A green flash filled the decimated laboratory complex. Scraped and battered, Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan scattered, ragged by the spherical energy bomb that Super Hatchiyack slammed in their general direction. Even with their Super Saiyan forms available, the trio struggled to keep up with Super Hatchiyack and even if they would have succeeded in destroying it, the Super Saiyans would have only found themselves opposed by more Hatchiyacks or a different Destron evolution of the monster.
Things have never felt quite this hopeless. Not only did the Saiyans feel utterly outmatched and their fighting spirit crushed more and more every second, as if perpetually being snuffed out by the overflowing mass of Destron that Hatchiyack was pumping from its body, but even victory against the monster didn't feel all that inviting.
Regardless of his fluctuating confidence, Gohan couldn't leave behind the thought that his father was counting on him. It was rare that his father would acknowledge that he lacked the strength to win and abandon the fair and balanced martial arts fight approach he adopted toward all problems. That was why Gohan gnashed his teeth and forced his pummeled body off the ground, wobbly and stumbling. He couldn't quite put his dukes up fully, but he put 'em up as high as he could.
Super Hatchiyack crossed its arms. Green energy bolts began flowing from the surrounding laboratory complex toward a singular nexus point between the crossed gemstones on Hatchiyack's forearm armor gauntlets. Goku and Vegeta grit their teeth and charge at the monster. Vegeta would never admit that an opponent, a Tsufurian nonetheless, could ever get the better of him, so that was just his method of coping. Goku, meanwhile, was merely giving Gohan time to figure something out. Whether it was some technique, some hidden sliver of strength that Gohan fostered deep down, beyond his reach, or just about any other method that would help them achieve victory.
Unexpectedly, Super Hatchiyack exploded in a blitz flurry of fists, shooting hundreds of times every microsecond toward each combatant and utterly overwhelming both Saiyans, trying to intercept his energy-charging process. Whited out and beaten, Goku and Vegeta flew off like sacks of bricks and flopped down on their backs. Almost immediately, Vegeta coughed up blood and began grunting as he writhed and dragged himself back up, seething with hatred that kept him going and would keep him swinging until his body completely gave out.
Gohan stared at his shaking hand. Even then, no matter how much of his latent energy he charged up and brought out, Vegeta was still surpassing it at least thrice at that moment. Powering up was of no use. Not until the perpetual Destron pump was shut off. Gohan looked around, trying to find a working console.
"Gohan!" Goku called out. "If you feel like you can't keep going, run to the ship! Power through the Ghost Warriors and see if you can take off!"
"No!" Gohan shook his head vehemently. "I think… I think I've got an idea, dad. I'll see if I can shut off the Destron Gas through one of these consoles. If that won't work, maybe I'll be able to interact with our ship and activate Bulma-san's drones to scoop up this Destron gas."
"Atta boy!" Goku snickered as a golden glint of pride flashed in the Saiyan's eyes. "We'll work our butts off and give you as much time as we can. See what you can do. Damn it, Chi-Chi was right, you learning all that brainiac computer stuff really may end up pulling us out here…"
Gohan nodded. He felt something bitter washing up from his waist. It crawled all the way up Gohan's throat and began choking the teen up. No matter what sort of outlandish ideas he pitched to his dad, Goku always thought they were the best idea ever. Sure, part of it was because of pure ignorance and absolute incompetence in anything unrelated to fighting, but that positive attitude, uncompromising belief in people he loves and respects, and simplicity of his character was contagious and remarkable. Wiping the squirts of tears in the corners of his eyes, Gohan took off toward the nearest console, knocking it on the side to see if it as much as blinked and flickered or if it was already dead and buried.
"Vegeta! Gohan's got an idea! We'll need to hold this thing off on our own for a little while!" Goku swooped in by his rival's side with a rich smirk on his face that in no way whatsoever fit his current horrendous predicament.
"See if I care!" Vegeta sneered. "You can both piss off, this Tsufurian monster is mine anyway! I'm a Super-Elite King of Saiyans and I won't let some robo-gizmo and some putrid gas stand in my way!"
"Saiyans… REVENGE!" Super Hatchiyack flexed its perfected and augmented by Destron evolution Ghost Warrior body, bellowing out with a cacophony of millions of haunting Tsufurian voices all singing at once. The raging rampage personified lunged at Vegeta, thrusting a stalwart cross to the Saiyan's gut that knocked Vegeta loopy and left him hanging on the fist of the Tsufurian revenge machine. Swiping his fist aside, the monster knocked Goku aside with Vegeta's body before securing a grip on Vegeta's heel and plunging down to slam the Saiyan into the ground.
