The Vegeta Chronicles

by Demod20

What if Vegeta was the hero who killed Cell at his most powerful? What if 17 & 18 were given bigger roles in future Arcs? What if Tien Shinhan and other long forgotten characters were suddenly important? This is the series in which those characters get those big roles, and where the DBZ series is retold through their eyes and their perspective. This is...the Vegeta Chronicles!

23. The Power of the Ascended

A/N: This Chapter is by far my longest one I've ever written for this series. Just to steel my more casual readers or even viewers in general this will take awhile to sift through. I debated about chopping some of this up and hauling it into the next chapter but I decided against it. I hope you like this quicker-than-usual update. I worked real hard to bring a sense of near finality to it cause the next update after this will conclude the battles.

Please, enjoy the read, everyone and thank you for your continued support ^^

---

Confusion was all that Vegeta felt. One moment he remembered drinking some caffeinated beverage -was it coffee?- and then went to take a nap. Now he was on the same mattress he collapsed on but was in an entirely different environment. It looked like a cozy second story bedroom with a window view of the outside. The sound of the tide was drowned out by distant flashes of dazzling light and crashing force made against each other.

He felt two signatures, one suppressed and the other controlled yet very palpable. One belonged to the perverted old man and the other...was someone he never remembered clashing with. Strong and thrumming with excitement yet still had enough rein to keep his power under wraps. Knowing only a handful of beings in his lifetime that had that kind of restraint he could only guess the being that Roshi fought was considerably strong.

Others were racing across the planet, among them was the son from the future. He couldn't feel Gohan's but felt the dwindling signature of the Namekian's and a very prominent, dark signature that felt as menacing as Bojack yet far more powered by contempt and anger than barbaric impulses. This swarm of energies swarmed his senses as he stared out the window, wondering what was going on.

"T-Thank you so much!" He heard a familiar woman crying out with tear jerking relief.

"It was all I could do. You're lucky the attack wasn't severe, otherwise he may have died being so young," The annoying peaceful voice of a pubescent Guardian also sounded below.

He could only wonder what the Hell was going on?

Uncaring of his disheveled person with tattered sleeves and marred muscle shirt (even bereft of his gloves), he stepped down the stairs with curiosity. By the time he reached the messy living space used for congregating and dining alike he did a double take at the sight of his wife and the small green man. There was a third entity among them; a small limp frame of his biological son, Trunks, resting quietly on Bulma's arms.

"What," He began to croak, his throat clenching and his eyes dilating at his wife, noticing she was slightly bruised herself around the face. "Happened?"

"V-Vegeta," Bulma hiccuped, a relieved smile spread open as she stood up hastily. She regretted it instantly as she winced and fell to one knee, clenching her baby boy to her bosom protectively. "Whoa, I guess I'm not as good as I thought I was."

"Stay still and I'll heal you," Dende insisted with a cautious expression, wary of the Saiyan Prince's unsettled energy fluctuating in his body.

"Woman, answer me," Vegeta growled. "I don't like being ignored. Who did this to you?! What happened to him?!"

"H-He...we," Bulma began to say, her misty eyes cleared with a wipe of her arm as she looked at him seriously. "We were attacked by this man claiming to be the leader of these people you all have been attacked by."

He didn't immediately respond other than feeling a distinct cold pit in his stomach. Having lost so much sleep as of late he had no idea his body could keep him unconscious for such a elongated period of time. The memory and still active power combating the Turtle Hermit outside rattled the island house, causing him to shake his head and dispel his shock filled reverie.

"How?! Wasn't Trunks here?! Did anyone defend you?!" He exclaimed hastily with questions, rapid fire like punching fists he ached to throw at the one responsible.

"They practically were all here. It's just...none of them could lay a finger on him," She grimaced, feeling a cold sweat still lingering across her skin as Dende began projecting his restoration magic over her. Closing her eyes she began to shudder at the memory as she explained what happened. "Nothing made sense. They all attacked but he just cast them aside like they were nothing. Even brave Trunks just...transformed...like Big Trunks...and he...he attacked but was just swatted aside like it didn't matter."

He had heard enough. For a brief moment he felt a succinct amount of shock as well as pride. Having never believed a Super Saiyan could be born at such a young age he realized that the threat to his mother was too great for even a three year old half breed to contain. It may had been momentary but he achieved something he only dreamed of as a child. He had so much promise for someone so small.

Walking over, he knelt down and stroked Bulma's healing cheek with a stoic stare of compassion. He wouldn't show it but it put him under anguish that she was harmed when he was just floors above her head. Looking down at the small child he rubbed his head slightly, observing him with a rare smile.

"I'm proud of him as much as I am of the other him," Vegeta whispered.

The look of rose-cheek colored shock was on Bulma's face. Standing up he wouldn't see her smile and tear welling eyes. As he began to walk outside he heard a pair of feet scamper behind him. He didn't stop till the voice called out his name.

"Don't go, Vegeta," Dende warned, his voice filled with a foreign sense of fear for the proud Prince's life. "That guy is strong, too strong! He might kill you if you fight him alone!"

"I didn't ask your permission to leave, Namekian brat!" The Pure Blooded Saiyan turned to look at him with a peaking rage lit behind his onyx orbs. "I'll kill this bastard with my own two hands! There is no way you, her, or anyone will change my mind!"

For a moment the fear plus the futility of knowing no matter what he did wouldn't change the proud warrior's heart. Closing his mouth, his brow knitted into a furrowed scowl of annoyance at the man. Seeing the Saiyan Prince's back turn on him, he let out a shout after him, "Then...at least make sure you come back in one piece! I won't waste the Dragon Balls on bringing you back to life if you insist on this suicide mission!"

"Heh," Vegeta briefly smirked unseen, his soot covered boots carrying out to the beach towards the source of the clash. "I don't plan on dying, boy. The only one I plan on passing on to the afterlife...is him!"

Inhaling, the Saiyan let out a high volume scream full of blood lust and wanton destruction. The comparison to Cell's shouts to islands in his bid to find Eighteen was no comparison nor his outburst outside his home. This picked up the air, transforming it into a hurricane of blurring air that shot outward like a cannon. Thrusting outward it'd sync with a dramatic power of translucent azure light that wrapped around him before jettisoning outwards like flames from a jet plane.

And his call would not go unheard.

---

Chapter 23 - The Power of the Ascended

---

Roshi had just recently separated from a tense forearm clash with Shukun when he felt himself once again take in rasping breaths. To him, this battle that had assuredly been minutes in length that took himself to his absolute peak felt extraordinarily longer. The pair had exchanged blows, mostly knicking each other while neither received substantial injury. But the Turtle Hermit Hermit knew his body better than anyone else's, especially after thousands of years abusing his own eternal life.

He was starting to run on fumes.

To his surprise, Shukun seemed only to be ecstatic by the prospect of a continuing battle. While he had occasional split lips, bleeding nostrils and scuffs on his cloaked body he bore no significant damage by the many myriad techniques Roshi utilized. Each one was a new kind of Ki projection or employment he had never tried before, knowingly that every single one of them cost an exorbitant amount of his stamina. Unfortunately much to his chagrin it only seemed to chip away at the extension his battle had with this fearsome foe.

"You're one to not disappoint, Mūten Roshi," Shukun declared with a ravenous grin that sent chills running up and down the Turtle Hermit's spine. "I haven't had a spar this invigorating since Ryū! I can feel my blood get pumping every time you and I exchange blows. Such remarkable power. Only someone who's lived like I have could understand the nature of using Ki like you do!"

"Yet...you seem so spry and energetic," The bearded man commented with a slight grin. Sweat beading down his muscular frame on all sides, he couldn't help but let his arms droop down from a fighting posture. He had no idea just how much longer he could keep fighting at such a level. "I'm guessing you're expecting more from this old, weary man? At this pace, I'm not sure I can deliver."

The disappointment could be heard and seen on the Circle Leader's face. The smile dimmed and turned thin, his eyes losing some of the luster behind its glow. His own stance turned into one of self assured dominance, arms crossing over his broad chest as his smile turned into a wry expectant grin, "I should have known you couldn't give me a real, decent fight. As expected, not even Ryū has given me that privilege of feeling the thrill of a life or death struggle. Such a shame, now that our game has to end in your demise."

Alarmed, the bearded martial artist began to quickly wrack his break for any ideas, anything that could allow him to survive this fight. He didn't spend all of those miserable eons inside the blasted chamber, wishing he had stayed at his island home to be kicked in the dirt now. It couldn't end like this-!

Such line of thoughts ended abruptly as an ungodly and all too familiar howl cracked across the sea's surface.

"YOU!" Vegeta's voice howled from a determined couple kilometers distance from the speck that was the Turtle Hermit's home. A bright shimmering light felt by both, soon closing in as the roar continued to be projected across the ocean. "HOW DARE YOU HARM MY SON! MY BULMA! PREPARE TO DIE BY MY HANDS FOR SUCH AN OFFENSE ON MY FAMILY!"

Roshi hadn't felt such blood chilling rage since he stood his ground against the mighty Demon King Piccolo. But even his passive aggressive stare down with the incomparably strong monster was nowhere as personally suffered and enraged as the Saiyan Royal heading their way. In mere seconds he appeared, halting his approach with a clap and a collapsing wave of seawater falling over sloppily in his wake.

"So, the Prince awakens," Shukun stated out loud with a humored grin, one that wasn't shared with either his auspicious opponent or the wrath filled arrival. Keeping his stance self assured, he tilted his head to the side as he spoke to the man whom he had the most problems with out of the host of vigilantes and freelance fighters. "Sorry I didn't greet you in person, Vegeta. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Shukun Akikaze, Leader of the Inner Circle."

"Ah," Vegeta smiled darkly, a glint of fierce remembrance glowing in his dark tinted eyes. "I recalled that whore saying something about being part of a clandestine group. You must be the master holding the bitch's leash. I wondered why she was drawn away in a hurry. Too embarrassed by her reckless behavior so you brought her in for a lecture or punishing...you'll wish you had let her finish me off when you had the chance! I'm going to see to it personally your existence is wiped off the face of this backwater planet, you albino freak!"

"I'm not an albino-" Shukun tried to interject but was cut off as Vegeta's aura spiked into a familiar thuum of blue outlined snow hue.

"You! Old man!" The Prince demanded the muscle bound elder with a bare fingered point at him and a thumb motion back to the island he came from. "Your turn's up. Get lost!"

Roshi gulped, hesitant on arguing with the volatile man, but insisted given what he knew. Raising his hands he gently told the Saiyan whom shot daggers from his pupil contracting onyx orbs with his own beady black eyes, "Listen to me, Vegeta. This isn't about me or you. This is about him and what he is. Our strength may be within arm's length but he's an ocean away from both of us! I don't think even with Trunks and Gohan's help we could best this kind of threat. His power is on par with his skill. He's a legendary warrior!"

"My heart pounds at the challenge you suggest, hermit," Vegeta remarked, a brief glimmer of Saiyan-borne lust for battle and a large obstacle set before him needing to be conquered. Then it transformed into vein protruding hate, enamoring his face in a twisted visage of true abhorrent anger that was measured by no other. Fists clenched tight enough to make all of his knuckles snap and his aura already on the verge of changing in color along with the very nature of its power. "And my blood...it boils...from unyielding rage at daring to lay a hand on what is MINE! HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

One terrifying yell was let loose as a golden flame breathed into the air, whining out before a cacophony of atmospheric pops sounded. Circling around the soles of his worn boots the ocean opened up into a torrential gaping hole that became a maelstrom of epic proportions. The levitating Roshi unsteadily backed up in the air as the hurricane of yellow ebbing wind braced over his skin, billowing his beard as much as Shukun's hood adorned cloak and long hair. Like the eye of a hurricane flipped over its head in a body of water all three could see the brilliantly lit power of Vegeta's revamped Super Saiyan form.

"I see you gained a bit of a boost from Sky's little dance with you," Shukun observed with a casual smile, sighing through his nostrils as his arms remained crossed over his chest. Shaking his head he concluded out loud as his eerie white eyes stared across the distance at the emerald-blue orbs of his adversary. "If this is all the power you can muster then you're sadly overestimating yourself, Prince. However, I'll gladly take your life as you are by far the most pressing problem of them all."

"And I'll personally devote every second I'm not beating you to a pulp by ripping you apart! PIECE! BY! PIECE!" He bellowed back with a challenging sneer as his body writhed with abject rage. The power he projected caused the sky to grow dark and the negatives assimilated to sprout lightning to dance along the sea. Even as the water began to regress back on top of itself, the shine of his Super Saiyan glow didn't dim in the slightest; it only seemed to crackle with the occasional spark of yellow arcing bio-energy.

