Chapter 26

Capsule Corp

Vegeta was in the middle of one of his usual `training sessions´.

Or of something that he interpreted as one.

Even if what he was doing had little to do with what people usually called training. The greatest part of it after all only consisted of standing inside the moonlight-chamber and letting himself be showered by blutz-waves.

This, so he believed, could help improve and strengthen the power of his Wrath Form. At least this was his theory.

Just like he did it this time.

It was the first one after his tail had grown back.

Only this time... there was a side-effect...

xxxxxxx

The others were sensing the sudden change in Vegeta´s energy from everywhere around the planet.

Goku, Gohan, Krillin, Tien, Piccolo and Dende and the others from their different homes or locations.

The closest ones were of course Trunks and his young sister Bra, who had been in a different part of the Capsule Corp Building.

xxx

Vegeta himself realized what was going on. His tail and the moonlight.

The Giant Ape, of course. He had known that the transformation might be activated.

But he had not considered it a big deal. Vegeta had learned to control the Oozaru form so many years ago after all.

He had actually fought in ape-form against Son Goku and staid lucid the entire time. So that it had never crossed his mind to consider it a possible threat.

Vegeta realized he had made a terrible mistake, just a few moments after he felt the transformation kicking in.

The process was not going as he usually would. Beside the ape-form, he also felt his Super Saiyan flowing into it.

He had also mastered the SSJ state a long time ago.

But now he felt himself loosing control.

The simple truth was Vegeta had never considered a combination of both transformations at the same time.

That he could control each of them indepentedly, didn´t mean he could both.

Overconfidence - that had always been his weakness.

With his last clear thoughts before he lost his senses, he blew a large hole into the walls of the chamber and jumped outside, trying to get as far away as possible.

To keep himself from accidentally destroying his home and in the worst case maybe the entire city.

This turned out to be a wise decision as he fully started to transform. After a few more seconds he had turned into a large slightly glowing golden haired Oozaru.

The giant ape, after his transformation, continued to move away from West City.

xxxxxxx

Less than a minute later Goku, Gohan and Goten appeared over the city through Instant Transmission.

They could sense Vegeta´s twisted energy moving away from them.

At the same time they saw Trunks flying towards them with a worried look on his face.

"Father," he said, "it had happened during his training."

"Let me guess," Goku replied. "He turned into a giant ape?"

"I - I am not sure. I just know that his energy suddenly changed. Then he blew up the moonlight chamber and disappeared," Trunks answered.

"I see. Quite smart of Vegeta. He must have been trying to protect you. But why would he need to do that? He had learned to control the great ape transformation a long time ago."

"But back then none of us was a Super Saiyan," Gohan pointed out. "Maybe the transformation is different this time."

"Hmm - you are right. The energy feels different too," Goku stated. "But it seems he at least doesn´t remember to use God Ki in his state. He would be much more powerful as he is now otherwise."

"That is probably our luck," Gohan said. "We will still be able to stop him if he has lost control."

"Look," Trunks said, "that is all really interesting, but we should really go after him now."

"Yes - before someone gets harmed," Goten added.

"You are right," Goku admitted.

They flew after Vegeta.

xxx

A minute later they met Piccolo, Krillin, Eighteen and their daughter Marron, who were looking for Vegeta as well.

Marron was flying beside her parents. During the last years she had been training and, similar to her future-counterpart, had become a quite capable fighter.

"Let me guess," Piccolo said, "Vegeta had gotten into trouble?"

"Let me guess - Vegeta has caused the trouble?" Eighteen commented.

"Right in both cases," Goku admitted.

"Father had been training with the Blutz-Wave Chamber," Trunks explained. "Then something had happened."

"Did not everyone warn him that your tails reappearing after all this years might be a sign that something is wrong?" Piccolo questioned rhetorically.

Of course they did.

"I talked to him about that. But he just said that he could control his ape form. So there were nothing to worry about," Goku responded.

"So much to that," Piccolo remarked.

xxx

They were coming closer to the point where they had been sensing Vegeta´s energy.

A few moments later they arrived.

They all nearly did a double-take as they saw the golden glowing Super Saiyan Oozaru.

Vegeta, in his new golden ape-form, was still running straight away from West City. As it looked, he had started to try to get away from the town while he was still with clear mind and simply never changed his direction afterwards.

The problem was however when he continued this way, it was only a question of time until he came across the next town.

"That is really something different," Krillin commented.

He remembered the normal brown colored giant apes he had seen in the past.

The power radiating from the being before him was however many times larger than their´s would have been.

"Now what should we do first?" Goten asked. "Should we first try to restrain him? Or should we try to remember him who he is?"

In this moment a handy suddenly ringed.

Eighteen realized that it was her phone... and that it was her brother calling.