The shock sent a resonating ripple throughout the laboratory complex and shattered the floor, crushing it and revealing a devastated Destron pump system underneath that sprayed even more of the noxious Destron gas out into the Dark Planet cybernetic star. Super Hatchiyack let go of Vegeta only to drop its lower jaw almost lower than its chest and roar while flexing its bolstered body. An emerald energy shield flickered around the icon of resentment, forcing Vegeta to crawl away to avoid obliteration.
Crawling soon became running on all fours as the Saiyan closed his eyes and simmered with wrathful humiliation, reduced to a pathetic all-fours strut like some lowly mutt. The explosive energy wave swatted Vegeta aside, singing his back and blowing away his armor and his bodysuit on his rear side. Vegeta fell on his face, fuming with black smoke from his scorched back. Super Hatchiyack extended his hand and focused the vengeful energy in a one-handed Ki blast, but Goku pulled Vegeta out of its way just an instant before the blast blew Vegeta up.
"Damn it!" Vegeta cursed, gritting his teeth and turning red from embarrassment and disappointment at how it all turned out. "If only that gas wasn't here, I'd blow that asshole back to its dead people!"
"Have you ever thought for a second that maybe this attitude of yours toward Tsufurians is why this whole thing is happening in the first place, Vegeta?" Goku asked with a rare instance of seriousness befalling his expression. "You've built a life on Earth, found yourself a wife, and made a kid with her, you've brought your people to Earth and saw them build their own lives there too. You changed and so did the Saiyans, but this Dr. Rich guy and his monster are ghosts from your past. You don't beat ghosts from your past by repeating your mistakes, you win by learning from them and showing why you're a different person now than you were before."
Vegeta punched Goku in the gut, making Goku let go of his ally only to wrap himself up with his arms and curl over in pain. Meanwhile, Vegeta tightened the grip of his glove over his hand.
"Don't presume to know a damn thing about Saiyans, Kakarot. You're a reject, dumped in a faraway corner of the universe by your paranoid, rebellious father. You grew up on Earth, so you only know the cowardly ways of the Earthlings. Saiyans are the ultimate warriors of the whole universe, that these enemies from our past exist and plot to destroy us is an insult to our legacy that we must correct by finishing the job we started centuries ago!" Vegeta scolded the writhing companion of his.
"Vegeta… We were… A lot alike… The Red Ribbon Army was a ghost of my past and Chayote's too, they returned plotting to destroy us, completely overpowering us. We had to learn to move on, learn to work together, and understand Dr. Puri to defeat her army and solve the Android crisis," Goku pressed on, overcoming the pain of the sucker punch he took. "Maybe the Tsufurians are the same? Maybe you need to solve this differently rather than just knocking your head against the wall! That's how old Vegeta would have tried solving this, you're different now and you need to prove that or else you're risking throwing everything you've created on Earth away!"
"This is the last time I'll tell you this, Kakarot. I'm a Saiyan warrior, a Super-Elite one at that. The best in the universe. I solve my problems my way. You and your mutt of a son tagged along to help me, so I won't tolerate either of you standing in my way. Either help me destroy this abomination, or follow your own advice and run away with your tail tucked behind your legs!" Vegeta snapped back at Goku. "So, are you still going to fight or will you run?"
"Yeah…" Goku nodded and turned to Hatchiyack in submission. He had to admit that despite his wish to do something more here than just destroy the Tsufurian revenge machine, he simply couldn't see any other way right now. He was a simple-minded brawler, just like Vegeta. Punching and blowing things up was how he did things best and things always worked out just fine. Even if he tried patching things up with Dr. Lychee right now, what could he possibly say to him to make the genocide of his people seem like a forgivable sin? Even if he tried something like that, Goku had neither the knowledge nor the involvement in any of the things he'd be suggesting leaving behind. Violence was the only path he could see as a brawler. "But with this Destron creeping everywhere, all our techniques are sealed and we can't transform. There's only one move that might blow this guy away and it will work despite all this Destron flooding the place."
