A pair of crimson energy beams split a room off of the Capsule Corps Star and drowned it in a chain of combustions and blasts that engulfed the entire region. Just like that, unbothered by the rowdy and fiery destruction around him, the Ultimate No. 20 walked away through the flames with the explosive concussive shock waves being utterly unable to move him. A screen emerged from a nearby wall in a still intact hallway with Bulma's fierce face fixed on it.
"Stop blasting my station to bits! If you destroy it, you won't get your hands on it either," Bulma demanded.
"Then give me control of the station willingly and I'll use its transportation beam to move you and your family away from this station back to Earth," the Ultimate Android stated his terms bluntly.
"It's not quite that simple," Bulma objected, wrapping her arms under her chest while she beamed a stern look back at the musclebound bio-mechanical monster. "This station is, for all intents and purposes, alive. It has its own mind, like an artificial intelligence, but advanced to such a point that I struggle to find anything artificial about it. The only way to gain control of the station is to hack it. I can give you the access codes to my hacking module, which should let you hack into the station. That's the only way to control it."
"I see, in that case, I will accept those terms," the Ultimate Dr. Gero nodded with a teasing bow of his upper body. His pearly smile shined through from underneath a brush of orange mustache.
"Excellent, stay where you are. I'll configure the station to move to you…" Bulma was about to drag her index finger across the screen when Videl leaned in from her side with a distraught look on her face.
"What did you do to Gohan? Did you kill him?" Videl slammed her fists on the control panel causing rampant holographic red rings to light up as the panel didn't recognize the user inputting the commands.
"Perhaps. As the Ultimate Artificial Human, I have better tasks more suited to my intelligence and body to obsess over, so I didn't care to make sure. He will not meddle in my business, that is for sure," the Ultimate Artificial Human replied without hesitation.
"I'll… I'll make you pay for that!" Videl shivered with tightly clenched fists. "He was a kind person looking out for others!"
"So am I. The difference is that I have the peerless mind and a perfect body to make life better for the world, unlike that young man who does nothing but waste his potential," the Ultimate No. 20 shrugged while turning his head around to examine the sudden shifts in the station's configuration. Entire hallways began spinning and switching places, like a round Rubik's Cube of sorts, with offices and laboratories shuffling with each other like a hectic deck of cards. Suddenly, the Ultimate Artificial Human could no longer find the laboratory complex he had just destroyed.
Reacting to the mechanical sound of an opening door, the Ultimate Dr. Gero approached closer to it. Sparkling, diamond dust mist spread from within the door as the mechanical barrier to Bulma's office opened up. The expression of the Ultimate Android shifted to surprise with his orange eyebrows tilting and the V-shape of his black vizor inverting on his face. Before the Ultimate One could say anything, a fist dug into his face with a thunderous thud.
The muscular build of a restored Super Saiyan burst forth from the office with a rushing push kick that slammed right into the Ultimate Artificial Human's chest and shoved him a tad further from the door while the bare-chested Super Vegeta landed on both feet and flashed his enemy a smug grin.
"Got you, asshole!" the recovered Super Vegeta sneered at the enemy.
"Yeah, kick his ass, dad!" young Trunks pumped his fists up and over his head from behind him.
"Lock up, Bulma. This sight won't be for the delicate eyes of Earthling women," Super Vegeta smirked back at his arranged wife before turning his attention back to the hunched over Ultimate Artificial Human. As instructed, the door to Bulma's laboratory closed shut and the Capsule Corps Star began re-configuring again according to Bulma's command to make her tougher to find.
"This sucks! We won't get to see dad rip that guy apart!" Trunks objected with a childish whine, crossing his arms and pouting his lips while blowing out his cheeks.
"That was your father's request, Trunks. One that I just happened to agree with. It's a rare occasion that such occurs which is why I didn't hesitate to act on it," Bulma closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair, crossing up her legs and spinning around before pointing at the ceiling and calling out a monitor to show her the fight.
"Bulma-san, can you please shift us to the engine room where Gohan last was? I can't believe that he's really dead. I have to make sure," Videl approached Bulma with a determined look on her face. With a sly smirk on her face, Bulma turned to the control panel and began rolling her busy hands across the holographic keyboard that lit up with all the colors of the specter when Bulma interfaced with it.
