Dragon Ball - Heart of the Adventurers
By LastationLover5000, and Demod20, edited by Firegod00
Chapter 19 - The Prince and Princess
Vegeta grinned. "You know, Kakarrot. This day has been something of a disaster. I came to kill you, completely lost my troops, have been humiliated by you, your child, and your brother. But in the end, the cards are all on my table, aren't they?" His grin veered far off into malicious territory. "Breathe your last, third-class trash!"
Unable to even keep himself propped on his knees now, Gokū completely doubled over in pain, collapsing onto the ground. His body was writing, twitching and shuddering in pain, due to the overuse of the Kaiōken. His hearing barely registered Vegeta's threats.
The Prince in question sneered still further. "Look at you, Kakarrot. For all your talk of showing me that third-class garbage can fight against an elite, the very effort is killing you! You can't even move!" A bark of laughter leapt from his throat. "You're pathetic. I'm almost tempted to let you die in agony here." The palms of his hands were coated in a vivid purple ki, the Prince raising one of them high. "Almost." He lunged downward, his glowing hand poised above Gokū's heart. Just before his blow struck home, Vegeta felt his entire body rock; a slim arm, coated in red ki, caught him by the neck. The pain radiated out through his chest and to the back of his head; he was caught entirely offguard, and the figure who struck him dragged him along the ground before sending him ripping across the ground and into the nearest rock formation.
The assaulter in question was a beautiful woman with pale skin, black eyes, and matching black hair with a raven sheen. Her attire was a sleeveless, yellow top with red lining, tied up to the neck. Cut off at her midriff, a purple sash was tied around her waist, suspending the dress-like piece of cloth that adorned her lower body, slit at the sides to reveal her slender legs and light blue, thigh-length tights. In lie of sleeves, the woman wore fingerless gloves at bicep-height. She was immersed in a red ki, centered around her dominant arm and crafted into a bull's head, complete with horns.
"So you're that hellish ki I've been feelin' for awhile?" shouted the woman as Vegeta stumbled from the rubble, clutching his throat. "You don't look like much now."
"Who...the hell..." Vegeta rasped, coughing. He could feel a horrible lump in his throat from the impact, however, it was already recovering. His tail twitched in fury. "...Are you...?! I thought this planet's fighters...had all shown up...?"
"Chi-Chi from Mount Frypan!" declared the woman boldly. "I don't know what you've got against Son Gokū...but I've got words for him, so don't even try it!"
"It must have been you..." snarled the Saiyan Prince, his eyes bloodshot with rage. "The little rat scurrying around, destroying the Moon and the Power Balls! You're the one who only added to this ludicrous situation, aren't you?!" He entirely ignored her declaration, pinning the blame for the recent events on the strange new girl.
The Princess of Mt. Frypan's face scrunched, trying to make heads or tails of what the alien was saying. "I don't know what you're talkin' about, and I haven't done anythin' of the sort." She bent at the knee, clenching her left fist at her side. Chi-Chi brought her right arm upwards by her head, curling her index and middle finger inward, while tightening the other digits in a quarter-fist. "I'm flattered you want to talk to me — maybe you think I'm beautiful? — but I came here to beat you into the dirt!"
"Playing dumb and cockiness must be a trait all Earthlings have!" snarled Vegeta. "But I have more than enough strength to kill you!" The Saiyan's black hair began to ruffle, and a vibrant purplish-white ki surrounded his body. Veins pulsing, the Prince of Saiyans let out a violent shout to the heavens, debris shooting in the air, his ki settling into an aura around his body. His breathing had evened out, Vegeta suddenly seeming to lose all exhaustion. This was the terrifying reality of the Saiyans — battle was where they thrived, and a Saiyan who was not put down quickly would only adapt. Vegeta was experiencing something he hadn't felt in years of battle: his second wind.
Chi-Chi felt an immense rush of fear; she'd gone in to save Gokū, and she'd thought that the enemy would be incredibly weakened. So what is this incredible ki I'm feeling?! Even now, he feels like some sort of incredible monster! Chi-Chi braced herself, immersing herself in the same red ki she'd struck Vegeta with earlier. It was the cornerstone of her father's patented Gyūken — a combat style he'd formed by deviating slightly from Kame-Sen Style School. She'd employed the basics of it back during the 23rd Tenkaichi Budōkai, and after the...incident with Son Gokū...she'd devoted herself to perfecting her father's style.