"Charming," Shukun remarked with sarcasm. Turning his head to look at the weathered Roshi, he bowed his head in apology. "I'm sorry but I guess this is where we part ways. Given that you seem worse for wear I'll take credit for the win this time."

"Actually, I think that's a fair estimate," The Turtle Hermit bowed his head with a humbled sigh of relief. Turning to leave he couldn't bring himself to leave the Prince without offering him one last time to back out. Propelling himself dangerously close, the Pure Blooded Saiyan didn't even bat an eye on his approach but didn't offer any acknowledgement of his presence. Seeing this as an opportunity, he spoke with wavering caution. "Last chance buddy. You can still walk away and get your family to safety."

"Idiot," He snorted with a tempted roll of the eyes that he repressed in favor of fixing a pointed glare at his target not but half a dozen meters away. "What do you take me for, a coward?! I'm not leaving this fight!"

"Thought so," Mūten Roshi sighed, already glancing at his home in the distance, safely intact despite the chaotic environment. "I'll keep your family safe since they're at my house."

"Do what you want, old man," The Saiyan scoffed with click of his tongue.

"Got it, geeze," The winded fighter remarked with feigned hurt, zooming off towards his familiar home. One of which he felt a sense of hopelessness and anguish at his own inability to beat the opponent he openly challenged. Bowing his head as he landed on the beach, he turned to regard Vegeta from the distance, a dazzling speck of light in the horizon of the storm riddled ocean. "Sorry I couldn't do more. Good luck, Vegeta."

Alone at last, Vegeta's anger addled brain concentrated on at least off-setting his opponent. The very fact he refused to even adopt a proper fighting stance spoke leagues of how arrogant and proud he was in his fighting abilities. If it was a testament to the previous spectacle he caught a brief glance at before, he knew there might be a tough fight but he had no way of knowing just how much till his fists met his enemy's.

"Now," He began with a depraved smile as cerulean-emeralds glared heatedly at the calmly staring human standing apart from him. "With the elderly attend to, I think it's time we settle matters, no? If I best you in combat, I'm sure all the rest of your minions will follow suit once they find you in the ground!"

"You have such confidence in beating me and so little faith in my comrades," Shukun tsked with a shake of his head. His smile never waning, he shrugged as he lopsidedly grinned back at the agitated Saiyan. "Either you're so egotistical that you think you're up for the challenge or your deluded anger caused by me giving your child a petty slap is blinding you from reality. I mean really, if I wanted to kill him, I would have. Super Saiyan, or no-"

"DON'T SAY ANOTHER WORD ABOUT MY SON!" Vegeta snapped with a bellowing yell that shook the sea. His body propelling faster than the speed of sound. The sonic boom didn't even have time to cascade across the water's surface as his fist lanced out to strike his face. The feeling that created a thuum of collision wouldn't be a satisfying crash of knuckles against cartilage and flesh, but of a swiveling wrist knocking aside the charging arm.

This followed by a streak of white that crashed straight into his jaw, delivering an electrical shower of contact between the toes of Shukun's foot and his chin. Blood and spit flew out of his mouth as eyes forcibly closed from the seemingly instant counterattack, his body propelling upward slowly in the eyes of his enemy. Yet, his words falling on deaf ears, were spoken as the leg lowered and a palm gestured casually forward to his solar plexus.

"You're right," The Circle Leader replied, in succession with a thunderous Kiai blasting straight into his torso. Warping his back with the pressure, he'd soundlessly cry out in pain as he'd travel at breakneck speeds across the ocean. Appearing kilometers along with his tide shattering frame of gold and white, the blue tatter dressed Saiyan sprawled directly towards a downward swiping chop of his hand. "Let us talk with our fists!"

Just before his hand could swipe the torch haired crown, a purple-golden centered blaze of Ki ignited in front of his eyes. Shooting off like a meteorite, it trailed the same hue as it narrowly avoided a swipe that severed the ocean's surface and created a chasm of emptiness between the walls of seawater. Looking up, he'd see the Galick Thrust wrapping around the anger filled Super Saiyan as his left fist arced around and struck an upraised arm.

Purplish yellow light clashed against an aura of silver crystal, the smaller less fearsome mantle holding at bay the Super Saiyan jettisoning push. When a thrumming whine was heard and manifested itself in an orb of blue in the golden warrior's free hand, he swiveled the free arm to shove it point blank at the opponent in front of him. In response, the white maned fighter knife jabbed the Big Bang Attack, severing and nullifying it while reflecting the palm thrust simultaneously.

A smirk manifested across Shukun's face as he launched another snap kick into the perpendicularly aligned Saiyan Warrior's chest, causing the latter to gape out with wind sucked out of his lungs. A ridge hand strike to his temple sent him tumbling in a sideways spiral, leaving him open to an open palmed blast of ice colored energy that sought to scorch him. In another jettisoning discharge of his Galick Thrust, he propelled himself away in a dizzying spin away from the attack.

Returning back for a second charge, the Circle Leader's smile broadened as he anticipated the Saiyan's plan for another charge. What he didn't anticipate was the timing of a sudden multiplication of speed and power. Like atoms being split, cobalt tendrils arched away from a straighter man of hair and a slightly buffer body, departing from the mantle of accelerating purple rays of Ki.

The observance was so startling that he failed to catch a pair of knuckles that found their way home and crashed straight into his face. A shockwave of explosive proportions ripped the ocean's surface apart below their feet, dipping beneath them. The white haired man's air walking steps buckled a few feet back, his hand immediately reaching up to clasp over the burning sensation over his nose. Coming back with a fresh stain of blood, he looked back up at the Ascended Saiyan, grinning smugly back.

"A direct hit!" Vegeta thought with a smile at the small victory after suffering several painful blows and near misses. The pain throbbing on his fist at hitting what felt like a folded layer of dense metal could be subdued. "If he can bleed, he can be beaten. I don't know what that old man was thinking but I guess only someone of my level can hope to scratch him!"

"Good, very good!" Shukun replied, a goading tone that cemented a wide grin that made Vegeta think he was a true Saiyan at heart. A shining aura of glistening crystal shined from his body brightly, competing with the brilliance of Vegeta's unrivaled Super Saiyan multiplied power. "That's right, Vegeta! Come at me with your full power, nothing held back! At this rate you'll be an excellent sparring partner!"

Streaking forward, both clashed with another thuum, the ocean producing tidal waves in opposing directions as their Ki clashed as much as their bodies did. White pupiless glowing eyes met shimmering emerald-blue orbs. When their fists struck each other, a volume of pressure was comparable to bombs going off between their knuckles and digits.

The ultimate fight had just begun!

---

Piccolo felt spent.

Never before did he feel so completely drained. Even at the mercy of the Cell was he conscious enough to acknowledge the emptiness of power his body permeated his senses. It was right around the last punch his dreaded demi-dragon enemy struck that he lost hold of the overflowing, painful power. He knew that in a way he was given a favor; the death he'd eventually receive from such an overload by the Mao-ken would be excruciating and messy.

Crashing sideways through a row of trees that snapped easily with the weight of his durable Namekian anatomy he rag dolled amidst shards of timber. The woodland was kilometers down the mountain of Paozu, a reminder of how far Ryūkage's attack sent him flying from the sky and open sea. Such scale akin to gods was now nullified the moment his power slipped from his grasp.

He was now wheezing for breath, numb over where bones were broken and lacking the energy necessary to regenerate. Feeling as good as dead, the presence of the near instantly appearing Ryū made him strain his neck to look up at the imposing wing aura.

Blood enamored the side of his head, dripping from his mouth and even bruises enamoring his exposed arms. Even his undershirt was steaming from the potent Ki blasts striking his torso trench coat now abandoned due to battle damage it suffered. Shredded pants along the sleeves, he looked about as battle weary if it wasn't for the fact he didn't suck in a single ounce of breath that dictated his weakness.

"No way," The Namekian thought with a widened eye. "He hardly looks affected at all, even after all the hits he took! What kind of monster is he?!"

"You put up a good fight, successor," Ryūkage admitted coolly, raising a blood covered right hand towards him. "But it's time I send you to Hell, where you belong."

That's when the pair felt it. A monstrous rise of Ki that was palpable even from the distance. With the sky having quieted with their battle finished storm clouds rained down a cascading hail of electrical discharges from the heavens. Ryūkage was stoic but visibly concerned at the power of the one who was letting it loose.

"V-Vegeta," Piccolo gasped, feeling as if the power was comparable to his own transformation.

"So, it seems Vegeta is doing battle with my old friend," The preceding Guardian of Earth announced, sounding almost amused as a smile slid across his bleeding face. Turning his red eyes to look at the Namekian he relaxed his aura, returning to a more familiar human demeanor. Still the glowing orbs of crimson never lessened in their ire at the one whom had injured him. "But he stands no chance. In my entire long lifetime I've never met a man who could rival Shukun's power. Not even I could him to his heart's content."

"Don't underestimate him," The ex-Guardian sneered at Ryū's direction. "He's faced tougher opponents and has won. You'd be wrong to overestimate your friend."

A sudden crashing force was felt on the Namekian's back, renewing his nerves in a sporadic clamor of agony. Howling out he'd feel fire emit from his nerves as each of his limbs were torn off their sockets. Geysers of blood spewed outward and his limbless body was lifted upward, seemingly without any visual sign on his enemy. Staying still with a vivid scowl of blood tint, he watched as the object of his disdain and hatred was held up like being orchestrated by unseen puppet strings. Even as the green skinned man coughed up blood weakly, Ryūkage looked unsatisfied with his torture of the enemy.

"What body parts shall I rip off next, Demon?" He snarled, ebony flames rivulet off his person as he continued to suspend his enemy by an unknown power.

The continued ravaging of the ex-Guardian's body was suspended by a sudden gust of wind. Flowing across his mane, the feeling of Ki could be felt immediately upon it. The sight of ichor stained threads reaching up from the soil was seen eradicated by a pulse of light that was carried with the gust. The body was then seen carried back into the pudgy grip of the dark colored hat adorned Chiaotzu, his hovering frame blitzing to a spot behind some trees.

"You-!" Ryūkage snarled, his aura coated body suddenly swept underneath his feet by a black haired blur followed by a blonde one crashing a fist into his well timed blocking forearms. The aforementioned Cyborgs switched positions, the prior vaulting over his head to grapple him around the temples with his knees throttling him around to be double-palm thrust by the latter. A scarlet colored beam of batter powered energy propelled him through the forestry.

An audible grunt followed with a bodily Kiai that dissipated the beam and allowed his backflipping frame to grind a halt between several tall trees. Not even given time to look at the swathing line of destroyed flora that permeated smoke and vapor among the fallen tinder a certain bald monk manifested quickly behind his person. Turning around with surprise painted on his face, his palms caught the small man's fist in a defensively absorbent manner. What he didn't prepare for, was Krillin's war-like cry and an explosive orange colored aura flashing off his body.

"Rei-ken!" Krillin declares as his punch sends Ryūkage flying up into the sky. Blowing back the trees and cracking the earth, the red-eyed Circle leader was sent spiraling upward uncontrollably. Even as his ascent had slowed, he found himself barreling straight into the dark storm cloud. A cloud that had hidden the practically silent three-eyed silhouette that was already in a foreboding stance that all enemies and friends alike knew was.

"SHIN KIKOHO!" Tenshinhan declared with a thunderous shout, his Tri-Beam exploding outward to connect with Ryūkage's body with the proportion and speed comparable to a bolt of lightning. In a flash and a thuum of audible cloud dispersing momentum, Ryū was sent slamming into the horizon. The square hole that was carved with an unseen target buried within its hole could be seen even from the tall heights of the storm filled sky.

"Phew," Tien sighed with relief, knowing that he exerted quite a bit of energy at that prime moment. Flying in a rapturous cloak of light, he returned to the side of the others at the now recovering Piccolo. Propped up against a tree he was given a Senzu Bean, allowing him to grow new limbs and restore all of his robbed stamina; not to mention his threatened vitality. As he stood back up, Krillin and the cyborg twins returned with proud expressions. "I'm guessing everything worked as planned."

"Yeah, bastard didn't know what hit'em," Seventeen proclaimed with a smug grin as he dusted his hands.

"It kind of helps that we don't have detectable energy. He wouldn't even notice us bolstering our batteries in the split second we struck," Eighteen concurred with a shrug and wry smile of her own.

