Androids Strike Again! Vegeta's Time has Come!
Two Years Before Cell Attacks
"Your left's open!" Goku shouted at Trunks as she came in with a kick aimed at his left side. Trunks brought his elbow down to block the kick but then Goku uppercutted him under the chin. "You left yourself wide open from your chin down!" She lectured as Trunks rubbed at his chin. He nodded and went on the attack, unloading with a furious barrage of rights and lefts that Goku blocked with her forearms. He went for a feint kick to the side to try and break her focus but Goku moved to block it with her raised leg and blocked Trunk's actual elbow with her forearm before driving her palm into Trunks' chest to drive the wind out of him. "Your feints are just a little bit slower than your real strikes. It telegraphs that you're not really attacking. You've gotta go all-out with your feints as much as your real hits so that they can't tell the difference." Trunks nodded and they went back to the fight.
"Finish Buster!"
"Kamehameha!"
While Goku continued to tutor her first real student, Gohan and Piccolo were engaging in a fierce struggle, not unlike when they were preparing for the Saiyans' arrival. But with less dinosaurs in the immediate area.
"Come on," Piccolo bellowed as he blocked and deflected a series of machine-gun like kicks from Gohan that were spread from face to legs, "Give me all you've got!" Piccolo grabbed Gohan by the ankle and flung him into the forest, sending him crashing into the trees. He chased him into the forest with blistering strikes, ricocheting him off the trees and the ground, launching Gohan away before pulling him back with his stretching arm and finishing with a kick down into the dirt that blasted a crater in the ground and uprooted several trees. Piccolo waited for a few minutes with his arms folded patiently. "Come on out," he called, "I know you're not–"
Before Piccolo could even finish his sentence, Gohan came bursting out of the Earth behind him, clutching a tree in both hands and swinging for the fences at Piccolo's head. A stream of spittle flew from Piccolo's mouth as Gohan's tree cracked him across the jaw and exploded, sending Piccolo flying. Piccolo bounced end over end painfully against the ground as Gohan chased after him and punted him up into the air. Gohan charged a ball of Ki and lobbed it at Piccolo, who watched as the ball whizzed past his head. It hadn't even come close to hitting him.
"Come on," Piccolo lectured sternly as he and Gohan charged toward each other, "I know your aim's better than that!" They met in an explosion of punches and kicks, Gohan not backing down or flinching from the conflict, even when Piccolo hit him full-force in the stomach and face. Piccolo went for a roundhouse kick that Gohan ducked under before flying off to Piccolo's left and throwing another ki ball that missed. "You're getting sloppy!" Piccolo chastised as he fired back a ki ball of his own that Gohan deflected. He should have dodged, however, as the distraction left him open when Piccolo charged forward and elbowed him in the gut. "Are you even trying?" Piccolo demanded. Surprisingly, Gohan smirked despite his pain.
"I am," he responded as he grabbed Piccolo by the collar. Then he pulled his head back and headbutted Piccolo across the bridge of the nose, sending him flying back. "And you're right," Gohan added, "My aim is better!" Then he snapped his fingers and the ki balls that had "missed" came roaring back at Piccolo, hitting him in the side and the back and sending Piccolo forward into a dropkick that sent him crashing through a mountain, cracking it in half. When Piccolo didn't surface immediately, Gohan flew down to the rubble and started pushing rocks out of the way to find Piccolo… smiling. "Mr. Piccolo," Gohan asked suspiciously as he held out his hand for Piccolo, "Are you alright?" Piccolo chuckled and took Gohan's hand, letting the boy pull him out of the rubble.
"I'm fine," Piccolo assured him. "Just thinking about how much you've grown, Gohan. You don't back down, you don't freeze up. You think and you plan ahead and make counterattacks. You're becoming a real warrior now. I'm proud of you." His smile widened and he ruffled Gohan's red hair. "You're not the brat who cried when I threw him at a mountain anymore," he said in a tone that was almost playful. Gohan pushed his hand away and smiled back.
"You ready to start again," Gohan asked, "Or do you need a minute?" Piccolo looked at him curiously and Gohan shrugged. "If I'm growing up," Gohan pointed out, "You're growing old." Piccolo rolled his eyes and elbowed Gohan in the ribs.
"Shut up and get back into your guard," he grumbled, "Before I shoot you in the chest."
Meanwhile, Goku and Trunks had stopped for a break, sitting in the grass and drinking from large, cold bottles of water.
"Be honest," Trunks said after taking a sip, "How terrible am I?" Although he could tell that he'd made enormous progress in both his strength and technique in the year that he'd been training with the Son Family, whenever he sparred with the adults, especially Goku, he still felt like he was hopelessly outclassed in terms of ability.