Vegeta rocketed forward, racing across the land towards Chi-Chi. Closing in, the Saiyan ducked low, attacking Chi-Chi with a sweeping low-kick along the ground. Chi-Chi leapt into the air immediately in response, letting Vegeta glide under her, and she landed neatly behind him. Clenching her fist, she thrust her fist forward, attacking with a powerful, ki coated punch in the shape of an ox's horns. The blow struck the weathered prince square in the back, yet he did not yield. Spinning on his heel, Vegeta released a powerful kikōha at near-point blank. Chi-Chi raised her arms up, utilising her aura as a method of defence and managing to disperse of the brunt of the blast.
The Princess of Mount Frypan leapt back, pursued by Vegeta. For every strike he made, she used her lightweight and nimble speed to avoid it, quite literally dancing across the ground as each and every blow grazed by her. Whilst moving, Chi-Chi's dark eyes glanced over towards Gokū's diminishing form, which was beginning to fade into the distance the further she and Vegeta advanced in the opposite direction. When they reached a distance she found suitable, stopped dead and placed one of her free hands in front of her stomach, catching Vegeta's incoming fist.
"There...! Now I can—!"
"—fight me unimpeded?" Vegeta said, smiling with a curl of the lip. "Did you really think I didn't notice you were trying to separate our battle from Kakarrot's dying body?" He laughed, feeling her palm tighten around his own. "Your cleverness boils over into naïveté, girl! Yet, I'm not entirely out of mercy, so I followed you — besides, it would deny me the satisfaction of the kill if Kakarrot died as a casualty from our battle!" Wrenching his fist from Chi-Chi's grasp in a move that would have broken the fingers of a lesser woman, Vegeta's grin widened to show nearly every individual tooth. "Let me see what you can do, Earthling woman!"
Shit! Chi-Chi kept her guard up; one slip-up and she would die.
Son Gokū had felt this before, this agony to the point of being nearly paralyzed. Not since he fought Piccolo -before and after he reincarnated- had he thought that he could be brought down to a degree lower than that. He didn't even have the strength to stand, let alone move. But in the passing moments Vegeta was drawn away, the pain lessened and became a dull ache across his body instead of stabbing explosions of torture within his own cells.
"There's only one thing I got left in me," He realised, closing his eyes and gingerly raised his palms upward, spreading his body spreadeagled and mentally concentrated as if he was standing upright on a tall tower of earth. "Everyone! From the birds in the trees to the animals below, to the fish in the rivers and sea to the creatures in cities and all those who walk on two legs! I urge you, now while there's hope, give me your energy so I may defeat my enemy!"
While words on their own wasn't enough to compel, his calm and still form enabled this fabled technique Kaiō called his ultimate trump card. If the Kaiōken was considered a weapon to utilise in quick succession, then this was the one to obliterate an opponent completely and utterly. This was the power of life compelled from all things near and far: the Genki Dama!
As the fight continued afar, the last hope of Earth collected stray near invisible strands of light into himself, the strings of ki from all that is available in his grasp across the planet seeping into his pores. A soft glow of majestic white would form, waving like water over his skin, as he absorbed the energy and harvested it. The process would take time if he wanted this to take out someone like Vegeta; the real question was, once he gathered enough, who was going to throw it?
A crushing blow to the face. Chi-Chi was sent reeling, Vegeta unleashing all of his pent-up aggression against Kakarrot through her. She felt each and every strike collide with violent hit struck home; her stomach. her face, her collarbone. The woman hated to admit that the Saiyan adversary had been leading her on in the first few minutes of their fight; she'd wanted to believe he'd been kidding about simply "following" her away from Son Gokū.
How can he be so strong, even after all of that? She winced. With an immense display of force, Chi-Chi thrust both arms outward, releasing a kiai that caused Vegeta to stumble back, forcing him off of her. She clenched her fists, and began to focus her ki. The basic burst from the Gyūken was obviously not working. She would have to push it just a little farther...like how Kame-Sennin had shown her.
"The main issue I've had with my fighting style is my method of increasing attack. It's effective, yet rudimentary.
Increasing one's muscle mass provides for incredible strength — and truly, I've blown the heavens away with my power.
However, my method floods my ki into my muscles, vastly increasing their mass. It's detrimental, and takes a toll on my stamina.
You're young, and you can come up with a much better method than I can. Take the principles of the Gyūken and maximise your efficiency of control."
Refine...my ki control... Chi-Chi had been working on this technique for years now. Ever her rejection at the hands of the man who lay on the ground now. She'd sought out the Kame-Sennin, and under his tutelage, had refined what her father couldn't. The blazing red ki, which had coated her like a proper aura, was beginning to retract like a rubber band, pooling in to surround her form. It was taking on the approximate shape of her own body, with "horns" of ki transparently manifesting on her aura's head.
Vegeta's eyes widened. "That ki...it looks just like the technique that bastard Kakarrot pulled out! So you have the same trick, girl?!"
