Tensions Arise! First Contact!

Vegeta stares into the open blackness of space, his mind running over the past events that lead him to this situation. Eyes closed and arms crossed, his brow furrows as he remembers the specific details.

He remembers getting beaten on Earth, a three-way assault by the Namekian, Kakarot, and the faker. He remembers being on Namek and being forced to follow the faker's orders. He remembers Frieza. He remembers the fusion. He remembers Hera. Broly. Bojack. Super Saiyan.

Vegeta's eyes snap open as he feels the energy in his back. He grits his teeth and pulls on it, trying desperately to bring it to the surface. He tries, tries, and tries, but then, it dissipates. Vegeta curses in irritation, feeling the energy slip through his fingers once more. If only he could figure out how to get more of this weird energy!

Growling loudly, Vegeta stands up and walks out of his room. If he can't access Super Saiyan, he'll just go and train! Yes, that's exactly what he'll do!

As Vegeta moves through the ship toward the training room, he notices Paragus and Broly discussing something. Or, more like Paragus is talking to Broly while Broly just nods. Intrigued, Vegeta calls out to them.

"Paragus! Broly! What're you two doing?!" Paragus jumps a bit at hearing Vegeta's voice, which makes Vegeta raise an eyebrow in confusion.

Paragus turns and replies, "Nothing at all, Prince Vegeta! I am simply discussing with Broly what we shall do when those Hera warriors we saw catch up to us."

Vegeta scoffs and says, "What you should be doing is training! They're stronger than us right now, but it won't stay that way for long if I can help it!"

Paragus sneers, but quickly covers it up. "Very well, Prince Vegeta. We'll go train."

Vegeta narrows his eyes in suspicion but ultimately decides to walk away. Crossing his arms and ignoring the two saiyans behind him, Vegeta continues to his destination. He has work to do, especially if the Galaxy Soldiers are gonna be searching for them.

Entering the training room, Vegeta goes over to the gravity machine and turns it up to 50x gravity. Vegeta stumbles as his body feels like it is being pushed down by a mountain. Vegeta grits his teeth and focuses on standing upright, trying desperately not to fall.

After a few moments, the prince stabilizes and begins moving around. Slowly he performs his normal moves, falling into a routine he's used to. His fists and legs blur as he forces himself to move as fast as he can, trying to keep up this pace in this gravity.

Soon though, despite his best efforts, he is forced to turn the gravity down to 20x. Vegeta sighs as the weight on his back lessens greatly. Then, he sits down, thinking. He's had something bugging him for a while and now seems like the best time to actually think about it.

Kakarot had used a technique called "Dragon Fist" twice now; once on Vegeta himself, and once on Frieza. While he himself has avoided the technique, he could recognize the power in it. And Frieza… the prince had never seen the tyrant so nervous before, especially against someone weaker than himself.

Vegeta hums as he thinks about the benefits of such a technique. The ability to defeat those many, many times stronger than yourself, along with a single-target usage, removes the downside of friendly fire.

However, despite these benefits, there are flaws to Kakarot's technique. It obviously requires a bit of time to actually penetrate the opponent, as Kakarot did not go straight through Frieza as a ki blade would. Due to that time, Frieza was able to overpower Kakarot and prevent himself from dying.

Vegeta nods on this point. If he wants to have a similar technique, he needs to be able to both accent the penetrating power of such a technique, but make it fast enough that no one can have time to react. There might be a downside of charge time, but that'll be no issue. He has plenty of fodder around to distract enemies while he does this.

Vegeta stands up and nods to himself, crossing his arms once more. Yes, he'll need to make a technique that can move too fast to react, but also defeat those many times stronger than himself. With that technique, he can finally be unstoppable!

As Vegeta ponders on how to start developing such a technique, he hears a sound outside the door to the gravity room. Curious, Vegeta moves over and listens carefully.

"For the final time, yes! There are escape pods in case of emergencies!" That sounded like the earthling woman. Vegeta frowns, his mind easily determining who she is talking to.

"Ah, yes, sorry for my repetitiveness. I am… overly cautious at times, and I'd just like to be reassured that we have an escape plan." Paragus. That was a lie if he's ever heard once, but damn if it wasn't a good one.

"Whatever. We have four escape pods, one for each of us. No need to worry."

"Four? Hm… very well then. Thank you."