"My Rei-Ken sent him flying right into your cross-airs, Tien," Krillin chuckled with a proud raise of his arm.

"Impressive power-up you came up with," The Crane Schooler replied with a smile, mixed with pride and intrigue in his friend's leap of strength he managed in the time they've parted ways. "You might give my Sora-ken a run for its money, let alone Yamcha's Okami-ken."

"More important than power was what you did," Piccolo interjected, turning to look admirably at the hovering Chiaotzu who was slightly flustered at the following praise. "You managed to mask all of their presences and free me from whatever power Ryūkage had be under. That's some incredible psychic power you've managed to develop."

"I-I know I'm not as strong as you guys," Chiaotzu twiddled his fingers with a weak smile. "So I do what I can. For not just Tien but all of you."

"HOW QUAINT. AN EARLY CELEBRATION SHARED BY ALL. IT MAKES ME WANT TO VOMIT."

The sound of a haunting voice creeping within their chosen rendezvous point. Just there beyond in a flash of light walked forward the dry bloodstained face of Ryūkage. Walking out of the shadow of a tree like stretching out of a molasses film, his whole apparel was restored back to whole spotless perfection. Gloved hands lied at his collared cloak's hips, suit pants swishing forward with every ominous step taken closer. Crimson eyes smoldered visible smoke from behind his shades such similar vapor escaping his own parting teeth that bared fangs of a feral nature.

"You look surprised, Warriors of Shenlong," He murmured, hissing as all of them reared up in defensive postures. "But really, you're all out of your league. I may not be Shukun but you are all a thousand years too soon to be the ones to bring me to my knees."

"Says the guy who we just kicked his ass like he was a used soccer ball," Seventeen chimed with a confident grin, his arms pulled back at his sides with a blue-eyed glint. "Care to be served again?"

Managing a chuckle from Tien, despite circumstances, Piccolo was the one to interrupt next. With a gesture waving out to the others, his glare aimed at Ryū was genuine as much as the trepidation he felt within.

"He's not one to be trifled with," He began to warn audibly. "He's a monster of unspeakable power and durability. Not to mention he has an unfathomable power related to the shadows. It's like it is his own realm of godhood that he can extend his influence in ways that go beyond simple thrown fists or Ki is concerned. It's either magical or a mental controlled ability."

"Then, what do we do?" Krillin queried with a concerned look aimed at the Namekian.

A smile spread on his own face as he settled into an all too familiar clawed stance, crouching as he prepared for battle.

"We work together," The fused being of three declared with a bright ignition of Ki flowing around himself. Joined in a crescendo of flourishing auras surrounding him the tactician felt much better about his chances.

Ryūkage glared at the team of united fighters. The threat they posed against him was far greater than even the Namekian alone. Formidable in many ways, he knew that holding back would only result in a repeat of what happened earlier. Clenching his gloved fists the familiar veil of burning blackness swam over him wings spreading out intimidatingly that blew back soil and ripped trees out of their roots.

The display alarmed all of them their tactician included.

"Sora-Ken!"

"Rei-Ken!"

The harmony of both stout fighters declaring their respective power-ups followed by a magnificent opposing force of glistening mantles of light. One a tightly enclosed orange of bristling energy and the other a bright silver radiant blast coming from the pores while making the eyes pupiless chasms of Ki. Both charged in an instant and struck both forward limbs of Ryū's as he leaped to tackle the group, holding back his charge with a crackling contrast of colored waves of energy.

Wordlessly the dragonic entity warped out of their collision and appeared behind them. Grasping their heads and crashing them together, he twist around to block a full powered Piccolo's punch. When either of the Cyborgs came at him from the sides, his wings swung out to catch them at their reflexively raised arms; sending them a good distance away. As Piccolo retaliated with a clawed swipe Ryū disappeared again and transported himself within the shadow of Piccolo's backside. An aimed thrust of his arm made to perforate his torso like before was halted by a sudden bout of paralysis.

"I won't let you!" Chiaotzu declared firmly as two hands were raised and barely held the Circle leader back from his prey.

Growling as his face was crashed in by a sudden elbow strike that shattered his glasses, the winged fighter was sent jettisoned into the tree lines. A horde of energy blasts followed him in his wake, cutting down the forest down and leveling the earth in a flashing cacophony of detonations launched by Seventeen. Finding his target disappeared from his sight within the inferno rising into the sky it was only through the grace of intuition that he spun around to block a talon wrapped set of knuckles. Despite absorbing the force his back smashed into the earth with a violent webbing of the ground his form dug deep into the earth.

Eighteen throttled in the anger of seeing her brother struck was found halted during a flash of lightning overhead. Unseen to her, a burning hand reached up from her own shadow and encircled her waist up to her shoulders. Squeezing tightly with sickening tension, she felt herself screaming out with pain.

"KIENZAN!" Krillin called out as he threw the disc with a howl of retaliation at the man who held his beloved in a vice grip.

"Please," Ryūkage turned to raise a gloved hand brimming with dragonic blackened features over it, already prepared for the spinning projectile's attack. "As if that'd reach-"

The sudden sight of it expanding outward caused his crimson eyes to dilate with alarm. Pulling back his now cut palm from the rotating saw, he narrowly ducked underneath the spinning blade of Ki as it severed the disembodied hand that clenched Eighteen. As she fell with a moment of reprieve on the ground, she snarled and unleashed a scarlet blast point blank at the crouched Ryūkage. The winged man utilized his extra appendages as a shield to the attack, allowing him to use an available leg to block Krillin's incoming punch and a left hand to catch Tien's Dodon Ray. It was through his sudden oversight of the downed cyborg that the raven locked Seventeen spiraled up from the earth beneath him and catapulted him up with a direct punch to his chest.

As he caught himself in his upward climb, he found a number of earthen debris thrown at him at sound breaking speeds by the midget psychic. Swinging his hand out to eradicate all of the projectiles his body ported directly within Chiaotzu's midst; using his other hand to palm a Kiai into the small child-like entity's body. During such an attack he was met with a spinning kick to the back, causing him to keel over to be met by an instantaneous appearing Piccolo who launched a knee kick directly into his jaw. A flurry of punches crashed into his defending arms that spiraled around to keep himself from being beaten successively.

Just as Tien would try a jab to his back he'd grimace, summoning several serpentine shapes to wrap around both Piccolo and the Triclops warrior. Spinning to land a split kick to their chests to sprawl them across the barren wasteland, he'd launch himself at Krillin. A swelling apparition of shadows formed around his shoulder creating an enormous dragon's arm. With a mighty swing the arm-crossed dwarf attempted to defend it, only for Eighteen to palm it with both hands.

"Eighteen!" Krillin shouted with alarm, watching her body shake violently as the ground around her was disturbed. Energy spiked all around her body, skin tearing itself apart as her battery multiplied farther than she'd care to have used ordinarily.

"Now, Seventeen!" She cried out to her brother, the latter of which already zoomed around to launch a fervor of punishing blows.

"RAAAAAAAAAAH!" The dark haired cyborg roared out as his flurry of punches cracked and blasted against Ryū's undefended body. His own form was electrified, eyes bleeding and skin being lacerated by the overcharge of power he underwent. Throughout the combo, he'd catch the sight of blood spewing from Ryūkage's face as his coated frame was scuffed and torn by his attacks.

"ENOUGH!"

With the dragonic man's cry his head struck Seventeen's, splitting the forehead open before a vindictive swing of the elbow sent him jarringly into the ground below.

"Dodon Blitz!" Tien roared out, firing a two-handed array of Dodon Rays at the airborne enemy. When he disappeared again he barely had time to pull back his arms to block a powerful punch sending him flying backwards.

Ryūkage snarled as Eighteen shimmered next to him, disappearing from her midst to avoid an atmospheric warping punch. In its stead he connected a fore-knuckle jab straight into her left temple from beside, causing her eyes to roll to the back of her head and her body to fall limply to the ground. Krillin appeared moments later as predicted, allowing him to twist around and land a punishing uppercut to his jaw before finishing with a left hook to his chest. Even as Tien recovered enough to dash forward the Triclops would be met by a throttling punch that left him gaping, his power dissipating as he fell into unconsciousness.

Panting heavily at the damage and effort he placed, Ryūkage turned to see Piccolo appear out of the corner of his eye. Having not even sensed his presence he blamed himself for paying too much attention on the others. A bright burst of Mao-ken generated from the Namekian in the instant his guard was raised, the power exceeding that what it was before and sent him grounding through the earth.

"YOU DON'T GET IT! I AM GOD! I AM THE TRUE GUARDIAN OF THIS WORLD!"

Ryūkage howled, his voice seeming to echo throughout the entire land as his aura flourished around him as his body reared back to his feet. As Piccolo approached his human voice became a monstrous roar. The shadows of the land seemed to peel off the environment, swarming like a whirlpool of unholy darkness. Blowing outward in a ballooning dome that flew back over Piccolo's light projecting person, it eventually whisked away to reveal the being at its epicenter. The resulting environmental change resulted in a behemoth transformation.

Scales of onyx porous ebbed with ebony tongues of energy from the tip of a hooked tail, to the edges of enormous spread wings down to the talon protruding reptilian feet. Twin horns of ivory rose up from an extended facial structure, bearing razor teeth the size of Piccolo. Eyes bled a shimmering crimson and breath let out a deafening roar that made the Namekian halt in his tracks at his enormous foe. He was easily larger than the Lookout, a being of pure darkness of every sense of the word.

"YOU, LOWLY DEMON, USURPED MY THRONE AND TAINTED MY LEGACY! THEN YOU LEFT A CHILD TO CARRY OUT MY DUTIES WITH INEPTITUDE?! YOUR EXISTENCE SICKENS ME AND I WISH TO BURN YOU TO ASHES SO THAT NOT EVEN YOUR MISBEGOTTEN SOUL EXISTS!"

As monster yelled, Piccolo looked up with a nervous smile on his face, he replied, "If you want to kill me so badly, then come and get it! I'll make sure to make you eat your words!"

---

Gohan felt pressured from all sides.

The enemies he faced were all equally dangerous in their own way and worked in harmony with each other's abilities. Alone he felt no need to hold back his power as a Super Saiyan. But even still the cramped space and the resilient nature of the pit he was in made escaping hard with the triad of foes surrounding him. And each of their blows hurt his transformed body, something that he never thought a human being be capable of.

But he wasn't any pushover as they'd soon find out.

"Come on," Mellow Dee called out as she hopped from foot to foot, swaying casually as she grinned playfully as Gohan regained his bearings. "You're not putting up much of a fight. Is three on one too hard for you?"

"Concentrate on the task, Mel," Trench rebuked, his large frame rushing forward at a mind boggling momentum towards the demi-Saiyan. Swinging a large arm forward Gohan felt his side-stepping frame grow sluggish and heavy. When a follow-up kick crashed into his side he let out a gasping cry as he tumbled sideways.

Straight into Sky's direction.

"You lack resolve in your rhythm," She retorted as Gohan was dealt a round house kick, spearing him through the space to be within Mellow's vicinity.

Watching him get grasped by the mane of his hair his yelp of pain was silenced by a grip wrapping around his neck. What confused her and her superior was that she pulled him into a strangled kiss.

"MPH?!" The Super Saiyan muffled with alarm and confusion, his lips meshed into Mellow Dee's. Released with a wet pop, she winked at him just before she let his neck go. As he fell to his feet he'd see her snap her fingers in a crossing manner, causing the ground underneath his feet to explode in a lime colored blaze. Launched upward with a sputtering gasp, he'd find his ankles grasped by the similarly aged girl before spinning in a blurring circle that'd end up with his back planted into the earth. The resulting impact would indent the pit and fissure the soil all around their vicinity.

"For what it's worth," Mel replied with a twinkle in her eyes, raising a hand up to project an emerald sphere above her head as her foot was planted on his chest. "You were a great kisser."

It was in the instant that she was about to deliver her Coup De Grâce, Gohan's eyes opened wide and flashed a searing gleam. Her eyes were instantly affected, vision impaired, forcing her to raise a hand towards her face while launching her attack blind. Even as she tried to fire her bolt of green a golden beam erupted from Gohan's wide mouth and crashed into her body pinning her in a volatile blast against the wall of the wide durable pit of unknown substance.

"For the record," Gohan retorted as he flipped himself up into a crouch with arms crossed over each other. Prepared for both Trench and Sky's approach, he finished his line during an arm sweeping Kiai that blasted both of them backwards. "I'M TAKEN!"