"You're full of questions, ain'tcha?" replied Chi-Chi. "I know I missed most of the party, but could you at least make some sense? I don't know what Son Gokū did, and it doesn't matter anyway. The Gyūken is the result of my training! I refined Papa and Kame-Sennin's styles to create this technique!" A grin crossed her beautiful face, and Chi-Chi readopted her stance. Bending at the knee, she suddenly vanished, and reappeared behind Vegeta. She cocked her fist back, eyes narrowing as she focused on her target. "The more I constrict the aura around my body...the more my power explodes! This is the most I can manage right now..." Thrusting her fist forward, the girl caught Vegeta offguard, creating an explosive punch on contact.
Her strength has multiplied...! The Prince thought, feeling his body rock with the force of the blow he tried to deflect. What is with this planet and these blasted techniques?! Grounding himself, Vegeta gripped Chi-Chi by the arm and threw the girl into the far distance, spinning on his heel to turn and pursue.
Flying madly through the air, Chi-Chi's eyes scanned the area. She immediately released control of her aura, spreading it out from her body and stretching the ki towards the nearest plateau. It gripped the rocky formation by shaping it into a massive hand, and the Princess of Mount Frypan used this as a tether to swing around and fling herself back towards Vegeta. Expansion and then contraction...focus...! She thought to herself, reigning her ki back into the familiar shape that surrounded her body. This was the advantage of her Gyūken; a ki so dense it could interact with the world like a physical object. Chi-Chi barreled towards Vegeta akin to a human torpedo.
"A linear attack like that?!" laughed Vegeta. "You must be desperate if you think I can't counter that!"
"Ka..." Chi-Chi began to recite the words that Vegeta had become very familiar with in his short stay here, and his eyes widened in surprise.
What does she intend to do like this?! I thought that attack was a blast-type!
Vegeta's guard slacked in his confusion, and Chi-Chi took the moment to her advantage. Ducked forward, she slugged him hard in the chin, forcing his neck and head backwards from the strength of the blow. "Ha..." The following elbow strike was parried by a now furious Saiyan prince, nevertheless, Chi-Chi didn't falter. "Me..." She pulled backwards, launching a flip kick that struck Vegeta hard in the chin — the pain was practically doubled from the blow to his jaw not moments before. The ebony-haired woman landed onto her feet, Vegeta's curses filling her ears. "HA!" She thrust both hands forward, and blue ki erupted from her palms.
The blast swallowed Vegeta in its entirety, his vision obscured in a rush of blue and white light. Chi-Chi's technique had its flow disrupted, swelling like a balloon before bursting. Vegeta had thrust his arms outward, releasing a powerful shockwave which dispelled Chi-Chi's technique. Blue embers from the Kamehameha floated between the both of them, Chi-Chi's eyed widening in stunned disbelief. "You...blocked it..."
The Prince tried to even his breath, his expression a death glare mixed into a contemptuous smile. "You're impressive for an Earthling...but clever tricks aren't going to be enough to beat me! Kakarrot's body proves that!" His purple and white aura began to spike, surrounding his body in a blazing flame. He clenched his fists, gritting his teeth. "I hope you showed everything off, girl — because now playtime is over!" In that instance, Vegeta moved, letting loose a snap kick that struck Chi-Chi in the chin — a cruel mimicry of the strike that stunned him moments earlier — sending Chi-Chi hurtling through the air. Vegeta pursued, closing the distance at shocking speed.
Chi-Chi released a kikōha towards the ground, exploding in a brilliant display of light and smoke, obscuring her from view. She was able to bring herself to a stop, soles clacking to the ground as she peered into the smoke. She needed to catch her breath, regroup, and formulate a count—
"Was your goal to hit me with dust?" Vegeta's voice chilled her to the bone, the princess turning to see the man standing behind her. He'd moved so quickly through the smoke he'd bypassed her senses entirely. Desperately, Chi-Chi struck forward with a swift left hook, Vegeta leaning aside accordingly, followed by a front kick. Vegeta leapt into the air, avoiding the blow and landing in front of Chi-Chi the moment she lowered her leg. Swiftly, the Saiyan struck her several times in the face, then multiple times in the stomach; Chi-Chi clutched her torso and stumbled backwards, spitting blood.
Toughing through the pain, Chi-Chi leapt back, her footwork like dancing, trying to keep some distance from Vegeta. She flew high into the air, feeling the aura of the Gyūken fading. It was a technique and form that required nothing but the utmost concentration; with her fresh wounds and immense discomfort that accompanied them, the precise moulding of her ki that the Gyūken required was impossible. Vibrant red ki formed around her fingers, and she fired a sphere of energy towards Vegeta's grounded form. Easily, Vegeta avoided the blast, and it collided with the ground, resulting in an explosion that shattered boulders. Grinning, the Saiyan rushed into the air, gaining on Chi-Chi quickly.