"Yes - Seventeen," she said.

"Eighteen - I sensed something going on with Vegeta´s energy. Is something happening?"

"Nothing to worry about. Vegeta has just overdone it with his `moonlight training´ and has turned himself into a giant golden ape. Nothing unusual. We can deal with it."

"Yes - nothing unusual," Seventeen replied flatly. "Well - I am just glad that I don´t have to leave the animals alone again. Goodluck then."

"Thanks. Lets talk again later."

She hung up.

Everyone was looking at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Look out," Gohan shouted.

Eighteen and Krillin looked downwards and saw that the Giant Ape had noticed them and was preparing to shoot a blast from his mouth at them.

"Don´t worry," Eighteen said.

But Goten and Trunks already reacted.

They moved, grabbed her and Krillin and pushed them out of the way of the blast.

"Goten , Trunks - that is unnecessary," Marron shouted at them. "Mom can..."

The Ape had noticed their interference as well and aimed another blast at them as well.

But Eighteen placed herself right in front of them and to everyones surprise, formed a Barrier around herself and them that easily blocked the blast.

"You?" Trunks asked surprised.

"I thought only Seventeen could do that?" Gohan said.

"I learned how to do it during the Super Android incident," Eighteen replied.

She sounded like she truly didn´t want to talk about this events. Which was no wonder of course.

"I see," Goku stated.

"I told you it was unnecessary," Marron said to Goten and Trunks.

He remembered how the Androids had learned new techniques just by watching them once.

"I guess that means we are going to restrain him first," Goku stated.

He and the others powered up. Goku turned into Super Saiyan Blue and Gohan into his God Powered Wrath Form. Trunks and Goten both turned into SSJ2.

"Father - calm down," Trunks told him. "Don´t you see what you are doing?"

He flew into Vegeta´s field of view, but kept his distance.

The Oozaru actually hesitated for a moment. Then he reached out with his arm to Trunks. But then suddenly looked as if something had hurt him and grabbed his own head.

Before violently slamming his arms around, barely missing Trunks.

"I guess there is no point," Piccolo commented.

"Yes," Eighteen said, "let us bring him down for now."

They and Goku nodded at each other.

Then they moved at the same time.

Piccolo and Eighteen pushed against his legs and Goku and Gohan against his shoulder. And together they pushed the Super Oozaru down.

Then they each grabbed one of his limbs and held them.

"And what now?" Gohan asked. "Do we just cut off his tail like the last time?"

"Wait a moment," Piccolo said. "Dende?"

He heard the voice of the current God of Earth in his mind.

"Yes - I am just talking to Bulma. I have contacted her after I sensed what happened. She thinks that maybe she can bring Vegeta back to his senses if we let her talk to him directly."

"You mean through telepathy?" Piccolo questioned surprised. "While he is an ape?"

"She thinks she and their family might be still able to reach him," Dende replied.

They remembered how he had reacted to Trunks earlier. Maybe it actually will.

"Well - if we cut off his tail, he will turn back to normal anyway, right?" Goku stated.

"But it will not really solve the problem, right?" Dende pointed out. "As long as you continue with the blutz-wave training, the tails will probably grow back."

"Then maybe we should stop," Goku mentioned.

"Vegeta´s idea is still a possibly way to get stronger," Dende replied. "You know that you have already made small progress. You need to learn to control this form."

"Yes," Goku admitted.

"That and Demigra will probably return in a short time. By what the future versions of Goten and Marron said we have only one year left. And there is no way to be sure that the events will play out the same way in this timeline.

So if there is any chance to get stronger, you should take it."

"You are right," Goku replied.

"Bulma," Dende said, "I am trying to connect you to Vegeta now. You can talk."

"Vegeta - I know you can hear us," she said. "It looks like you have gotten careless again and brought yourself into trouble. But don´t worry. It is alright. You told me a long time ago how to control yourself as an Giant Ape.

Just calm yourself and try to turn back to normal."

"Yes Dad," they now heard Bra´s voice, "please become normal again."

Suddenly a change seemed to be going through Vegeta.

He had visibly calmed down and his expression not longer showed the same wild rage. Instead it was something like... serenity.

Then his body itself begann to change and his large form shrunk back in size.

Goku and the others now let him stand up again.

To their surprise however the appearance that Vegeta took was not his normal body - or any of the Super Saiyan transformations they knew of.

It was something else.

His hair had returned to it´s natural black color. His eyes were looking similar to the Wrath Form, with red and yellow circles around them.

Beside that however his entire upper body seemed to be covered with some kind of very fine reddish fur. It nearly looked like some kind of clothing.

"Vegeta," Goku said.

"Yes," he responded..

"How are you feeling?"

"To be honest - I am not quite sure," he admitted. "But not bad."