"You're not terrible," Goku assured him. "You've got a lot of power and raw potential. You just need to refine it. There's a lot of big gaps in your technique and defense but that's why you're here, right?" Trunks nodded as Goku tilted her head back and took a long drink of water.
"Gohan trained me as best as he could," Trunks told her, "But even he admitted that he'd still had a lot to learn. The problem was that there was just… no one left to teach him." Goku smiled and gave Trunks a pat on the knee.
"Don't worry," she promised him, "Everything's gonna be fine this time." Then she flopped down into the grass to watch the clouds pass overhead. Trunks sighed and tugged on the silver chain on his neck that was usually hidden by his jacket and the sword belt that went across his chest. He pulled it out of his shirt and opened the locket attached to the chain, looking at the picture inside with a wistful sigh. A faint blush spread over his cheeks before he heard a movement in the grass and felt a rush of the wind coming toward him. "SURPRISE ATTACK!" Goku cried. Trunks fell onto his back and rolled away to avoid getting kneed in the face, hiding the locket away as he tumbled and got to his feet before he pushed off the ground and flew at Goku to attack her with a flying kick. He'd definitely have to be more careful when taking out that locket in the future.
After all, Goku and Suno might not necessarily be fans of Trunks having a picture of Gohan that he looked at in that way.
OoOoOoO
Vegeta snarled under the rigors of two hundred fifty times Earth's gravity, sweat sliding down his muscles and his singlet at lighting speed and crashing down to the floor like tiny lead weights. He stood with his feet planted in the center of the Gravity Chamber, throwing out jabs and hooks as fast as he could and willing himself to go faster when he reached his peak. Without ever pausing, he immediately backflipped through the air but the gravity nearly made him fall face first before he maneuvered himself to land in a crouch on one knee, grunting with the impact. He forced himself back to his feet and began to run around the perimeter of the Gravity Chamber, his legs burning with every lap as he dug into his reserves of energy and forced himself to run faster. He dug his feet with a grunt and began to run up the wall, across the ceiling, down to the floor, and back up the walls; channeling his ki to hold himself in place as gravity tried to rip him down.
'It's not enough,' he thought whenever he felt his body start to falter or cry out in protests of pain. 'It's never enough!' He could not rest as long as the power of the Super Saiyan eluded him while Kakarot and the brat from the future held onto the power. 'The power must be mine! It is my destiny!' He came to another stop in the center of the room and gathered a large ball of ki in his hands, drawing from his reserves of defensive energy so that, if he didn't manage to block it, it would actually injure him. He drew his arm back and threw as hard as he could in an arc, sailing around behind him. Vegeta pivoted and smacked the ki ball away, sending it on another arc to go behind him again, this time even faster. He turned again to smack it away again, back and forth, each time the ball coming faster and faster. The last blast came nearly too fast and he brought his hands up to try and hold the blast back. His feet scraped across the floor as the ball pushed back and, pushing with as much energy as he could muster, he hurled the ki ball against the wall, causing it to explode and ripping a hole through the Gravity Chamber. The rupture caused the gravity to return to normal and Vegeta collapsed into a seated position as the red light faded away and the crushing weight sloughed off of him.
"Hey!" Bulma's voice came as one of the woman's insufferable drone robots floated in through the hole in the wall and Vegeta rolled his eyes as he gasped for breath. The mongrel's glowering face hovered on a holographic screen in front of him as the drone floated up to Vegeta. Once again, through some bewildering act of sorcery, she'd changed her hair. Going by the fashion magazines Vegeta had idly flipped through, apparently this was called an "undercut". "As long as you're not paying rent, paying for food, doing your dishes, or washing your own clothes; the least you could do is not wreck my tech!"
"Cease your prattling, mongrel," Vegeta grumbled as he began undo the wrappings around his hands and feet. Even as they argued, other drones were working to repair the damage Vegeta had done to the Chamber. "The lion does not concern himself with the buzzing of the vermin."
"Oh kiss my ass, you dickweed!" Bulma shot back defiantly. "You're a king of, like, three people and two of your 'subjects' could kick your ass!" Vegeta scowled and Bulma smirked. "Yeah, how's the training going, by the way? You don't look too 'super' yet." Vegeta growled and bared his teeth, grabbing the drone in both hands and crushing it. He tossed the crumpled metal over one shoulder and staggered to his feet before stumbling wearily out of the Gravity Chamber. He would shower and take an hour, two at most, to recuperate before he returned to his training. The machines would be finished repairing the other machine by then.