"Did you think you could escape in the air?!"
Chi-Chi attempted to kick Vegeta, but the blow missed before it had a hope of connecting; Vegeta responded in kind with a punch to the side of her jaw. Chi-Chi's attempted counterattack was avoided with a blurred afterimage; Vegeta reappeared behind her, clasping both fists together, and striking her square on the skull. The blow forced Chi-Chi to spiral downward towards the Earth like a meteor, crashing hard into the rocky terrain. "Let me show you what a kikōha looks like, girl!" Ki ignited above his palm, Vegeta lobbing the glowing sphere towards his fallen opponent. It collided with Chi-Chi, exploding in a blinding flash of fire and light.
The explosion dissipated, revealing Chi-Chi crouching on a single knee. Her red aura had vanished entirely, and her outfit was shredded in various places, her skin marred and burned by Vegeta's relentless assaults. Her breath was ragged, her hair was hanging over her face, the tie having come undone. Damn...he really is somethin' else...an alien fighter ain't no joke... Chi-Chi raised both palms towards Vegeta and released a crimson blast towards the Prince. Vegeta grinned, cocking his fist back and thrusting it through the plasma. It ruptured, blowing apart with ease. Laughing with open malice, the man landed softly onto the ground.
"Was that the last dregs of your strength? I'll admit, you were an amusing distraction; I've never met a woman as determined as you that wasn't a Saiyan." Vegeta raised his hands, purple ki shining brightly in the centre. "Now our little game ends here!"
Raditz stirred from his unconscious state. Pain ached across his very being, injuries sustained by letting his arrogance of position over his enemy get the better of him. It was the very sense of injuries persisting across his body that allowed him to stir into a bleary eyed gaze across the battle scarred landscape. The last thing he remembered was clashing in a mutual punch that rendered both combatants incapacitated. Throughout all of that, he thought that was the last he'd fight...
...until now.
"Ngh!" He grunted out, turning his head with struggle at the opposite direction. He caught the periphery of flashing lights, distant thunderclaps followed with trembling and the slightest of gusts of wind carrying all the way to his person. The gale stung his bloodied injuries, his teeth gnashed as most of the numbness was fading, replaced with sores and aches all over himself. When was the last time he felt this demolished? Not even his clumsy defeat by Pan could compare-
The thought of his niece and then his brother made him jolt his eyes wide open. The precedence for their well-being somehow took priority over his own beaten frame, pushing himself to move upward. Hands skirted the soil, knees dug into the ground and his back arched with his rolling neck, gravel and flecks of dirt clods sliding off his long mane of hair. Getting to his hands and knees he breathed through clenched teeth, heaving himself up to an upright position as he let out ragged breaths, snarling between each labored inhale and exhale. "Everything! Friggin'! Sucks! Right! Now!"
Wiping away the mess of blood and filth on his brow over his face, he'd see something peculiar catch his notice. Tiny sparks were dancing over his head, like some group of floating insects fluttering in a rhythm towards a singular source. His eyes scoured the area, finding that this energy was coursing from the ground he was at, the pits and craters and even the piles of demolished plateaus and mountains in the distance.
His gaze caught sight of the brutalized Nappa, unconscious and in his Base State, much to his satisfaction. Not as far away was his niece, giving him some respite as he saw a slight breathing coming from the bruised, scraped and also knocked out Saiyan half blooded child. Both of them were out except him, which left only one person; the source of this current of light.
Managing to get himself upright, he began to stifle back groans of bodily protest at maneuvering so soon. Stabs of pain came in aching waves with every ounce of muscular weight put over each boot covered sole. Hugging his side, he'd ignore the pain ebbing from his face and the rest of his body as he walked towards the spreadeagled, bloodier sight that was his brother. He was coated in a vibrant halo of ki, something that made him look in awe at the sight. It gave off a sensation he had never experienced before; the warmth and presence of a body's inner energy bored to visible degrees of condensed potency.
"Oh...good," Gokū began to say, one eye swollen nearly closed and the other looked exhaustively at his older sibling with relief in his dark eyes. "I was beginning to think...you wouldn't...wake up."
"Of course I'm up! You dolt!" Raditz snarled in between sharp in takes of air, replacing exasperated cries of anguish into temperamental outbursts. It made it easier to deal with, after all. The fact he was in this much pain and willed himself to stand was unlike the old Raditz to do. If he was smart he would play dead and hope Vegeta would pass him over. The fact he wasn't here meant someone was distracting him or trying to beat him far away from here. So the only point risking now was to hiss out some demand of action from his resourceful brother, hoping he had an opportunity for them to survive. "I'm assuming! You have a plan! Kakarrot?!"
