Super Vegeta seethed over the edge of the crater he left his opponent in. For the humiliation that Artificial Human No. 21 put him through, for the mockery that this same lump of nuts and bolts dragged him through, he'd make this scrap doll defy its programming and beg for its life. It was no longer enough for Vegeta to merely destroy it; he had to humiliate it. Make it cry oil tears or kneel before him and grind its pale, stern forehead into the pavement, begging forgiveness.
Android 14's eyes shot wide open at once. The sudden resurgence of his vitality and the pulsing buff pumping through his artificial muscles made the ground underneath him shake as the Artificial Human wasted no movement in getting up and off the ground. He darted toward Vegeta while still prone, smashing into the King of Saiyans with his entire body. Super Vegeta crossed his arms up and softened the thunderous body splash. The immense force of the impact sent Vegeta sliding across the street to where his boots left fiery trails underneath him, but the Saiyan was quick to resume his fighting stance and answer No. 14's violent rush with a battle cry of his own.
Android 14 raised his hands, releasing a flurry of bright, teal-colored Ki blast at Super Vegeta but the King of Saiyans ignited a vibrant golden aura around him and dashed onward, swatting the blinding blizzard of energy balls aside while evading those that weren't a direct threat to him. The furious Super Saiyan with a shattered, royal sense of pride eluded every beam of light rushing his way, as numerous as droplets during a downpour before smashing his right into No. 14's gut and shutting the amped-up giant down.
A resonance of vociferous, low-pitched thuds and clangs spread through the abandoned city. Super Vegeta let his grievances with his opponent be known with a blinding flurry of straights into Android 14's waist area that bent the pale and braided ogre up and made him wheeze for oxygen. The Saiyan super-elite hopped up with a roundhouse kick, stamping his spinning foot right into the front of No. 14's face and spilling unidentified, droopy fluid all over the brute's belfry. It was as if the Super Saiyan glided across the air itself, leaning back as he rode the air currents with a brutal push kick that smashed into No. 14's chest, rattling the overwhelmed Android further.
Turning his whole body around, Super Vegeta tripped his opponent up into a vertical, aerial spin, using his stiffened arm for his sweep. Taking off into the air to ride the kinetic stream alongside his astonished opponent, Vegeta began turning with a combination of devastating roundhouses as his flashing golden aura added some explosive flare to each impact. Defying the tide of the battle, Android 14 skid across the burning street with his arms dangling by his side and his back slouched yet still standing. The flare from the surrounding flames made the shadows contrast the reflections of the fire on his face, sinking it in shades of black and blaze.
"Do you know what the worst thing about you is?" Super Vegeta spat some mix of saliva and blood alike to his right while stretching out his shoulders and his neck. "As a machine restricted by your programming, you probably can't even comprehend pride. And yet you still pull off annoying crap like sticking to your feet, refusing to fall down, and giving me that absolutely nauseating face. Those stern looks and angry eyes… It's as if they're judging me and telling me every time that I'm too weak. Too weak to handle the race of my people, keep them in line, lagging behind some low-class bastard dumped on an irrelevant planet in the middle of nowhere and an actual legend of my people. You cocky bastard! How dare you judge me!?"
Android 14's eyes shot wide open. A shock wave of shifting air spread from the musclebound bout machine as popping veins ravaged his entire face and musculature. This time Artificial Human No. 14 no longer projected mere sternness and indifference. He was blowing his lid off about something and it showed in the Android's booming crystalline aura and the trembling ground underneath his feet. No. 14's aura rivaled that of Super Vegeta's as the two raging warriors sought to stare a hole through one another.
"I am judging you, Saiyan…" Android 14 declared. "Ever since my awakening, I have been observing you Saiyans. I was created to oversee you and judge your capacity to live alongside humans and abide by our laws and rules. It was a rigged game from the start, I admit it. I would not have been made into Artificial Human No. 14 from the man I was before had either of us thought the Saiyans capable of living on Earth. You were always a problem and your kind brings nothing but violence and rage wherever they go. So you are right when you say that we are judging you, King Vegeta. Saiyans have been judged and found barbaric. Since they won't heed the sentence of expulsion, there is only one alternative left to the people of Earth that only wish to live in the peace of their restored world."