"Ngh!" Sky stumbled back from the concussive wave, taken aback just as Trench was. Regaining her footing she looked up to see a single fissure of blue split off into dozens, effectively creating a wall of projectiles aimed at the pair. "So fast-!"

"HM!" Trench grunted with invisible exertion. The effect was a seamless film of dark air flowing out from him, causing the Kamehamehas in his vicinity to evaporate in a field of sparks. Just as he'd look over to see his white featured partner absorbing the influx of Ki, he'd notice Gohan traveling in between the attacks. "SKY!"

A second too slow in his warning, Gohan's left fist arched up to crash into her jaw. Dazed was the expression as she felt a rare bout of pain explode across her face, blood flying out of her mouth from the resulting impact. Attempting to return with the adopted energy she received, Gohan slapped the beam of hers that was coalesced.

Straight towards Trench.

The shades of the towering man reflected the powerful beam of light that combined Gohan's energy with Sky's. Just before it made contact his hand dove straight into it, his coat flapping wildly in the forced wind that buffeted him. Swiping it to his left, the blast seemed to shrink to the size of a soft ball, exploding harmlessly into the side of the pit. Raising his bare had that ebbed of burnt ozone and super heated vapor he grinned darkly at the surprised Gohan.

"A nice stratagem, Gohan. I can see you've been studying our fighting styles the entire time you've been taking a beating. You thought if you used Sky's powers combined with yours, it'd result in me taking damage," He deduced, much to his pleasure at seeing Gohan's face harden and bead sweat across his brow. Lowering his hand, his body phased out of his sight returning to loom straight over him. An icy coldness swept over him as a large set of knuckles embedded straight into his chest. "But that won't work on us, boy!"

Slamming straight into the wall with a fissure spreading crash, he'd cough up spit with bulging eyes. Followed up with Sky sweeping the air around her right arm and slamming an invisible pressurized gale along her arm into his crown he'd drag across the wall before he'd force himself to blast away. Enraptured in his mantle of power, he didn't notice a speeding emerald bolt crash into his back. Stumbling forward as his gi's back produced embers from the blast he turned just in time for his face to be grappled and then throttled with a powerful throw straight into another wall on the opposing side of the pit.

"Just because you have a girl, doesn't make you any less attractive, Son Gohan," Mellow Dee declared with a sultry smile, her apparel a little burnt but her overall body unaffected by the blast she suffered. "I might steal you away from her, hehe!~"

"Enough of the melodramatics," Trench mused, his body becoming a wispy mist of onyx mist. Raising his right hand a swirling mass of light-less blackness formed before his palm. The space warped and the ground seemed to transform into ash just by virtue of proximity. Howling as a twister of bleak energy swirled into the center of his digits as it swelled in size and seemed to take a nature of malevolence all on its own. Even the light dimmed around them, causing both his partner and Mellow Dee to react with their own reservations of apprehension.

"Is that your Reaper Bomb?!" Sky gasped aloud, her normally stoic visage replaced with one of apparent fear. "T-That could wipe out the whole factory and scar half of the planet!"

"If it does," Trench coldly sneered. "What of it?"

"B-But that's not our mission!" She implored, taking brave steps towards the vicinity of Trench; one of the few beings who could with such power manifested. Grasping him by the shoulder she met his unseen eyes through the shades while she mixed anger and panic in a single expression as she shouted. "Killing him is our objective but not at the cost of everything we're working for! What the Hell is wrong with you, Trench?!"

"Yeah! That's my boyfriend you're about to kill!" Mellow Dee implored childishly from the air, pouting her lips and crossing her arms with a huff.

"He's a threat that must be annihilated. If he transforms a second time, we might have a much harder time taking care of him," Trench reasoned, turning his attention back at the task at hand, noticing Gohan was stirring from his wall mounted placement. "This pit can withstand far greater punishment than a simple technique as this. If it doesn't, then that's that. I'll end him here and now!"

Releasing his hold on the bowling ball sized sphere of disintegrating energy all three would witness it tearing through space seeming to warp all matter around it. Transforming the top layer of the earth into ash and create a blackened wind with it the spiraling force thrust straight towards the boy. Then, it seemed to rebound and halt its velocity as a thrumming shockwave cracked the infrastructure of the pit itself.

"HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Let out a pubescent howl of mighty proportions, the air let loose from his vocal chords creating a distortion Kiai along with an engulfing flame ignited by his own magnificently enhanced aura. Hair stood on end as his lithe shoulders freed themselves from the mineral compound, his bang arching over his hardened brows, piercing blue-green staring down the halted death sphere.

Spreading out both hands towards the chaotic orb, he howled out further, sending violent curving tendrils of his energy swirling around it. It shrank rapidly, compressing to the size of a pebble but still boded a great deal of power. Flipping his arms upwards he sent Trench's diminutive energy ball straight up towards the ceiling.

What transpired next had a wide twenty meter wide evaporated hole, shrieking out of existence as metal warped and dissolved seconds after it passed through the canopy over their heads.

Trench was left beside himself, his unseen eyes dilated the pupils as his mouth widened along with Sky who looked at the Ascended Super Saiyan with a mixture of fear and awe. Only Mellow Dee seemed entranced by the fierce sight of the warrior child, her gaze completely fixed on the teenage warrior. She became ever more entranced by the second, unconsciously began biting her lower lip.

As her hair billowed out along with Sky's and Trench's coat, they knew that Gohan's power had spiked up tremendously. They'd find out just by how much very soon.

"Last chance," Gohan proclaimed with a quiet voice, his body had yet to move from the position he had sent the deadly attack thrusting into the heavens above the factory. "Surrender, and I'll spare your lives. Don't? I'll kill you."

"What an ultimatum," Trench scoffed with a slight laugh. "Don't be too generous, Saiyan. None of us are in this business to simply back down. Especially from the likes of y-LK!"

In the span of him giving his sardonic answer, Gohan had transmitted physically into his space. A fist crashed into his chest, producing arcs of bio-energy that snapped and cracked outward with a loud thuum echoing. Just like lightning, the attack caused the mighty man to be lifted off his feet, thrown back into the wall with enough force to create a split in the pit and be thrown out into the hall behind it. Not even reaching the hall that surprised walking workers Gohan blurred to his back, landing a vicious elbow into his spine. Arching him up straight towards the hole of the facility, he'd appear one last time up high into upper atmosphere rearing back a hand that'd flash a bright powerful thrust straight at the fields beyond. He watched his body slam into it with the force of a meteorite, uprooting a myriad of planted crops and blasting away soil as he dragged through in a trench before finishing to a slow crawl.

"You-!" Sky began to shout as she rose up into the air to overtake her enemy. In the span of her witnessing him appear before her eyes, he'd grasp her shoulder from behind, startling her with the speed he displayed. Not to mention the words he used.

"Don't worry, I didn't forget you," He darkly implied, grasping her to pull into a electrical sprouting kick straight into her solar plexus. Followed by a palm-thrust Kiai, she'd land in an opposing field away from the facility. Even as he heard the sirens ring from the chaos that they caused, she felt Mellow Dee reaching towards his head from behind.

Dodging to the right, he grasped her wrist and pulled her into a rear elbow thrust straight into her abdomen. Pulling her over his vertical mane of electrical charged tresses of blonde hue, flew with incredible momentum to the ground at the center of the field. Smashing her lithe body straight into the surface, a large upheaval of earth, producing a mushroom cloud of dust that sent crop and soil debris awry.

The only thing that kept him from celebrating was what his sixth sense told him. No matter the blows he connected, something felt off. Their power didn't rebound, dip or disappear. As he pieced this together he took a step back with shock plastered across his face.

"Ahhhhh," Mellow Dee rose up to her feet, rolling her neck and hips side to side to produce a series of pops. As she dusted off her overalls and picked flora out of her long hair she couldn't help but smile approvingly. Scuffs adorned her body but like before, she was completely fine. "I haven't felt like that in a long time."

A column of incredible energy rose up from the placements he sent Sky crashing followed by a nihilistic rise of force.

Turning to look to his right he saw Sky walking calmly from the distance towards them, having covered distance in a span of time he didn't calculate. Even as apparent sign of burnt flesh was where his kick struck her she didn't respond to it nor cared. A torrent of energy swathed her in a sparkling bath of blue enamored by sporadic sparkles within it. The source felt infinite and beyond his own understanding.

It was contrary to Trench as he approached from his left. During his awakening a dome of blackness swarmed over the field of soil that still possessed plants overturned or miraculously still in their spots. As he crossed them with the dissipation of the dome, leaving him with a wispy veil of sinister Ki, the flora shriveled up and was torn away into wilting ash. Even the soil that he trudged through seemed to leave an eradicated grey hue, as if he was a walking herald of death.

"Those were good hits, Gohan," Trench admonished the shocked Super Saiyan child. Reaching up to wipe away blood ebbing from his jaw, balling his fist around the stain of ichor. Releasing it with an unfurling gesture the liquid seemed to turn to dust in his hands only instilling more fear in the teen fighter. Even the spots where he had been hit seemed to track smoke where he was pulverized by the miniature fighter but seemed to leave no negative repercussion on him. "I'm surprised, it's been awhile since I've felt pain. It's quite possible that those were your executioner hits, right?"

"You," Gohan shuddered aloud, taking a few steps back to observe all three of them. "How are you all still alive?!"

"Oh, don't you get it, cutie?" Mellow Dee inquired with a giggle, smiling at him all the while his eyes widened at her words. "Maybe to those Cyborgs and Pirates your power meant something. But to us? Super Saiyan just isn't that super."

Grimacing at the indication, Gohan snarled as he tightened his fists, his aura seeming to glow even brighter than before. The occasional sparks seemed to run up and down his body far more frequently. Pulsing out into a wave of crackling wind that extended into the earth, the trio settled into readied stances.

"It seems you really were holding back some of your power," Trench suspected as balled up fists raised into an almost boxer stance. "Must have resulted in your diligent training...and the near death experience Tao gave you last year."

"I never thought I'd have to use this much power to fight anybody," The Ascended Saiyan replied coolly, regaining his confidence and leaned down with his left arm balling a fist above at an angle; the other closed in parallel to his leaning forward leg. It was the posture his father taught him and he knew his dad's fighting style may come in handy while fighting three opponents of high caliber. "But you all asked for it. Here's my full power."

Mellow Dee laughed lightly, leaping up into the air while coalescing a sparking lime colored ball of energy around her enclosed fist. "Let's see if its worth it, Go-Han!~"

Light. A streak of light flowed forth soundless till collision. Ramming straight into the attacking blue haired girl, she'd find her mouth unloading spittle and air with widened eyes of surprise featured across her face. Blown back by the now visible ponytail of black tresses and a white tee with dark finger-less gloves to similarly hued shorts and shoes, the girl landed right in front of the bewildered Ascended Saiyan. Turning to look over her shoulder with a dazzling eyes, the love of his life smiled with relief as she did a once-over of his person.

"I'm glad I made it in time," Videl sighed with relief, still crouched and alert but taking some comfort being next to her boyfriend.

"Videl! What are you doing here?!" Gohan cried out with surprise and alarm, worried by the level of enemies she just entangled herself with.

"We came to back you up," She answered with a wink.

"We?" He asked, just moments before a cacophony of sound breaking approaches could be heard.

Craning his neck he witnessed the descent of familiar figures, all of which were surprising to his gaze. Trunks, adorned in his transformed state, landed next to Gohan, his long coat fluttering in the wind with his strapped buster sword clicking with it. Yamcha fell in line, holding Maron whom seemed to have a long stretch of black mane and an eerily familiar aura surrounding her. The only figure he didn't recognize right away was Launch, whom he had to feel for her Ki behind the form-fitting armor that clung to her in a revealing manner.

"Nice to see you hanging in there," Trunks commented as he observed a stoic Trench with cautiousness. Turning to catch a flush faced Sky trying to hide her excitement and bashful state he finally observed Mellow Dee getting up a dozen meters away. "These guys...you hit them with your full power?"

"I went beyond a Super Saiyan and they couldn't be taken down, even with less than my new strength," He replied with a nod, keeping appraised of them just as they studied their new found opponents. "It's like when I surpassed them, I hit a new wall of strength they were keeping suppressed. These must be their strongest fighters if that's the case."

"Yeah, well we already took care of a samurai guy and others fought some cyborgs," Yamcha commented as he looked down the horizon of the burning faciliy. Like seeing something that wasn't visible he scratched his long mane as his brows furrowed with worry. "But it seems like Piccolo and Vegeta are facing their own opponents that are leagues above our own."