As Vegeta wandered back to the main Capsule Corp building, he walked past the launchpad where the mongrel patriarch had built a twin to the ship Kakarot had used to reach Namek. Apparently, tomorrow he was going to display the ship to this planet's so-called "King", a dragon-man of some kind, to show his company's advancements to curry favor and money that he didn't actually need. Workers scurried over it like insects, fueling it and polishing it and making last-minute adjustments. While he walked, Vegeta thought to himself and wondered why he hadn't killed Bulma yet for her impertinence. The practical version of it, he assured himself, was because if he killed her, the facilities would be denied to him and it would hinder his training. Not to mention that Kakarot would be cross with him, since she seemed to hold Bulma in high regard for some damnable reason, and he still was not yet strong enough to defeat her, though he was loath to admit it.
'Some day,' he assured himself, 'I will surpass her. Then she will fall to her knees before her King.' Entering his room, Vegeta noticed a parcel on his bed and a note from the mongrel matriarch.
"Mr. Vegeta", the note began, which was already more respect than the others gave him so she would die last once this Cell business was finished, "I understand that you're a fighter like Bulma's friend Goku but you don't have any fighter's clothes of your own. Well, I happen to have a little bit of talent with a sewing machine so I made you a little something. I hope it fits, I had to do all the measurements by eye. Love, Panchy!" Vegeta looked back down at the parcel and considered it curiously. A gift… he'd never received a gift before. Well, he had, but those were different. This was the first time he'd been given a gift without threatening to murder someone or without them swearing him fealty. It made him feel… strange. He pushed the thoughts from his mind and stripped down before heading into the shower.
As the scalding water ran over his aching muscles, Vegeta's thoughts drifted back to Bulma. The true reason that he had not killed her, he was forced to admit, was that he admired her, even respected her. He found her tenacity as endearing as it was infuriating. He could kill her a thousand times over with a particularly violent sneeze and yet she never shrank away from his insults and always stood her ground, giving back verbal jabs in equal measure. She might not have the strength, he decided, but she was a Saiyan in spirit.
On the other end of the Capsule Corp building, Bulma considered Vegeta as she tinkered with her scouter designs. He was obnoxious, boorish, violent, and self-centered to the point of having a messiah complex. He was probably the most reprehensible person she'd ever met. But still, there was something about him…
"Admit it, girl," Bulma sighed as she pulled off her work goggles and her gloves. "He's you." It was weird to admit that you had similarities to a spacefaring mass–murderer but there were certain qualities that Vegeta had that she couldn't help but find in herself. His pride, his vanity, and definitely his entitlement; these were all negative qualities that Bulma had been forced to confront about herself since, appropriately, the day Vegeta and Nappa had shown up. She'd been trying to get rid of them but they were still there. There were better qualities, too, she admitted. Although, with Vegeta, you had to grade "better" on a curve. His dogged, unshakeable determination was something she found admirable, even endearing. His tireless, endless pursuit of self-betterment, even in the face of seemingly impossible odds. Even if he could barely walk after one of his psycho training sessions, he'd be back in there in an hour and cranking the gravity up higher. "Plus," she added, "He's pretty damn hot." Sure, he was shorter than her but she had sometimes fantasized about being taller than her dream man. He had a shitload of scars, too, but scars could be sexy. He was travelled, experienced, royalty. He had a lot of the qualities she'd imagined that boyfriend she was going to wish for having. "...What the hell," she finally decided with a shrug. "Just… what the hell?"
Several hours later, as the sun was setting and turning the sky a dazzling mixture of pinks, purples, and oranges, Vegeta staggered into his room and began to strip down, looking forward to a good soak in the bathtub and a few hours black, dreamless sleep. That was, of course, until he felt the woman's presence behind him.
"What the hell are y–" he started to say as he turned but he stopped when he saw her. She was wearing her lab coat and hugging it tightly to her chest. She had a look in her eyes and a smile on her lips that made Vegeta take a step back. She entered the room, making him take another step back. She shut the door and dropped the lab coat to the floor, revealing the smooth, pale skin underneath… and nothing else. She moved across the room to him in three quick strides and then she was kissing him, her mouth on his, her tongue against his lips. She grabbed a fistful of his thick black hair and pulled him deeper into the kiss while he was still stunned. It took Vegeta a few seconds to even process what was happening then he smiled a smug smile that Bulma found simultaneously infuriating and irresistible before he kissed her back, his hands on her, pulling her close.