"Not fair!" Trunks shook his tiny fists out in front of him. "Why does she get to rescue her boyfriend but I can't see dad fight live?"
"He's not my boyfriend, you brat!" Videl growled while doing her best to restrain her instinct to pound the boy's head in front of his mother, whose help she still needed. "He owes me martial arts lessons! My father is Mark Satan, so that should tell you how much we're paying for those! I won't just let an investment like that go to waste!"
"Whatever, my mom's richer than your dad…" Trunks pulled his lower eyelid down while sticking out his tongue meanwhile flipping the bird with his free hand.
"I see that hanging around your father is a bad influence on you, Trunks. Perhaps we should resume your business classes to groom you for becoming the next Capsule Corps president instead of the next King of Saiyans?" Bulma disciplined her boy without having to look at him.
"What? No way! Those are boring me to tears!" Trunks began pointing his hands everywhere and jumping about with capricious hyperactivity to catch his mother's attention. After all, if she looked at him, she'd see just how much he hated that idea. "I'm sorry, Videl, I'll help you look for Gohan."
"That's better," Bulma nodded before slamming her index finger on one last button, which made the door open up only to let choking black smoke in from the blazing engine room. "The Capsule Corps Star is picking up puny life signs in that direction, though it could be either Gohan or Krillin. Go ahead, you two."
Neither Videl nor Trunks needed confirmation of the permission they'd been waiting for.
"You'll pay for making a fool out of me!" Super Vegeta rushed forward with a wound back fist and weaved under the Ultimate Android's cross to deliver an uppercut to the Ultimate Gero's gut. This appeared to only deal moderate damage as the Ultimate Android staggered back on wobbly legs but didn't collapse. Jumping up into the air, Super Vegeta blasted the Ultimate Artificial Human away through the nearest hallway wall with a push kick and blazed up with a golden aura to pursue after him.
The golden comet came in from multiple directions, kicking and thrashing the airborne Ultimate Artificial Human about before smacking a chop to his sides to make the Ultimate Gero spin around wildly. This opened him up for a thunderous right kick to blast the heavyweight Artificial Human through another hallway. As Super Vegeta's golden aura rippled, it bent out space and time itself before turning into a solid, golden beam of light carrying the rushing King of Saiyans forward.
Vegeta crashed into his opponent with his head first. Rolling around the Ultimate Artificial Human's response, Vegeta drove his foot into the Ultimate Gero's jaw from the side before vanishing behind him to evade an attempted grab capture. The Saiyan royalty flipped over his head with an overhead kick before snapping up in front of the distracted and rattled Ultimate Android and shoving his foot up into Ultimate Gero's abdomen. Adjusting his position before his opponent, with a rich smile on his face, Vegeta extended his hand down point-blank to the Ultimate Gero's face and expelled a dozen of Ki Blasts that drowned the laboratory room in smoke and shattered the durable test tubes within.
The present computer panels shattered and spat out electric jolts while Super Vegeta, riding his golden energy high, slammed his flying knee blindly into his opponent's face before rolling over him and stomping both feet into his face to knock the Ultimate Artificial Human flat on the ground. However, the Ultimate Gero dashed back, avoiding the finishing touch to Vegeta's beat down and avoiding the humiliation of being knocked down while Vegeta skidded across the laboratory floor to stop his own momentum.
"I cannot take the credit where it is not due. The worst enemy of not only King Vegeta, but his people too, is King Vegeta, after all," the Ultimate Artificial Human pointed at the crouched up and ready to go Saiyan super-elite. "Had you gotten out of my way, you'd have avoided defeat at my hands altogether. Now, not only have you broken at my hands once, you'll do so for a second time immediately after coming back. Even to someone who doesn't share your limitless warrior pride, that's quite embarrassing."
"Just keep talking more shit and I'll see how deep back down I can shove it!" Vegeta threatened his opponent by shaking his fist and vanished in a myriad of snap vanishes, aimed to throw the massive enemy off his game.
The Super Saiyan appeared before his enemy, but instead of attempting to attack, he plunged down and blasted a shapeless expulsion of energy from his hand to propel him under the incoming clothesline rush. Turning around, Vegeta unleashed a barrage of jabs that forced the Ultimate Artificial Human to cover up and go on the defensive. The very moment when Super Vegeta ceased his overwhelming rush and transitioned into a sharp and focused elbow slam, his opponent caught it in an open hand and raised his hand over the head for a hammering smash.