"So what?! We'll kick these guys' asses and then back them up if they're about to keel over," Launch shrugged nonchalantly with her reply.

"You make it sound so easy for just a simple thief," The scarred bandit rolled his eyes as he remarked sardonically.

"Hey, I'm trying to be optimistic here!"

"And we all appreciate it, really, but we need to be realistic."

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you've come down with the case of cowardice."

"Look who's talking Miss 'I don't wanna be involved'!"

"I don't but I don't got a choice do I?!"

"YOU!" Maron suddenly shrieked, cutting both of the bickering pair off to look at the midnight dye tress woman with equally onyx hued eyes glaring in a particular direction. The direction being Trench as his own right brow arched with intrigue.

"Have we met? You seem familiar," The larger man murmured, noticing how alike their particular Ki was to each other. Any further idling was shattered when Maron's back ejected a pair of sparkling dark particles that formed a pair of monarch wings. Eyes widened with realization as she grasped the hilt of her sword and her body seemed to generate a large envelope of bitter cold energy. "Hana-!"

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" She cried out as she withdrew her sword arching upward before bringing it down in Trench's direction. An abysmal wave of blackness surged forward seeming to swallow up light and earth itself, darkening the horizon with a single stroke. Her allies were sent skidding back and the other enemies braced themselves from the wave of disassembling Ki. When it finally dispersed she saw much to her dismay that her enemy was still standing.

"So you've learned to tap into the powers of Entropy have you?" Trench queried with a satisfied smile, his upraised arms suffering a shallow gash from the attack he blocked. Lowering the powerful limbs down he took a few steps forward seeming to appear with an outstretched hand aiming to grasp her. "You have much to learn, heiress."

With eyes dilated she ducked under the limb and batted it away with the flat of her sword. Twisting around she embroiled her right foot of a small segment of the wings flourished behind her. Cracking against his solar plexus, he stumbled back a step as amber tinted energy sparked between the two. In response he merely gestured in her vicinity, catching her in a ghastly blast of entropic force that sent her clothes-tearing frame back with a scream.

"MARON!" Yamcha rushed to catch her, wincing at how palpable the numbing touch was to his skin. Noticing how burns ebbed off her own frontal person he realized his own pain was minor compared to hers.

"Perhaps if you sided with us, I could teach you how to rein in your powers so it wouldn't hurt the ones you cherished. I'm not a heartless man after all," Trench offered with an outstretched hand.

"You...killed...my family," She hissed, pushing off Yamcha's embrace shakily standing back to her feet. Eyes bored towards his unseen orbs with a harrowing shout. "OUR CLAN! You stole them away just because you were stronger than them!"

"It's not like I did it intentionally," Trench replied dryly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Whatever qualms you have with me are irrelevant. I don't wish to kill you but if you continue to side with these interloping vigilantes I'll force my hand and put you in a lot of pain. Trust me. The difference in our powers are so vast you cannot even measure them."

Before she could take another step, Trunks strode in front of her and Yamcha. The tall son of Vegeta glared coolly at her antagonist. His stalwart form becoming a wall between the two waves of deadly energy, seeming to push them outwards with just the power of his proximity. The Ki began to rise slowly and so did the ashen soil surrounding him following with the ground in thick slabs of earthen stone.

"Are you going to stand in my way too, Trunks?" Trench asked with a smirk, amused at the boy's visual state of agitation.

"I didn't come all this way to let others fight my battles," The half-breed Saiyan commented with a guttural tone, electrical discharges beginning to churn around a now thrumming golden light. "Besides, Gohan and my father aren't the only ones who can kick it up a notch. Let me show you what I mean."

With a snarling growl veins pulsated across his hands up his sleeve covered arms to chest all the way up his neck. The earth billowed as a succinctly timed pulse of Ki flowed out from him, astonishing the others as his power began to rise dramatically with every wave. Solar tinted light flashed with every passing moment, seeming to rapidly dilate and reflexive blast. His hair stood on end, creating a halo of spiked hairs that formed a crown of electrified manes. Then a bellowing yell later, lightning spiraled up from the earth itself, streaking up into the sky as his power finally steadied and his transformation completed.

"There," Trunks sighed with relief, smiling darkly as he looked at the grimace that Trench possessed. "Been awhile since I've need to do this in front of a crowd. This is what it looks like to go beyond a Super Saiyan."

"Hmph, you prove to be a meddlesome thorn in our sides ever still. Just like your father," Trench commented with a sneer. Turning to look at Mellow Dee and Sky beyond he let out an authoritative command from a high volume tone. "Let's kill them all! No more discussions!"

"Awww," Mel replied with a pouting stamp. "But I wanted to play with Gohan more!"

"Do it," Trench coolly as his shade-covered gaze turned towards her.

"Pft, fine," Mellow Dee rolled her head around to let her hair drape over her face. Raising it up she raised her hands up with balled fists, grinning excitedly as Videl took up a fighting stance foremost of the others. "You're his girl, aren't ya? I'm going to enjoy stealing him away."

"Not on your life! HYA!" The spunky teen cried out as her body was enveloped in a Soaring Comet mantle once more. Flying forth in a swift burst of light she'd find that Mellow Dee had enough presence of mind to evade with a lime colored arc of swift movement. Turning around on her heel she planted a well aimed kick that struck her in the side, sending her crashing across the ground.

"Ha! You've got speed but no real power!" The blue haired girl crowed as she bounced from one bare foot to the other.

"Videl!" Gohan cried out, his body blitzing towards her downed frame. Intercepted by a wave of frigid numbness that made his body feel heavy he turned to look over at Trench's looming frame having caught up with him. He'd feel a hammer fist strike his face's left side, sending him sprawling several meters away before he steadied himself.

"Pay attention to your real concern, Gohan," Trench rebuked, tearing forth to swing an entropic waved fist towards him. Hitting nothing but the top edges of his vertical mane he'd feel a sparking crash of kinetic force supplant into his midsection, sending him hurtling back. Pointing his index finger at the charging Ascended Saiyan, he rapidly fired bullets of deadly energy. The sound of grating metal followed by a downward fissure of yellow Ki crashed into the hail of bullets. Raising his head to look up and see Trunks heading down with his enormous sword he was saved by a timely flying kick hitting the demi-Saiyan in the back; courtesy of Sky.

"You again!" Trunks spun around pointing his sword at Sky, doing her best to avert her gaze from his own. "Get out of my way!"

"I-I won't," She stammered, her face heating up and eyes squinting. "You'll h-have t-to m-make me!"

"What's her deal?" The Ascended Saiyan inquired with an arched brow. Shaking his head, he put it to the back of his mind as he charged forward. With a loud yell he drove the blade towards her in a direct slash. The stroke packed enough excess Ki that it cracked the ground below and strewn towards the factory with a powerful dividing chasm of shredding force. Only thanks to an invisible barrier that it remained intact and unaffected by his power.

Acknowledging that Sky had deflected the blow to cut away from her, he looked at the flushed woman with new found respect. It was enough that he narrowly raised an arm up to block a rising diagonal kick aimed to his jaw, the two limbs causing a crack of power to radiate between them. Soon it became a dance of sword and appendages, crashing each other efficiently, dragging both of them into a stalemate of skill and power. Neither could budge.

Unlike for those below, where pushes to one's extremes were piquing.

Mellow Dee somersaulted towards the downed Videl, raising a sparking green hand up to drive towards the prone girl. Just moments before she could, she felt a sudden spike of pain shoot straight up her abdomen. Eyes barely had time to see the raiment of light swathed over the raven haired girl, boosting her in the instant she had let her guard down to attack. A pair of hands pivoted off the ground and propped her lower body to land a pair of feet straight into her midsection.

"You little-NGH!" She cried out as a golden armored warrior ripped through the air, crashing a gauntlet covered set of knuckles into her jaw. Sending her flipping sideways, she picked herself up just in time to cut her arm through a fissure of flames that was fired at her. Through the mantle of tongues she caught sight of Videl rushing forward, swinging an accelerated storm of fists at her, each one battering through her guard and landing heavily into her body. "GRAH!"

"What's the matter? Losing your nerve?" Launch inquired as she blitz to her left flank, releasing a fiery punch into her jaw.

Bouncing with the hit, Mellow Dee flipped back to her feet, a feral grin stretching across her face. Light sprouted from the young girl's ankles, propelling her faster than either could prepare for. One lariat into Videl's neck, launching her head over heels while she landed a throttling punch straight into Launch's covered face. Already cracked from the earlier stress Shukun put on it, the blonde's face exposed with blood spitting out with spit as she tumbled head over heels.

"No, I'm just getting warmed up," Mel commented with a giggle, twirling on her heels as she stretched a hand up into the air. Punching the earth she let out an electrical field of bio-energy, swiftly overlapping both female opponents. While Launch's suit writhed with overload from the power surging through the components, Videl's aura barely warded off and let out a pained yell.

Grinning ear to ear, she hummed as she skipped towards Launch eyeing up her voluptuous frame. Raising a bare foot up she planted a heel powerfully into her middle, causing her to wheeze as the ground cracked under the force. Repeating the action over and over she let out an annoyed snort as she kicked her away with a ear-popping snap.

"C'mon, this isn't fun if you don't fight back," Mellow Dee remarked with a pouting raspberry. Turning to look for Gohan she smiled widely as she saw her honey evading Trench's attacks with fierce tenacity. "Ohhhhh! He's so good! I can't wait to have my way with him-"

"Kiaida!"

A loud scream was heard from nearby, following an unusual shift in Ki. It felt like it spiraled down to near zero on her sixth sense. Turning to observe she saw Videl rising up to notice the scorched and bruised girl was sporting a fierce stoic expression. It was as if all emotion was wiped from her face and concentration was maintained. Not only that, but a thin light aura like fabric was wrapped around her body giving it a slender appeal. It piqued her interest enough to abandon watching the temporarily incapacitated Launch.

"This is new," She murmured, having never witnessed a power like this before. Blinking, she smiled with joy as Videl seemed to drop into a stance mimicking that of a clawed demon. "Hehe, this is great! Now I can fight you seriously-"

Just as she mentioned it, a warping whistle was heard in her ears as Videl blurred forward. With a streaking spiral her arm planted firmly up her gut, earning a wheezing gasp as the cyan hue tress girl's eyes bulged widely. Spit flew out as she was sent exploding backwards across the horizon, followed quickly by the wraith of speed and force. Tumbling back, hip, head and waist over the earth she narrowly clenched the dirt to perform a flipping kick to clash with the reappearing pony-tailed girl's fist.

An electrified upheaval of soil was met as they separated, now exchanging stoic and pleased expressions. Mellow Dee's lips, now brimming with blood, mirrored the gleam of battle hunger she felt pulsing in her blood. This was definitely a first for her. Letting out a melodious laugh, she launched herself in a comet-streaking collision numbering in the dozens that Videl returned in fervor.

"YES! LET'S KEEP THIS UP! I'VE ALWAYS WANTED A GIRLFRIEND ON MY LEVEL!" Mel yelled loudly as their limbs and knuckles exchanged ear-popping collisions of extreme force. It was a battle that exceeded the levels of normal humans. Something that not even an augmented Launch could understand.

Only someone like Gohan could relate to in his own battle.

The transformed half-breed danced around large arms that cast waves of numbing dread that kept making it harder and harder to keep his body moving. Sweat beaded down his forehead past his brows, stinging his eyes as he kept rushing from the flurry of punches and kicks sent his way. It wasn't until saw an opening and swung a rising kick towards his face that he gaped at his foot being caught easily.

"You feel it, don't you?" Trench mocked coolly, swinging him around like a bat to crash his small body across the ground. Strewn across the earth like a rag doll, he shouted out as he carved a trench of parted soil with his body. "This is the power of Entropy! It eats away at all things, no matter its strength. The stronger you are, the longer you can resist. But even you have limits, Super Saiyan!"

"OKAMI-KEN!" Yamcha roared from up on high, causing the shade adorned man to look up. Parting the clouds was a wolf-shaped aura of white and blue, at the center of it with a feral gleam in the scarred man's eyes. As the sprinting coat adorned man pointed his finger like a pistol and fired a black ghastly bullet at him a swift Iaido draw of his blade. Cutting it in half the dissipating force a fissure of crescent shaped cobalt swathed towards Trench, forcing him to swing Gohan to counter it.

But the Ascended Saiyan had other ideas.