Quite some time later, They both lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, practically stuck to the sheets with sweat. They was red from their scalps down to their chests, panting, their hair a mess, with bite marks along their necks and shoulders and long scratches along Vegeta's back. Neither one could really feel their legs. 'Whoa,' They thought. It was the best either one could come up with.
The next morning came to Vegeta in a slow, dull haze. He dimly became aware of the extra weight in his bed, the heat of a body pressed against him, and the feeling of someone in his arms. Also, he was staring at a head of blue hair. As he slowly began to recall the events of the previous night, he smiled and pulled Bulma closer to him, her back to his chest. That was until Vegeta looked at the clock on the wall and, to his horror, realized that it was eleven in the morning. He had overslept his usual start by seven hours. This, Vegeta decided, was unacceptable. While he enjoyed the woman's company and might, in time, even grow to find a genuine affection toward her, that would be time wasted. If he was ever going to become the Super Saiyan, he had to drown everything else out. He disentangled himself from Bulma and moved across the room in a burst of speed without her ever stirring, then grabbed the still-unopened parcel and was out the door.
OoOoOoO
"Right this way, your majesty," Dr. Brief was saying to King Giran and his Minister of Engineering. "If you'll come around the corner you'll see Capsule Corps' cutting edge advancements in lightsp–" then there was a terrible rumbling that knocked the Doctor, the King, and everyone else on the premises off of their feet. Dr. Brief watched in horror as his prized vessel roared up into the sky and winked out of existence. He turned back to King Giran and chuckled nervously. "W-well," he said, "You saw it jump to lightspeed…" Giran growled and flashed his fangs and those chuckles became exceedingly nervous.
OoOoOoO
Bulma sighed and stretched as she slowly got up out of bed before immediately being hit by a wave of soreness from head to toe. She quickly sat back down on the edge of the bed and groaned. She felt a certain… squishiness as she fully woke up and sighed.
"No big deal," she decided with a shrug, "I'll just head over to the drug store later and–" then it hit her, like the missing piece of a puzzle finally falling into place. The blue hair, the serious face, the Capsule Corp jacket, the Super Saiyan… "Oh… oh shit."
OoOoOoO
"Oh…" Vegeta muttered as he stared out the window at the rapidly-disappearing earth, "I see." Then he shrugged and his stunned expression changed into a self-satisfied smirk. "At least it was my bloodline that killed Freeza."
"Greetings, your majesty!" the artificial intelligence chirped as it came online. Finally, Vegeta thought, the proper respect. "Although I must admit," it added, "I had not expected someone so… mammalian. I had been programmed to address someone with, well… scales. And wings!" Well, so much for the proper respect.
"What is the bare minimum amount you have to talk?" Vegeta asked gruffly as he began doing his stretches under the normal pressure of Planet Vegeta's gravity.
"Well, ah, yes," the ship stammered, "I was programmed for companionship and conversational stimulation to avoid the madness of extreme, deep-space isola–"
"I came out here for extreme isolation," Vegeta grumbled as he finished stretching and began to dress. "Is there something you can do besides talk?"
"Ah, of course!" the ship replied happily. "I am fully stocked with a library of twelve hundred films, fifteen thousand novels, and three and a half million songs from across the cen–"
"Music will do," Vegeta snapped. "Just find something. Then raise the gravity to two hundred and sixty five times that of planet Earth." Vegeta finished dressing and tied the black belt tight around his waist. Black sandals, black fingerless gloves, blue pants and a blue vest that was tied shut with a blue belt. It… wasn't bad. Earth combat garb was a tad too loose and flowy for Vegeta but he would adjust to it. The music started and, despite himself, Vegeta started tapping his foot. It was catchy. Maddeningly so. Then the gravity kicked in and it mostly took his mind off the music.
"Up in the club, just broke up, doin' my own little thing. Decided to dip, now y'wanna trip, 'cause another brother noticed me." Mostly.
"If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it," Vegeta found himself muttering through gritted teeth. "If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it, don't be mad once you see that he want it…"
OoOoOoO
Back on Earth, Tenshinhan and Launch sat in Full Lotus position under a waterfall in their underwear. They channeled their ki to keep the thousands of pounds of water from so much as touching them. It was good focus, Tenshinhan had said. There was more to training than just punching each other in the face. Launch had suggested that if they really wanted to test their focus, they could sit in Lotus Blossom position together. Ten had turned red and she'd laughed.
"Guys," Chaozu called, using ki to amplify his voice to be heard over the rushing water. "Guys, get in here! The show's about to start!" Launch and Tenshinhan immediately rushed out from under the waterfall and hurriedly pulled on their clothes before flying back to the house and onto the couch. While they were waiting for the next part of their favorite series to get animated, they'd discovered a new favorite series. Launch and Chaozu liked it for the awesome fight scenes and the hilarious jokes while Ten appreciated the fantastic animation quality, the powerful score, and the amazing voice acting.
