So things start escalating.
The young Saiyan baby still had not yet even begun to cry, only silently sleeping. Strangely, even as a baby, Broly had a melancholy expression on his face, almost looking wiser beyond his infant years.
Paragus watched his son sleep, thinking over the words of the Saiyan claiming to be from the future. He did not have a scouter during that conversation, but he could tell that man was very powerful, indeed. If he says that Broly would become much more powerful than he already is, who was he to not take that declaration seriously.
And this "Goku" even claimed that this child, his own son snoring blissfully in it's small bed was the Legendary Super Saiyan...
"Time traveling, huh..?" Paragus asked aloud to no one in particular. Goku also claimed that Broly killed him for trying to control his power. Did he really lose sight of what a Saiyan's duty was of training his son?
On a whim, he took hold of a scouter that lie deactivated on a nearby table, equipping it over his left eye. With the press of a button, he then glanced at Broly's sleeping form.
::PL-13500-::
As much as he wanted to, he couldn't muster any surprise at the results. For Broly's initial power level to jump from 10,000 to above that in less than 5 days was expected in light of everything's that occurred earlier today. In fact, Broly's power level was already higher than the average Saiyan adult's, including his own. Momentarily, he wondered where Burokori was off to. She barely talked much, but her leaving the area so often when not on a mission was unusual. Then again, she and their son were unusual to begin with. Thinking no more of it, he picked up Broly's small form, inadvertently waking him up.
Paragus held him close to his face, studying his expression and Broly seemed to be doing the same. Paragus' son formed a small smile before grabbing a fistful of hair from the top of his head, which he had to admit hurt a little bit.
Paragus held back a yelp of surprise at the strength of his son's grip and ruffled Broly's hair, making the infant child let loose a sound he hadn't made before. He started to laugh.
Gine was a bit put off by Bardock's silence since he had returned from the Royal Palace. He hadn't so much as gave her a greeting of any kind. Once home, he sat at the dinner table with crossed arms, glaring a hole through the wall.
With a disapproving expression on her face, she stared at Bardock intently.
The taller Saiyan grumbled under his breath before finally turning his head in her direction.
"What?" he demanded, as if challenging her to say anything. Gine was unimpressed with his attitude and her gaze only intensified.
"Well?" she goaded, raising an eyebrow at his hesitancy to speak. "What happened?"
Suddenly, Bardock was the slightest bit nervous since his bravado didn't seem to faze her in the least. He scratched his head, letting his elbows rest on the table while his chin rested on his hands. Gine seated herself across from him, waiting for him to speak.
"Uh, you know the visit to the palace?" Bardock asked, watching his wife. Gine nodded quickly, urging him to quickly continue.
"Queen Okra wanted to-" Bardock trailed off into unintelligible murmuring.
"C'mon, spit it out," Gine leaned forward, nearly glaring a hole into Bardock's face.
The taller of the two leaned back in his chair, eyes closed. "She wanted to make me the new King of Saiyans," he deadpanned, slowly opening one eye to witness Gine's reaction.
His initial thought was that Gine was quite upset as she hadn't said anything and her expression grew intense.
Until she started to snort and place her hands over her mouth. Less than two seconds later she burst into full blown laughter, leaving Bardock simply dumbfounded.
"Wha-What's so funny!?" he demanded, not understanding her sudden laughter. Gine gently wiped at her eyes as though she were actually tearing up from her guffawing.
"I'm sorry, it's just, Bardock the king of Saiyans?" Gine nearly exploded into laughter again, but managed to control herself. "That's just too much," she concluded with a satisfied sigh.
Bardock wasn't impressed, however. To think I was worried about how she'd take the news, Bardock complained inwardly.
"Well, anyway," Bardock announced with a stony expression, hard pressed for a change of subject. Gine's expression instantly grew serious, something that her and Kakarot seemed able to do easily. "I dug up some information about something Kakarot mentioned."
"About what?"
"Something called Dragon Balls," he replied, a knuckle under his chin as he tried to remember what little info he was able to scrounge up. Apparently, there were seven of them and they had something to do with magical powers or whatever. The details were a little sketchy at best and the best source of information were spacers from different quadrants of the galaxy and a very small amount of Saiyans who were well traveled, even for their own race's standards. He could have questioned Kakarot about the Dragon Balls, but his son seemed oddly hesitant to mention anything about them.