Vegeta's aura began giving way. This made Artificial Human No. 14 smirk for a little while, realizing that with his infinite stamina he could project the full brunt of his power for as long and as intensely as he liked whereas his opponent was restrained by his Saiyan anatomy, having to contend not only with the limited stamina of being a biological being but also with the strain of the Super Saiyan transformation and the additional wear of whatever advanced grade of Super Saiyan the King was showcasing to keep up with the Artificial Human. Then, almost in a blink, Vegeta's aura fully disappeared, leaving behind just a swollen Saiyan King with bright white hair.
"You better watch closely then…" Vegeta mumbled to himself before turning his head up with a psychotic grin. Having settled his mind on his apex move, the King of Saiyans just knew that he'd make his opponent shiver with this attack, no matter how unrelenting his programming commanded him to be. "Because I'll give you something to judge."
Super Vegeta spread his arms to the sides while dragging his feet to shoulder-width across the heated asphalt under his boots. An authoritative yell left Vegeta's lungs. His muscles began churning as they swelled up, testing the mettle of even his new and improved model of the Saiyan battle armor that was heavily modified by Capsule Corps and the pinnacle of Earthling technology. Vegeta's blue eyes began fading out in the white, becoming beady and dot-wide as the color in his eyes washed out completely. The strain of the energy he was channeling was simply too vast for him to keep full consciousness.
Gold flashed in a deluging burst, simply blasting out from Super Vegeta's core with the magnitude to utterly dwarf Artificial Human No. 14's own crystal-clear aura and flick it away like a speck of dust as Vegeta's aura drowned out the entire city and flared out into the atmosphere. Even the Planet Earth satellites and the Capsule Corps Star that had been orbiting the Earth began shaking madly from the radiance of Vegeta's channeled royal might.
Bulma scurried to the control panel, trying to tap into the signals of a television screen or any other display in the area to talk some sense into the mad husband of hers but, one by one, all functioning screens that were still intact burst into reflective, crystal-like shatters from the quakes and the concussive waves of air spreading in all directions. The atmospheric pressure in the area had become severe enough to crush diamonds into dust from mere exposure to air as buildings shattered into debris, debris, and pebbles elevated into the air from the ferocious gravitational shifts and then turned to dust with a popping crunch.
When the golden nova provided the mercy of seeing to those still capable of it, Super Vegeta floated in an elevated position over a five square kilometer round crater he had burrowed just from the manifestation of his aura alone. The overwhelming force of the King's aura even sent his opponent fumbling back, making No. 14's green man-skirt flutter rapidly in all directions and smack its wearer in the face with a sheet of capricious cloth. The drastic atmospheric phenomenon kept kicking Artificial Human No. 14 further and further away from the King of Saiyans, no matter how much he sought to resist the concussive force.
Vegeta's eyes had drowned out in white. His irises had fully vanished as his body continued to swell in a vain struggle to deal with the monumental deal of energy that he had been channeling. His golden aura that had lined up over his spread-out body with sparkling spikes sent ceaseless surges of blinding light, expelling lustrous purges of luminosity straight into the space each time. The King's unstable body kept inflating to brutish proportions and then deflating back to its original form in mere blinks in between the lustrous expulsions as the power swelled Vegeta up but his honed body pushed it down and channeled the overwhelming force just right to return to his super-elite proportions the very next blink.
"Just what are you trying to prove here, King Vegeta?" Artificial Human No. 14 shouted out, trying to overpower the titanic quakes and thunderous resonances all around him. "You will destroy not just the planet but the entire solar system if you fire off this attack! How will this prove that the Saiyans deserve to live among humans?"
Super Vegeta's swollen, and vein-ridden face formed a twisted grin. With a petrified gaze, Artificial Human No. 14 turned his head up to see what had been causing this sudden flow of shadows engulfing the area. His face twitched in surprise after seeing the clouds shifting at hundreds of times their normal speed. It seemed as if merely the presence of Vegeta's channeling technique on the planet was causing it and its various weather and atmospheric phenomenon to convulse in unbelievable reactions.