Vaulting sideways with his entire body, Super Vegeta thrust his right foot into the incoming hammer arm smash while firing an energy blast to the ground underneath with his free hand. The crafty method of blocking the counterattack devastated the ground underneath their feet and saw the two collapse down into the lower floor hallway. It took no time at all for Vegeta to cross chop at his opponent's neck and explode with a full-force kick that flipped the Ultimate No. 20 over.
Relying on his Data Input alone, the Ultimate Artificial Human expelled an explosive Ki blast from his whole body to level himself as he scanned his surroundings in a search for his vanished foe. Vegeta came in from the right, forcing his suppressed battle power to soar once more as the Saiyan King shoved a foot into the Ultimate No. 20's face and stomped him off into the distance to drill through the collapsed floor and part it much further to where their floor previously collapsed. Riding the golden energy wave, Vegeta drove his knee into the Ultimate Android's gut and smashed his elbow into the top of his head, smashing him back down through an unknown number of floors.
The bare-chested Super Saiyan dragged his backhand across his lip while panting and staying on the lookout for his enemy. By the time Super Vegeta realized he had made a folly in letting his opponent disappear from his sight, given the Ultimate Android's lack of Ki signature, it had been too late and his opponent already had the advantage. It wasn't like Super Vegeta could threaten his opponent with something either. Then again… Maybe it was exactly like that.
"Come out, you asshole!" Vegeta cursed, flinging a golden energy blast to the side and blasting a fiery tunnel that immediately began sticking up with the Capsule Corps Star doing its best to mend the extensive damage it had suffered from the Dragon Team attempting to stop this ultimate threat they were facing. "Come out or I'll blow this whole stupid station to kingdom come and no one will have it!"
"Vegeta! Have you lost your mind!?" Bulma's shrill voice reached the king's ear as a monitor appeared from the ground of a collapsed floor with a flickering image of the Capsule Corps' president.
"Shut up, woman! Don't interfere!" Vegeta clenched his fist and growled back at the troubled face of his arranged wife. "This old scarecrow embarrassed me! Me! A proud and mighty Saiyan King! I won't stand for it! I'll beat every word of my speech into his face and sign his every tooth I shove down his throat!"
"What does it feel like, Your Majesty, to have your own wife consider you a mad dog? A miserable petite creature barking at every automobile whizzing past that you do not understand and trying to chase it down on your feeble, stubby, little legs?" the Ultimate Artificial Human emerged from the smoke, dragging his fist across the corner of his lip where a meek spot of pink blood hung in between a handful of minor scrapes and bruises.
"I'll love seeing that smirk wiped off of your face, you cocky bastard!" Vegeta shook his fist out in front of him before engaging the full shine of his improved Super Saiyan golden burst and taking off at his opponent in a vertical halo. The Ultimate Artificial Human attempted to intercept his opponent with superior speed and raw power, but it was almost like Vegeta read Dr. Gero like a handbook, leaning down and driving both of his feet into the Ultimate No. 20's chest which shot him upward.
Backflipping onto his feet from a solid air pillow, Vegeta soared in a golden arc around his airborne opponent and slammed both his fists in a double ax handle that left the Ultimate Android in a repurposed plummet. Not wanting to repeat his earlier mistake, the King of Saiyans wrapped his legs around the Ultimate Dr. Gero's throat and began assaulting his face with a demolishing barrage of straights as the two rode their way down together and smashed through floor after floor with Vegeta adding some extra strength to send them further and further down.
When he felt like he'd run out of breath, the Saiyan super-elite kicked off of his opponent and flung a Ki blast from his right hand to wrap his combination up and marvel at the fireworks before him. For Vegeta, this was nothing like it was against Artificial Human No. 20 or No. 14. He didn't seek to obliterate the enemy to prove his superiority to anyone else. This was personal to him and at that moment it felt to the King of Saiyans like he had by far the most personal spite against the ultimate doctor.
