"Commander, why did that kid's hair just suddenly start glowing gold?" Ribet turned for leadership to Commander Nezi.
"It is not just a visual change," the stalwart mechanical colossus Bizu confirmed. "My readings indicate that his energy output has jumped up at least fifty times."
"Fifty insects are still just insects," Natt surmised, however, he did not have it in him to make the bold first move.
"Your theory is flawed, Natt," Commander Nezi scratched his round chrome dome hung suspended on an elongated neck of interconnected and electromagnetically conjoined square steel chain links. "This isn't like recreating an insect fifty times. This is more like an insect growing fifty times its size."
"B-But that's… Terrifying!" Natt freaked out, placing stubby mechanical arms over its green helm that protected his core processor.
"What are these guys on about?" Videl wondered to herself, having just recovered from the awe of witnessing Trunks' ascension to Super Saiyan first-hand. With this giving them a second breath and a chance to compete against the mechanical alien invaders, Videl wasn't planning on being the weak link. She placed her hands by her sides and let her Ki unfurl in a ripping, crystal-clear aura that condensed into a white outline around her. Her muscles increased in tension a little, but nowhere near the drastic swelling of power that Muten Roshi could pull off with the same method of Ki control.
"It doesn't matter, I've become a Super Saiyan now, so you guys are in big trouble!" Trunks pulled his knees up and positioned himself for a light-speed dash at his enemies. If there was one thing he didn't lack one bit, it was confidence. To tackle four Machine Mutants alone would've taken tremendous guts even for a Super Saiyan. That was exactly why Videl didn't hesitate to follow Trunks.
This was their big shot. Trunks' swelling power gave them a way out, so if Trunks made a folly by over-extending and attempting to bite off too much, he'd take damage and his skyrocketing Ki would then plummet, leaving the two of them powerless once again. This was their not very likely, now-or-never shot. Frankly, Videl still hadn't forgotten the tremendous damage these alien invaders had caused and the massive casualties accumulated after their crash landing.
With his face flashing a serious look, Trunks vanished in a golden halo of energy and appeared directly in front of Commander Nezi, delivering a decisive power blow to the Commander's chest and denting the outer shell of his armor slightly. With numbers and unidentified symbols flashing on Commander Nezi's screen, the leader of the Sigma Force staggered back, clutching his chest. While the rest of the Sigma Force goons twitched in shock and awe at the damage that a mere Saiyan boy inflicted on their amazing Commander, Videl rushed after them too.
Hitting the giant Bizu in the chest, the abdomen, and the headpiece, before performing a dashing knee strike and a left-legged side kick, before finishing the combination with a right-legged roundhouse that sent Bizu sliding away in mid-air. Just as Super Saiyan Trunks charged in pursuit of his flinching opponent, Commander Nezi vanished, revealing a blurry myriad of afterimages all around and stunning the newly ascended Super Saiyan with a familiar to him martial arts technique. It was in this confusion that Commander Nezi found his opening to blitz Trunks with an Eye Laser blast emitted from his vizor. The blast hit Trunks from the side and sent him crashing down on the decimated land with a bleeder on the back of his right arm.
Almost at the same time, a powerful explosion of raw Ki obliterated the leaning ruined building and sent its debris raining down from above as Bizu charged forward in response to Videl's challenge. Videl took a defensive karate pose but Bizu's arms unexpectedly elongated, grabbing hold of her forearms and dragging her in for a devastating headbutt before Bizu's fists began flashing in a crunchy flurry of fists and finished the beatdown with a double ax handle swing that sent Videl flying aside like a wet rag.
Trunks bellowed in wrath and pain, booming with a blinding golden flash of aura surrounding him and burning through an excessive amount of stamina to recover as fast as he did and charge with this much uncompromising force. Spinning around his axis, Trunks created a tunneling gale around him that became infused with his Super Saiyan aura while the charging kindergartner threw his fist out and smashed into Commander Nezi's head, testing its mettle. With Commander Nezi's body withstanding the devastating comeback, the leader of the Sigma Force flew off beyond the horizon in a flashy bling while Trunks turned around to assist Videl in handling the rest of the Sigmas.