"I knew I'd make you piss your pants and shake your legs, tin-man!" Vegeta growled while forcing his buff arms forward together. His body continued to pulse with fleshy swelling and then correct itself with the overflowing energy bursting out from his body in flashes of blinding light. The unstable golden shimmer around the Saiyan king began converging in lightning bolts, shooting out evenly in all directions and penetrating the shade surrounding the planet. The lightning storm passed right through Android 14, the surge of electricity made him clutch and brace for impact but the lightning carved its path around the Artificial Human, missing him by just a few inches.
"You are a cocky fool, unable to comprehend your own folly. Radiating more energy than stars expel in entire centuries. All this has to come from somewhere–your own stamina. After this blast fails, you'll have none left, and then you'll regret throwing everything you have at me so recklessly. Even if you end up destroying the Earth, I will easily be able to survive in space, whereas you will choke on your own hubris," Android 14 barked at the roaring and shining King of Saiyans with a clenched, forceful fist. Seeing that Vegeta wouldn't listen, Android 14 extended his arms and legs to the side. A transparent energy shock wave formed around the brute and began emitting a bright teal glow while emitting meek jolts of electricity around it. "Android Barrier!" the Artificial Human yelled out.
"If you think you stand a chance of blocking this, you're the cocky fool!" Super Vegeta growled out while a focused sphere of golden light began shimmering in and out of presence where both of his cupped together arms connected. The golden radiance sphere in the middle of Vegeta's connected hands began passing down its aura to merge with Vegeta's own, forming a sparkling, more intense, and unstable, crackling glow and sinking everything around in light so intense that anything other than thin air gained a vibrant orange hue.
"Vegeta, stop this! You will never breach this barrier! You'll only blast the Earth to bits!" Android 14 tried reaching the King of Saiyans yet, but Super Vegeta levitated in mid-air, raised above the ground by the exuding force of his own wild energy. The pearly smile stretched across the face of the Saiyan royalty made No. 14 realize that he was preaching to a madman.
"FINAL FLASH!" Vegeta hollered, releasing all the pent-up power all at once in a beam so absolutely massive that it didn't feel or appear as a beam at all. To someone standing firm, feet on the ground, it was just what the name suggested–an all-encompassing, golden flash of brilliance. It was only to someone able to witness the technique from a vantage point high in space that the energy revealed its true magnificence in flowing outward as a burst that encompassed the entire planetary region and then flowed freely into space.
As the limitless, ever-expanding flare came closer and closer to Android 14, his features began fading out and giving way to the absolute light. It was in that unmatched intensity, upon realizing that he was fading out and breaking apart before the burst of unmatched energy even reached him, that Artificial Human No. 14's face received a splash of cold-feet dread. The invincible Android Barrier began fracturing with a web-like network seeping with light long before the beam reached the Artificial Human. The unbearable heat and seemingly unlimited power all washed straight into the petrified Android at once but he couldn't make out even a trace of his vanishing body in all the golden splendor around him despite staring right at his own dissipating hand.
Also true to its apt naming, Vegeta's new ultimate technique was over in just a flash. The light and the blaze of lustrous purge all disappeared in a blink, and the attack was so intense that not much dust actually avoided being utterly vaporized in an instant. What little smoke trembled and danced in the vicinity, spread from around the reach of the technique's center. Artificial Human No. 14's predictions appeared to have been off the mark by a wide margin as the effect that the technique was having on the planet vanished without a trace. Even the blackened skies gained a grey hue to them. Though the shrouds were still working on fully dissipating and liberating the noon sky.
"Lost your cool, didn't you?" Vegeta finally felt some blood pumping through his stiff and numbed arms so that he could slowly lower them to his side. The muscle tonus of his body had significantly slimmed down as he fired away the whole of his higher Super Saiyan grade.
