With his mouth now free, Vegeta was able to shout his demands, "Sailor Mars, get away from here! You don't stand a chance against these guys!"
Mars fisted her hand at Sushi and the struggling Vegeta, "I'm not leaving you here to be killed by these monsters!"
Vegeta had somehow managed to gain the upper hand on the four-armed colossus and was able to kick him in the stomach with his heel. Sushi stalled for barely a second, which was just enough time for Vegeta to zip away from danger and stand in front of Mars.
"Vegeta, are you okay?" Mars put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
Vegeta shrugged it off.
"I'm fine!" he hissed at her. "You should have left when you had the chance! Now they'll kill us both! Uh!" Vegeta clamped a hand to his left side in pain.
"You're hurt!" Mars wanted so badly to help, "What's . . ."
"Go!"
Sushi comforted his stomach as Sailor Mars hardened her resolve, "Not until you tell me what's wrong and how I can help!"
Vegeta had been holding his breath and let it out in a whoosh. He was loosing his patience, "Just like Bulma! Fine! I think they ruptured something internally, and you can help by finding Goku!"
Mars wasn't sure what to do with her hands, but she really wanted to help, "You need to go to the hospital! You could die if you keep fighting like this!" she stepped closer.
Vegeta shoved her back, "So be it! Now go!"
"But Vegeta!"
"Go!"
Sailor Mars had no other options; she knew she couldn't fight these guys, but she had to do something to help Vegeta. She turned and ran, frantically thinking of a way to help her friend. Meanwhile, Vegeta and Sushi kept their eyes locked on one another.
"You killed my friend," Sushi wasn't smiling. "You just killed my best friend Chris!! I'm going to make you pay!!"
Sushi seemed to rear back while he powered up. He threw his upper arms above his head and his bottom pair out to his sides. With a loud shout, he brought all four of his wrists together, joining them at a center point, and fired a gigantic power beam. Vegeta knew he couldn't just dodge the attack, or innocent people might die, so he attempted to counter it. As quickly as he could, Vegeta gathered energy to his hands and was able to fire off a beam just in time to intercept Sushi's power blast. He knew his puny blast didn't stand a chance, but he tried anyway. Vegeta pumped as much energy as he could into his beam in desperation, but it still wasn't enough. Sushi's blast hit Vegeta like a locomotive, blowing him backward. Sailor Mars screamed and dove to the ground to escape the blast. Vegeta hit the pavement shoulders first and half rolled, half flipped over to eventually land face first in the middle of the road. Mars gasped in horror as she moved to get up.
"Vegeta!" Mars ran to him.
Vegeta could only groan in agony while he tried to rise, shakily moving one arm to lever himself up.
Mars dropped down beside him, "Vegeta, we have to get out of here!"
Vegeta managed to get one leg under him, "Go! You can't stay here!"
Sailor Mars put her hand on Vegeta's arm; however, he was too weak to push her away. She noticed a piece of bone protruding through a bleeding gash just above Vegeta's cheek.
"Oh my gosh! You've been wounded!" Mars raised her hand to his injury, but didn't touch it.
Vegeta turned his face away, "I'm fine!" At that moment, he coughed, and red blood bubbled up through his lips, dribbling to the ground.
Mars initially drew back in horror, but then placed a concerned hand back on his shoulder, "No, you're not fine. You need to get to a hospital."
He shook his head slowly while he swallowed back something that Mars didn't even want to know about, "I can't go. If I do, who will hold them off? No, I can't," Vegeta paused to compose himself. "Run.'
"What?"
"Run, get away from here while you still can. Find Goku and tell him that Garlic is here."
"Vegeta, I can't leave you here to die! I just can't do it!" Sailor Mars was on the verge of tears.
Vegeta stared at Mars; his eyes had the misted look of a man about to die, "You can! You have to! Sailor Mars, I'm begging you; please save yourself. If you don't get Goku, millions of people could die by this man's hands. Already, I may have saved hundreds of lives by destroying that one man, and who knows how many more can be saved if they all are stopped. Please, Mars, you have to do this! If not for me, then do it for the untold thousands that can be saved if these evil men aren't stopped."
Vegeta stopped to coughed up more blood and to make sure Sushi would give him time to finish.
"You must go. Mars, if I am to die, let me die with honor."
Sailor Mars could hardly believe that such a cross man could be speaking such noble words from the bottom of his heart. She couldn't keep the the tears back, nor could she suppress the urge to hug Vegeta.
Vegeta winced in pain when Mars threw her arms around him.
"Oh, Vegeta, I didn't know!"
"Just go and find Goku." Vegeta weakly pushed Mars away from him. "Go."
Sailor Mars nodded, too overwhelmed with grief to speak. She stood, and with a hateful glare at Sushi, ran as fast as she could to find Goku. Running seemed to ease the pain, but not by much.
"I'm glad that I had the chance to know you, Vegeta," Mars thought as she ran, tears blurring her vision.
Back at the battle ground, Vegeta, by the power of his will alone, stood up. Sushi didn't seem impressed.
