Now rewritten.
Chapter 3: Stronger Than He Seems. A Predicted Confrontation.
Cui followed closely behind Vegeta, darting from rock to rock trying to maintain stealth. Why am I even trying to be sneaky? He thought to himself. He has a scouter on him. He should be able to pick up my energy. Wait... Why hasn't he picked my energy yet?
The chase went on for quite a while before Cui eventually had to regain his energy. "I don't get how he can fly for so long." Cui said. "Sure it doesn't take up as much energy as fighting or walking, but the exertion is still pretty great." Without warning, Cui's scouter stopped displaying any signal.
"Perfect." Cui said, taking off the scouter and opening the back. "I could swear I charged this thing before I left. I guess I should upgrade to the next model."
As he fiddled with the wires, a ball of energy came straight for him. Cui jumped out the way just before the blast could hit him. "Alright! Which wise guy thought that was a good idea?" Cui yelled out.
He waited in silence for a little bit before growing impatient. "Listen I know you're out there!" He yelled. He let loose a flurry of ki beams towards where the original blast had come from. He was surprised as every single one of his attacks came flying back towards him. He dodged past every beam as they fly by. When the last when passed by, Cui felt a strong force strike the back of his head, sending him flying.
When Cui regained his composure, he looked up to see Vegeta floating just a few feet away. "What a great performance that was, Cui." The saiyan taunted. "Mind doing a little bit of 'Swan Lake' next?"
Cui popped up from the rubble, his head steaming with anger and embarrassment. "Real funny, Vegeta!" He yelled. "But I'm how about a showing of 'Sleeping Beauty'!" He fired off ki blast after ki blast directly at Vegeta. The saiyan was completely enveloped in smoke and falling debris.
Cui panted from the energy exertion. He let his arms fall to his side as he regained his breath. He was overjoyed at the thought that he had finally done in Vegeta. His excitement, however, did not last long, as the smoke cleared and revealed Vegeta standing unharmed without having moved.
Cui's body filled with fear as he backed away. "How..." He said. "How could you have survived that?"
"I guess I'm just stronger than I look, Cui." Vegeta said.
"Impossible!" Cui said. "You're as strong as I am, Vegeta! And that's how it's always been!"
"Oh really?" Vegeta said. He dropped his arms and let out a yell. A bright aura surrounded him, the rocks around his feet flying out into the air.
The Cui's scouter suddenly beeped back to life. Cui watched in both astonishment and horror as Vegeta's power kept rising higher and higher. "19... 20... 21... No. No, it's 22 thousand!" He yelled. His scouter began beeping and blinkly rapidly before exploding in his face.
As Vegeta's aura settled down, he took a slow walk towards Cui and extended his arm, a ball of energy gathered at his palm. "I'd love to say it's been fun knowing you, Cui." Vegeta said. "But I'm not one to lie." He fired off the ki blast, hitting Cui almost point blank.
Vegeta smirked in satisfaction before a kick to his jaw sent him reeling. He looked up at the sight of Cui in front of him. Vegeta could feel that Cui's energy had dropped significantly, although he didn't know why.
"Nice to see you again, Vegeta." Cui said.
Vegeta charged forward and fired point blank into Cui's chest, making sure that he'd be dead. He quickly turned around to watch another Cui form from the ground, this one even weaker than before. He rushed at this Cui before it could finish forming and knocked him to the ground.
"Enough of that, Cui." Vegeta said. "I don't think it'd be smart to try that again. Your energy's already been depleted enough."
Cui could do nothing but pant as Vegeta stepped onto Cui's chest. "Any last words before I end this Cui?" Vegeta said.
Cui's face sudden dropped from fear into relief. "Lord Frieza!" He said. "Thank heavens!"
Vegeta turned to face the emporer, giving Cui time to slip away and take off. The saiyan turned back from the trick and took off after Cui. He moved infront of the alien and plowed his fist into Cui's gut. "Goodbye." He said, knocking Cui away.
As Cui plummeted towards the ground, Vegeta shot his hand into the air. The last sound heard was a loud scream come from Cui as the alien exploded, a red smoke filling the sky.
Bulma peered around the inside of a nearby cave. "Well It's a fixer-upper, but it'll have to do." She said.
"Hey, Bulma." Krillin said. "Why couldn't we have just stayed inside the ship?"
"What if Vegeta or whoever else you two are sensing came along?" Bulma replied. "One quick look inside and they'd kill us." She pulled out a box of capsules and opened it up. "Now help me set these up."
As Krillin and Bulma began sifting through the capsule box for the right ones, Gohan darted past them, grabbing their wrists and dragging them into the cave. "Somebody's coming." He said.