"What are Dragon Balls?" Gine queried. "What's a Dragon?" she added as an afterthought.
"Heck if I know," Bardock commented offhandedly. "All I know is, is that they can bring people back to life, they're magic, and they're somewhere in the North Quadrant, I think," he explained, leaning back a bit in his chair, his eyes once again closed. "They said the guy who made them is some green colored person with antennae on his head. That shouldn't too be hard to miss," he added.
"You want to bring your team back, huh?" Gine suddenly asked, eyes downcast in thought. Bardock blinked at her perceptiveness, making eye contact with her only momentarily, before breaking it just as quickly.
"Maybe," he uttered, not willing to outright say yes. "If there's any chance at all..." Bardock trailed off, fingers gliding across his blood colored headband.
While Okra was catching her breath, Vegeta's were still slow and steady, even though he was beginning to grow physically exhausted. Their fight had been dragging on for several minutes already. There was no way for Vegeta to quickly end this battle without seriously injuring his mother.
"If you don't stop this right now, I won't hesitate to put you to sleep," Vegeta warned, raising his Ki just enough that he'd probably make good on his threat. Okra, while out of breath, was growing more irritated than nervous, not understanding why Vegeta was only the slightest bit tired. Was his power level really that much higher than her own, even after using the ability of Paragus' son? What was she doing wrong? Okra sucked her teeth irritably, cursing at her own lack of planning. She just didn't expect him to be so overpowered compared to her.
But she wasn't going to let a small lack of planning allow her to lose to anyone, especially someone who didn't even have any business being in this time period. Without warning, she threw a barrage of Ki blasts at Vegeta, not letting up until smoke began to obscure her vision of her target. Stopping, she allowed gravity to let her body drift sideways a bit, partly because she was tired, and also so she wouldn't be stationary.
Although she was sure those blasts had hit, she had a strange niggling feeling to move. And quick. Allowing the urge to control her movements, she barely swayed out of the way of a heavy handed chop, that would have surely left her unconscious.
Apparently, Vegeta wasn't speaking metaphorically. The prince only exhaled, frustrated that his attack had missed.
"I'm getting tired of this, Okra," Vegeta warned, his fists level with his hip, ready to make a move when the situation called for it.
"Just how strong are you?" she demanded. Vegeta didn't immediately answer, but grunted without once breaking eye contact.
"You wouldn't know this, but Broly made the same mistake that every competent warrior shouldn't," he replied cryptically.
"Give me a straight answer," Okra ordered, not in the mood for riddles. Vegeta again didn't answer immediately, making the queen wonder if Vegeta was purposely doing that to irritate her.
"He may be the Legendary Super Saiyan, but it was obvious he never trained. Kakarot and I never ceased training, even in times of peace. I would even say we surpassed him by pure grit and determination!"
With Vegeta speaking in the past tense it was easy to piece and one and one together.
"You've fought him before," she realized aloud after a pause, the information rather surprising to her. Vegeta nodded once, confirming her statement.
The only way to truly get stronger is through training, and lot's of it," he replied.
Okra's scowl intensified before her expression relaxed and she powered down without warning, shoulders sagging in both exhaustion and defeat. Her head hung low and Vegeta idled only a moment before powering down himself.
"Mother..."
"Just, stay away from me," she ordered, though it sounded more like a plea, as she slowly began to descend, turning her back to him.
Most likely she feels humiliated, Vegeta surmised, not sure how to even behave at this point. Should he try talking to her? He didn't know. It'd been so long since he'd interacted with Saiyans, and to suddenly be living amongst them these past couple of days...In an ironic way, it was a culture shock to him. As used to as he had gotten to Earth culture, Saiyans weren't very social, at least not in the same sense that Earthlings were. They didn't find common comfort in what wasn't mainly fighting, eating, sleeping, or even vices amongst many of them.
Bah, he'd figure something out, Vegeta decided. He'd give his mother a few hours to cool off.
Is what he would do if it wasn't for the fact that a fleet of ships just exited hyperspace and into their gravitational field.
Okra had noticed them as well, having stopped her descent, watching the massive ships in confusion along with her son.
A/N: I know, the cliffhanger on this chapter is just stupid. I'm sure you can guess who's ships those are. I apologize for the abrupt end to the chapter. It's nearly midnight and I need to go to bed. I will have the next chapter up soon, and things will pick up.
Please drop some Reviews, Feedback, and Suggestions. It'd be greatly appreciated.