"I guess this is what you were aiming for," Gohan stated.

"Well - it pretty much looks like an improved Wrath Form," Trunks stated.

"I am not sure. By what I sense it also feels like an evolution of SSj3," Goku pointed out. "Maybe we would have reached this form a long time ago if we had our tails the entire time. Maybe even before we learned God Ki."

"So SSj4?" Gohan commented.

"Maybe," Vegeta stated.

He begann to power up and to use God Ki as well. His purely black hair started to feature shades of teal, similar to the God Wrath State.

Even without it the new form was at least two or three times as powerful as the regular SSj3.

Combined with God Ki? Well - the new form certainly was no disappontment. It was stronger than the God Wrath Form and as it looked more stable with it´s energy.

"I guess I will try this form too," Goku stated.

"If you can even reach it," Vegeta remarked. "In opposite to me you had never trained to control the Oozaru form."

"Says the guy who had been rampaging as an ape two minutes ago," Eighteen commented.

"I certainly will," Goku responded. "Do you think I have learned nothing about self-control?"

"We will assist you than Dad," Goten said.

xxxxxxx

Two days later - Seventeen´s Island

Over the sea close to the island was currently another sparring match going on.

This time it was Seventeen against Trunks, Goten and his niece Marron.

Goku was also there. He was waiting on the beach and taking a look at the animals while the others were training.

Of course the trio had not really any chance against 17 with their current level. But it was a good training for their reflexes and stamina.

Goku and him had a sparring match on their own a short time earlier, with Goku being in his new form - now called SSj4 that he had reached the day before. (The name Gohan mentioned for it had stuck.)

xxxx

Chichi´s reaction when she had heard that unlocking this form involved turning yourself into a Giant Ape and then having people close to you help you regain their senses was like you would have imagined.

Her first words were something along:

"No - absolutely not."

But when Gohan and Goku reminded her that Demigra would probably return in one year and that they might all die (technically they already did die in another timeline, as Goku pointed out) she finally gave in.

Gohan also reminded her that she did not have to be present in person and that even with Vegeta and Piccolo around, it might be better for her and Videl to be in a save distance.

Being Chichi of course, she insisted if they had to do it, she would be right there with them.

In the end however it had been Pan who had helped Goku most directly to reach the new state.

The little girl just flew forward, despite Videl´s warning to be careful and asked her grandpa with a heartful tone to come back to them.

xxxx

Goku had already tested out the new form against Vegeta yesterday. Like he had already estimated yesterday, the new form´s raw power while augmented with God Ki was above God Wrath and Blue Kaioken times 10. But behind the power of times 20.

Yet it was more stable and easier on his body than any of this forms. That made it useful, even if not that much of a game-changer.

There was however one aspect Goku was especially curious about. And Seventeen with his unlimited energy was the ideal partner to test it against - Kaioken.

As Goku had hoped, it turned out it could be used in this form.

Like he had feared however it was only for a few seconds at any try.

With any attempt, after using it for four or five seconds, his body collapsed from strain and exhaustion. For the higher levels of Kaioken even faster than that.

Kaioken times three for example lasted barely two seconds.

But this few seconds, if they were applied well, could make a lot difference in a fight, as he knew.

xxx

The others had just ended their match and returned to the beach.

In the end Goten and Trunks had turned into SSj2 and all three of them had been using combined attacks.

To that came that Trunks and Goten had recently performed the SSj God Ritual and had started to integrate God Ki into their style.

Both were currently learning to use SSB and SSG.

But here it didn´t seem to made the slightest difference. No wonder, since Seventeen had kept most of the power of his Super 17 transformation and had continued training since then.

"You are truly serious about this?" Goku asked Goten and Trunks a short time later.

"We are," Goten replied. "We want to leave as soon as possible."

"That means as soon as Whiz gives us a clear answer," Trunks told him.

"And you will go as well?" Seventeen asked his niece.

"I will," Marron said.

"I have never thought Eighteen and Krillin would agree to this," Seventeen stated.

What the three were planning was nothing else than a training trip to Universe 6. They had - or rather Goku had on their behalf - asked Beerus and Whiz if they would arrange this.

Technically they were just getting the favor returned that they had given Cabba, Caulifla and Kale a few years ago, as Beerus had pointed out. (And he didn´t hesitate to tell that to Champa very clearly.)

If everything went smoothly they would start in the next few days.

xxxxxxx

Between the Dimensions

- Bojack

- Frost

- Hildegarn

- Moro (Alternate Timeline)

- Beby

- ...

The Demon God Demigra was currently reading over a list.

So many possible candidates.

This is finally the appearance of normal SSj4.

With the events of this chapter, Trunks, Goten and Marron will temporally take over as main characters for the next Arc.