When the doors to Frieza's office opened up, the space tyrant was standing on both feet and staring through the porthole to prepare for his arrival to Planet Vegeta. It had only been mere minutes since another worrisome battle power signature registered in their scouters, measuring up to over half a million. Wild things were happening in Planet Vegeta, and the space emperor stared down at the watermelon-colored marble rotating out in space.
"Lord Frieza," Zarbon spoke up, asking for a second of his superior's attention. "We've just about arrived to Planet Vegeta."
"Excellent, I've been thinking over my decision to obliterate the entire planet, Zarbon-san," Frieza showed his subordinate a wicked smile with his black lips.
"Yes, I was about to ask you about that. We could not contact Captain Ginyu on Planet Vegeta. The communication tower in the region must be down and because of the confidential manner of the information, there's no use telling it to anyone in one of the other regions on the planet. In addition, we've called the Ginyu Special Squadron to Planet Vegeta so they could get rid of prince Vegeta for us and they are standing by in a neighboring system waiting for an update on your orders." Zarbon pressed his hand to his chest as he bowed and reported the information.
"Ah, yes, I've almost forgotten…" Frieza shook his head. "It was fortunate that they weren't working too far away when we reached out to them, though if I destroyed the planet with them on it, it would have posed us some problems. Let the Ginyu Special Squadron know that they are free to land on Planet Vegeta and proceed with their mission. They better hurry though, who knows how long it will take for prince Vegeta to regain his full strength and, if he does, I might need to tend to that matter personally," Frieza chuckled to himself. "For now, we shall board Planet Vegeta, I'd like to speak to Captain Ginyu about what's been going on this planet of his."
"I see, so you will not be destroying the planet then?" Zarbon straightened his back.
"Not at this time. I'm afraid destroying it would still cause us more trouble than it is worth. Let the Ginyu Special Squadron know that every Saiyan on this planet is their target. I will expect you and Dodoria-san to pitch in and help them hurry this ugly matter up as well." Frieza turned his back to his subordinate and stared down at the planet underneath his spaceship, as if judging it from it high in the outer layers of its atmosphere.
"Very well, Lord Frieza, I will let the crew know that we are to land as soon as possible. We've received reports of disturbances in the region near the royal palace. I will see that we land as close to it as possible," Zarbon bowed. "I'll let the Ginyu Special Squadron know about their updated objective."
Once the door closed shut, the boiling inside space emperor loomed over the much-reviled planet of his and watched its eye-catching, colorful atmosphere engulfing his ship as the atmosphere transitioned from cold and unwelcoming oblivion of space into a warmer, cloudy hue of red Planet Vegeta skies. Frieza noted multiple decimated patches of jungle land and a few regions of burning cities accompanied by trails of smoke on the horizon.
"You thought you're so clever, didn't you, Lord Beerus, well, I've found my way of exterminating the Saiyans without flicking away their miserable little planet and it's about time that I trim the hedges of my empire," Frieza chuckled before transitioning into full-on maniacal laughter as his spaceship slowed down its descent and adopted a slow, perpendicular angle of landing as his saucer-shaped ship rotated above the planet surface.
"King Kai's Fist X10!" Bardock yelled out, bursting with the vibrant crimson glow of raw power as he charged forward. The aching in his muscles only awakened the Saiyan from his desperate need of passing out and slumbering. Carrying through his pent-up feelings, the rebellious Saiyan swept his right leg, spinning his entire body to deliver his speedy yet just as powerful sweep.
The hit flipped King Vegeta over, rotating the stunned Saiyan king vertically in a clockwise direction while Bardock spun around and kicked his opponent straight in the chest, sending him flying before lunging right after his soaring opponent in mad pursuit, eager to dish out as much damage as possible before his King Kai's Fist timer clocks in and collects its toll on the Saiyan's body.
Once he had approached the hazed king, Bardock spun his body around with a combination of resonant kicks, bending and busting up the king's body to his will as King Vegeta's armor unraveled from every strike. The protective equipment rained down in shatters but Bardock pressed on since he knew that once he lowers his hands and stops swinging–the pain will set in and he might not recover from it. He'd best make damn sure to finish his opponent off before that happens.