They all watched the ship as two aliens wearing an armor similar to the saiyan's dropped down infront of it.
"I guess this is what Zarbon was talking about." Banan said.
"It doesn't look like anyone's around here anymore." Sui said.
The two flicked on the scouters and ran them up and down the ship, coming across no forms of energy. "Zarbon said that Cui heard this from Vegeta, right?" Banan asked.
"Yeah, so?" Sui replied.
"Well knowing Vegeta, I'd say that he said this to throw Cui off." Banan said. "He probably knew Cui was following him from the start."
"Seems likely." Sui said. "But we still have orders to deal with anything we come across, and I'd say this is something to take into account."
"Yeah." Banan said. "It's passengers may have left, but they still could come back for this hunk of metal."
The two flew up through the air with their blasters aimed directly at the ship. Simultaneously they fired, each blast going straight through the ship, causing mini-explosions along the way. The trio hiding away in the cave let out tiny gasps. The two aliens nodded and flew away, back in the direction they came.
When they had disappeared from sight, the trio ran out of the cave and down to the ship. Bulma dropped to her knees in tears. "How are we supposed to get back home now?" She cried.
"Why don't we just use the radio to call back home and see if your dad can build another ship?" Krillin suggested.
Bulma turned to Krillin, tears filling her eyes. "The radio was in the ship." She cried. "I forgot to capsule it up earlier."
"Let's just head back to the cave for now." Gohan said. "It's a good idea to just rest and let things calm down."
The Frieza Force was in a bustle with everyone either coming or going from the namekian village. Banan and Sui touched down in front of Frieza and his generals and took a knee.
"Lord Frieza, we are sorry to report we found no forms of life around the area." Sui said. "All we could find was a sole ship in a field. We have made sure that, if anything did come that ship, it won't be going anywhere."
"That's good enough." Frieza said. "You two are dismissed. I'll have a talk with Cui about misinformation."
The two soldiers got up and went to check in with the others about the situation. Suddenly without warning, Zarbon's scouter exploded, his face in utter shock.
"Problem, Zarbon." Frieza said.
"I..." He said. "I'm not sure. I was following Vegeta and Cui's energies when Vegeta's suddenly skyrocketed. It said he was at 22 thousand."
"Those old models were always glitching out." Dodoria chuckled. "Let me take a look." He pressed the side of his scouter and his face instantly turned to shock. "Impossible."
"What does it say, Dodoria?" Zarbon asked.
"It's saying Vegeta's at 24 thousand!" Dodoria exclaimed. "And that's not all. Cui's power level is dropping by the second."
"24 thousand!" Zarbon said. "That would make him stronger than us!"
"None of this could possibly be right!" Dodoria said. "My scouter must be malfunctioning." His face turned into a mixture of shock and fear. "It's gone."
"What's gone, Dodoria?" Frieza asked.
"Cui's power level." He replied. "It dropped suddenly and then vanished."
"And?" Frieza said. "Vegeta's power level is only 24 thousand. You two combined could take him down no problem. It'd be childs' play."
"But Lord Frieza, what if he-" Dodoria said.
"There's no need to worry about him right now." Frieza said. "I doubt he'd be stupid enough to try anything after that stunt. He no doubt knows that we could sense the fight with the scouters."
"Yes, my Lord." Dodoria said.
"Besides, we should be focusing more on finding the fifth Dragon Ball." Frieza said. "Right now, the search is too sporadic. Get your men together and focus on specific areas at one time."
"Right." Zarbon and Dodoria said in unison.
Before too much time had passed, a smaller alien approached Frieza and knelt down. "My Lord, we have finally confirmed the location of the next Dragon Ball." He said.
"Good." Frieza said. "Tell Dodoria and Zarbon to gather the four we have and organize the troops."
"On it, sir." The alien said, scurrying off to find the generals.
When all was organized, Frieza took the lead with Zarbon and Dodoria trailing not far behind. The collective auras seemed to fill the entire sky as the Frieza Force aimed for the next Dragon Ball.
The trio carried scraps of the ship back to the cave. Anything that they could salvage could be of use in the future.
"I think that's enough for now." Bulma said. "Shame we couldn't find the radio, though."
"Yeah." Krillin said. "Atleast then we could've had a chance at contacting Earth."
Suddenly both Krillin and Gohan's faces drained of color as they froze up. "You guys okay?" Bulma asked.
Both of them turned and ran for the cave, Gohan grabbing Bulma and dragging her along. "Something's coming." He said.
They all pressed up against the cave wall as several aliens flew past, their energies smothering Gohan and Krillin with a blanket of evil.