"This is unexpected. I'd have never thought that Saiyans could grow this much in power over such an insignificant period of time…" the Ultimate Android scratched his aching cheek as a faint trail of smoke smoldered over where Vegeta had hit him with the Ki blast and only a handful of bruises decorated the Ultimate Artificial Human's body. "It may just be not completely outside the realm of possibility that, given enough time, one of you might just match an ultimate body in power and toughness. Your skill to improvise a fighting style that's previously unseen is also remarkable."
"Don't think you can sweet-talk yourself out of certain death!" Super Vegeta warned his opponent. "You may have a harder jaw than I thought, but that only means that I'll have to beat on it extra hard to snap it. You may think you're holding an advantage over me by refusing to take damage, but all you're doing is extending your punishment."
"Quite the contrary, I was merely listening to your thesis statement of your restored body being somehow comparable to my Ultimate Power. Now, Your Majesty, allow me to retort," the Ultimate Artificial Human subtly chuckled while extending his hands out and sinking the whole devastated wing of the Capsule Corps Star in pink light. "Ultimate Photon Wave!" the Ultimate No. 20 bellowed while producing a sweeping energy blast decimating a quarter of the planet-sized space station in a blink even though it was aimed solely at the Saiyan King.
A sweeping explosion flashed, rattling the entire Capsule Corps Star and temporarily halting the electromagnetic pressure and the artificial gravity produced by the cybernetic space station. When the colossal crescent ridge of pure light transformed into smoke that cluttered the outer space in a shapeless expanse, Vegeta's bruised and bloodied body floated out from the smoky formation. The hair of the humbled king was black and spiked up, what little of his previous Saiyan uniform he wore after his recovery had been tattered.
It was the shock of outer space that woke the hazed and battered Vegeta up and prompted him to roll over and correct his posture. With bloodshot eyes and a crazed, gnashed teeth expression, Vegeta desperately tried to peer a hole through the titanic enemy that was standing on the edge of the collapsed station as it slowly began reforming itself. With his crossed arms and a light chuckle, the Ultimate Android seemed to mock the floating Saiyan King and challenge him to return to the station before the gaping wound closed up.
"Y-You…!" Vegeta extended his arms to the sides as a nova of golden energy began to converge around him from countless electric jets pulsing at him from the boundless space that surrounded him. "I'll kill you…! I'll leave nothing out of you…! I'll make you pay for daring to mock the King of…"
It was then that Vegeta's eyes widened and the incomparable luster of his accumulating Final Flash drew into his body and the blinding surge of energy vanished without a trace. The King of Saiyans flinched in place and just ground his teeth. He couldn't fire the Final Flash. Bulma's displeased face and Trunks' naïve smirk and all-can-do attitude flashed in the back of the mind of the humbled king.
"Not that you could have hurt me either way, but that is why neither you nor any other Saiyan can ever defeat me, no matter how much you power up. You're unable to separate yourself from the fruit of your work and let it burn for the sake of an ultimate successor. Don't waste my time ever again," the Ultimate Artificial Human raised his hand and pointed just a measly single index finger at Vegeta while producing a pixel-sized energy flash around the tip of his fingernail.
In a blink, the finger beam expanded into a massive scarlet energy wave that engulfed Vegeta whole and blasted him all the way to Jupiter with the ethereal finger beam showing little sign of stoppage. A network of red fissure cracks formed around Jupiter's surface as the gas giant began disintegrating in burning up grains. The cluster of burning cosmic cinders converged into a sole colossal giant sphere. From the center of the blast where the Ultimate Android's Ultimate Handy Blaster took Vegeta, a fiery dome emerged. The rampant blast caused a chain reaction of explosions. A fiery energy field of slowly disintegrating gas and concussive energy bubbles began a rapid expanse and, in a blink, all the gas burnt up and nothing remained in its place.
The Ultimate Artificial Human marveled at the death of Jupiter through the slowly merging hole in the Capsule Corps Star until he saw a teal energy beam shoot out from the north-eastern point of the station to retrieve Vegeta from the gaseous graveyard. Disgruntled by the thought of the Saiyan King being nursed back to health and wasting his time yet again, the Ultimate No. 20 turned to walk in the general direction of where he saw Vegeta being drawn to.
It seemed that both husband and wife shared that irritating weakness of being unable to leave inferior parts of their lives to burn away so that they could focus on something new and closer to ultimateness. It would be that cardinal sin that would lead both of them to critical failure and the Ultimate Android to his solution to the omnipotence paradox.