"Kinda, haha!" Gokū chuckled, still gathering the light into his very being as he looked back up at the sky. "I gotta say, you ain't what I figure'd you out to be, Raditz."
"What the Hell does that mean?!" He barked back, earning another goofy giggle from the beaten younger brother.
"You're...not a nice guy, Raditz. In fact, the way you just killed those other guys so easily...it was cruel. But, the way you fought...beside everyone. How you looked out...for Pan...this whole time. It means you're not...all bad...right?"
This belabored speech was baffling the older Saiyan. His little brother continued to show him just how strange of an anomaly he's become while being on this backwater planet. He's gained compassion, mercy and a morality that protects those that he has bonds to. The compassion was so unlike the rest of the Saiyan Race, let alone those whom he had served for decades of his childhood thru adulthood. He had almost all but forgotten what it was like to have affection for others, like his mother had done for himself; then, meeting the insufferable tiny terror tyke Pan made him remember, more often than he'd care for. That and the other Earth woman related to Gokū's mate...
Turning his head away, furrowing his brow and gnashing his teeth in embittered resignation, he growled aloud in almost a defeated tone, "Is that all you had to say, brother? That I'm not such a bad guy? It's not going to save us! Vegeta is still going to kill us! So stop being damn sentimental and tell me you have a plan, Kakarrot!"
"Hehe, I was gettin' to that," The prone Saiyan answered weakly, the light trailing to his body beginning to halt and the aura becoming stable around his body. Now that Raditz had a good look at it, it didn't look like ordinary energy. It was translucent, almost like it was the consistency of a star rather than a person's life force. Yet, he could tell, even without his sibling's innate gift to sense ki that this was different; like it was a culmination of so much at work that he couldn't fathom its process. Noticing his awe at the light, he smiled slightly and explained. "This is...my greatest technique...that I learned from Kaiō: the Genki Dama. It takes all of the traces of ki in everything. From the creatures to the plants, to the earth and the sky, the people of this planet and even the Sun itself can power it. It's capability is...limitless...but it has one drawback. I have to stand perfectly still to gather energy from everywhere; something I haven't gotten the chance to do until now."
Furrowing his brow, Gokū grimaced with pained concentration. The precious glow of the ki he gathered flowed across his body, like circulating water maneuvering through canals that dammed parts off and opened gates in others. Flowing intricately with delicacy that made Raditz marvel at the amount of proficiency at controlling his energy, it was a league above even the point he was at when he first arrived on Earth in their initial confrontation. It'd begin its final trek down his right arm, ending with a small circling aurora around his wrist over open palm and fingers.
Panting with exertion, he looked over at Raditz with his half-closed eye and a weary open right iris with a glint of optimism, his words ringing true their intent to him, "I won't lie to you. This technique...it ain't meant for people like you. Kaiō said that this energy comes from the purest form of life and it targets the evil of my target. If anyone not pure holds it-"
"It's going to hurt like Hell, right?" Raditz finished his brother's words before he could finish. Looking intently at the ghostly apparition of energy, he had no telling what kind of damage it could do. If that Kaiōken ripped his sibling's body to pieces from the inside out, this was meant to surpass that in terms of sheer destructive potential. Could he endure such anguish? Could he survive it?
Thinking of the Earthling fighters who've died on their feet, the tenacity of his niece and the sheer brutality of what his brother went through to get to this point, he knew he had only one answer to give him.
"Give it to me, Kakarrot," He insisted with a stretched out hand, ignoring its trembling of trepidation and current aches spasming through the appendage. "I'll do it! Just hand the blasted thing over to me already!"
Gokū smiled. It was pained, full of fatigue, but it was whole and emphatic at was shown to him. He didn't need to say thanks for what he said was enough for him. Stretching his glowing palm out, full of the planet's power, Raditz gripped his hand firmly past his own shaking. Concentrating on letting the aura slip off him and onto Raditz, he saw what he had suspected-
"GNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNRRRRRRRRRRRRK!" Raditz's immediate reaction was feeling his blood light aflame as assuredly as the light wrapped over his hand, crackling violently with chaos that wasn't like his brother's. He fell to his knees, his spare hand grasping the ground as he bit down on his cheek to hold back howls of agony. Eyes opened wide and closed shut, brows furrowed with tension while veins sporadically pulsed across his bulging forehead.
