"Vegeta, what are you doing?" Bulma walked in through the mechanical door accompanied by young Trunks, only to see her arranged husband messing with the control panel of the Capsule Corps Star.
"Not now, Bulma!" Vegeta turned back with a sour face before returning to his work and continuing to mash buttons and drag his hands across the panel. "I'm trying to find that traitorous asshole who thinks it's a good idea to depose me as king and rule my people. I don't need your nagging right now! Not alongside this stupid machine not working!"
Bulma sighed and ran her hand across her forehead, sifting through a handful of her hair and pushing it out of the way. "The Capsule Corps Star works just fine. What is your plan exactly? Just run off and attack the enemy all by yourself? This guy said he was ready to take over, he's got to have an army, and he said something about a Legendary Super Saiyan. If he's allied with someone like that, we'll need to all work together to stop the rebellious Saiyans. Trunks said that this is the same guy that took Chayote, Son-kun, and the others to Planet Vegeta and interrupted Yamcha's wedding. Maybe they can give you information about what the heck's going on?"
"As if I'm going to crawl to Kakarot and that Legendary Super Saiyan woman for help!" Vegeta clenched his fist, gnashing his teeth in fury. "Didn't you hear that bastard? He issued a challenge to me and thinks he can rule my people better than me! He thinks he knows what's best for the Saiyans better than me. I don't need Kakarot's stupid meddling in this and if I approach the Legendary Super Saiyan broad, I may as well surrender my crown to her! I'm a Super-Elite King of the Saiyans, if I run to her with all my troubles, there's no point in me ruling my people anymore!"
"Ugh… Again with these insecurities!" Bulma snapped. "You're the King of Saiyans, so act like it! Command your people, the last I heard, Chayote and Son-kun were Saiyans too. Talk to them and get them to help you, of what use is a King that runs off and fights all the battles by himself for his people?"
"I won't let a single Saiyan lose their life over this pretentious piece of shit," Vegeta's voice went down in volume and he looked down with somber eyes. "Ever since the Saiyans began settling down on Earth, I've been keeping track of them. Some of them have settled down and found families and most of them have grown fond of their stupid Earthling jobs and began taking them as seriously as they do fighting. As their ruler, I don't want to ask them to step away from all that and risk losing the life they've built up. Not for this wanna-be king."
"Jeez…" Bulma rolled her eyes and gently pressed her shoulder to Vegeta's, closing in on the panel he's been working on and threatened to smash to bits if it didn't relent to his demands. "Have you found where he's coming from?"
"This goddamn machine won't cooperate!" Vegeta growled and shook his fist at the empty panel displaying various inquiries and errors.
"That's because it doesn't acknowledge you as its master. That's okay, it didn't acknowledge me either. You need to be smart about it and work around its firewalls, you can't just charge through them, or else you'll burn up and get booted out of the system," Bulma tried to be gentle while explaining her point to the hotheaded husband of hers as she worked her magic and slipped the virus into the system that let her puppeteer the Capsule Corps Star as if it were her own. So far, this has been the only way she managed to work the machine–by puppeteering it rather than cooperating with it. At times it felt like the Star had its own intelligence and could only be fooled by putting that intelligence and will to sleep with a little something something.
"There he is, that asswipe!" Vegeta grumbled, getting all up into the control panel's face as if he was face-to-face with Paragus even though he was merely seeing the signal of where his transmission came from.
"A Galactic Patrol vessel?" Bulma mumbled, closing in on the signal to get more information. "That's good news. The Galactic Patrol uses official network channels to transmit their signals and they're never trying to conceal their presence, so it'll be all too easy to track them. They also have nothing or anyone to fear, so they don't shield themselves with electromagnetic shields. We could probably beam Paragus here and talk…"
"Good, you've proven useful to me, as usual, Bulma. Now beam me up there!" Vegeta crossed his arms, settling down after his wife gave him exactly what he wanted from the insufferable machine.
"It's not that I'm over the moon about being "useful" to you, dear husband…" Bulma's right eyebrow twitched as she entertained the idea of punching the obnoxious ass in the face even if it meant breaking her hand, "But that's the worst idea you've ever had. You can't just beam up right into the enemy ship and start swinging fists and blasting everyone around you!"
"Why not? Worked out so far…" Vegeta grumbled while turning around with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.
"At getting your ass handed to you every time, maybe!" Bulma lost it. "Have you forgotten that we've used the Earthling Dragon Balls already to resurrect you? Meanwhile, the Namekian Dragon Balls are gone, courtesy of Dr. Puri. If you get yourself killed because of your reckless actions–that'd be it and I'm too young and beautiful to be a widow. Besides, you're not disappearing on Trunks again, mister!"
