A/N: ...Next chapter will be much longer.
Vegeta growled under his breath upon sensing the new energy.
"You sense it too, Vegeta?"
Vegeta only nodded in reply to Goku's question. It was Frieza. The man they were following was going after Frieza.
Goku's expression grew serious while Vegeta's also became grim.
"We need to stop him before he gets to the ship," Vegeta said aloud, causing Goku to nod his head in agreement. This would be the moment that Frieza destroyed the planet. They'd probably be able to stop the attack, but Goku already knew that Vegeta didn't want to do more than absolutely necessary.
As they continued their chase, Bardock was speeding ahead, remaining oblivious of his two followers.
Goku narrowed his eyes in thought as they trailed after Bardock. Goku could sense the waves of Frieza's men pouring out of the ship. Putting on a burst of speed, the earth-raised Saiyan began to close in on his father, who arched his head to see the near mirror reflection.
"What the-!"
"Bardock! Wait, it's too dangerous for you to face Frieza right now!"
Goku's father had slowed down considerably. The young man in his vision was right in front of him!
"Kakarot..?" Bardock gestured as though he were reaching out to him but hesitated. "Must be another vision...Why now of all times!" he growled, forcing himself to break eye contact and look back towards the large ship in the distance.
"Bardock, wait! This is no illusion. At least let us help!"
Bardock snapped his head towards Goku's direction again, a look of surprise still etched on his face.
"This is unreal," he muttered, roughly rubbing his face as though Goku would disappear from his vision.
"I'd get a move on if I were you, Kakarot. Frieza isn't just going to laze around from his command chair all day!" the Saiyan Prince snapped as soon as he closed in to the duo.
"V...Vegeta...?" Bardock was at a loss for words. Was this the King? But if his son was right there and Vegeta was right there too...and he looked younger than the King.
"No way!" Bardock shouted in disbelief. Before he could demand to know what the hell was even happening, the waves of soldiers pouring out of Frieza's ship began to close in around the three of them, like a giant oort cloud of infantrymen.
"Kakarot," Goku heard his father state his Saiyan name.
"I know that you're destined to kill Frieza," Bardock admitted as he gauged the distance between them and the infantry. "But I won't just stand here and let Frieza destroy the planet! That's crazy talk!"
From what Goku learned from Frieza himself, the Arcosian tyrant destroyed the planet shortly after Bardock had challenged him. Goku narrowed his eyes in thought quickly, before reestablishing eye contact with his father.
"Then let's combine our power. Until we can find a way back home, we might as well make sure this planet survives!"
The eldest Saiyan's eyes widened, but couldn't suppress a triumphant smirk. He just knew that with Kakarot here, there was no need to worry. Momentarily, he locked eyes with Vegeta and an unspoken grudging respect formed between the two. All three nodded simultaneously to each other, blasting off towards the quite close wave of soldiers.
Bardock wasted no time rushing into the massive crowd of infantry, instinctively grabbing nearest victims to use as shields and throwing them at the enemy. However, he couldn't help but be amazed by the skill that his son was battling. Goku seemed to weave effortlessly through the crowds of soldiers, causing them to unwittingly attack each other and the youngest saiyan was barely exerting any effort. Bardock didn't want to admit it, but Vegeta, who Bardock was now sure was the prince, was faring just as well as his own son.
In his moment of distraction, a mass of men got ahold of him, all of them attempting to kill him somehow. Denying them the opportunity, he pushed his Ki outward, forcing all of them back as though they were hit with the crushing pressure of a Tsunami. Some were killed just by the force of the explosive wave.
Before he knew it, much of what surrounded the three were dead bodies or retreating soldiers.
They did it. Bardock knew that all that were left to stand up to them were Frieza and his two highest ranking cronies.
"FRIEZA! Come out! I know you're in there! We Saiyans won't let you oppress us anymore!"