Artificial Human No. 14 gasped in terror. He stared straight into the grey shrouds and saw electric crackles from the tense atmosphere all around him. For a second there, the Android truly believed that Vegeta had destroyed the Earth, but that was only until he saw Vegeta approaching from a towering position over him. The first theory that ran through No. 14's processors was that the technique had shrunken him down somehow, but that didn't feel like Vegeta's style. The vain King of Saiyans used almighty energy blasts that put his own life on the line and channeled immense percentages of his own power, far surpassing the energy output but also the risk factor of any other warrior in the known universe. He wouldn't have used a cheap trick like shrinking No. 14.
No. It was when Vegeta playfully kicked him and Artificial Human No. 14 began rolling along the ruined, jagged, and smoldering town street that he realized what had happened. In his roll, he saw his own severed arm laying somewhere and spewing sparks and oil while another one must have vanished without a trace in the uncompromising might of the Final Flash. Cracking his knuckles and never dropping his psychotic smile, the King of Saiyans appeared before Artificial Human No. 14 and raised his foot to stomp the head of the Android to bits under his heel.
"That's what runts like you think. That us Saiyans are some wild, uncontrollable barbarians, isn't it? Do you know something, tin-man? That's fine by me. Think like that, quake in terror as you struggle to imagine what a Saiyan might do to you if your paths ever cross. Maybe then you heaps of scrap can stay out of my way and leave me to deal with my people in peace?" Vegeta's foot was about to descend upon the ruined Android's remains, but an energy beam de-materialized him as well as his smashed opponent and re-formed them aboard the Capsule Corps Star.
Stunned by that realization, Vegeta looked around to acclimatize himself to his new surroundings before returning to the task at hand of stomping his lousy opponent to bits. That was when the wall opened up, letting Bulma burst through with a shrill shriek that never failed to make Vegeta's lungs vibrate in a frequency that made it feel like they'd crawl right out of his chest cavity any second.
"Wait! I need him! His parts can tell me about who made him, where and for what purpose!" Bulma finally formed her howls into cohesive thoughts. "What were you thinking? You nearly blew up the whole Earth!"
"I can understand this lump of junk thinking this way about me, but I can't believe you'd take me for such a buffoon too…" Vegeta crossed his arms, letting his Super Saiyan splendor vanish with white sparkles passing down his whole body. "As if I'd use an attack that I couldn't control properly. As if I'd vaporize a planet where my own people live. Doesn't our forced bondage-type relationship mean anything to you?"
"Sorry…" Bulma sighed, running her hand over her tired face and ruffling her hair on its way up her scalp. "It's just… This may just be the worst day ever. I am not having a field day explaining this to our shareholders or the military. It's not like Puri & Co still exists to serve as a scapegoat for all this mess. Then again, maybe I can reverse the forced merger and pin it all on them… That's an idea…"
"Mess?" Vegeta's eyes widened.
"Yes, I've beamed up Krillin not too long ago. He had some wreckage of another Artificial Human. I'm picking up massive energy signatures from our West City labs that were commandeered by the King. It can only be that place…" Bulma said.
"Hmph… Maybe I'll smash those junkyard dogs too if you ask me nicely…" Vegeta teased his wife.
"No. I asked Gohan-kun and Chayote to investigate those labs. I need you to stop dodging your responsibilities and train Trunks already. He's been a hassle and I can't be a mom and fend off the blowback from this at the same time," Bulma placed her hands on her hips as she reared her teeth at her husband. "You promised Trunks you'd train him, but it's like you've been utterly obsessed with training by yourself these last few weeks."
"Fine," Vegeta closed his eyes and crossed his arms. Bulma's eyes widened before her left eyebrow shot down and forced her eye to squint in suspicion. She never saw this proud and self-obsessed man-baby take responsibility for something once in his entire life. It must have happened to trigger his Super Saiyan transformation, but Bulma was yet to be presented with the proof of this maturity. She followed him leave with her eyes before following him. Metallic arms and tendrils shot off from the walls and the floor to scoop up Android 14's remains and deliver them to one of the countless labs in the cybernetic planetoid.