"Please…" Vegeta snorted air through his nose. "Even if that son of a bitch could pose a challenge to a Super-Elite Super King of Saiyans, you can always just beam me back here and heal me, right?"
"I suppose…" Bulma caved in. "The signal is incredibly strong, so I shouldn't lose track of the vessel. The enemy clearly needs it to get to Earth so they won't risk blowing it up… But don't you think you should do more as the King of Saiyans than just beat up on Paragus and his son?"
"Interesting. Explain," Vegeta opened his eyes and turned to Bulma.
"Well, Paragus said he's going to wage a Saiyan civil war and that Saiyans obeying your rule are free to join him. That means that he's extending a hand to Saiyans working for the enemy. He puts himself out as someone who wants what's best for all Saiyans, even if he is wrong about that thing. He makes himself out looking selfless and just doing what's best for his people. Undoubtedly, that attitude helped him amass the army under his command he's going to wage that civil war with. You should do the same. He must have some Saiyans under his employ, appeal to them, pacify their fears and get them on your side," Bulma advised Vegeta.
"I'll pacify them, with death!" Vegeta clenched his fists and gave Bulma a commanding look. "Send me to Paragus now!"
"This rush recklessly approach has failed only every time you've ever tried it, why not?" Bulma rolled her eyes and tapped a holographic button that enveloped Vegeta in bright light and shot his disassembled clump of particles off into space, only to reassemble him inside of Paragus' ship.
"I'll pacify them. With death!" young Trunks struck a flashy pose that he thought was cool while trying to emulate his father's voice.
Bulma shook her head in disappointment. Sometimes it felt like her entire life has been slipping from her hands. Her husband acted like a cocky and reckless imbecile most of the time, and her son, apparently, thought that there was nothing cooler than acting that way. When she first suggested that Vegeta would teach him martial arts, she thought it could only go all the right ways. A boy training with his father and channeling all that youthful energy into something productive and something that his Saiyan nature craved…
She should've asked Gohan to train him instead.
The soldiers quivered and staggered back when an intense beam of dazzling light boomed in the middle of the mess hall. They fell out of their seats and began crawling back in terror after seeing the stern look of the spiky-haired King of Saiyans staring at them from the middle with a judgmental gaze. Vegeta raised his hand and a yellow energy sphere blinked in and out of vision at the end of his open palm but the King of Saiyans hesitated to blow the ship up and leave these treasonous punks choking on cold and merciless space as punishment for their treachery.
"You're… The King of Saiyans, Vegeta IV, aren't you?" one of the fallen soldiers muttered in a terrified tone. They've already seen what the elite-class Earthling Saiyans were capable of when one of them stalemated and defeated Legendary Super Saiyan Broly himself. The murderous vibes that this short man exuded made all of them tremble despite none of them being able to measure his unparalleled battle power.
"Are you kidding me?" Vegeta's face turned sour with disgust. "You mean to tell me you don't even know what your righteous king looks like?"
"But of course they don't, Vegeta," Paragus walked in through the sliding mechanical door, accompanied by a tall yet slim, pale-skinned young man with shoulder-long black hair and a regal golden crown decorated with jewels and circuits of navy blue. "They've only seen your father from the images in Planet Vegeta's archives. These are the sons and daughters of Planet Vegeta discarded and sent to faraway planets and forgotten because of their low battle power. Your father disowned them, you forgot about them. How do you expect them to know your face?"
"So, you're Paragus…" Vegeta turned to the spiky-haired, scarred Saiyan veteran. "That stunt you pulled took a lot of nerve!"
"I must say that I didn't expect you to present to us and offer your life. Though if you wish to ask me to spare the lives of your Saiyan people, rest assured, their well-being was always part of my plan," Paragus crossed his arms, looking confident of the situation. He had no reason not to, after all, Vegeta just jumped straight into his ship and let himself get surrounded by his army.
"I can't decide if that's an excellent sense of humor or senile dementia at work, either way, your people are welcome to settle on Earth. You, on the other hand…" Vegeta clenched his fist and burst with a gleam of golden light. An explosive aura emanating from his entire body in the shape of a lively golden flame that had a sparking white halo pass upward Vegeta's body which left his spiky hair golden and turned his eyes teal.
"You know, I'm disappointed you came here, Vegeta. I'd have preferred to break your body and spirit down on Earth, surrounded by your people so that they could see their would-be king humbled and defeated and could record the rightful king being restored to the throne," Paragus shrugged. When Vegeta dashed off to punch a hole in the skull of scarred Saiyan, the meek scarecrow with long black hair stepped out in front of Paragus and extended his hand while a jade aura ignited around him and ruffled his hair. Broly's arm holding Vegeta's fist faltered and pushed back closer to his chest, but Vegeta's fist stopped all the same.