"HRAH!" Gohan howled as he fired two jet plumes of golden Ki from his palms, pushing himself away from the tearing force of light heading towards him. Simultaneously it pulled the offending limb still holding his head in the way. This gave way to a snarling grunt as Trench took the attack point blank the result tearing off his sleeve and burning it with a small gash at its epicenter.

Whipping Gohan around he snapped a kick that took up his whole chest sending him firing at the horizon like a missile. With him dealt with, he twisted around to meet Yamcha's falling kick with a leaping headbutt into his chest, following with a elbow lash at his jaw that sent him bouncing upon descending impact. Raising an arm to take aim at the slowly rising swordsman there was a fire bomb that whistled towards his left. Swinging it around to disperse it with ease he saw a crouching Launch take aim from the distance.

"That armor is a prototype. It may make you, a master thief, enable you for combat," The Circle Elite murmured coldly raising a hand to swipe several more offending plumes of fire. Raising a hand a ghastly sphere the size of a melon was formed, crackling with malevolent power he whispered with a crooked grin. "But you're nowhere near prepared to fight us."

Releasing it like a jagged bolt of midnight dyed lightning, the deadly attack moved faster than even the risen Yamcha's eyes could track. Rushing forward as fast as his empowered legs could carry him, he let out a silent cry at the sight of the obnoxious woman he pushed into fighting along their sides. It was at the moment a blip of onyx rushed before his eyes. A crackling divide between warping energy and a raven haired woman with marred skin glared forward.

"MARON!" Launch cried out, feeling the wave of abhorrent pressure push back her armored frame to her back. Everything felt heavy behind the generous proportioned friend's wake, and she realized this was her holding it back. The particles of ghastly crystal formed out of her blood and turned into wings of a butterfly swirled around her sword, pushing back against the Reaper Bomb that was sent their direction. She couldn't see that her own face was pale and akin to that of a corpse, her armor fading in color from golden tint to that of a mute grey, already deteriorating under the power that was attempting to obliterate her. "Maron! Leave me!"

"I-I can't!" Maron cried out, her eyes overflowing with crimson tears that turned black as they rolled down her face. Sweat mingled with it, creating a mist of vapor that flourished with her whipping hair. Her legs shook and her body quivered. Against such power she could witness skin tearing off her knuckles, blood flowing out like abysmal stained crystals that were utilized to hold the death orb at bay. "You're my best friend, Launch! And Yamcha...if I don't stop this blast, it'll kill him and everyone around us. I love him, and I can't let anything happen to you both!"

"Your resistance is admirable but futile, heiress," Trench growled, his raised hand emanating a ghastly mist as a swirling black centered white outlined coalescence of energy formed in his palm. "The Yūgure Clan is only composed of me, Hanzo, and you, Hana. You may have been destined to lead our people but I was undeniably strong since birth. The Law of Entropy dictates the weak are perished before the mighty. And you...will be crushed...just like they were."

Firing a beam that lanced towards the orb, an expanding dome of deteriorating energy suddenly exploded. Shattering the blade of Maron's sword her body convulsed as it thrust itself willingly into the fray to keep Launch from dying. With an unheard scream, the roar of the bomb let loose a discord of purple dyed lightning snapping and crackling as it was let loose across a large margin. It continued to swell and take over the land all around them like an endless gullet of nihilism that had no end in sight.

---

"That idiot!" Sky exclaimed, breaking off from her skirmish of indecision and evenly matched blows to the unfathomably growing blast dome of death.

"What is that?!" Trunks yelled out, his eyes widened and his mouth gaping at the visage of destruction continuing to envelop the whole landscape.

"It's his Reaper Bomb," She exclaimed quickly, approaching it while contending with several chaotic tendrils of energy coming off the ballooning energy. Grasping them she absorbed them into her body, dispelling it harmlessly as she turned to look at her object of admiration. "It's one of Trench's more advanced techniques. The aspect of Entropy is unleashed and eats away at life itself. Nothing will remain within one thousand kilometers, reduced to ash below sea level in its wake."

"And he just fired it off?!" The demi-Saiyan cried out, immediately blitzing towards the horizon. Grasped by his hand, he jerked hard and realized Sky was holding him back. Growling he glared hard at her as he hissed back at her. "Let me go!"

"You'll die-!"

"If I do, then so what?! Everyone down there is my friend! I can't abandon them!" Trunks argued against Sky, struggling against her as she pulled him back. Thwarted as he was locked into a vice grip with both of her arms pulling him into a leg crossed full nelson, he shook hard but couldn't be budged. Howling aloud with alarm, he let loose a loud cry. "GOHAN! YAMCHA! LAUNCH! MARON! ANYONE! GET OUT OF THERE! RUN AWAY! RUUUUUUN!"

As it overwhelmed everyone present, the Ascended Saiyan found himself cushioned by the blistering cold that flown over the light-less envelope. Blinking he saw Sky heave with concentration, dilating the wave of empty abyss around them and deflecting the entropic forces surging past them. He couldn't sense any Ki other than Sky's but he knew that it was taking all of her effort to protect the both of them.

With a defeated sigh of resignation, he closed his eyes feeling his arms drop and an empty feeling of regret. The howling torrent of energy continued to flow outward, seeming to annihilate everything out of sight and mind. A true sense of loss was felt as nothing flickered acrouss his sixth sense other than the absence of life. A true nightmare if he had ever felt it.

"Father...mother...I'm sorry," He thought as tears welled up within his eyes and fists balled up at his sides within the darkened Hell he was surviving. "I faile-"

"Forgive me," Sky whispered, causing his own self regret to halt causing him to turn suddenly at the white adorned woman seeming to shine like a bright halo in the darkness. To him, at the moment of despair, seeing her cry made his heart ache. There in her mesmerizing crystals for eyes was someone who had seen true horror and enduring this seemed to relive the trauma she endured. "I-I should have stopped him...yet...I didn't. I can't protect anyone. Like my home...a-and my fa-family. I try to think I'm a blessed one, sent by God. B-But...I'm just a weak...cursed girl, who never can do anything right. I-I'm...s-s-sorry, Trunks."

At a lost of words he felt himself more limp than he thought possible. A woman whom he thought was obsessive and egotistical was just a scared young woman that couldn't be older than he was. Yet, despite it all, she maintained a protective current around the two of them, giving the impression that she truly wanted to do good.

With a weak smile, he whispered loud enough for her to hear over the howls of nihilistic force warping around the two of them, "Hey, you saved me. And if you really were all bad you wouldn't have went through the effort."

Sky looked up shocked that Trunks had forgiven him so easily. It was such a foreign emotion for her to predict from someone related to the proud and stubborn Prince from beyond the stars. Smiling with a shivering pair of lips, her tears slowed and she felt a twinge of happiness. Someone had finally accepted her and she couldn't have felt more...whole.

The sudden absence of darkness brought them back to reality. Growing brighter with every passing second everything winked back to existence, flowing back towards a single epicenter that flowed around like a spiraling curtain of black dyed silk. From certain locations Trunks and Sky could see others had survived the ordeal.

"W-What happened?" Videl asked, her body reeling from exhaustion from the battering she had with Mellow Dee. When the whole world went black after an ungodly howl and a large explosion she had felt a momentary slip of her concentration and then she passed out. What she didn't see was the cyan girl's hair stretching out, forming a solid barrier of repulsing force while she straddled Videl's waist. The result had them both untouched as the hair withdrew and flourished back to its original length. Looking around at a valley of ash, she blinked with surprise, huffing out a query, "You...saved me?"

"Of course, silly," Mel replied with a wide grin, lowering her face to stare straight into the bewildered teen's proximity. "We're girlfriends now. Since you gave me such a fun fight I'll do what I can to keep ya alive."

Before she could protest, the bright eyed girl's lips claimed her own her tongue diving into hers and wrestled with it. As weak as she was she couldn't resist and quite frankly didn't care. She survived a nuclear bomb from Hell so she was glad that even an enemy stuck her neck out for her. She only hoped that-

"MPRHLAH!" She muffled with a wet smack and a twist of her face to look at the ashen wind that flowed and obscured her vision. Searching she saw a bright aura still crackling strong and her sense felt his Ki. With a happy sigh, she whispered, "Gohan's still alright."

"Oh, you mean my boyfriend?" Mellow Dee she inquired with saucer shaped eyes blinking inquisitively as Gohan's form was untouched by the blast. "Huh, what do ya know? He's alright! That's my honey for ya, hehe.~"

"Hey! That's my boyfr-"

"Shhhh," The cyan haired girl turned to place a finger on Videl's lips, her palpably flushed expression turning red at the words spoken next. "It's fine, I can share."

"Thmt' nmt tmph-!"

"Oh, even the scar-faced guy lived!" She parroted quickly, witnessing his crossed arms and squatted frame glistened the marvelous translucent aura of cobalt and white. Lowering them he looked over where the darkness retreated while she just stared at him with a grin. "Neat-o!"

"Wait," Videl intoned, her face growing pale at the thought. Looking up at Mel she asked fervently. "Maron! Where's Maron?! And Launch?!"

"Huh," Mel blinked with confusion.

"What does 'huh' mean? Spit it out!" The daughter of Mr. Satan cried out with desperation.

"What's that?"

Asking a question of her own irritated her. But when she turned to look her expression was one of wordless surprise. The Reaper Bomb's energies had enclosed into the shape of a purple bud of a deep onyx outlined rose. Rising up as it slowly bloomed rose up a black diamond shape of deep revolving darkness slowly shuffling in its motion. The sight was one that even the distantly hovering Trench lowered to the ground with a perplexed raise of his brows.

Silently, the formless darkness spread outward, revealing a pair of midnight colored wings of feathers that glistened like diamonds in the rays of the downpour of Sun's rays. The raven haired woman bore a pair of knife shaped ears, skin now akin to that of a light violet with pure lavender orbs. The voluptuous body was covered in a monarch top of purple outlined black, holding her considerable bust at bay while her naked waist and lower back led to a short feathered skirt that stretched down to the middle of her thigh. Butterfly adorned slippers formed over her previously bare feet, her light purple complexioned legs leading up to be hidden under her skirt.

But in her arms was that of a limp naked Launch who was now bereft of armor and clothing. Her tangle of blonde locks were now a grey-silver sheen, her skin having the complexion of marble with veins visible all over her frame. Tears dripped over her bare bosom from Maron, her eyes stoic but her lips trembled at the prone woman that she cradled in her arms within the embrace of the blooming floral ground.

"So, she perished did she?" Trench asked dispassionately, uncaring of the fate that befell the armored thief. "How unfortunate for her to have been friends with you. To meet such a fate because of your meddling."

"She's not dead," Maron croaked as she declared, her tears flowing down her skin as she broke her stoic facade and looked down at the lifeless looking face peacefully presiding in her arms. "It's much worse."

Grimacing, he witnessed her gentling placing her in the mouth of the flower, stepping out of it as it folded its petals protectively around her. Rubbing the floral cocoon she hiccuped as she wiped her face, letting loose a loud wail. Her cries brought Yamcha, Trunks, Gohan, Sky and Mellow Dee embarrassingly bridal carrying the stamina deprived Videl. Tears flowed freely as she beat against the flower with regret and bitterness, calling herself 'Stupid' and 'Weak' for allowing it to happen. Taking it a raspy inhale, she finally wiped her face, and turned to look back at Trench with wings folded behind her back.

"Ukketsu," She mentioned, a chord of understanding ringing within Trench's mind. "It's the technique in which the parents store Ki filled with the aspect of Entropy into a fully developed fetus. The child either succumbs to its side affects or it dies in stillbirth. I'm sure you're familiar with our custom, given your own ritual led to the death of almost our entire Clan with how much your body adapted to such a horrific power."

"Hence why you were sent away without a sign and I was left orphaned among a pile of corpses," He murmured, his face echoing a sign of solemn pain he had buried years ago. "If I hadn't been found by Shukun when he did, I would have died days after I was born. He taught me how to control my powers and rein in my Ki. Yet you," He paused, looking her up and down her beautiful frame in its newest form. "You suppressed it and naturally became attuned to it all this time. That's why your true potential hadn't been awakened till I pushed you to the brink of death. You, the heiress, absorbed the whole of my Reaper Bomb and became the true herald of death itself. A real Grim Reaper."