The other two were pretty sure that Ten also liked it because the strongest man in the universe was bald.
No sooner had the theme song belted out its final "Hero!" then a pair of blurs, one large and gray and one small and purple, came crashing through the front of the house and into Launch and Ten respectively, carrying them off into different directions into the mountains. It happened so quickly that it took Chaozu several seconds to even realize that he was the only person on the couch.
"Shit," Chaozu muttered with a sigh as he looked around. He picked one of the two holes in the roof at random and flew out of it. "I swear to Kami, if I have to blow myself up again…"
OoOoOoO
Launch burst out of the rubble she'd been knocked into in a boiling rage that was so fierce that it literally began to melt the rock under her feet. "Do you know…" she growled, "How long… I've been waiting to see the Garou fight animated?!" Then she saw what her attacker looked like and was too… bewildered to be angry.
He was an enormously tall and muscular man with a long, braided black ponytail that hung over one shoulder. He was taller than Piccolo and wider in the shoulders than Tenshinhan, neither of which were things she thought possible. He had ashen gray skin, brown gloves, a brown belt across his chest that connected to a single brown shoulder pad, black-tipped yellow boots, and a green… kilt? Or maybe it was some kind of dress? Either way, the only thing that gave Launch any clue as to what she was looking at was the golden buckle clipped onto his… half-a-toga? With the symbol of the Red Ribbon army emblazoned and shining on the metal.
"So… you're an android?" she asked. The man said nothing and only got into a fighting stance with a sneer. "Not much of a talker, huh?" No response. She shrugged and smirked. "I'm used to it," she admitted. "My boyfriend's not too chatty, either." She cracked her knuckles and got into her guard. "Let's see if I can make you squeal." Then she roared out a challenge and charged at the android, who barreled toward her silently and menacingly like a freight train.
OoOoOoO
"...What, exactly, am I looking at here?" Ten asked as he stood ankle-deep in snow on a mountain peak. It was a fair question. Across from him, smirking and with his arms behind his back, was a short, purple-skinned man with pink lips. He wore a ludicrously wide green hat with a red ball on the top, yellow-framed sunglasses, earrings, and a yellow-and-blue jacket with blue pants. Most ridiculous of all was his enormous red bowtie, which had a large, white 'R' on each end.
"Shit, man, you're not too bright, are ya, Tenshinhan?" the short man asked. He was barely taller than Chaozu. "The name's Android 15, ya dig? I was designed by Dr. Archimedes Gero t'protect the Earth from all alien threats, 'specially Son Goku, Vegeta, their progeny, the alien Piccolo, and all those that consort with 'em." Then he pointed a finger at Ten and his smirk widened. "And that especially includes your punk ass as my scans indicate that your genetic makeup's twelve percent extraterrestrial DNA." That was news to Ten.
"Excuse me?" he asked, all three eyes widening. The 'e' had barely passed his teeth when Android 14 launched himself across the snowy field like a dart and barreled head-first into Ten's stomach, knocking the wind out of him and sending him flying. Ten bounded out of the snow with a snarl and charged the diminutive demon with one fist drawn back. "Kaiouken!" he bellowed and the red aura flashed into life around him like an inferno. He swung his fist, crashing it into 15's face… who took it on the cheek and then slowly turned Ten's fist back. Ten stared in shock and, as 15 drew a hand and backhanded him across the snow, he had a rare expletive moment. 'What the shit?' Ten barreled through the snow until he hit the rock of the mountain and came bursting out of it in a rage. 15 immediately kicked him under the chin and snapped his head back before he smashed one of his tiny purple palms into Ten's collarbone, causing him to gasp in pain. 'Damn it,' Ten thought as 15 grabbed him by the arm and swung him around into the mountain. 'I hope Launch is having better luck than me.'