Videl exclaimed a battle cry, forcing the thin glowing outline around her to burst into a more intense white aura as she charged at the bundled Sigma Force. Videl's soaring headbutt sent Bizu sliding back, then she turned around and thrust a fist into Ribet's face, turned to kick Natt aside before vaulting in mid-air and leg-drop, slamming Bizu head-first into the dirt.
"Well… This is unexpected…" Ribet freaked out, grabbing hold of the top of his recycling bin-shaped body. "How is it possible that Earthlings could put up a valiant resistance against the strongest of Machine Mutants?"
"This is peculiar indeed. At this rate, they will push us to use the Super Mega Cannon Sigma…" Bizu shook his thick headpiece to shake off the moderate damage to his systems that made some internal operations error and demand a reboot.
"Don't be ridiculous, Bizu!" Natt objected. "We haven't even shown them our true power, and it takes them all their organic bodies can put out just to keep up. They'll burn out long before they push us into a corner."
"You are both right," Commander Nezi rejoined the battlefield in a swift red and white blur. The velocity of his movement stunned both Videl and Trunks, both of whom realized that these Sigma Force Machine Mutants still had plenty left in the tank. "We should amp up the pressure and fight seriously. Using Super Mega Cannon Sigma is unnecessary. Their organic bodies won't be able to sustain this level of resistance for long."
"I knew it, Bizu!" Ribet pointed his long and thin arm at the resident giant of the squad. "You just called for the Super Mega Cannon Sigma to be the one in control!"
"That's slander!" Bizu objected, shaking his head vehemently. "That being said, it is a little unfair how we are only engaging in Super Mega Cannon Sigma under Commander's command and he always gets to be in control. I think the rest of us should get to control Super Mega Cannon Sigma sometimes."
"Enough!" Trunks yelled out. "You guys treat your soldiers like trash, yet you stand around and act goofy and fool around! Don't the lives of the troops fighting under your command mean anything to you?"
"Trunks…" Videl tried interjecting. Both of them knew that the Machine Mutants were right, and they could not sustain this high level of battle power for long. Getting into philosophical debates now would've only shortened the time they had, even if they did de-power to give themselves a breather during the downtime.
"Of course, the lives and well-being of the Sigma Force matter to me, I am, after all, the commander of the unit," Commander Nezi answered after running some sort of calculations on his visor. "The goon you saw us smash was a conveyor-belt footman. One of thousands and millions that can be produced on Planet M-2 at the command of Dr. Myuu. Their intelligence and battle power are meek, as they're only good for the one thing they've been produced for."
"But they're alive, they feel everything! And it's your fault they're made that way!" Trunks closed his eyes, twitching in anger before throwing his hands down and erupting in a pillar of golden light as his energy reached its higher possible level and lingered around Trunks' body like a golden shroud. "You make them stupid and puny and then mock them for being that way and bully and kill them when they get in your way! A good leader strives to make their troops realize their full potential and become their best version and then promotes them when they excel and take responsibility when they fail! That's what my father taught me, and my dad's the greatest king in the universe!"
"Really? And where is he right now?" Commander Nezi leaned his compact red and white head to the side and pressed a button at where his ear should've been to scan the planet. "I can pick up a handful of powerful Ki signatures competing against the Ghost Warriors produced by the Destron Gas of our Destron Tower, however, this "greatest king in the universe" is nowhere to witness his son's growth and promote him, as you said a great leader should. You organics and your perchance for being all-talk. I'll let you know that Machine Mutants are exactly what they are, they know their place in the world and accept it. Unlike the organic chaff that talks big and dreams even bigger, but ultimately amounts to nothing. A Machine Mutant is simply incapable of being this much of a failure, even when they are specifically built lacking."
"DON'T YOU DARE TALK THAT WAY ABOUT MY FATHER!" Trunks clamored, rushing like a light-ray arrow straight to Commander Nezi with a fist wound back. Commander Nezi's knee shot up, knocking Trunks into a mid-air backward roll while the leader of the Sigma Force hovered above Trunks and knocked him crashing down. Seeing Videl lighting up with an ethereal white shroud of energy shimmering around her entire body, the Sigma Force rushed to their commander's assistance.