"I could care less about...about...THIS!" She shouted, her hands gesturing to her whole form. Tears threatened to come loose down her cheeks again, her arms hugging her own middle to which Yamcha reached out to touch her. The Okami-ken allowed him to reach and touch her shoulder, giving her a sense of warmth. But she didn't embrace the comfort but instead pushed her beloved's arm back and whipped a hand back at the enclosed Launch. "She's been cursed, all on a last act of desperation of mine to see that she had a chance to live. But if she dies, her soul will burn up with her. Her whole existence will cease to be. That's the damning power we wield as those who harness Entropy and I HATE it!"

"Which is why the distance between our powers will forever be as far from the earth to the heavens," Trench declared, his body bursting with a throttling exhaust of grim hued energy. Eyes absolved of light became entombed in pure darkness, his damaged body seeming to recover from the injuries sustained. The air swirled around him as purple bio-energy snapped and popped around his now burning aura of despair. A crooked smile stretched across his face as he boasted of his superiority. "I am unstoppable. I feed off the negatives of this world and have been doing so for decades. The battles of the Saiyans, the terror of Dr. Gero's experiments and the Space Pirates' attack have only made me stronger. I can feast on the malevolence of this Earth and know there is darkness that'll continue to sustain me till the end of time."

A cacophony of Ki spiked up in defiance to his proclamation. To his lens covered eyes he saw Gohan's energy rise up with rage filled quality. Trunks did as well, followed by a fiercely snarling Yamcha. Their bodies he expected to throttle with power, along with the now twilight painted light that sparkled across the tearing up Maron that now fiercely stared at him.

What he didn't expect was Sky's angelic halo of Ki flourishing around her as she stood beside them. Any look of hesitation or indecision was replaced by a righteous fury that was echoed through the pupiless glowing eyes that shined as brightly as her crystal acute aura. White painted lips and a beautiful frame enraptured in a white cloaked, leather form fitted that shown off the top of her breasts up to her neck shuffled with pressure. It was a seriousness he hadn't seen from her in all of his years working with her.

"At this rate, you'll destroy us all with your reckless abandonment of life and safety to those around you," Sky declared solemnly, her voice shouting as she felt a warmth echo in her heart. The words that the prince-ling told her rang clear in her mind and made her smile within. But on the outside she showed no joy in what she was about to do. "I'll do what it takes to stop you from harming any more of the planet, or these proud defenders of humanity!"

"Stand against me or not, it makes no difference," Trench raised a hand slowly, it becoming alight with darkness. Firing it in sightless void of force, he snarled at the whole of the group as the voluminous attack aimed to devour them all. "I'll take you all to oblivion where you belong!"

Having half expected them to dodge or try to resist it, the sight of the blackness being torn in half by Maron's hands caused him to take a step back. The moment her wings unfurled she became a true wraith of motion, her fists crashing parallel of each other and unleashing a monumental ballooning shockwave at his navel's center. Stumbling back with his mouth vomiting blood, he barely had time to deflect a pair of Ascended Saiyan fists coming from Trunks and Gohan. Sending him skidding backwards, Yamcha appeared from behind, unleashing a flurry of punches and kicks into his spine.

"RRRRGH!" Trench snarled as he turned on his heels, his leg aiming to crash into the bandit's right side. Seeing Sky manifest instantly in between the two and grasp his leg one-handed made his blood boil. With the tips of her free hand's fingers tapping his sternum, it quickly transformed into a thrusting fist, causing his whole body to disperse kinetic force. So much so that his coat was ripped off his imposing frame and his shades ripped off his abysmal shaded eyes. Saliva spewed out with ichor, his body wracked with pain but still managed clap his palms forward. "BEGONE!"

With both sent flying backwards, he transitioned back to catching the transformed demi-Saiyans' flying feet and smashed them together. Whipping them around to crash into Maron, the winged angel skirted around the pair and caught them by their ankles, ceasing their momentum entirely. Letting them fall back to their feet she raised her flat handed arm up and let loose a cry, imitating a sword stroke that created an abyss of darkness that crashed into him. As he tumbled head over heel he dragged himself to a halt and stood back up, a deep cut formed over his torso.

A wound that was already starting to slowly heal as he let out heavy breaths with a blood stained smile.

"S-Shouldn't we help them?!" Videl cried out in panic, wondering why Mellow Dee just hummed with joy at the sight unfolding before them.

"There's no point," Mel replied with a sparkling gaze fixated on the battle as a whole. "I doubt my intervention could help either side. This isn't a matter of simply strength. Their pride, ideals and morality are all on the line. Whoever wins this fight will prove their point."

"R-Really?" The blue eyed girl blinked speculatively at the turquoise orbs that glistened with glee at the battle.

"Mhm," She hummed with a nod. "That, and I love watching a fight like this. So pay attention and you may learn something, my sweet little muffin!"

Rolling her eyes with annoyance, she couldn't help but feel belittled at her weakened state. Turning to look at the various forces strike in unison and attack Trench, repeatedly impacting him with all of their might she couldn't but feel like she was watching a storm rage out of control. No matter the strength of the one or the five it seemed like it could lean either way. Her gaze homed in on the young teenager who continued to put his all into the battle right before her gaze.

"Gohan," She thought with twinkling eyes of hope. "Please, help win this battle!"

---

As the battles peaked elsewhere, it seemed that Vegeta's battle was a continuing uphill fight. The struggles he faced here seemed much greater than that of even his first arrival at Earth when Kakarot showed his face. The Earth born Saiyan was the greatest rival to his own personal strength, shedding his Elite Warrior blood and overcoming his best Ki technique. Requiring the power of an Oozaru to crush him absolutely he felt humiliated at being bested by the remaining Earthling warriors.

His battle against Freeza's elite fighters, the Ginyū Force and then the mad tyrant himself felt like he was climbing up a spiral staircase of power. The higher he went, the farther away his goals became. Just when he thought he reached the pinnacle of Saiyan perfection it was ripped away by the icy dictator who ruled over his life with an unforgiving fist. Broken and bested, he begged the single object of his hatred and loathing to fulfill his dying wish of having a Saiyan kill his oppressor.

The sight of his son, one he wouldn't know or care to be his, slaying the returned Freeza and his abhorrent father made him feel even more helpless. His goals set before him to become a Super Saiyan he dove into the deepest reaches of space to awaken his power within. It wasn't until he truly let go and stopped obsessing; stopped caring, did he truly find it. Proud of his accomplishment he revealed his power and effortlessly destroyed one of the prophetic Androids. Then, the future had changed as his son foretold and more challenges broke him, beaten him and thrown him to the wayside.

The twins, Cell, and then even Kakarot once more. It wasn't until his son was lying dead in his arms that he awakened a new limit, one that was coming out of selflessness and uncharacteristic desire to avenge others not out of his own self worth but for the sake of fulfilling an unspoken dying wish of their own. It had been two years since that fateful day and he had already faced the trial of Bojack, overcoming his treachery and destroying him with a single absolute strike.

A woman in white who wished to rope her into a clandestine organization then brought his whole world of superiority crashing upon him. Had it not been his son from the future, he'd have certainly lost his life. The strength he gained from the experience now a testament to how close he had almost relinquishing his hold on this world.

Yet, this man in white, was treating it all like it was a game to him! It was absurd and yet he couldn't help but find a measure of awe for how powerful he was. Every strike, every counter and muscular motion was without waste or recklessness. He enjoyed every second he landed a blow to the Prince or had been struck likewise. It was like the embodiment of battle fury and reveled in it to the point he, a Saiyan, had to acknowledge he was the human equivalent to his own race.

It was when a heaven quaking crash that they separated, forcing him to take respite where he could. His bare hands dripped of blood, partially from his own split knuckles to the freshly spilled wounds he inflicted on the toothily grinning Shukun. Tears were formed across his worn shirt down to his pants, his body soaked with sweat and seawater that stung his sore body. Scuffed was his enemy with bruises sporadically displayed on ripped sleeves or openings in his chest covered fabric. But the man looked far from winded; scarily still, he looked excited for more.

"That's it, Vegeta! You're proving to be a much more entertaining fighter," He declared his smile stretching ear to ear with carnal delight. "I haven't had this much fun in ages. I can't thank you enough for breaking your limits to pushing me to use this much strength."

"Stop toying with me!" Vegeta howled, flying forward with renewed vigor. Swinging a fist that was presumed to be deflected the Ascended Saiyan flipped in a diagonal forward turn to lash an ax kick towards the white-maned man's shoulder. Watching it get blocked by a swiveled hand he grimaced as he was twirled and then sent flying back by a swiftly deployed Kiai. Clawing at the ocean, sending tidal waves skirting on either of his flanks, he halted long enough to pull back two hands and hands rapidly firing golden beams at his enemy. "RAH!"

"Oh?" Shukun queried, his hands effortlessly swiping at the discharges. "You feel frustrated that I'm not using my full power on you? I'm sorry but I haven't had my fill yet. You'll die in good time, though."

"This isn't a game!" The Prince howled as his body became embroiled Galick Thrust over his Ascended Aura. In a blur of crackling gold-purple he flew forward at speeds far faster than the speed of sound that he barely left an imprint in space. When he appeared with a thrown punch, he'd find his eyes bulging out and his mouth opened wide, a left arm twisting across his solar plexus.

"It is to me!" Shukun declared with a laugh, sending him flying back in a golden propelled missile of velocity. Already phasing through the air to glide casually beside the water skipping frame of the Saiyan, he kept speaking as his palms were pulled back and then crashing against him in a furious momentum. Claps of force discharged off him, parting the sea as he was rocketed over the open air. "My mission is so far beyond this battle that I couldn't begin to describe you its importance. I was given a single purpose from on high, eons ago, so far that your race hadn't emerged from a primordial womb that you were born from. Not even your petty squabbles or the lost lives of millions could compare to our cause, my goal!"

Managing to flip upright, the wheezing Vegeta kept his power up firmly but felt the injuries make him wobble in the air. As crimson flowed from his nostrils over his leaking lips he growled, unable to mount an effective assault at the man he was aspiring to pound into the dirt. But now, as he walked casually towards from the refilling seaside, he wondered if anyone could do it.

He briefly considered a particular vacant entity but shook his head, pulling himself back to his full height. Letting out a roar he pulled back his arms and charged up the Galick energies into its primary function. Cocking his left arm up at an angle, his other curled digit palm was clasped with another, forming a signature attack of his bloodline. With a guttural howl he silently unleashed a pillar of ocean splitting Ki of purple outlined white light aiming to obliterate his walking foe.

But the most astonishing happened. Even as he fired the beam that soared across the planet's horizon, purposefully arching up into space to avoid collateral damage, he heard a voice. It came from within the epicenter of the blast wave, the silhouette of white calmly rebuked the Ascended Saiyan as he drew closer.

"You don't get it, do you, Vegeta?" Shukun asked as his body ejected the Galick Gun entirely with an invisible pulse of his own power. Appearing before the Saiyan Prince his fist crashed into his chest, causing the Saiyan's eyes to white out. "To me, all of your struggles up to this point have been meaningless."

Letting him limply fall into a kilometer spanning hole opened in the ocean they fought on, he watched him drop with a powerless frame towards the bottom. Smiling calmly he turned to air walk over the receding waters, letting the waves bury him as he casually left his opponent die where he left him. Unsatisfied but content with the results, having predicted the outcome since its start.

"You're no different than the others," Shukun continued, his voice leaving a trail of loneliness as he sighed and looked up at the sky. It had been opened to the same sized hole that he had imparted upon the sea. Seeing the Sun peeking from behind, he lowered his gaze towards the horizon. "They'll fall, just like you. It's only a matter of time."

---

A deep, dark embrace took him once more. Just like in his dreams his weakness was the result of this caving feeling that clung to him like a planet-wide net of chains. Pulled down into obscurity he'd be forgotten, just as his dying race had been. His aspirations of overcoming his one rival, his better, Kakarot was now undone. Just like with his death he'd now not see his return thanks to these warriors of the underworld.

His son would grow up never seeing his father again. He'd never feel the warmth or reassurance of his confident wife again. Sparring with Gohan could never happen. The last fight he had ended in him being utterly and completely defeated. He was now garbage, left to rot as he sunk into the deep hole of nothingness that he feared of becoming. It was only fitting given how it all happened, what got him here.

"You're no different from the others."

Those words struck a sudden twinge of anger within him. Pride in himself that had been damaged resurfaced, the tonnage of bindings dragging him down was drawn to a halt. A loud scream in the emptiness let out of his throat as he began to push back up. Up towards the distant wink of light.

"They'll fall, just like you."

