Note: Text that appears in brackets[] reppresents telepathy.
Piccolo was momentarily paralyzed in fear as Vegeta formed a ball of chi in his hand; in what he had promised was an attempt to make 'artificial moonlight'. Pic-colo's eyes flicked downward to the Saiya-jin's tail, slowly waving back and forth. Piccolo knew that a combination of moonlight, whether artificial or not, with an already powerful, vengeful Saiya-jin with a tail meant only one thing: a giant, pissed-off monkey, ten times as powerful as the man standing before him.
"RUN!" he grabbed Gohan and Bulma by the arm and ran in leaping strides, as far back as he could. He ran past Yajirobe, who was yelling something along the lines of: "What? What's going on? Why are we running?" He was still running as Vegeta through the ball of chi high into the atmosphere, at which point he dove behind a large outcrop of rock, near enough to be able to see what was going on, far enough away to (hopefully) avoid notice.
He clenched a fist, and yelled the command: "BURST AND MIX UP!" The ball of chi exploded and quickly reformed into a bright sphere in the sky. A sphere giving of what was definitely moonlight. Vegeta's eyes turned red, and hair began sprouting on his face, which was begin-ning to turn into a snout.
"Oh, shit..."
"You like my Oozaru form, Kakarrot?" came the growl from deep within the throat of the monster before them. Before Goku could move, a large hand came down and grabbed him, lifting him in front of the monster's face.
"I'm going to turn you into jelly!" He squeezed, crushing the tiny figure in his hands.
"Dad!" said Gohan, "we've got to do something!"
"We need to cut off his tail," growled Piccolo, "but I don't see how we could get close enough without getting squashed ourselves."
"How does it feel, Kakarrot?" snarled Vegeta, " How does it feel to be at death's door, knowing that once you're gone, there will be nothing protecting- GAH!" He felt it immediately. He no longer had his tail. He spun around, dropping Goku as he did so, and saw a small, fat Chikyuu-jin with black hair running away. A Chi-kyuu-jin with a sword.
"DAMN THEM!" thought Vegeta as he shrank, "I'm going to destroy All. Life. On. This. PLANET." He finished his transformation, and faced Goku, who lay on the ground.
"Shit!" thought Bulma, "I can't get one of these Senzu to Son! That Saiya-jin's blocking the way!"
"You know, Kakarrot," hissed Vegeta, "At first, I was going to end this planet's suffering quickly, just incinerate it all. But now, I'm going to subjugate them all. Put them into slavery. Their suffering will go on for years." He paused to let this sink in before continuing.
"But you, Kakarrot, I'm going to kill. First you, then your brat, then that Namekian slug," he paused, turned around, and yelled at the place he'd seen Yajirobe run and hide, "AND FINALLY THAT BASTARD WHO CUT OFF MY TAIL!"
"Goodbye, Kakarrot." He raised his hand over his head, preparing to blast Goku into the afterlife. His palm slowly began to glow, the chi blast beginning to form. Vegeta was savoring this.
"DON'T YOU HURT MY DAD!" Gohan erupted from their hiding place, rocket-ing at Vegeta. "YAAAAAAAA!" He met the Saiya-jin in a flurry of kicks and punches, but he was no match for Vegeta. Vegeta landed a solid kick in Gohan's stomach, sending him flying back into a nearby rock. As he hit, there came the sound of rending cloth. Piccolo stared in shock at Gohan. There, protruding from the back of his pants, was something Piccolo thought he had taken care of almost a year ago: a tail. Piccolo was struck by a sudden inspiration, something that might level the playing field a bit.
"Gohan! Look at the ball in the sky!" Gohan weakly looked up from where he had fallen.
"Wha..."
"The sky!" Piccolo had not needed to shout twice. Gohan's face had already gone blank. He slowly stood up, his eyes turning a deep red. His body heaved as he sprouted a dark brown fur all over, the vacant expression on his face turning to a growl, then a snarl, then finally to an all-out roar as he finished his transformation.
"Um... Piccolo... I hate to question your plan," stammered Bulma, "but... whenever Son changed... as a kid... he lost all reason. What if Gohan's the same?" Her ques-tion was answered as Gohan beat his chest with a mighty roar, and proceeded to smash the mountainside with his huge, Oozaru-sized fist. Bulma ran for cover, screaming about insane demon-kings and her idiotic, battle-crazy friends. Piccolo, however, had other ideas.