Ribet turned into a goopy layer of molten metal and wrapped around Videl's arms, tying them together before reforming behind her back with the Earthling martial artist entrapped. Ribet's helm slid back, revealing a pair of gun barrels that lit up with ripping machine gun fire firing blazing bolts so intense that each one exploded upon contact, stunning Videl in place.
"Get off!" Videl yelled out, creating an explosive energy wave around her that forced Ribet to liquefy again to withstand it without taking serious structural damage as the devastating Ki bubble would've forced Videl's wrists and hands out of Ribet's hardened and restructured body, which would've had the same effect as impaling someone with an arm and then pulling it out.
The air began blinking black and white from the intense energy output coming off of Videl as her muscles swelled up, ripping through her clothes. She had to push it to the limit if she was to compete against these three and leave Trunks to handle business against the Sigma Commander. Just merely pushing herself to the limits wouldn't do, she'd have to go MAX just like Muten Roshi.
"Full Power… MAX!" Videl chanted, pumping up with sinewy tissue that swelled her up from the inside, making her arms, legs, and body grow a dozen times their normal size as the buffed-up Earthling martial artist ripped with an explosive Ki burst around her, completing her transformation. Almost instantly, the immense weight of her own body and the demanding tax of her swollen energy reserves made Videl pant. Pushing this transformation in the middle of a heated battle was a mistake. She probably only had precious seconds of this form left. It was hard to imagine even a master like Muten Roshi fighting in this shape.
Rushing head-first through the surrounding Sigma Force members like a juggernaut, Videl flipped over and wrapped her meaty legs around Bizu's head, squeezing it in between her thighs as she completed the flip and positioned the colossus of the Sigma Force head-down with a rolling flip. "Videlsteiner!" Videl yelled out, thrusting both of her arms up and shooting off two full-power energy waves from each hand that made her thunder downward like a rocket with their propulsion force. With the combined force of her swollen muscles and super-maxed body mass and the propulsion of her ripping energy blasts, Bizu smashed into the ground with a devastating crash.
A whirling dust typhoon picked up from the point of impact, sucking the Sigma Force into it and spinning it around like a raging hurricane as the swirling dust typhoon shot off into space, throwing vast amounts of debris and crackling with lightning bolts of electrified air. The Sigma Force caught in the aftereffect of Videl's devastating pro-wrestling-style slam were flung in all directions and stranded on random corners of the Earth as the devastating typhoon settled down on a leveled wasteland that had the calamitous sights of a devastated town buried down under dust and sand.
A crater eight kilometers in radius spewed pebbles and debris chunks to plummet down into its bottomless deep, while the electrified atmosphere continued to jolt with electric crackles. Clutching her aching chest and shrunken down to normal form, Videl panted, drenched in sweat, beaten up and tattered over the crater she left Bizu in. There were no traces of Trunks or Commander Nezi or any of the other Sigma Force members around her.
Out of nowhere, a body-splitting aching sensation stunned Videl in place and bent her out of shape, as if trying to bend and break her like a twig from behind. It was Natt's soaring headbutt, delivered from all the way on the other side of the planet and bolstered by the limitless acceleration. Even when he had no clue about the landscape of this planet, Natt could return to the battlefield based on his radar sense alone. That meant that so could the other Sigma Force members.
"All together!" Natt barked out, extending his hand and letting it unravel in a stream of steel wire that lashed at Videl's weightless body from behind her. The steel wires wrapped around Videl's body, thoroughly constricting her in place. When the entrapment was firmly in place, an electric surge channeled through Natt's whole body, transferring through the steel wires and making Videl scream in agonizing pain as the whole shock resonated through her body as well.
"Alright!" Ribet proclaimed, sliding the back of the top of his body and revealing a handful of missiles concealed underneath, launching them at the constrained Videl as she was being electrocuted. The missiles detonated with a deafening blast and ripped Videl out of her entrapment, leaving her plummeting battered and helpless from the sky down to the edge of the crater of her own making. Videl smashed into the ground with a slight blood splatter underneath her.
"The Earthling is leaking! That means we compromised their structural integrity! This is our chance to shut the Earthling down for good!" Natt pointed. "Bizu, you brick-faced outdated lug! Do you hear me!?"