"Finally! I thought you would never shut up," Sushi uncrossed his arms. "Shall we continue?"
Vegeta was barely able to stand, much less defend himself, but he didn't give up.
"You know, Vegeta," Garlic piped in, "we now have an opening in my team. You have proven yourself to be a valiant fighter, so I'm giving you the option to join me. Do you accept?"
"Never!"
Garlic Junior raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure? I'll give you one last chance."
Vegeta said absolutely nothing, but gave Garlic his final decision by spitting blood in his direction.
Garlic shrugged, "Oh well. Sushi?"
"I'm already on it, my Lord," Sushi grinned wickedly as he approached Vegeta. "You're all washed up, soldier."
Vegeta scowled at Sushi, but could do nothing else to defend himself. Sushi cocked his arm back and smashed his fist down into Vegeta's face, his injured side. Vegeta flew a good two meters to the side, yet he said nothing. He coughed again, but this time there wasn't as much blood as before. Sushi sauntered over to where Vegeta was attempting to get up, an pulled him up by the hair.
"Why don't you just stay down? I might think you were dead and leave you alone," Sushi broke into uncontrollable laughter.
Sushi regained control of himself and threw Vegeta to the ground, causing the asphalt to crack. Sushi granted no quarter to Vegeta, and kicked him repeatedly. Vegeta could only groan in pain until Sushi let up.
"You're no match for me any more," Sushi raised his lower right arm, and called forth a ball of energy. "Why don't I just end this little game right now, hmm?"
"I've got to do something; it's now or never!"
Even Vegeta didn't know where he got his strength from, but somehow he was in the air and leaping for Sushi. His sudden attack surprised the four-armed giant, and he was able to land a powerful hit to Sushi's jaw. Sushi staggered back a pace while Vegeta was barely able to stay on his feet.
"Bastard!!" Sushi swung both of his right fists, striking Vegeta with a double power-punch. Vegeta went flying, creating a rut in the road when he was no longer airborne and forcing Garlic and his other two henchmen to fly up in order to escape being bowled over. Sushi pushed off the ground with one foot and glided over the ground after Vegeta. When he reached his ailing opponent, Sushi planted a boot firmly on the center of his chest.
"Well, now, it looks like the lion has finally been de-throned," Sushi smiled as he pressed down with his foot. "It's been fun . . . " he put more pressure on Vegeta, making him cry out as his ribs began popping, "but I've had quite enough." Sushi pressed harder, forcing more ribs to break.
In the sky, the red cat approached Garlic, "Masster Garrlic, do you thhink that he will learrn his lessson better with a sslow death?"
Garlic thought for a moment, "I think you're right." Then, he shouted over Vegeta's cries, "Sushi, enough!"
Sushi released the pressure on Vegeta, halting the wails, "What?"
"You heard me. This man is quite a fighter, and I want him to die slowly. I don't want to give him the satisfaction of dying with 'honor,' " Garlic mocked.
"But, my Lord," Sushi removed his foot from Vegeta to face the floating Garlic, "what about Chris?! Shouldn't he pay for what he's done?"
Garlic Junior closed his eyes with confidence, "I assure you, he will get what's coming to him. It will just take a little longer," he opened his eyes and smiled deviously at Sushi, "and hurt him a lot more."
Garlic started laughing, and the human and Sushi joined in. The red cat-man didn't even crack a smile.
As soon as Garlic could stop, he addressed his men, "Let's go. We have a Heart Crystal to find."
With that, they took off, Garlic Junior in the lead and Sushi bringing up the rear, leaving Vegeta to die.
"I guess this is it.," Vegeta thought to himself. "It's not how I planned it. What am I saying? I can't die. What about Bulma, and Trunks? If I die now, Trunks will think that his father was weak. I, must . . . fight . . . . . ."
But Vegeta never finished his thought, for he began to slip in and out of unconsciousness again and again. He couldn't tell how much time had passed when he heard voices, two of them. He had no idea what they were saying, but the people did. There were three people, in fact, two men and a girl, who had stumbled upon him.
The man wearing the red shirt spoke first, "Sir, sir, can you hear me?"
The girl stayed behind his legs, "Is he, dead?"
"I don't know."
The older man who was holding the leash to a brown mutt knelt beside Vegeta, "He's breathing! He must be alive!" He turned to the man in red, "Derrick, call the hospital, this man needs help!"
Vegeta tensed his muscles to get up, but it accomplished nothing except to scare the little girl. He attempted to speak; yet only managed to gurgle through the blood in his mouth. Some of the liquid oozed out of the corners of his mouth and trickled down his face, adding to the blood from his broken cheekbone.
Derrick had pulled out his cellular phone and was now waiting to connect with the 911 operator.
"Will he be okay, Uncle Jake?" the girl asked the man with the dog.
"I don't know, Jennifer; I honestly don't know," Jake said as he rose to his feet.
"Hello?" Derrick finally connected to the 911 operator. "I need an ambulance; there's this guy here, and he's hurt really badly . . . "