OoOoOoO
'Damn it,' Launch thought as she pulled herself up to her feet. I hope Ten's having better luck than me.' So far she'd gotten a black eye, a couple of bruised ribs and a busted lip and all she had to show for it was a couple of dents in the android's abs and a chunk of grey skin ripped off to show the silver bones underneath. "Okay, asshole," Launch muttered as she spat out some blood, "Try this!" The android barreled towards her and Launch got down in a low crouch. Then, as the android came right on top of her, she smirked. "Kaiouken!" the aura red aura came to life around her and she shot between the robot's legs before spinning around and kicking him in the back of his left knee as hard as she could. The android staggered and Launch even saw his leg buckle for half a second, which was all that she needed. Her hand immediately shot out and grabbed the ponytail to yank it as hard as she could down into her upraised knee. Her knee met the base of his spine with an almighty "CRACK!" If he'd been a person, he'd never walk again. The android didn't even grunt, merely swinging back one of its huge arms fast enough to take off Launch's head… if she hadn't ducked. She went under his arm and came up with a spear strike, driving her fingertips up between his ribs. They punched through synthetic skin, between metal, and into the wires with a satisfying "Crunch!" Before Launch could grab anything, though, the android's other hand grabbed her by the throat and yanked her away before throwing her hard into the ground. As she skidded across and felt skin tear from the gravel, she added "tailbone" to the bruised bones. She got to her feet, wincing as the red aura faded away. Not good.
The android looked down at the hole in his side as some kind of blue ooze slowly started to seep out. Probably coolant or some shit. Then he looked back at her with that unchanging icy stare. "Futile," he told her bluntly in a deep and stoic voice. Still, it was a word.
"We'll see about that, shitborg," Launch muttered in defiance as she grit her teeth. "Kaiouken!"
OoOoOoO
Ten wiped blood from a cut under his left eye as Android 15 dusted off the sleeves of his coat and smirked. "Man, I thought you were supposed to be bad," 15 told Ten in a mocking tone, "But this ain't shit. Dawg, just tell me where Son Goku is 'cause I got places to be. Namely at her place killin' her." Ten grit his back teeth to force down his irritation and smirked.
"Sorry to keep inconveniencing you," he apologized disingenuously, "But I'm not going down without a fight!" Then he lurched forward and grunted with effort as a second pair of arms bubbled into existence out of his shoulderblades. Then he arched back and a third pair of arms burst forth from his lower back, along his ribs. 15 stared at him, mouth agape, and slowly pulled down his shades.
"Shit," he muttered, "That's messed up." Ten grinned and got down low into a fighting stance, all six arms moving synchronously.
"Watch this," he challenged in a guttural tone. "Kaiouken times three!" The flames reached even higher and he charged at Android 15 like a rocket, his arms battering the android from all angles and catching him off guard as he hit every inch of the android's body. He brought all six hands together in an axehandle blow and swung as hard as he could to send him crashing into the mountainside, snow and rock rolling down in an avalanche that Ten quickly flew to escape. 15 burst out of the snow a few seconds later, his hat and sunglasses gone and his jacket torn. Without his hat, Tenshinhan could see the glass bubble of a braincase underneath. He could see the intricate machinery moving deftly and the twinkle of lights. Funnily enough, three or four wires came out of the top of the dome like Chaozu's hair.
"Alright," 15 snarled and glowered as he grabbed his jacket, "Now you've fuckin' pissed me off! You are dead, son!" He ripped his jacket apart and cast it down into the cascading snow below. To compound upon the bizarreness of his design, he was also extremely muscular. Wearing only his dress shoes, blue pants, and enormous bowtie, 15 now looked like the world's most niche male stripper. "Hope you ready to die, tri boy," 15 spat venomously. Tenshinhan smirked and got back into his six-armed guard.
"Not today." They charged and hit one another with the sound of a thunderclap.
OoOoOoO
As the android drove the point of his toe up into Launch's chest and she had to fight the instinctual urge to puke out her entire digestive tract, she wondered if she would have been better off as a schizophrenic criminal-slash-maid all along. The thought was gone as soon as the back of her head hit the mountainside but that might have been a concussion. Her whole body was on fire from the Kaiouken and she was pretty sure she'd burst a blood vessel in her left eye.
The android stalked toward her emotionlessly and implacably, looking in far better shape by comparison. She'd slightly widened the hole in his ribs and he staggered slightly from all the kicks, knees, and elbows that she'd driven into his legs but that was the most she'd been able to get out of him. That and she'd ripped off all of his hair and the skin on his face.
"Final statement," he stated in a tone that was almost inquisitive. "Deliver location of Son Goku." Launch smirked and shook her head. The android shrugged and drew back a fist. Then they heard a tremendous rumbling off to their left that made both human and machine turn and stare.
Thundering toward them like a stampede and carrying several metric tonnes of rock, ice, snow, and trees behind him in his psychokinetic wave was Chaozu. Launch leaped into the air as Chaozu came to a screeching halt and every last ounce of his cargo barreled into the android. He flew up to meet Launch and winced when he saw her.
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered, "I know, I look like shit." They both looked down at the rushing rapids of debris below them and Launch sighed. "Won't hold him for long."