Vegeta listens as Paragus, and presumably Broly due to the loud footsteps, move away. Once he is certain they are gone, he exits the gravity room and into the main control deck. Sitting on a desk, looking quite annoyed, is the earthling woman who built the ship.

Her eyes trail up and she frowns in annoyance. "Are you here to ask about escape plans too?"

Vegeta scowls and says, "Mind your tone, woman. And no, I'm not. I'm here for a second opinion."

Bulma raises an eyebrow at this. "From what Goku told me, you seem too prideful for a second opinion. What brought this on?"

Vegeta growls and yells, "My pride is a glorious tool, but it does not allow me to do everything! You are strong in science, while I am strong in physicality! Even saiyans have scientists and attendants, just like everyone else!"

Bulma turns to Vegeta with a deeper frown. "What, I'm an attendant now? Some sort of secretary?"

Vegeta nods with crossed arms. "You're the greatest mind amongst us, maybe even better than the faker in certain areas. You'll do well as my right hand."

Bulma scowls and stands up suddenly. "Well, what if I don't want to be your right hand?!"

This makes Vegeta pause. Then, a rush of anger runs over him. He's been subdued under the faker's care, but it's time for the prince to regain the authority he had, and he'll be damned if he lets an earthling take that from him!

Vegeta stands up straight and, despite his shorter stature, he towers over the woman. With cold, angry eyes, he says, "I am the prince of saiyans. I have been following orders for too long. It is time for me to regain my position as the ultimate authority. You'll do well to listen to me, woman."

Bulma stares at Vegeta, fear of his power engulfing her mind. But then, an odd fire of resistance appears within her. Standing up and glaring at Vegeta in the eyes, she hisses at him, "I'll listen when you earn my respect, prince. Titles mean nothing if they don't hold the weight of action in them. Learn to be a prince before you call yourself one." Before Vegeta can even fire a retort, Bulma grabs her papers and leaves the room.

Vegeta stares at the doorway Bulma exited from, dumbfounded. Then, with a burst of energy, Vegeta screams in rage. He punches the wall and, while it is cracked, doesn't cause any immediate harm. Vegeta breathes heavily, his veins bulging from anger. He grits his teeth, then turns away from the wall with a grunt of discomfort.

Vegeta crosses his arms and begins to think of his next course of action. But, before he can begin properly thinking, he feels an intrusion in his ki sense. He frowns, honing in on the power. It feels evil, and quite battle-hungry. It's strong, really strong. In fact, it feels like…

Vegeta's eyes widen. "Shit." Without another word, he runs over to the large red button on the control panel and presses it. Alarms begin to blare throughout the ship, signaling an emergency. It isn't long before the rest of his group runs into the control room.

Bulma looks around in a panic and yells, "What's going on?!"

Vegeta scowls and closes his eyes, feeling the energy rapidly approaching. "I can feel one of Bojack's lackeys approaching us. Judging by his strength, he's currently around the power of the faker. If he can transform as Bojack can, we're in trouble."

Paragus frowns in worry. "Yes, that is an issue. Bojack wasn't even damaged by Broly when we first met." Broly shudders as the memory enters his mind. Paragus rubs Broly's back comfortingly.

Bulma shifts a bit, looking decidedly less confident than she did earlier. "What do we do? This ship isn't built for combat or high speeds!"

Vegeta tsks, then says, "We have to get on a planet! They have a technique to survive in space, but we don't! If we can't find a habitable planet to battle on, we'll be sitting ducks for him to shoot us down."

Paragus nods in agreement. "This does seem like the right course of action. It is… regrettable that we have to face him, but we have no choice."

Bulma looks at the pages in her hand, then looks at Vegeta. "Keep him at bay for 10 minutes. I can have us on a planet by then, and I'll have something that might help."

Seeing Vegeta's raised eyebrow, Bulma smirks and says, "I've been keeping track of habitable planets around us in case we ever need to land! Plus, with how strong these guys are, I figured I'd work on something to give us an edge! You'll see what it is when we land."

Scoffing in annoyance, Vegeta replies, "Fine! Just get us down. I'll go to the airlocks and try to keep him off of us with ki blasts."

Ignoring the discussions behind him between Paragus and Bulma, Vegeta moves through the ship to the airlocks. While he's certain the Hera warrior chasing them won't be hit by his ki blasts, he'll at least have to expend what little movement he has in deep space to avoid them.