It was almost too much to bear, but priorities resurfaced to his thoughts and a resolute will stifled his panic. Even as his hand was bursting from the seams of his armored gauntlet, cracked in visible fissures from the blazing bio-energy that snapped and popped in the air in electrical synapse. Flowing up his arm, the pain magnified and redistributed across his pores and through his bone marrows across his veins. Crossing his shoulder, it'd spread like wildfire, bringing him to all fours as he spasmed with heat and light, his form distorted past the mantle of energy that reacted negatively to his psychosis. Bared teeth seethed hot vapor through the gaps, his nostrils exuding steam as his skin almost became a dull red from the exertion placed on him.
He knew his brother was watching so he did his best to show that he can make good on his word. Digging his fingers through the soil and disintegrating the dust in his palms, he shakily stood up, wobbling as he did so. His wild mane stood on end, his body trembling past the excruciating aura of transferred ki granted to him. Slumped over, his left arm raised up in a twitching convulsion; before giving his incapacitated sibling a clearly transparent view of a timid thumb's up.
"I got this," He said through bared teeth, his eyes barely visible as he began a trot. Slowly making his way forward, one foot after the other, the pain coursing through every nodule of nerve ending he possessed. The stimuli radiated with suffering and his brain gonged his skull with protest, his own Saiyan biology on the verge of collapsing. It was practically over as he lost his footing and began to trip over, face first to the earth.
"Pathetic! And you call yourself a Saiyan? What a weakling you are, Raditz!"
"HAHA! You can't even scratch an itch on my back! Not even worth licking my boot!"
"Disgusting. I can't believe we're related by blood. Don't show your face around me."
He grimaced, feeling the ground get closer as his vision blurred into white. Was this the extent of his limit? Did he just wake up only to fall short of completion?
"Look at me, Uncle Raditz! Did I do good?"
The memory made his vanishing pupils dilate, reacting with a whipping stomp from his other leg caught himself, creating a tremor in the ground and blowing back the air with his power's breath.
"Hey, don't fuss so much. How am I supposed to clean your face when you keep fidgeting? There, that's better, hehe!"
These words caused his trembling arms to seize up, silencing the spasms in his arm through a shock of his mind overwhelming his twisting appendages. Hands clenched into fists, knuckles snapping with loud pops, in sync with the rolls of his back and the rise of his upper body. Legs spread and his breath came in seething inhales to heated exhales. His skin was almost a bright red from the heat coursing through his form, but he reined it in and embraced the negative sensations for once in his life.
"Why don't you listen to me once in awhile? I'm no Saiyan, but you can learn a thing or two from the Daimaō."
"You saved us big time!"
"Don't worry about me! I'll handle this guy!"
"I may be a roadblock to someone as big as you, but I''m going to make one Hell of a ditch for you to crawl out of!"
"I'm not this cold blooded monster you've been looking for. My name's Son Gokū!"
His eyes vanished into the film of white that overtook his sockets, glowing eerily as his hair kicked up and his body bristled with his ki interlocking tangibly with the new energy's. He felt it, every microscopic particle and every trace of its existence. The whole world opened up to him as this painful, eviscerating and unforgiving light pulsed through him in a throbbing manner akin to a spiritual heartbeat.
"I've got this, Son Gokū," He spoke under his breath, before blasting off towards the horizon.
Vegeta had her dead in the cross-airs. She had put up a mighty struggle, but this was really the end. So with his ki coursing hotly in violet hue over his bloodied, torn gloved he began to swing it when a sudden tremor destabilized his footing. His skin chilled, the hairs on them pricked and his tail twitched nervously around his waist. Turning from his captured quarry, he was shocked by the sight he witnessed.
Crashing into the ground with a bolt of lightning was Raditz, the clap of thunder letting loose a loud thuum in his wake. A tight aura of luminous heat throbbed around his reddened skin, heat ebbing from his pores and out of his nostrils and tightly clamped teeth. Pupils were erased by the glow overlapping his sockets, the whole of his body engorged in a power that radiated with majesty and a presence so thick that the Saiyan Prince could feel it.
"R-Raditz!" Vegeta finally uttered, dropping the woman and dispersing the energy in his glove as it clenched tightly with his other forward raised one. "What is that light?! How did you get back up?! What the Hell happened?!"
He stood there, motionless, apart from the sparking light that danced around the air and pulsed with an ominous current. If the planet hadn't already shaken enough from Gokū and Vegeta's battle, they'd feel a stirring in every corner of their civilization. Water would distend, paper or leaves rose up and people would get a distinct impression something far away was happening of huge importance. Something that was undeniably palpable before the blue-blooded warrior.
"ANSWER ME, DAMMIT!" He hollered, suddenly getting Raditz to move a step. This response was so unnerving that he felt himself taking steps back; a motion he caught himself doing with utter shock. Was he afraid? Of Raditz?! Tightening his jawline, his power rose back to the surface as his voice released a sonic boom that echoed his fury to the undisturbed ex-subordinate of his. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE?! YOU WORTHLESS TRASH! DO YOU REALIZE JUST HOW MUCH TROUBLE YOU PUT ME THROUGH?! DO YOU?!"