"What is this transformation?" Vegeta's eyes widened as he noted Broly's violet hair and eyes that were stuck halfway in between Super Saiyan's and the base form's.
"This doesn't bode well, an explosive battle like this is bound to devastate our vessel. Take it outside, Broly…" Paragus turned his head to look behind him.
"Yes, father…" Broly replied with a spiteful tone before the jade aura around him took a lime-like twinge and the hearty burst of energy colored the Saiyan's hair gold. The meek-looking Saiyan went through a noticeable increase of bulk that forced Vegeta to take a more balanced stance on his feet. He didn't expect his opponent to sweep him off the floor and swing him around like a rag doll before slamming him through the spaceship wall into the airlock.
"Damn it! Where did this sudden burst of power come in?" Vegeta gritted his teeth before resuming his power struggle against the bulked-up Super Saiyan. Just the fact that there was another Super Saiyan in this universe that Vegeta wasn't aware of would've been enough to ruin the king's day and here this guy's transformation boosted his power hundreds of thousands of times, vastly surpassing the level of power-up that an ordinary Super Saiyan transformation offered.
Just as Vegeta was slowly gaining an upper hand in his little wrestling match, he felt a firm press of an open palm to his chest. Before Vegeta could finish overpowering his opponent and answer this move, Broly's open hand lit up with an emerald flash, and a green energy sphere formed at the end of his open palm, detonating immediately and a point-blank range to Vegeta and blasting the King of Saiyans off his feet and through the airlock to the open space.
Before Vegeta could snap out of the daze of suddenly being blasted into open space, an iron-tight grip locked around his throat as Super Saiyan Broly flashed up right in front of him, grabbing Vegeta and taking him for a ride across the local star system before crashing Vegeta head-first into a bland and rocky planetoid surrounded by an asteroid ring. Not wanting to show weakness, Vegeta quickly stumbled back to his feet and took a low stance, ready to pounce on his opponent.
"Just because you've ascended to a Super Saiyan form, it doesn't make you king-material!" Vegeta exclaimed, charging at his opponent. Broly flexed his front, drawing his arms back and puffing out his chest, but the royal Super Saiyan vanished and appeared above his foe, rolling through the low-gravity atmosphere like a living cannonball. Once he had moved behind Broly and startled the large Super Saiyan into taking an inopportune position to defend himself from, Vegeta swung a stiff kick to the front of Broly's face that flinched the challenger and made him stagger back.
Having gained control over his inexperienced opponent, Vegeta charged forward with a flurry of strikes aimed at Broly's gut. The orderly combination of chained strikes left Broly gasping, breathless, wobbling, and ready to crumble after even the slightest power strike to finish the combination. Instead, Vegeta directed a cross straight to the side of Broly's jaw, turned his body around for a step in backhand into Broly's ribs, turned his body around again for a cross to the solar plexus, and delivered two explosive step-in uppercuts to send Broly flying off his feet.
Broly's body spun all the way to the highest layer of the planetoid's atmosphere, at which point the atmosphere was too rare and the gravity too low for Broly to fall back down, thus the giant floated in the air on his back. Super Saiyan Vegeta appeared with a burst of a golden halo directly above Broly and socked a downward punch into Broly's gut that expelled a booming airwave from the point of contact and sent Broly crashing down.
Not wanting to let his opponent just crash, Vegeta vanished again and slid across the entire distance between him and Broly's intended landing destination with a dashing elbow strike that redirected Broly's trajectory and sent him flying horizontally back. Pursuing his opponent, Vegeta delivered a ruthless beatdown of fists, knees, and kicks before stopping and drawing his arm back while forming a mass of light so intense around his hand that it seemed like it absorbed all surrounding light and left everything around it in complete darkness.
The bright aura expanded to cover Vegeta's whole body, forming a miniature nova of golden starlight while the King of Saiyans raised his arm, holding his index and middle fingers up. "Atomic Flash!" Vegeta barked out, letting the pent-up energy detonate in a shapeless burst of energy that sent Broly soaring all the way across the planetoid and left his body dragging across a deep ridge of dirt and gravel with a nasty burn on his chest where the blast hit him.