With an uncompromising barrage of kicks having felled the king's defenses, Bardock slammed both his hands in an ax-handle slam right at the top of the king's head, sending him crashing back down before he wound up his hand and flung a stray Ki blast. The reddish energy sphere took a curved path before hitting the crashing down king and flinging him back with its explosive power while Bardock tensed his tearing up body and vanished once more.
Fighting through the pain of his breaking down body, Bardock swung his arms around in ax handle slams to decimate his king while the Saiyan's feet spun in an unyielding dance to keep the king open and stationary so that Bardock's pummeling slams would hit him just the right way and grind just enough bones to make the king stay down. Pain, too much pain, but torment was something Bardock knew how to fight through. He roared as his hits stopped listening to his commands, but instead just swung on pure instinct alone. Flurries of fists and kicks until his entire body had gone numb.
Seeing his opponent flying back, pummeled and bruised, Bardock wound up his hand and closed his eyes, concentrating his Ki into his open hand as he hoped for his wishes and dreams for the Saiyan race to resonate and translate into power. With his King Kai's Fist aura fading away, Bardock flung his hand forward, releasing a storming, blue energy sphere that connected with the fleeting body of King Vegeta and resulted in a flashy, blazing explosion that drowned the destroyed royal district in smoke.
Vision blurred as Bardock fell forward, his numb and weakened hand shot up to halt his humbling fall and the Saiyan panted on one knee, growling and struggling against his body's better judgment that demanded him to pass out and let his torn and scorching in fatigue muscle tendons recover somewhat. Bardock told himself that he wouldn't rest until the bastard king that damned his people was either slain or beaten to a pulp as miserable as he deserved it.
"What an incredible technique…" King Vegeta wiped the blood off his face as he staggered out from the smoke. His armor had fallen off, leaving just tatters of his bodysuit flapping over the bottom half of his body that still had some torn bodysuit intact. The king leaned down to pick up scraps of his royal cape and tied it over his forehead to help with the busted open forehead that sent torrents of blood down his face. The king's red cape soaked with crimson from the blood, but its natural color helped mask the helpless state the king was also in.
"Stupid pale shrimp…" Bardock cursed, trying his best to straighten out his body, but he could only stand straight on wobbly legs with even the lightest of gales threatening to throw him flat on his back or his front. "Shouldn't use King Kai's Fist more than X5 unless I've had more time to master the technique? What the hell am I supposed to do then?"
"Although, it also seems to do a number on your own body which poses a problem for me," King Vegeta smirked. With a snap, the king vanished and appeared right in front of wobbly Bardock, smacking him up with a backhand slam.
"I had humored the idea of switching into your body. After all, it displays far greater overall potential than this one, for whatever reason." King Vegeta croaked as he flew up in pursuit of Bardock and thrust his left leg into the abdomen of the ferocious Saiyan, whiting him out for a second and leaving him breathless. The Saiyan monarch grabbed hold of Bardock's hair as he admired his broken-down opponent for a second.
"Although, given how you're ending up in a far worse state than me whenever you power-up to match my power, it might not be worth the hassle of crafting a story about how you slew the king and claim the throne. I'm sure that Lord Frieza wouldn't be too keen on the idea either…" the king let go of Bardock only to kick him up with a high-shooting front kick before he chased after Bardock with a flurry of knuckles and push kicks. "King Cross Chop!" King Vegeta yelled out as he cross-chopped Bardock's neck and dashed down while locking his palms around Bardock's throat. The two opponents slammed down into the ground with a thunderous smack that shot a pillar of smoke and rippled in a shock wave around the area that threw showers of pebbles from the appearing fissures on the planet's surface.
"Okay…" Bardock muttered with a weak noise as he pushed his busted open body off the ground and observed torrents of blood reaching out from his wounds in goopy strands that stuck to puddles of it on the ground. "All this talk about switching bodies and talking in the third person… Just who the heck are you? You're not King Vegeta, are you? The real deal was too much of a lazy pansy to have ever gotten this strong."
"So, even such a simpleton finally put it together, huh? Well, I suppose there's no reason to hide it from you any longer, given how I don't intend to leave you in any condition to tell anyone. Years back, Lord Frieza had planned to destroy Planet Vegeta but, for whatever reason, he reconsidered. His heart hadn't grown soft, however, he appeared to hate the Saiyans just as much as he always did." The poser in King Vegeta's body grinned with excitement.