Once he reaches the airlocks, he puts on a spacesuit and steps inside. Once the door seals behind him, he opens the door to the outside and steps out. The ship outside is moving at incredible speeds, but luckily Vegeta is used to that. He manages to grab hold of an outer beam and pull himself into a little cubby, a place made by Bulma just for this purpose. She figured that if conventional earthling weapons don't work on saiyans, they won't work on the Heras either. Vegeta's own ki blasts will do more damage than any gun.

Sitting against the wall and fighting the force of movement, Vegeta leans out of the cubby and looks at the space around him first. He can't see the Hera, which likely means that he is still beyond any physical range. Only ki will reach this distance.

With this in mind, Vegeta raises his hand and makes the shape of a finger gun. Using his ki senses, he locks onto the signature of the Hera and aims carefully. At these distances, minuscule changes in his hand's position could cause drastic changes in the path traveled. Once he is certain he is on point, Vegeta fires.

The single beam of blue streaks across space in a near-instant. Vegeta watches carefully with his ki senses, feeling the signature of his beam and the Hera. He frowns as he feels the Hera suddenly swerve as the beam approaches. While he was hoping to score a shot on the Hera, his beam ultimately misses.

Vegeta leans down and aims once more. After firing three more beams, each one carefully positioned, he pauses. He looks around as he feels a tremor through the ship. The Hera isn't close enough to attack and hasn't sent any ki blasts, so what's going on?

Then, a much more violent tremor hits the ship. Vegeta's eyes widen and his teeth grit as he is nearly thrown from his safe cubby. Vegeta looks out and his eyes widen even more as he notices trails of hot air coming off the ship. They are obviously entering an atmosphere, but they didn't tell him! Are they crashing?!

Vegeta has no choice but to simply hold onto the ship as they enter the atmosphere of a planet. It's incredibly shaky and has all the signs of a crash landing. Another sudden jump hits the ship and Vegeta feels his grip slip. He doesn't have the chance to even speak before he is launched off the ship and falls at his own pace.

Down on the planet, the local wildlife watches the ship decide. After a few short moments, the ship makes an unsteady recovery and halfway lands on the surface. It's still a crash, but vital equipment might've been saved. Then, another object falls from the sky. This smaller object tries to recover, but before it can, it crashes into the ground. The animals all run as dust is shot up from the impact.

Vegeta groans as he turns onto his back, his whole body aching from the impact. He sits up slowly and looks around. It seems like they are in some sort of forested area, and he landed in a clearing next to a river. He looks behind himself and sees the ship in a small crater, one of the legs broken off. He sighs in disappointment, but begins to stand.

Once Vegeta gets up, he begins walking toward the ship. As he does so, he sees the door open and watches as Bulma, Paragus, and Broly all exit. Vegeta grits his teeth in anger and yells, "What the hell happened?!"

Before Bulma can respond, another voice appears behind him. "You're all a bunch of brain-dead, weak idiots, that's what happened!"

Vegeta turns around with annoyance, but caution appears in his expression soon after. Slowly floating down, a thin covering of strings disappearing from across his body, is one of Bojack's men. The swordsman, from the large scabbard strapped to his hip.

The Hera grins wickedly, his eyes wide with malice. "About damn time I caught up to you all! I can finally cut into something!" And with that declaration, the Hera warrior charges at Vegeta.

The book closes as Chronoa leans back in her chair. "So the fighting has begun, huh? I wonder how the Z-fighters will handle the Galaxy Soldiers..."

Chronoa smiles sheepishly and turns. "Sorry about the delay on this chapter. I had to deal with all of Fu again and force him in here." At this Chronoa glares at Fu, who is watching you in interest.

"You weren't kidding about the transcendent beings watching us. Or was it reading?" Fu grins as his eyes narrow. "Can I study them?!"

Chronoa sighs and replies, "No, you can't study the readers. You can't even interact with them unless the author lets you. No amount of power will change that." Fu crosses his arms and seems to pout a little.

Chronoa watches Fu for a bit longer, then turns again with a smile. "Anyway, we hope you enjoyed this chapter! We have a lot more planned for the coming events, so we hope you all are as excited as we are!"

Fu grins and rubs his chin in thought. "Maybe I should mess around with this timeline you seem so interested in..."

Chronoa turns and yells, "NOT ONE CHANCE!" Sighing, Chronoa turns with a more strained smile. "Anyways, we hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review if you can, they really help us and tell us what you are thinking of the story so far. See you soon!"