"That's enough, Vegeta," Raditz replied, causing Vegeta to tense up again, shaken by just how calm he sounded past this frighteningly erratic form he was appearing in. "I've lived under your boot since we were children. Tormented by my peers, bullied by your lapdog and my pride sullied by our betters. I've lived my life fighting for myself and only myself so that I'd live to see another day. But you know what, Vegeta?"
The light pulsed, finally coalescing from his whole body and surging towards his left arm with an intense snapping pressure. His eyes reappeared as the energy surged to his dominant appendage and his teeth gnashed with a loud declaration to his former boss, "It's all tripe! I know what kind of people you and the so-called Saiyan race are! I've learned that fighting on behalf of others gives you more strength than fighting for yourself!"
Throbbing energy inched down his biceps and triceps to his forearm, sloshing its way to his hand. Stomping a foot back he'd twist his upper body in preparation, ignoring the blood, burns and steam still coming off his maimed frame. With it coiled around his wrist up around in a translucent aura over his palm and digits, he prepared his attack while Vegeta stared in terrified alarm.
"Accept this gift from this planet and my brother!" He cried out, throwing it towards him with a blinding arc of white luminous heat. "GENKI DAMA!"
Vegeta knew he had to avoid that attack at all costs. Having no understanding why he was rooted into the ground until this moment, he turned to jump, seeing the head-sized orb streak towards him with incredible speed. Leaping up, he was in such a haste that he left one thing behind that could stop him.
Grabbing the heel of his left boot!
"W-What?!" He cried out, whipping his head around to see the Earth woman, bruised and bloodied but very much conscious. She stared up with defiant black eyes, what remained of her strength rooted her remaining hand into the ground like a claw while the other held him back. The sight of her grimace turning into a smile disappeared as a ball of plasma struck its target, throwing her back with a slight cry of pain in a tumble.
Which the Prince fared no better.
A horrific scream of unmistakable pain shocked the prince as he was caught in a bodily gripping halo of popping and snapping currents of the godly technique. Every pore was lit aflame, his blood boiling and his nerves rend asunder with a visceral wail that was foreign to his own ears and the one who knew him. The shriek carried up as the brilliant blaze spiraled up into the sky, his voice beating the heavens with his lamentations until he was a pulsing star in their sight. A flashing wave and a utterly fantastic explosion from the bomb later, and everything became silent.
Raditz heaved with a heaviness he didn't think possible. He didn't bother looking at his left arm, knowing it was mangled, ripped and burnt horribly. If he didn't know about the blessed wonder drug he'd think he'd be down an arm, if not losing feeling in a good host of his nerves. But he chuckled, past the pain and acknowledging the victory he won himself.
Then thirty seconds passed as a hurtling sound was heard over his head. His eyes widened as he saw the shadow of a familiar frame coming downward, careening with an immense velocity. At the last second, he braced his face as the earth was struck and a wind full of dust with debris flew outward. He was aghast at the sight of a breathing, bloodied and armor-ruined Vegeta stirring from the cracked floor of the planet.
"D-Dammmit," He swore with a cracked voice. Reaching a barely tangible glove into the recesses of his battle jacket he withdrew what looked like a small remote. Recognizing it, he'd see him press a few buttons, stirring a distant orb-shaped transport to rapidly move. Seconds later, a Saiyan Pod arrived with a far gentler thud nearby, but still far enough away that the Prince had to crawl in a very undignified manner.
Snarling past his own parched throat, Raditz began to walk achingly slow but far more quickly than the struggling royal.
"T-To think...I-I...Prince V-Vegeta...would suffer like t-this," He murmured, unaware of his approach as his hands clenched the open ramp of the compact transport. A foot stepped on his outstretched tail, causing the Saiyan to freeze up with a stabbing pain. Turning himself around on his side he'd barely get out a word before a large, gauntlet swathed hand lanced out and clasp around his throat like a vice.
"D-Did you think! That I'd! Let you! Get away! HUH?!" The Saiyan snarled out between labored breaths, squeezing his hand tightly around the ruined Prince. He saw his eyes bulge, his limbs weakly flail and his gloved hands try to pry off his much bigger digits from his neck to no avail. If he was his old self, he'd savor this and enjoy it, but he was far too angry to care. His pupils dilated, veins spreading his eyes as he sneered with fury lacing every word he enunciated to the Prince's face. "For all that talk of Saiyan Pride, you have some gall, crawling away like this with no shame in losing in such a way! Your men, our comrades, died for you and you spat on their names! Well guess what?! No one's going to mourn your passing when I'm done squeezing the life out of your slimy neck!"