"So… I was right… I was right all along–he did plan to eradicate all the Saiyans," Bardock blanked out, looking up at the bleeding sky that was darkening as the evening grew nearer. "Nobody believed me, even Gine only went along with it because it was me who told her that!" Bardock clenched his fists, squeezing blood that ran down his arm from his bruises to squeeze out and drip onto the charcoaled remains of a garden below.
"The Saiyans have done something that really pissed Lord Frieza off, however, as he ended up losing his lid. He ordered me to take over King Vegeta's body while he executed the Saiyan king in mine. It was all very hush-hush since I was meant to rule Planet Vegeta and act as if nothing happened, you see. Only one task force is capable of such an operation–the Ginyu Special Squadron!" King Vegeta laughed out with his arms crossed over his chest before he began tapping his feet on the ground but before he strike a flashy pose, the king clutched his ribs, feeling too busted up to even pose.
"The Ginyu Force? There can only be one Ginyu Force member strong enough to fight back against us right now…" Bardock mused while wincing in pain.
"That's right, it's me–Ginyu Special Squadron's Captain Ginyu! Yeah!" Captain Ginyu extended his palm out and spread his feet out wide, doing the best pose he could while in King Vegeta's body. "I possess an uncanny ability to switch bodies with people, making me invaluable to Lord Frieza in similar circumstances. It took me a few years to return to my old power in such a feeble body, not to mention the endless balance problems I had striking my poses, but I am now far better than the original could have ever hoped to become!"
"Well, at least we agree on that much…" Bardock grit his teeth with a painful-ridden smirk. "Still, King Vegeta or not, you've screwed with my people and for that, I'm going to smash your entire face in!"
"Heh, just come and try it, Saiyan! This battle has proven to be most exciting! Let's see if you can push me, Captain Ginyu, far enough to consider hopping into your body!" Captain Ginyu prepared to engage his opponent.
"King Kai's Fist X10!" Bardock roared out, pushing out the remains of his energy at once before leaping into an exchange of blows against the captain of Frieza's most elite squadron of his most trusted soldiers inside the body of his longtime nemesis. A sparkling, white aura engulfed both warriors as they traded blows with each other. Bardock rolled underneath a power cross of Captain Ginyu's and vanished to position himself over Ginyu's arm.
With the frightened Ginyu psyching out and crossing his arms over his head in protection from the Saiyan's wrath, Bardock flashed to sweep as the captain's legs again before grabbing hold of his beard and pulling the king's face in for a collection of right-hand blows that cocked back and forth like a sledgehammer. Once the king slipped out from Bardock's grip, the Saiyan drove a Ki blast he had just formed in his hand point-blank into Ginyu's face, sending him crashing down only for Bardock to focus his Ki into his fist and diving at his knocked down opponent.
"You may have taken over King Vegeta's body, but you haven't inherited his spirit! This! This is the Saiyan Spirit!" Bardock roared out before delivering his diving punch to the king's chest. With whited out eyes, the poser inside of King Vegeta's body went limp, letting his muscular and bruised arms to fall limp beside him while Bardock staggered back, rubbing the numbed mid-section of the arm that delivered the Saiyan Spirit to the body switcher.
"Don't mess around with me, you bastard!" Bardock exclaimed. "I've learned to sense people's energy on Earth, and I can tell that you're just playing possum and waiting for me to lower my guard."
Ginyu's body became blurry as he vanished away, appearing before Bardock as he threw an elbow strike which Bardock caught. Ginyu attacked again and again with a barrage of punches, but Bardock leaned and ducked out of their way and dived under Ginyu's finishing strike. With a crystalline aura bursting forth from Bardock's body, the Saiyan rotated around and delivered a crushing elbow strike to Ginyu's cheek, sending the injured king airborne.
Just as he answered the attempt to sneak-attack him by his opponent, Bardock lit up with a red aura and vanished behind his opponent, kicking him aside only to appear right in front of him and send him flying into an opposite direction, then again behind him to grab hold of King Vegeta's arm and leg and spin him around before vaulting him to the air.