"The hell is he?" Chaozu asked.
"One of the androids," Launch explained. Chaozu gave a half-shrug and accepted it on face value.
"Got a plan?" he asked. Launch winced painfully, as if the very act of thinking was bruising at this point, until inspiration struck her as she reflected on the hole she'd made.
"How good's your telekinesis these days?" she asked. "You think you can hold him?" Chaozu glanced away evasively and gave a little shrug.
"For like… two seconds?" he guessed. Launch could tell he was being generous and sighed.
"It'll have to do," she muttered. Especially because right after she said that, the android came bursting out of the snow, every last inch of skin and clothing stripped clean off of his body. "Okay," she muttered, "Wait until I tell you." Then she started gathering ki, zoning herself out like Ten had taught her long ago. She closed her eyes and opened herself to the universe, expanded her mind as far as it could go, transcending all pain. Then she brought it all back down again, down into herself and even deeper, confining herself and all of existence into a single speck. She gathered her energy down into that speck, down into the tip of the index finger of her outstretched hand as her other hand slowly drew back in a smooth motion across her chest.
"Laaaunch…" Chaozu called nervously. She could hear the shriek of metal slicing through the air as the android barreled toward them, could feel the very air vibrating around them. She'd only have one clean shot.
"Now!" she cried as her eyes snapped open. Chaozu flung out his hands and the android came to a stop maybe five feet in front of them as a flash of golden ki twinkled on Launch's fingertip, a thin golden line stretching across her arm, her chest, and into her other hand. "Take this," she called out, "Dodonya!" She let the bolt of ki fly and it slid effortlessly into the hole in the android's chest and not a moment too soon as it broke through Chaozu's psychic hold. Then it stopped again and it started to bubble like boiling water. To Launch's immense satisfaction, the robot shrieked and squealed in pain before exploding violently into a glorious ball of fire. Launch and Chaozu stared at the explosion for a few seconds before nodding to one another approvingly and fist bumping.
"...We better go find Ten," Chaozu said suddenly. Launch nodded and the pair flew off toward his ki as fast as they could manage.
OoOoOoO
Tenshinhan screamed in pain as 15 squeezed him in a bearhug, pinning all six of his arms to his side and driving the wind out of him. Their powers had been frustratingly matched, even with the Kaiouken time three, and now Ten was burnt out and paying for it.
"Scream all you want, bruh," 15 called over Ten's howls of pain and the sound of crunching bones. "You gonna die either way. Then Imma kill the shorty and, if 14 ain't already done with 'er, I'll see if I can get y'green girl to tell me what she knows. Hell, I figure I can get her to scream one way or another, y'know?"
Somewhere underneath all of Ten's blinding pain, there was rage and it was that rage that gave him clarity. The clarity to realize that two-thirds of the arms that the android was trying to crush didn't exist. "What the–?" 15 muttered as the uppermost arms slid out of his grasp and back into Tenshinhan's back. Then they popped out again and jammed into 15's eyes and Tenshinhan became extremely happy for the pointers Yamcha had given him in ki manipulation and control while they'd been dead.
"Taiyoken!" Tenshinhan roared as the full, concentrated energy of the Taiyoken surged down his arms and into each thumb. 15 yowled as the delicate hardware inside his eyes burst and ruptured and broke his grip to clutch at his smoking eyes. Ten smirked and kicked 15 in the chest as hard as he could, sending the little man flying off. "And for the record," Ten gasped out, "Launch wouldn't have gone nearly as easy on you as I have." Then each of his fingers glowed as if he was preparing for the Dodon Barrage… and he clenched his fists, causing them to glow white like stars. "Kaiouken times four!" he roared and charged as he drew his fists back. He could see 15 squinting and glaring at him as he tried to find him with his damaged eyes and smirked as he brought his fists forward. "Dodonken!" Each punch hit 15 with explosive force and Ten punched a thousand times a second. Despite the severity of the situation, Ten just couldn't help himself. "DOOOOOORARARARARARARA!" He kept on punching until 15 was nothing but shrapnel and punched the shrapnel until it had dissolved completely into ash. Then, finally, he allowed himself to collapse face-first into the snow. "Now those," he murmured, "Were serious consecutive punches." He chuckled. His first quip and no one was around to hear it. Then he passed out.
A few seconds later, Launch and Chaozu arrived. "Jeez," Chaozu remarked sarcastically as they picked up Tenshinhan's unconscious body between them, "Looks like we missed all the fun." They'd caught a glimpse of it as they were coming over the peak of one of the mountains in the range and, since Launch was stronger than Chaozu, she'd been able to keep up with it a little better. Having watched, and heard, Ten's display, there was really only one thing she could say.