Vegeta's face was turning blue, eyes tearing up and nearly popping out of the sockets. He was struggling even more fiercely, trying to reach the bigger Saiyan's face or hit him but was too small to reach. The one time where size applied was in his dire need to survive, and he was going to pay for it. He had no one left to call upon for aid, and no one who would lend him strength to bail him out. He was alone and was going to die at the hands of the one he came to execute.
"No Raditz! That's enough!" An unheard voice, however, spoke to Raditz's from seemingly nowhere. Looking left and right, Raditz saw nothing but the prone, weary woman who was in no condition to shout with such resonance or with that familiar tone. Clenching his eyes shut, he didn't think it was possible but his brother had somehow managed to establish a telepathic contact, much in the same way his godly mentor had done with them. "Let him go, Raditz!"
"Why, should I?" He answered the voice, his words rasped out to a delirious Vegeta, as he could barely breathe past the slightly lessened chokehold. "After all he's done, and what he let happen, he is the last person I'd see spared."
"I know I'm asking a lot of you, but please, hear me out! If he dies here, then I'll never get a chance to be even with him."
"You've got to be joking," Raditz sneered, his eyes opened to glare daggers at the petrified Prince. "That is a reason you can't be using for real. He's the man who's made my life Hell for decades, and has singlehandedly laid waste to all those you call friends and attempted to murder your family. Pan was almost murdered by him! How can you stand that?!"
"I'm not! He's done a lot of terrible things and I'm not forgiving him for that!"
"Then why?! Why would you do that just for a fight?! That's idiotic and reckless!" He insisted, shaking Vegeta by the neck, knocking his head against the lip of the pod's metallic flap angrily. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't suffocate this bastard out! JUST! ONE!"
A damning silence passed by at slow motion. He knew that this would be something his brother would have to contemplate, truly ponder before answering. What he wanted was a satisfying rematch, a reclaiming of honor and restoration of his pride if not to satiate his battle-jock attitude for another temporary thrill. If he let this go, he couldn't do this so easily!
"Because, we're brothers."
That was what Gokū said. His words caused Raditz's face to contort with even greater fury than before. Veins throbbed across his large brow, his cheeks tightening and his hand shaking across the Prince's neck. Pulling him back, he'd suddenly slam his skull back on it, dazing the ex-superior of his before releasing his grip on his neck.
"Consider this mercy, Prince Vegeta," Raditz snarled, doing his best to hold himself back as he saw the shorter, torch-haired Saiyan rub his neck and rasp in breaths desperately to his starved lungs. "Kakarrot wants to get a proper rematch, so be thankful he loves fighting as much as you like living. But don't mistake this as mercy from me; if I had my way, you wouldn't be moving anymore.
"So go. Leave this planet and lick your wounds. The next time I see you, when our paths cross again, I'll kill you myself," He promised, raising a tightly gripped fist up in a threatening gesture as his eyes glared with knitted brows and dot-sized pupils. "Brother or not, you'll breathe your last if you see me again."
He didn't say a word. Vegeta simply crab-walked up the ramp, positioning himself back into the Saiyan Pod and closing the hatch back up with him. A defining click later and the transport shot up into the sky, blasting off past the atmosphere into outer space. When he was finally out of sight, Raditz felt his mind reel and feeling lose over himself.
"Thank you, Raditz. I really appreciate it-"
"Fuck off, asshole," He finally retorted before his face hit the ground and unconsciousness claimed him.
LastationLover5000: This was quite the fucking chapter. I've been looking forward to Chi-Chi's moment in this chapter for awhile, and giving her a fight against Vegeta was something else. Her fighting style, the Gyūken, is gonna be expanded on the longer the series develops. The biggest moment was what Demod20 did though. Anyway, we'll see you all soon!
Demod20: Holy Crap I felt emotional when I wrote this. Losing connectivity to the net didn't stop me from writing this and being near the point of keeling over didn't stop Raditz from fulfilling his brother's last request; or apparently his desire for fighting someone as awful as Vegeta. I feel like this is what Raditz's personal character arc has culminated to in our story. From the selfish, cowardly and cautious Saiyan who came to blackmail his brother through coercive violence or threats on his family to someone who'd stand up for those weaker than themselves, fight a stronger opponent with knowledge he'd lose or sacrifice himself for the sake of beating a great evil. Unlike someone with deeper rooted issues like Nappa or Vegeta, Raditz was never like them to begin with so he'd more than likely change with the influences he had from just over a year. Raditz, this is my gift to you, and I hope you the audience enjoyed this long anticipated Finale to the Saiyan Arc!