"That, huh?" Vegeta sneered. "You're right, that big old thing could probably blow all this Destron away. Fine, I'll give you the time to charge it up. Make it count, Kakarot. It'll be a piece of cake, that monster's way madder at me anyway…"
"Thanks, Vegeta… Let's hope Gohan figures some long-term solution out too…" Goku beamed a goofy smile and slipped behind Vegeta, putting both his arms up over his head. "Alright, universe, it's time to pitch in with some Genki again. You can't possibly like all this gloomy Destron running about and making all sorts of creepy things, taking and corrupting things all over. This is your chance to undo it all. Let me be the one to channel your righteous fury, please. Give me your strength!"
"Praying for your life?" Dr. Lychee mocked the pair with a wicked smirk. "I was never much of a believer, but who knows? Given how the universe provided me with a chance to mete out some of my own cosmic justice on your Saiyans, maybe there is a merciful and just god out there after all? Too bad for you that there's no way it would listen to your prayers. Genocidal trigger-happy brutes. The justice you deserve is extinction and Hatchiyack here is the tool of that justice."
"I don't approve of the Saiyans conquering your planet and slaughtering your people, but your Destron gas hurt many people and now they're all going to share their spirit and help us defeat you and your unstoppable monster!" Goku swore with a determined face while holding his arms up. A pixelated white aura surrounded the Saiyan's whole bruised body and undulated upward from the feet all the way to the tips of his raised palms.
"Come on now, monster! This is my opening to obliterate you before Kakarot hogs my glory with his insufferable technique!" Vegeta moved in front of Goku, adopting a wobbly yet determined fighting stance. The only flaws in Vegeta's movements were those that formed because of the condition of his body, not because of the wavering spirit. This berserker madness stunned Hatchiyack for a moment. The odds have never been stacked higher against the Saiyan king, yet he never looked more confident and excited.
The Saiyan royalty dashed forward, riding a blurry blitz tunnel of rushing light. Vegeta's fist outright vanished without a trace before slamming into Super Hatchiyack's gut. Despite a rocking thud, it didn't seem to move the colossal machine of revenge at all. Never being one to admit failure, Vegeta transitioned into an uppercut, though it also failed to move Hatchiyack's head even an inch higher, despite landing perfectly on the monster's jaw. Vegeta's gloves burst into shreds from the impact and his knuckles splattered with blood from the backlash of the force of his own punch.
"I'll blow you away!" Vegeta yelled out, clenching his broken right knuckle as tightly as he could and enveloping it in the shining yellow sparkle of Ki. Although the punch blew up upon impact, the parting dust from the point-blank blast revealed only the unimpressed scowl of the machine of vengeance. Extending his hand out, Vegeta caused a violent airwave to blow straight at Hatchiyack to stop him while Vegeta rode it back to put distance between himself and the immovable monster. "Blow you away!" Vegeta stood by his words, extending two of his fingers and detonating a tiny singularity of Ki that formed inside of Hatchiyack's brain, channeled there after Vegeta's uppercut.
The monster twitched in place, the bony ridges over its eyes tilted slightly, though there was not a single sign of hurt on the vengeful colossus. Grinding his teeth and simmering in fury over his own weakness, Vegeta hurled himself toward his overwhelming opponent and slammed his head straight into Hatchiyack's forehead, making their auras collide, but the exchange of headbutts only caused Vegeta to hurl backward with a split forehead. As a man possessed, the Saiyan royalty recovered in mid-air even though his eyes were still hazy and rolled back and his jaw hung loosely, as if unconscious. Dashing up to Hatchiyack's head, Vegeta delivered a couple of quick jabs before slamming both his arms with a double ax handle.
"Vegeta… Saiyan… REVENGE!" Hatchiyack wailed, crossing his arms up and letting emerald light shimmer as an inner reflection inside of his gemstones. In a split-instant, the light became an expansive nova of green that enveloped Super Hatchiyack whole. With his arms still crossed and an energy barrier formed around him, Hatchiyack took off in a dash and blew Vegeta away like an irrelevant piece of rag. With Vegeta still in mid-air and struggling to regain his consciousness, Super Hatchiyack turned around.
The gemstones decorating Super Hatchiyack's entire body absorbed the emerald light and illuminated Hatchiyack with a teal glow from within, like a myriad of bodily lamps spreading their luminosity around. Their brightness contrasted with the entire ruined Dark Planet by being so luminous that they turned everything around them except for the white aura undulating around Goku's body to shade. Winding his arm back, Super Hatchiyack formed a dark teal energy blast crackling with a nova of jade light and flung it right at the Saiyan king.
