediately dodging another barrage of laser blasts. "It shouldn't be that hard to defeat this thing."
She ran between buildings, followed closely by another round of laser fire. Temporarily hidden by the vast complex of buildings in the Capsule Corporation, she scanned the area for any clues that might tip her off as to where the robot had come from.
It seemed that the research laboratory was smoking. "That's a good start as any," she thought, as she began dashing towards it, only to be overthrown by the strange gravity again. She found herself floating upside-down, unable to move.
Trying to get upright, she noticed a familiar figure sprinting towards her. The short, stocky man with pale blue hair and thin glasses was a good comrade of hers, and quite a formidable fighter; for a modern-day human, anyway.
It was Boxer, the owner of the Capsule Corporation. The woman smiled (although from her upside-down meditation it would seem as though she frowned). The resemblance to his distant ancestor Trunks was almost uncanny.
He stumbled forward, calling out to the woman. "18! What're you doing? You should be fighting that big monster thing out there!"
18 corrected her position and hopped a little bit before standing up. "Actually," she replied, "I should be doing exercises to relieve myself of the sudden gravity change. You have no idea what it's like to go from one thousand times Earth's normal gravity to normal gravity in a few seconds. I can't get anything straight."
"Look," she said, waving her hand, trying to gather energy, "I can't even fire an energy blast, nor can I control the way I fly. My fists are weak and flimsy, and to top it all off, I feel nauseous. How am I supposed to kill it?"
"Well, I don't know!" Boxer exclaimed, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "Do something!" Just then, the robot tore through the next set of buildings.
"Targets identified as combatants. I must destroy them," it garbled, sending a new wave of laser beams through at 18 and Boxer.
"Get down!" 18 called, pushing Boxer out of the way, and taking a blast herself. She fell motionless to the ground, groaning in pain.
Boxer stared wide-eyed at his friend lying in pain, and turned with an angry glare towards the robot. "Hey, you!" he called. "I created you, so you're gonna listen to what I say! Cease your fire right now!"
The robot stared at him. "You are identified as a combatant."
"No, no, no!" Boxer yelled at the robot. "18 is the combatant, and I never gave you any orders to attack her!"
"You are both combatants. The programming says so," shot back the robot. "Combatants must be destroyed."
"I'll… I'll destroy you if I must!" Boxer threatened, stepping back with every word and almost tripping over 18's motionless body.
"You are a combatant," it stated. "Therefore I will destroy you." It raised its laser arm to fire…
There was a flash. Boxer stared wide-eyed as the robot went flying through the air. The flash of color appeared beneath it, and sent it spiraling into the atmosphere. Just before it was out of sight, the colored flash reappeared above it. With another smash, the robot went flying downward and smashed a mountain with its great impact.
Unfortunately, this was hardly enough to do the robot in. The robot stood up again in the place that the mountain used to be. The flash of color stopped moving for a second, and Boxer tried to make out what it could be, but his effort was in vain. Instantaneously, he saw a huge ball of energy appear in front of the figure and come crashing down on the robot. Now only dust remained where a mountain's rubble and a killer training robot gone mad once stood.
Boxer squinted through his glasses, seeing the figure come at a rapid speed towards where he was standing. With a whiz of air, Boxer was thrown back and saw a caped figure standing before him over 18.
A cap blocked Boxer's view of his head and the cape blocked the view of his body. From what Boxer could see, he wore brown moccasins and baggy purple pants, but that was about it.
"You OK?" said the strange person to 18. 18 didn't respond.
"I was worried about this," said the voice, which Boxer deduced was masculine. "Luckily, I was ready for it."
As he reached into his pocket, Boxer noticed something very strange about his hand. It was green! Not only that, but the fingernails looked more like pointed claws. How could a monster like this want to help his friend 18?
From his pocket, he produced a small sack and then leaned over 18 again. "Here," he motioned to 18. "Eat this."
Boxer couldn't see what the monster was trying to make 18 eat, but he wasn't about to let 18 die at the hands of a fiend like this.
"Hey, you!" Boxer called. The monster turned around. "Get away from her!!!" Summoning up all of his strength, Boxer powered up and unleashed a mighty flying kick. The monster's eyes opened wide like dinner plates as Boxer let his feet smash into the monster's face.
Completely unprepared for the attack, the monster went flying through a series of buildings and landed in a field past the Capsule Corporation borders. Boxer stood there breathing heavily, and turned down to look at 18, her lip trembling, as if she were trying to say something.
Just then, the monster flew back, and before Boxer knew what had hit him, the monster was holding him high in the air by his shirt collar. His glasses fell to the ground, and he couldn't even see the monster's face clearly.
"What kind of fool are you?" growled the monster. "Can't you see that I'm trying to save 18's life?"
"How…" he gasped, short of air, "How do you know 18?"
"That's not important," said the monster. From what Boxer could make out, his whole body was green, ripped with pinkish muscles on his arms. The monster had a pointed nose and jagged teeth, although all facial features beyond that became blurry to Boxer.
Looking back towards 18, the monster threw Boxer to the ground and picked up his sack, which seemed to be filled with… beans? The monster took one of the beans and knelt over 18 once again.
"Sorry, 18… I was rudely interrupted," he shot a glance at Boxer while the young owner of the Capsule Corporation put his glasses on again. He could now make out that this monster was indeed… a Namek?
The Namek lifted 18's head and put the bean into her mouth. Boxer could see her making chewing motions and ultimately swallowing it. The Namek stepped back as he and Boxer watched 18's muscles suddenly bulge and retract violently.
"What did you do to…?" Boxer began angrily, but suddenly realized that all of 18's wounds were gone. She stood up and faced Boxer, still stumbling a little bit. Both she and the Namek now looked at Boxer angrily.
"18, who is this guy?" Boxer asked. "How does he know you?"
18's hard gaze melted into a smile. "Heh! Piccolo, it's easy to see that he has the fighting streak of his forefathers within him."
The Namek, who seemed to be named Piccolo, turned to face 18 and smiled as well. "Indeed." Piccolo rubbed his bruised check. "He also possesses their fighting power… to some extent. Can he turn Super Saiyan?"
"Nah," 18 replied. "I think his blood is too diluted for that."
"Too bad," Piccolo continued the conversation. "It'd be interested to see if my strength has finally equaled that of a Super Saiyan."
"This guy?" asked 18, motioning towards Boxer. "He's as weak as a puppy. Even if he could turn Super Saiyan, I doubt he'd prove much of a challenge to either of us."
"Hey!" shouted Boxer, indignantly. "I happen to be very strong! You just don't know how strong I am! And what the heck's a Super Saiyan? What about my forefathers and my blood being diluted? How the heck would you two know about my forefathers? You guys don't look that much older than me. And just how do you two know each other? You have to tell me!"
Piccolo bellowed a deep, hearty laugh, something that it seemed his face was not accustomed to. "I see Vegeta in him, although he looks more like Trunks or Dr. Briefs."
18 shrugged. "I guess looks aren't everything."
"Why am I being completely and totally ignored?" Boxer demanded. "All you can do is talk about is me, but I have no idea what you're saying!"
18 stared at Piccolo. "Well," she began, "Should we tell him?"
Piccolo's smile faded and he stood in deep thought for a minute. "Something very grim is going to happen to the Earth, 18. That is why I arrived here… it just so happened that I saved your skin from that robot, you being wiped out from the gravity chamber and all. If Boxer can be of any help at all, I think that he deserves to know why."