"Gohan! Go for the Saiya-jin!" The great beast that was Gohan hesitated, looking at Piccolo, cocking his head slightly. "The SAIYA-JIN!" The giant ape turned slowly, and then charged at Vegeta, who turned wide-eyed and began leap-ing away, dodging the large feet and fists that were slamming down around him. Bulma crept forward from her hiding spot, staring at the battle before her, numb with shock at what she had just witnessed.
"How... how..." Piccolo smirked at the expression on her face.
"How did I know that would work?" Bulma nodded slightly, her eyes still staring at Gohan trying to smash Vegeta.
"When Vegeta transformed, but retained his control, I started thinking: what if Goku and Gohan don't lose their reason, but regain their natural Saiya-jin sav-agery?" Bulma blinked and looked up at Piccolo.
"I didn't know you were that smart."
"Mentally, I'm over 500 years old," he turned back to the fight, "Give me a little credit."
Vegeta was doing his best to dodge the Oozaru fists slamming down around him. He took off into the air, but Gohan followed him like a dog chasing a small insect that is just barely out of its reach. He spun around to fire a chi blast to separate Gohan from his tail, but Gohan was obviously quicker than he thought. Before he could fire, the Oozaru had managed to catch him, and began squeezing him as he had squeezed Goku. This, however, did not last long. Gohan tossed Vegeta lightly into the air, and brought his fist ramming down. Vegeta shot to earth, cracking bones on impact.
He looked up to see the Oozaru-Gohan descending towards him. He weakly raised one arm, and fired the chi blast he had tried to form earlier. Gohan's tail was sev-ered. Vegeta began to struggle to his feet, and noticed a large shadow falling over him. He looked up, and saw a huge, unconscious, Oozaru falling toward him. The Oozaru was slowly resuming human shape, but not fast enough. Vegeta redoubled his efforts to get up.
Bulma shook herself out of her shock long enough to actually comprehend what was going on. She quickly reached into her pouch containing the Senzu beans, and an to the prone figure of Son Goku. She bent down over him, quickly pushing the Senzu into his mouth.
"Better eat it quick Son," she whispered, "Gohan's got the Saiya-jin distracted, but not for long." The moment the words left her mouth, the 'distraction' was over. Bulma was knocked flat to the ground by the huge shock wave created by Gohan's contact with the ground. she looked up to see the huge monkey finish shrinking into the small boy she had first seen at Kame-House one year ago. This also revealed that Vegeta had been beneath the monkey when it landed. He was now pressed, quite literally, into the ground.
"Thanks, Bulma", Goku was getting up and dusting himself off, "Looks like I may not need to fight anymore, though. Let's get one of those Senzu to Gohan. Chi-chi would kill me if he came home hurt." He took one of the beans and walked over to the unconscious Gohan. He was about to push the tiny bean into his son's mouth, when he felt it ripped from his hand.
Vegeta stood up from the small crater he had made in the ground when the oozaru Gohan had fallen on him.
"Thank you, Kakarrot." he smirked as he finished swallowing "I don't know what that was, but it helped the injuries I sustained from your brat quite nicely." Before Goku could stop him, he kicked Gohan, sending him flying into the air. Goku spun around to catch him, but Vegeta appeared in front of him, blocking his route to Gohan.
"I believe we have unfinished business, Kakarrot." Vegeta launched himself at Goku, forcing him to defend. Piccolo flew up into the air, catching Gohan. Goku and Vegeta continued to trade blows as Piccolo slowly descended to the ground to relieve himself of Gohan. However, both Goku and Piccolo felt the sudden pres-ence of an enormous chi. Goku's head snapped upward to look for the source, as did Piccolo. Goku quickly focussed on the fight as when Vegeta used his distrac-tion to land a solid punch.
[Do you feel that, Piccolo?]
[I'd have to be blind not to. That's some serious chi. And it's evil.]
[Damn. Looks like Vegeta's not the worst of our problems.] Goku tried to return his attention to Vegeta, but he could not entirely focus with the mysterious new threat looming on the horizon. How could they face it when he was barely match-ing Vegeta?
[Goku! It's here!]
[Wha-? How'd it get here so fast?]
"Well, well, my dear Vegeta, aren't we having a good time." Vegeta's head snapped up at the sound of this voice, high and mocking, yet conveying so much power and evil.
"You!"
******
Next: Legends and Tyrants