"Do me a solid and just kick the bucket already!" Bardock yelled out with a grungy voice before driving his arm back and channeling his strength into a cerulean sphere of energy that he unleashed at once in a resonating Ki wave, booming with an outline of lively, red Ki. Bardock's Final Spirit Cannon engulfed and left absolutely nothing of the Saiyan king once the dust settled.
"D-Dammit…" Bardock coughed up and collapsed. His body was in too much pain for him to pass out, but he had no more energy left in him to even move around.
"Chayote-san," Gohan looked up to Chayote with a troubled expression.
The brat was right to act worried. He wasn't worried enough. Massive outbursts of Ki were rising and dipping back down all over the place. The surrounding soldiers looked terrified each time this happened or their scouters beeped with an incoming report. This was the fourth location that they've taken Chayote and Gohan to. The soldiers acted like they were just helping the two look for this Gine person who they were scouting for, but their sweaty and pale faces told the entire story.
"Sit tight, kid. Your father and your grandfather are both alive. I'm worried about the fact that Krillin messed up and ran off. Let's hope he killed all the soldiers so that none of them could deliver a message to their emperor," Chayote sighed.
"We should go help them," Gohan whined out.
"I'll knock you out if you talk back. We're all better off not getting Lord Frieza involved in all this at all," Chayote hissed back at the whiny kid. "If these goons smell one hint of trouble, they'll call him right over here. Him or the Ginyu Special Squadron. We're equally screwed either way."
"Wh-What's that up there?" Gohan gasped and pointed at something up in the evening sky. Just out of curiosity, Chayote turned her glare up and jumped up as her entire world seemed to shatter around her. Vision blurred out and her cold sweat ran down her back. Beams of infernal red enveloping a handful of space pods bled in the distance over the burnt-up jungle where Goku's Ki had shot up not too long ago.
"One, two, three, four… Four? Could it be?" Chayote mumbled to herself.
"Is it him? This scary Frieza person you were talking about, Chayote-san?" Gohan wondered.
"No, I don't think so, but… It has to be, there's no other way. It's the Ginyu Special Squadron, there are four of them for whatever reason, though maybe they've lost a member or two," Chayote grew grim.
"What do we do? Do we join with Krillin-san and father?" Gohan wondered, looking up to Chayote.
"Not yet, we need to see what they're here to do. We keep looking for Kakarot's mother and only show our hand if they make a move that we can't recover from and have to engage them for. Hurry up, we don't have much time." Chayote replied as her shins started feeling weak. Heels started shaking like the weight of her own frame was too much to carry around for them.
Things were getting disgustingly close to being irreparable.
"Good news," the voice of a purple-skinned, skull-shaped headed alien rung behind Chayote's back. There was no doubt that the goon was addressing them. "We've got reports that Lord Frieza's spaceship landed near the Asparagus region. You guys will probably get approved soon and have your chance to prove yourselves sooner rather than later. That's fortunate because prince Vegeta's been causing us heaps of trouble. Maybe you guys can bring him in and get off on the best of feet with Lord Frieza, huh?" the alien laughed it up to himself.
"Chayote-san?" Gohan looked up to Chayote, who leaned over the nearby conveyor belt with a blanked-out stare and a mean case of the ground being dragged out from underneath her feet. The Saiyan woman tried saying something, but her throat had gone dry.
Frieza was here already! That meant that they couldn't take off without him being able to see them or someone reporting it to him. As long as the situation demands Frieza to be here on Planet Vegeta–that's exactly where he'll be. They can't make any moves. Chayote noted what that alien said–it was all Vegeta's fault. He must have been the one throwing a fit and clashing with Son Goku. It's all because of him.
It's because of that asshole they're here in the first place. He is to blame that Frieza paid this planet a visit and sought to settle the prince's caprices himself. It's because of Vegeta they'll all soon very likely be dead without a damn thing that they can do about it. Chayote's only hope was that her silly delusions about the likes of Turles and Lord Slug feeling more frightening at the peak of their power compared to Frieza's unmatchable power were true and that, if need be, they could at the very least defend themselves.
Though, Chayote's martial artist's instincts suggested that they'd only be making the space tyrant more and more mad in the process, no matter what they do.