Bellowing with a curdling shout, Vegeta straightened his body and spread his arms and legs to the side, igniting a lively white energy field around him that absorbed three of the four energy blasts that Hatchiyack flung at him. With so much Destron flooding the ruined laboratory, Vegeta couldn't focus too much energy on any of his most powerful attacks, but he didn't put his Ki into this last attack. Following Goku's example, Vegeta put his very spirit of wellness, his life force, behind that explosive wave, though he made sure not to incinerate it all. That desperate move Vegeta stashed for a much darker day than this one.
One where Vegeta had not only the luxury but the necessity to die to ensure the survival and prosperity of his people and his family. As much as Vegeta hated his guts, Kakarot needed the time that Vegeta could buy him right now so the King of Saiyans couldn't blow himself up alongside the Dark Planet and the remaining Tsufurians just yet.
Vegeta fell from the smoke cloud, utterly crushed, deflated, and bleeding profusely. Just a blown-up mess that was lucky to be knocked out cold so that he couldn't see the miserable swollen and battered pulp that he was pummeled and blasted into. To top the insult to injury, Vegeta's limp body flopped straight onto a sharp lump of gothic debris, ending up impaled on it through the gut though, based on his quick and hefty panting, he was still alive, though barely clinging to it.
"Damn it!" Goku winced. "The Spirit Bomb is way too small right now, but Vegeta won't survive for much longer!"
Reacting to the shimmer of white spirit energy, Super Hatchiyack turned around and left Vegeta to bleed out in excruciating agony and self-loathing, knowing that he was crushed by an engineered abomination of one of his most hated enemies. Being focused on vengeance and an agent of will of an exterminated Tsufurian people, Hatchiyack left Vegeta alive and refused to finish his job on purpose–just to let him soak in his own self-loathing and suffer the most that anyone could suffer in his final moments. Now it was Goku's turn.
"D-Damn it!" Gohan couldn't stop looking back to where Super Hatchiyack had finished mopping the floor with Vegeta and turned to do the same to his father. It was unbelievably difficult to operate alien machinery made by an intellect vastly surpassing one's own when one had to worry about the lives of their family and friends and felt responsible for saving them. Dad and Vegeta placed all their hopes on Gohan. It was now or never!
"It's the ship… It seems to be blocking an entire cloud of Destron. If I move it here, it'll let even more Destron in! Maybe a mass such as this will overload what the Dark Planet can handle but… Neither of us would survive the cold vacuum of space for longer than a few minutes," Gohan wrapped his head in between his hands. Unable to contain his desperation, he slammed the control panel with the utmost restraint behind his wild power. "Damn it! Damn it!"
His father's voice made cold sprinkles wash down Gohan's back. Reinvigorated and stressed out of his boots, the teen jumped up and began executing the plan without wrapping up the calculations. He activated the thrusters of the ship and forced it to shove through the narrow corridors and the dozens of walls blocking his path just to crash out here.
"I've got no time for calculations, I'll need to just send a mayday and hope that someone's going to pick up!" Gohan shook his head while feeling like his fingers were about to snap right off from the tension of his typing. It was a good thing that he could directly translate his impossible speed in combat to the speed of operating computers, to an extent, since he was figuring out this otherworldly operational system while operating it simultaneously and each action required at least three hundred failures beforehand. This must have been the fastest but also the most incompetent that anyone's ever operated in this system.
"Well, well… What do we have here?" a sassy tone came from the monitor, shocking Gohan so much that he had to stumble back. "I hope you won't mind if I take it over from here, kid. It's just that I feel indebted to you for the solid you did for my family, and I can't let you just kill yourself out here."
"Dr… Puri…?" Gohan muttered, refusing to believe that even the Artificial Human scientist could hack into the Machine Mutant network.
"Well, technically… It's Ultimate Dr. Puri, but my husband's obsession with calling everything "Ultimate" is so gauche, don't you think?" Dr. Puri chuckled to herself while working on something on her end behind the scenes. "There we go… You're lucky Bulma stuffed that ship full of Destron drones. Impressive stuff, I hadn't built anything like that yet. It's exactly what you need right now. Just to repay the favor of reconnecting me with my family and bringing us and Gero back together one last time, I'll assist you in defeating the Machine Mutants."
And so Super Saiyans and Artificial Humans came together. Once sworn enemies to one another, now working together to exterminate the threat of Destron gas and stop the Machine Mutant plot to create the perfect and self-sustaining cyber-verse under Dr. Lychee's control. And it couldn't have been at a direr time.