"Greato daze yo, koitsu wa!"
OoOoOoO
Several months of training in complete isolation had passed and, although Vegeta had grown stronger, he still had not broken through the barrier. He wasn't. Good. Enough. He was taking a break and attempting to take his mind off of his frustrating failure by engrossing himself in some highly entertaining Earth cinema. It was the story of a lovable and dashing rogue forced to work with insufferable do-good heroes in the pursuit of his ultimate glory. Vegeta could relate.
"You cheated," the annoying pretty-boy hero protested.
"Pirate," the rogue reminded him with a cavalier shrug. A thunderous impact shook the ship and Vegeta groaned before turning off the movie. Just as it was starting to get interesting...
"Ship," he growled, "What the hell is going on?!"
"It appears," the ship said as Vegeta got up off the couch and headed for one of the viewports, "That a meteor shower has entered the ship's vector. It shouldn't do any severe damage to the hull, by all projections, although we won't be able to make the jump to hyperspace in it." That was troubling. Vegeta had gone as far out as six months in hyperspace would take him and had been floating in empty space for the last three months. "We could sit it out," the ship suggested, "Or circumnavigate the storm, although either one would alter the timetable of our return by several months." Vegeta sneered in derision. He did not have several months. He was not going to be late for Cell's arrival.
"We will do no such thing," Vegeta said firmly as he watched cosmic debris hurtle past the viewport at impossibly dangerous speeds. "I'll deal with this myself." He flared up his aura to capture the oxygen around him and walked to the door, overriding the safety precautions to force it open before flying up onto the roof and blasting every meteor that came near the ship, attempting to wipe out the entire field. He grunted with exertion, his blood pumping as the thrill of a life-or-death situation coursed adrenaline through his system. This was what he'd been missing! What he'd done to get stronger when serving under Freeza, pitting himself against impossible challenges and diving face-first into certain death, coming out the end feeling more alive than ever.
Then he saw it. The mother of all asteroids. It was a thousand times the size of the ship. He would have to do more than destroy it or break it apart. He would have to atomize it to keep from being destroyed. He let out a roar and flew at the asteroid, slamming into it with his shoulder and pushing against it to try and slow it down. Then he pressed his palms flat against it and blasted it with everything he had. He blew a chunk out of it but, maddeningly, the majority of the mass remained untouched and it kept on coming. Vegeta drew on his reserves of power and blasted it again, and again, and again. He kept blowing chunks out of the asteroid but couldn't manage anything else. Vegeta began to realize, to his horror, that he was reaching into the ki he'd been using to hold onto his oxygen, which was already starting to run out.
He was going to die. Out in space, alone. Not felled by an enemy or an army, not an assassination attempt or even an illness. He was going to die of his own hubris and stupidity. He would never become the Super Saiyan.
"No." He ground his teeth and dug his bloody hands into the stone. "No, no, no!" Vegeta slammed his head down into the asteroid, the rush of warm blood down his face only further fueling his fury. He would not die like this! "This is not my limit!" He roared into the cold and uncaring vacuum of space. "I was made for more than this! I am the King! I am Vegeta! I! Am! VEGETAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" And with a lion's roar, everything went white. He screamed and bellowed with fury as his irises turned teal and his hair surged into gold and his aura exploded all around him. With one final cry of rage and defiance and triumph, the asteroid burst apart and was blasted into oblivion from the sheer force of his power. He had finally done it. He had finally achieved his destiny. The King had come into his throne. Vegeta had become a Super Saiyan.
OoOoOoO
Halfway across the universe, at that very same moment, the Prince of Saiyans let out his first cry as he came into the world. He was quickly washed up and swaddled and the doctor and nurses were each handed large envelopes of cash to swear that they'd never seen his tail. Bulma let out an exhausted sigh as the baby was gently put in her arms. Not only was childbirth an exhausting experience and the second–most painful one of her life (seriously, that ionic torch hurt like a motherfucker) but it had also been the most frustrating.
"An' that quack called himself an obstetrician," she muttered as the baby nuzzled up against her chest and started searching for a nipple. She'd spent half of her own labor telling other people what to do. If nothing else, Bulma decided, this was motivation for her to get the cloning research back on track so that the next time she had a kid, she could deliver it herself. Still, though, it wasn't all bad. Bulma looked down at the baby and smiled at him as he nursed, his brown tail flicking happily. She brushed a thumb over the wisps of blue hair and he looked up at her with her own bright blue eyes, if already very serious. "Welcome to the world, Trunks."