Faintly, all three saiyans could sense a docking bay opening up on the roof of the ship. A hoverchair slowly lifted through the newly created opening, in which sat Frieza in his first form. He was scowling, his expression giving the impression of annoyance more than anything else.
"We're tired of you ordering us around Frieza! A gift from us!"
With all of his strength, Bardock lifted his right hand to his side, transferring as much Ki as he possibly could, forcing a ball of light to form above his palm. Thrusting his arm forward, the ball of Ki rocketed toward Frieza, who had lifted a single index finger.
It's like History playing out, Goku thought to himself before a terrifying pressure assaulted his 6th sense. Frieza's energy had been steadily rising but shot upward after he raised his finger...
"So that's how he did it, the same with Namek..." Vegeta grumbled. It was already obvious to both himself and Kakarot, that they far outclassed any beings on Planet Vegeta at the moment, and Frieza himself. But the blast used to destroy planet Vegeta and later planet Namek was unstable energy much like an atom bomb that could go off on contact. Simply trying to knock it away bare-handed could prove not necessarily fatal, but very dangerous.
Bardock was left nearly gawking at the mass of energy that just...Ballooned from Frieza's finger. The same mass of energy that ate his own blast of Ki like it was nothing.
I'm not strong enough! Bardock shouted inwardly. Damn those hardheaded Saiyans! There was a mass of destruction heading toward the planet and they were probably getting drunk in a bar at this very moment!
"We got this Dad!" Goku reassured, clapping his father's shoulder.
"What?" Bardock wrenched his eyes away from Frieza's massive energy ball and looked at Kakarot and Prince Vegeta. They both were preparing their signature moves.
"Ka...!"
At this point, Goku thrust both his arms forward, with either hand touching the other by the wrist. Vegeta had a single arm pointed forward, palm open, as energy began to collect in front of his hand.
"Me...!"
Goku's arms slowly moved to his side and his hands began to repel each other as a sphere of power began to grow in between his palms.
"What is he doing...?" Bardock was forced to look back and forth between Frieza's attack and Kakarot's.
"He's launched it!" Bardock shouted in warning. Frieza began to laugh uncontrollably as he jerked his finger downward and the spherical mass above his head began to descend towards the three on cue.
"Ha...! Me...!"
"Big Bang Attack!"
"HA!"
What happened next would be stuck in Bardock's memory forever.
Not only did the beam that Kakarot launched slowly deccelerate Frieza's Death Ball, but the beam had grew in size, nearly matching Frieza's attack in width. Vegeta's Big Bang tipped the scale, having been launched into Kakarot's beam, feeding it more power and pushing the Death Ball upwards before it was forced to dissipate.
"That's insane..." Bardock was forced to exhale in wonder.
"Impossible!"
Goku exhaled and took another deep breath, setting his gaze on Frieza who had adopted a livid expression on his face.
Bardock took the moment to activate his scouter, to get an estimation of how strong the two warriors were. Their skill was unbelievable!
"150,000?" Bardock couldn't believe what his souter was suggesting! But what he just witnessed supported the idea. The very idea that these two could have such high power levels...
Frieza slowly began to float out of his chair and gracefully landed next to it on the metallic roof of the ship.
"Tch, who are these three fools to think they can stand up against me!"
"King Vegeta? That you? I don't know how your power levels have gotten so unnaturally high, but it's of no consequence. It's still only about a tenth of my power," the reptilian warlord stated with a smile.
"Let me guess, you're power level's over 1 million?" Vegeta remarked. It was his turn to smirk when Frieza's faded in annoyance.
"You are obviously an over excited monkey, more so than usual! I'll have to teach you a lesson."
"Kakarot, I'll take care of this, and then you can fight him last. I want to see how much more powerful than Frieza we've become."
"More powerful? Didn't you say his power level was at 1 million!?" Bardock raged, annoyed at what looked like royal stupidity from Vegeta.
"Where we come from, Scouters are useless."