A chilling screech rang through Videl's ears and she could feel a warm thickness sticking her hair together underneath her. There was a taste of iron in her mouth and she couldn't shake off the smell of blood when breathing face-down. Every time she breathed in, it felt like breathing in a whole firestorm that burned her up from within. Despite that, Videl commanded herself to move, to scramble and get back up because if she stayed down–that would be it. She'd fade out of consciousness, the enemy would finish her off and Trunks would be left all on his own…
"That drop really hurt…" Bizu's mechanical voice rang from the bottomless crater, making Videl's pummeled and swollen face gasp in terror as the enemy she thought she had destroyed surfaced with moderate structural damage like a busted right arm, peeled and bent out of shape outer layers and malfunctioning system operations flashing and reflecting in its vizor. "This is horrible, I feel singled out. You mean Earthling, it's because I'm larger than everyone else, wasn't it?"
Trunks' voice echoed from further away as the young Super Saiyan soon crash-landed back down and dragged across the entire district with his face-first, leaving a long ridge crater in the ground while Commander Nezi blitzed directly above the fledgling Super Saiyan with his arms crossed. Nezi aimed his arms down and let them pop off from the forearm down, revealing long and black gun barrels lit up with bright light at the other end.
"Nezi Bomber!" Nezi chanted out, letting the barrels release a Ki wave barrage as they cascaded with ripping energy wave fire, decimating the landscape further and blasting the fallen Super Saiyan with a relentless barrage of energy fire. After the merciless barrage ceased, Trunks lay bruised and tattered with his golden luster extinguished.
"Mega Cannon Punch!" Commander Nezi reported with a mechanically augmented voice, as he scooped downward and thrust his fist deep into Trunks' gut, leaving a grievous indentation in his flesh and nearly shoving his fist through the boy's body. When the forces of physics took their toll, young Trunks shot off into the distance only for Nezi's Eye Laser to cause a ripping explosion far away in the distance and swallow the Saiyan boy up, leaving him battered and beaten.
"Excellent!" Ribet waved his clawed hands over his trapeze-shaped body. "As expected, no surprise second-wind techniques measure up to Commander Nezi! Now do you see, Bizu? We didn't need Super Mega Cannon Sigma after all!"
"Speak for yourself…" the sparking and damaged Machine Mutant let out a static-filled sigh. "I will require extensive repairs and will have to miss out on the rest of the ground battle."
"You are by far the sturdiest member of the Sigma Force, Bizu. Withstanding enemy punishment is your function. Enough excuses, you mean to sneak off and plug yourself into the Spacenet to watch those raunchy spacecraft repair videos, don't you?" Commander Nezi turned to Bizu, forcing the sparking and malfunctioning giant to stumble back, shaking his one functional hand out in front of him.
"N-No way, Commander… Not on an active battlefield… I swear… I truly have suffered extensive damage from that Earthling's wrestling move!" Bizu objected.
"Very well, something that kid went off about must have stayed with me. Finish off that Earthling female and you are relieved for repairs. Be advised that we cannot form Super Mega Cannon Sigma without you, though," Commander Nezi relayed his orders to the relieved giant.
"Very well, commander… This should be… A piece of cake…" Bizu slowly stumbled in front of Videl who wheezed and panted in pain on the ground, helpless to escape the inevitable and gruesome end at the other end of the stamping foot of the colossal Bizu. A resounding clang spread through the wasteland, Videl grit her teeth, expecting her head to get smashed like a stomped watermelon.
The clang ripped again, then again and again and again… Videl opened her eyes, only to see an energy sphere bouncing off of the bundled Sigma Force members, laying them out one by one before the Spirit Ball blew up and sealed the deal. An orange and black blur obstructed her view and one moment later she was looking at a scarred yet still somewhat handsome face with long and curly black hair.
"Y-Yamcha-san?" Videl muttered, hearing the weakness in her voice. Behind him, Videl could sense a couple more Ki signatures. Yamcha's Instant Transmission ability must've been instrumental in assembling them in one place and organizing the counter-offensive against the full-scale extraterrestrial incursion.
The Dragon Team had assembled at last to fend off the daring alien invasion.