"I'm impressed Vegeta. It looks like we're both evenly matched!" he said approvingly.

"Even? Hah! I felt how much that last hit took out of you, Kakarot. Now let's get on with it!" Vegeta scoffed.

"Not so fast! I wasn't lying earlier when I said I might've found some things you missed. But first, here's a little demonstration for our guests!" He raised his arms to shoulder height on either side, and clenched his fists. A bright yellow aura surrounded him and his hair changed back to yellow to match.

"This is the first Super Saiyan form. It has two other forms, one where you expend more energy for more power, and another where you lose speed in exchange for brute strength." Elizabeth nodded, although she had no idea if Goku could even see her from that height. Goku grimaced in concentration, and the aura around him regained its former sparks. "Now it might not look like much, but this is the next stage. Call it...Super Saiyan 2. It increases your power and speed by twice as much as the previous form, and as you saw, it seems to let us withstand more of a beating!"

"I'm not so sure about that last part, Kakarot. We were born to be fighters; of course we can take it!" Vegeta interrupted.

"Well, ya got me there!" Goku agreed. "But this..." He lowered his fists to his sides. "Is to go even further beyond...!"

And he began to scream. It was a sound of pain, of a desperate inner struggle, and of something one could only describe as 'awe'. A stiff breeze whipped up, and the Earth shuddered. Booker briefly heard Piccolo murmur in his mind "It's...unreal!" before the connection was lost once more. He and Elizabeth struggled to keep their footing as the ground beneath them shook violently, but the stress from the energy being released above continued to build.

Suddenly, with a loud grinding and crashing, it split apart. Booker nearly tumbled into the abyss as the crack stretched further (into a shape no one present could identify), but managed to grab a rocky outcropping with one hand. "Booker!" Elizabeth gasped and fell to her knees, reaching out for him. "GO! Get to higher ground!" he yelled as he scrambled for a firmer grip.

"Not without you!" she responded. "Give me your hand!" He made a half-hearted attempt to grasp her hand, and for a moment they gazed at each other in silence. "Don't even think about it, Booker." Elizabeth said at last, trying to sound firm but unable to disguise her voice trembling briefly. "It's no more 'n' I deserve." he replied quietly. "Just do something good with your life, okay? Go see Paris..."

"I am NOT losing you too!" she shouted. "GIVE me your hand!" A tear slipped from her cheek and plummeted past him into the depths of the Earth. Won't be that hard letting go. Best thing you could do for her. She doesn't need a father who sold her just cause things got a little rough. You weren't ever there when she needed you.

"BOOKER!" Elizabeth yelled and he snapped back to attention. Tears were welling in both their eyes now. It's just dust, DeWitt. She's better off this way; you know it, she knows it. But as the Saiyan's scream overhead approached critical mass, the clouds lifted from Booker's mind. To hell with that. He gritted his teeth and reached for Elizabeth's outstretched hand. For one agonizing moment, their fingers brushed, but barely missed each other. Then, as the Earth trembled again, he finally clasped her hand with his own. Grunting and straining, as she had with the exercise ball back on the beach, she managed to drag him up out of the ravine. Booker lay flat on the ground for what felt like an eternity before pushing himself awkwardly to his feet. Elizabeth was waiting for him and when he reached his full height, she hauled back and gave him a resounding slap across the face. "Ow... Not going to argue with that one." he commented dryly.

"Damn you Booker." she whispered. "Don't you DARE do that again."

"Sorry. I'm...sorry." he mumbled. The howling winds around them and the screaming above subsided, and Booker DeWitt embraced his daughter for the first time. She felt a few stray drops of moisture on her shoulder and smiled faintly into his shirt. "Careful, Booker; you'll ruin your image. What would the Vox think if they saw you now?"

He let out a heartfelt laugh, then finally pulled away. "All right, you ready to go see what all that fuss was about?" he asked.

"It better be something good; I think the whole planet felt that!" Elizabeth said. Hand-in-hand, they made their way across the landscape, picking their way around rocks both small and large, and up a newly-risen hill; the better to witness what came next.

Booker and Elizabeth stood at the top of the hill and stared in shock at the warrior above.

His hair had grown past his waist, his muscles had expanded even further, his eyebrows had completely vanished (proving that even his forehead had muscles most men would kill for), and the energy surrounding him was almost twice as intense as before. Even from this distance, Booker felt a tingling throughout his entire body. Goku spoke, his voice deeper than before (although that could just be from the screaming, Booker mused). "I'm sorry that took so long. I haven't had much reason to try out this form yet. This is what you'd call Super Saiyan 3."

For the first time since the two outsiders had met him, Vegeta was near speechless. "Kakarot...how...how is this possible?"

"I'd try and describe it, but I've never been good with words. What do you think, Vegeta? Should we give it another try?"

Vegeta shook himself out of his daze and assumed a fighting position. "That long hair just makes you a bigger target. Don't say I didn't warn you."

The fight was surprisingly brief. Despite Vegeta's best efforts and one or two solid hits, Goku clearly had the advantage the entire time. He flickered all around his opponent, delivering only a few punches. With each one that landed however, Vegeta took longer and longer to recover.

Booker saw something out of the corner of his eye and glanced at Elizabeth while the fighters in the air paused for a moment to reassess the situation. He frowned; her hair was standing on end just as the Saiyans' hair was. That strange shimmer that accompanied a tear glistened all around them. "Uh Elizabeth, what are you doin'?" he asked.

"It's not me!" she replied as she put her hands out to either side in an attempt to quell the power that was building. "All that energy they're putting out; it's opening a tear all on its own!"

"Where to?"

"I don't know. Hang on Booker!" And hang on he did. He hugged her close as reality itself whisked them away from the world of Saiyans and dragons and into an even stranger one.

This particular incarnation of our heroes return in All of Time and Space...