"Hmph… The power of a Super Saiyan is meaningless without the ability to fight. You yell really loud and swing your arms like you mean bloody murder, I'll give you that. But if that made you king, any lowlife thug with deep-seated scorn could challenge me for the throne. Not only do you have not the faintest clue about what makes a king, but you aren't even a true Legendary Super Saiyan. Your skin is pale like you've never seen sunlight. You've got nice battle power, but your father's using it to make himself something he has no right to be. Ditch that senile fool and make something out of your own life. You can start building a new life down on Earth, just like the rest," Vegeta said in a stern and apathetic voice while looking at the fallen Broly who laid in a ditch of gravel beneath his feet.
"Not a true Legendary Super Saiyan… You say?" a bitter voice came from down below in Broly's ditch. Vegeta stopped talking and focused on the fallen body of his opponent. Even if he felt confident about being able to pummel Broly in the dirt based on what he had seen so far, Vegeta paid attention to Broly's Ki to avoid any further surprises.
"And what would you know about the true power of a Legendary Super Saiyan?" Broly emerged from the ditch, covered in gravel before flexing his entire body and receiving a pumping bulk-up as if his entire body just began overflowing with blood that supercharged his muscles and inflated them to ridiculous proportions.
"Is that it, Broly? Is that all the power you're capable of? Will you let the Vegeta bloodline get away with centuries of killing babies showing incredible potential and denying the Saiyan race of their advancement? Working alongside the Frieza Army to hold us Saiyans down… Will you just let him get away with that?" a muzzled voice came from the Galactic Patrol ship hovering above the planetoid where Vegeta and Broly were duking it out. "Show him your true power, Broly, all of it!"
A crackle of lightning of various colors erupted from the gemstones around Broly's crown, each jolt matching the color of the gemstone it came out of. Broly grabbed his head and curled into a floating fetal pose in pain while blood vessels burst out over his muscles and began twitching as his circulatory system kicked into overdrive.
The curled Super Saiyan mashed his head in between his hands, screaming in pain, while his hair spiked up and grew out of control. The spiky hair flashed white and flared with light that was too blinding to look at. The eyes of the aggravated Super Saiyan became bloodshot and his expression twisted into sheer hatred and wrath. Then, the hate just sizzled out, the grip that Broly had on reality shattered and his mind collapsed alongside it. A brilliant glow of ethereal jade surrounded the rowdy Super Saiyan. The resounding battle cry of the bulking up Super Saiyan resonated in concussive shock waves that pushed Vegeta backward and further from the ridge he had Broly in.
"What on Earth…?" Vegeta hissed to himself while struggling against the calamitous forces of nature that were conspiring against him and sought to sweep him off his feet and flush him out into space.
As the emerald tinge aura fumed from Broly's body, his muscles swelled up to a nigh absurd degree and his body grew further, to the point of absolutely towering above everyone around him. The vibrant output of flashing jade light sealed the desolate planetoid in total darkness as only Broly's emerald glow provided any semblance of terrifying light to its surface.
Flashing lightning bolts lashed like majestic whips through the rare atmosphere while the gleaming jade aura boomed out into space and forced the Galactic Patrol space station hosting Paragus' forces to steer away from the heavenly arrow of all-annihilating energy. Vegeta's eyes shifted from the sternness of control to the shock of his table being flipped and having found himself laying flat on the floor while his opponent grew out of proportion like a looming behemoth. Just as abruptly as it started, Broly's aura withdrew within his body. The crucified by pain warrior stared at the shrouded sky above that showed him nothing but black oblivion of space and specks of faraway cinders that were the stars that were his to destroy.
Broly bellowed like a wounded animal with a pitiful expression, releasing all the emotional, psychological and physical hurt all out with leaking rays of emerald light that burst out from his mouth and his. A column of energy beamed out into space while sending radiant halos resonating across the planetoid's surface. The intensity of his own aura began peeling his skin off bit by bit as it molded and swelled up his body into something else. All of Broly's overflowing power and manifested hurt detonated in a snap. Even as the booming energy snuffed out and retreated, instead of vanishing, it formed a jade dome around the herculean behemoth. The resonance of Broly's emerald energy dome spread out with black ink-like ripples that changed the visible light filter of the entire planet with each resonance. The apocalyptic burst of energy seeped back to its sinewy emitter and flashed a simple, flaming, lime-colored aura from his entire body.
The transformed Broly stood tall as an undisputed titan of power. An immovable juggernaut and an embodying monolith of the simple concept of raw power over everything else. Matter over the mind. A ridiculous power that made even the kings bow down and stutter their words. Power such as this made classes and circumstances of one's birth irrelevant because power like this reigned supreme and nobody could force a Legendary Super Saiyan to do anything for they lacked the means to enforce such a demand against an effigy of potency such as this.