He wasn't done, not yet. The chains began to snap, the world that it anchored to unseen to him was beginning to crumble. Quakes spread apart as enormous links were ripping up from their cemented placements, cracks filling up the planetoid weight that attempted to pull him into the center of the abyss. Veins perforated across his brow and his scream began to become more audible with every strain up towards the brighter and gleaming glare of light above him.

The vision of his running child, his tall counterpart from the future, came to the forefront of his mind. A remembrance of a weakened yet relieved Bulma encompassing his vision. A halo of light filled up the blackness that surrounded him, the planet that was his deceased planet now ripped apart along with the impossibly long chains holding him down now shattering. Powering upwards, he rushed towards the light that began to shrink before his very gaze.

"To me, all of your struggles up to this point have been meaningless."

"VEGETA!" A loud voice cried out, irritating and startling him all the same. A halo christened his spiky hair. His hand stretched out, causing him to falter even as the light continued to dim. The vision that he witnessed scared and infuriated him all the same but his words snapped him out of his indecision. "TAKE MY HAND! I KNOW YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CAN SURPASS ME! SHOW ME THE PRIDE OF THE SAIYANS YOU'RE ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT!"

"I..." He croaked out, his hands twitched as he felt himself slowly fall.

"BULMA! TRUNKS! THEY'RE WAITING FOR YOU!" Goku fervently insisted, the light almost extinguished as he hurriedly called after him. "DON'T LET THEM DOWN, VEGETA!"

"I-I know that!" Vegeta replied with a growl, his body aglow once more as he powered up to reach him. "I just didn't imagine my return would require me holding hands with the likes of you!"

"Hehehe, you're a real stubborn guy, Vegeta," Goku laughed, his grip tightened and the light renewed in earnest around the two. The orange clothed Saiyan pulled him up and heralded his ascent, throttling the two up into an unseen above. "C'mon. Go do your thing!"

---

It was there.

A pulse that signified a sign of life was emanating at the deep.

Such an occurrence made Shukun's steps halt and his breath hitch. Eyes dilated as a spike of energy rose up. Turning around he'd witness a column of golden outlined lightning spearing through the ocean, boiling it over and spreading it apart. The aurora of fleeting energy spiraling up into the sky renewed the tension of the atmosphere and the burning star that was Vegeta's Ascended Super Saiyan power.

"I swore I stopped his heart," Shukun thought as he admired the seemingly willed-to-life enemy of his. It made him smile and his own heart beat faster with excitement.

Breathing heavily, wind jettisoned from Vegeta's Ki that made Shukun's form get whipped from the blistering air. Bio-energy churned around him, his muscles flexing and his blood smeared away thanks to the salt water. Eyes piercing blue and spiked golden hair Vegeta let out an unforgiving wrathful yell.

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF MEANINGLESS?!" Vegeta inquired with a loud throat tearing yell, the ocean's surface dipping and pushing out as a hurricane twisted around him. Even as Shukun resisted he could only listen as the Saiyan Prince poured out his words in every air pulsing sound. "SPEND YOUR LIFE RULED BY ANOTHER! WATCH YOUR RACE DWINDLE TO A HANDFUL! AND THEN," He stopped, pointing a finger at Shukun from afar as he snarled with every shout let loose from his voice. "TELL ME WHAT HAS MORE MEANING THAN YOUR OWN STRENGTH?!

"HE HAD NOT THE BLOOD OF AN ELITE OR PRINCE LIKE I! HE WAS A JOKE! YET I HAD TO WATCH HIM SURPASS ME IN STRENGTH; MY DESTINY, THROWN TO THE WAYSIDE! HE EVEN SAVED MY LIFE, LIKE I WERE A HELPLESS CHILD! HE TORMENTED MY HONOR...AND YET...and yet," His voice began to quiet, becoming deadly shallow as his screaming had withdrawn. Taking in a few breaths he continued at the attentive leader of the Circle. "He's the reason I got where I am. If not for him I would have been a slave, forever bound to Freeza's control. If I hadn't saw it with my own eyes I'd forever be unable to grasp the power of the Legend, the Super Saiyan. As he climbed higher I was goaded into following and so I did. Now, I've obtained a strength that rivals his own as he fights in the realm of the afterlife. When he returns he'll have obtained a peak of power that'll once again overshadow my own.

"But now," Vegeta intoned, his fingers digging into the flesh of his worn palms, drawing fresh blood. His already chaotic aura began to spike, the transparent glow of his aura began to expand and rise in equal measure. The body he pushed burned but he used it only as a fuel that he continued to push himself further. "IT'S MY TURN TO SHINE! I'LL BE THE ONE TO SURPASS HIM BEFORE HE CAN DO IT FIRST! IT'S TIME TO TAKE MY POWER EVEN HIGHER THAN BEFORE! IF YOU WERE LOOKING FOR A FIGHT THAT EXCITES YOU, GET READY FOR THE LAST ONE YOU'LL EVER PARTAKE IN! HRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

A bellowing echo was released as the ocean quaked and the planet's plates trembled far below. Lightning began to spray outward from him, fiercely springing out into the heavens. His cry only continued to reach a deafening volume his power expanding with timely pulses that shoved the sea out, continuing the burrow till it hit the bottom. The water curved upward till it formed a conical swirling barrier as light pillars spewed through it, the planet already shaking.

The storm circled over his head, churning out its own cacophony of bolts that sprayed out across the perimeter of their enclosure. Assuredly it'd continue to pulverize the islands surrounding the seaside and pop the waters with vaporizing volley. Geysers flowed upward with punctual golden glow, a testament to how far the power continued to flow outward across the vast scopes of the world. Despite it shaking, nothing felt more rapturous than the beating inside Shukun's chest.

Amazed he was within the site of a transcendence beyond his own understanding. He had come to know much thanks to his research and years of observation from the shadows. But this was something else entirely. This sight that pulled the hood off his long-haired mane of silver tresses made his snow colored eyes look on with ecstasy that his nerves tingled with fevered anticipation.

"His power," Shukun gasping with shrunken pupils. "It's...rising...and...even more. What is he doing? Where is he drawing it from?"

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Vegeta continued to shout, sweat beading off his shoulders as his visage was strewn with effort, brows sinking into his broadening features. His upward crest of began to arch and flourish backward muscles bulging ever-so slightly. Light radiated off him like a pulsing dome that came in machine paced beats that kept giving more and more power that tormented him like no other. Veins outlined his whole body as he kept shrieking into the nethers, the burning his blood felt nowhere near as the suffering his own pride felt at being helped by the clown from the beyond.

Within his mind he had imagined the sight of an Oozaru, large and powerful, full of bestial power with no refined attuned control. Shrinking down to his child that rotated in a fetal position as it orbited in space he saw true ability and boundless potential. The merger of both came to his fore thoughts as a loud space shattering yell let loose one last burst of power that popped the dome of the ocean. The propelling current of friction flew across the planet bound to revolve around everyone with the true essence of power that came with it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Flashing lights began to dim and the power seemed to only blink in intervals. His apparel transformed into a golden ragged appearance, bio-electricity pulsing constantly instead of intervals all over his frame. Eyebrows vanished entirely, leaving a more primitive and intimidating hairless brow line. His torch shaped hair had grown to elapse over his shoulders, flowing down flare out around his posterior waistline. Like blades of Sun soaked grass they rivulet with motion as his body pulsed with unimaginable power that was soaked up into his vein throbbing skin. Blood ran like fire through his veins and his heart continued to thud like a war drum in his chest.

But he had done it; he had surpassed his limitations into an entire new realm of existence for the Saiyans.

Chuckling gutturally, his voice somehow deepened to a tone that seemed almost unlike him. Composed, confident and yet full of murder that belied the smug smile across his face. Raising a dry bloodied hand up to thumb at his face, he smirked at the beside himself Shukun, "Say hello to Hyper Vegeta, the Super Saiyan beyond all other Super Saiyans! Get ready to be introduced to a world of hurt, Shukun. And I promise you, you're not going to enjoy it; except for me, that is."

---

A/N: WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Ascended Vegeta has reached his new pinnacle form! Been waiting a long time to unveil this bad boy! I hope everyone loved how I had his character developed in this Chapter, coming really full circle from Chapter 1 of this series to now. It's been a wild ride but we finally came to the Eve of our concluding Arc Chapter.

EDIT: Note, I altered the description to make it a true representation of what we know a Super Saiyan 3 is. After some consensus made with a good friend of mine, whom I co-author on a story of ours, I decided it best not to make any author changes for my own desire.

But first, time to acknowledge the Reviewers!

ShadowLDrago: Fixed, thanks for pointing that out ^^

Also that's what I was going for. They have the best intentions for the Earth at heart but their goal has ultimately blinded them to the more important things. As most "Ends justify the means," clandestine groups go, they lose sight of the little people and the smalle percentages of populaces that get endanged by their own forced reclusive nature. They try but ultimately aren't as proactive as they should be.

Also, lol, Launch HAD robotic armor. Too bad it was a prototype cause it didn't really stand a chance against the likes of Trench that monster.

Hopefully she comes through :(

And yeah, Vegeta's not going to be merciful to anyone in his way =w= especially now that he's awakened his maximum Super Saiyan power as HYPER VEGETA! #SuperSaiyan3PropertyOfGoku XD funnily because he's the only one who's called any form beyond the 4th Grade "Controlled" Super Saiyan form by a number, like "Super Saiyan 2" or "Super Saiyan 3". Vegeta wouldn't really call it that, ever, except in video games lol

See ya in the next Review ;)

nimedhel09: Glad you were excited to see it ;) I hope you're even more ecstatic to see a sooner-rather-than-later update. Put a lot of work into it so I hope you're able to survive the tower of text I've typed up for ya, haha!

You bring up good questions, one that'll be eventually answered at the finale's end on the final Arc chapter. Who knows what fate our self established guardians of an unknown looming threat have in store for them? :O

Lol, hopefully you can keep up XD I tried to separate them evenly so that everyone gets an even amount of screen time. Even if some falter before others I want them to get a few hits in anyways ;) Just like poor Trunks. Vegeta was royally angry though I'm glad he pulled through and then some this Chapter ^^

See ya in the next review ;)

MalikJamalTimberlake: Lol, I never made the comparison to Vergil but I'm flattered. He IS a badass even though I've never played the games myself ;P I modeled Trench after the younger Toguro brother from YYH borrowing the decals to his attire from Neo. Other than that, I just winged it and tried to make him my own character, haha.

Poor Edge died bravely :( RIP Edge.

Piccolo's got a lot more new techniques, as you'll see in this Chapter and if you hadn't seen it in the last chapter, I wonder what you were reading XD

And if you mean Asura's Wrath, yes, yes he is. He's broken through the last barrier of tolerance he has for this guy and he's going to unload an aisle of whoop-ass cans. ;)

Hope you like what you see this Chapter ^^ comment and Review so I can see if it measured up to your expectations ;)

GodzillaFollower1998: Here's to hoping you approve of what he unleashed this Chapter. Nice to see ya, like always ^^

The Anguished One: At least Gohan got support; little guy's going to need it against a monster like Trench 0.0

Looks like the reinforcements arrived just in time, but can Piccolo survive Ryūkage's full measure? O-O

Yeah, as much as Roshi has improved he's still an old man. Fighting at this pace for too long is tiresome while Shukun has ungodly stamina. Only the Prince of all of four current Saiyans is the guy to take'em on :P

More on the revelation of Codename, "Daikon" who is the restored Raditz in the Arc after this one ;) I shall speak no more about it XD but feel free to ask as much as you want about the future of this story or guesses as to what'll happen next. Who knows? I might fancy you a revealing answer hinting at what's to come ;)

Mdhunter: Ah, that makes sense o3o

At this point, the threat is at LEAST Buu level. Even I don't know how threatening their looming menace they speak of in heavy foreshadowing is. For all I know it could BE about Majin Buu or it couldn't be related at all. That's the fun thing about the future; it's always uncertain and always changing ;)

Hope you enjoy this update and hopefully some more answers were answered to your satisfaction ^^ thank you for the support as always and see ya next update ;)

---

Between the happenings of Ryūkage revealing his true form as a Dragon of Darkness, facing off against the Dragon Clan's inheritor Piccolo; to Maron awakening her true power against Trench, with a changed Sky joining them all to fight against the nihilistic enemy a lot of fights are going on. How will they be resolved? Will Vegeta's prediction be right and that his victory could end this planetary scaled battle? With Shukun utilizing an unreal amount of power and possessing legendary skill, will Vegeta's new form be enough or will he bested before his new limits run their course?

Find out, in the finale of this Arc, of The Vegeta Chronicles!