The Pride, The Glory: Vegeta's Destiny!

Ch. 4 : The Enemy Ascends

   Each of them had been staring directly at him during the transformation. After a few seconds, the light dissipated and the others waited for the blotches in their vision to fade. Vegeta noted in his mind that his transformation was perfect for a surprise attack, if he ever felt the need for it. Most saiyans don't have any battle morals. Vegeta was different because his pride was over inflated, making him feel that any cheating victory was in fact a worse defeat than any other. Well, almost any other.
   If the others had not been able to feel the incredible power Vegeta was putting out, they would not have thought much of his transformation other than the light display. They had felt it earlier in the day, before making contact, but it was so much weaker than the person standing before them. They failed to take in to account that he was traveling near the speed of light, putting Vegeta well outside of earth's solar system during his initial transformation.
   Piccolo looked over his shoulder at Goku momentarily, desperation staining his expression. Looking back to Vegeta, who was in mid air wearing a wicked grimace. Piccolo congratulated him on astonishing them all, who were by far the strongest of planet earth. What Piccolo didn't know at that time was that the warriors of earth, although children, were among the strongest in the surrounding galaxies.
   Piccolo slowly floated backwards toward his allies, who had already begun advancing in his direction. He hoped that combined, their powers could accumulate to match that of Vegeta's super saiyan. When they arrived next to Piccolo, Krillin and Tien dramatically forced every ounce of their abilities out of them. Krillin had increased his strength a small, but noticeable margin. Tien, however, had reached a new peak of power that was nearly identical to Piccolo's new form.
   Goku was the only one who remained as he was. None of them questioned him, because they had already learned better of Goku. He had proven, time and time again, that any doubt of his instinct during a fight was ALWAYS wrong. Literally, every single time. None of them, not even Goku, were neither ignorant nor arrogant to the possible capabilities that came with the superior power of the super saiyan that stood opposite them. All that was left for them to do was stand there, staring directly at Vegeta, and wait for his move...
   Vegeta's sinister laughter filled the area as it echoed from him to the cliffs, to the ground and back. He applauded their impressive boost in strength since their last battle, adding that had he not acquired the transformation of legend that this meeting could have ended like their last. Then he commented that it meant little now, since he in fact did ascend. He glared at the group with evil intentions written all over his being. He then vowed to show them why even the gods held fear of this.
   A moment later he was no longer before them, but directly beneath their feet. Krillin and Tien looked up and Piccolo turned around, all out of instinct from personal experience. Only Goku had remained focused, concentrating on Vegeta's life force signature. Goku figured in his head that he would not be able to follow Vegeta's movements physically, but he could follow his whereabouts instantly and with a degree of accuracy.
   As Vegeta grinned at their foolishness, he was too cocky to be concentrating on any of them specifically. For that reason, he was caught off guard when Goku had appeared behind him. Using a sizeable amount of energy, he fired a ki blast into the small of Vegeta's back at point blank range. Once the blast grew bright enough to get the attention of his allies, they simoltaneously turned to look.
   Having not witnessed Goku's movement, they were prepared for what seemed obvious; Vegeta's energy blast to decimate them. Much to their surprise, it was Goku behind Vegeta, whose light from ki had caught their vision. As Goku released his attack, which had enough energy to destroy half of a planet, Vegeta let out a blood curdling yell. This was adequate to fool the others, but Goku remained focused and knew instantly what was afoot.
   Goku turned around to see Vegeta near his original position, before the battle began. As the others started to marvel and give praise to Goku, they noticed that he was staring intently at something, still in his fighting posture. As they raised their heads one by one, they noticed that Vegeta was unscathed from the ki blast; much to their dismay.
   Vegeta was obviously amused, giving no more thought to it than Goku being a saiyan; thus being able to track Vegeta's movements. He complimented Kakarot's skill, granted his status being a low class warrior. Becoming serious again, he challenged them to reproduce the stunt. Vegeta thought it was because he moved at such low speed that Kakarot was able to find him.
   With that, he came from behind Kakarot with a knee. Driving it towards Goku's mid spine, he was more than shocked when it hit nothing but the transparent image of where his target had just been. Unable to think from being in complete dismay, Vegeta floated about with the momentum from his previous attack. A moment later, before the others had even caught up to the movements, Vegeta was struck by Goku's two hands that were interlaced, making one fist.
   A gasp of pain escaped Vegeta upon being struck. Plummeting to the surface at an astounding pace, Vegeta was still in shock. He hit the planet with a thunderous bang that left a massive crater. The impact was enough to reawaken Vegeta. Given his natural saiyan instinct and battle prowess, added with his life's experience of fighting, he retaliated before he had come to a complete stop.
   This time Vegeta's golden aura had evaporated, which happened upon being struck, taking away more than half of Goku's ability to track him. All of this was unbeknownst to the rest of them, including Vegeta. They had all thought Goku was doing the impossible by besting such a formidable enemy without even powering up a little bit. Vegeta came head on, no tricks or foolery on this charge. Even if his aura had still been in tact, his speed would have been too great to react to, even with the ability to sense his energy.
   With a right uppercut hitting his chin, Goku went soaring into the heavens. This was followed by the sound of Vegeta's punch connecting, which sounded like two rocks being smashed into one another. Vegeta then glanced at the rest of them, signaling their move. The three of them surrounded him and, with all their capabilities, tried landing a blow on the saiyan prince.
   With ease, Vegeta dodged every single attempt to hit him. In fact, he used such little effort that he was simultaneously planning his counter attacks for each of them. Plus he was gauging Goku's trajectory, to know when and where to be so that he could catch his saiyan counterpart while plummeting to earth.
   Vegeta waited a few seconds to determine which of the three were attacking him most rapidly. When he realized that Piccolo held the sizeable advantage and that Tien was behind that, he set his counter offensive into action. Using his earlier logic and reasoning, Vegeta set the 3 warriors into accidentally taking each other out of the fight.
   Slightly slowing his movements, so that it would lure them into thinking they hit him, Vegeta purposely dodged one of Krillin's punches by fractions of an inch. By bending backwards, Krillin's punch whizzed into nothingness. As the punch went past his face Vegeta knew that Piccolo, being the fastest of the three, would try kicking at the back of Vegeta's head since Vegeta would have been leaning in to it.
   Vegeta corrected himself by sprawling forward, stopping himself so that he was laying horizontally with their feet. That's when Piccolo, who was still sure his attack would land flush, had slammed home into the chest of Tien, who had been focusing on pushing towards Vegeta. By the time either of them could calculate what would happen, it did happen. After a thunderous smack, Tien rapidly plummeted to the rocks below. He landed with such force that whatever energy he had previously mustered together, was all but gone.
   Being the slower of them, coupled with the fact that his previous attack twisted his torso so that he no longer saw the other 3 combatants, Krillin was unaware of what just took place. Correcting himself to the fight, he just barely noticed Tien was missing when his follow up attack came flying blindly at where Vegeta was last standing. In the form of a backhand, the same hand that his last punch was with, Krillin gave all of his will power into that blind attack...
   Piccolo was just beginning to realize what he had done to Tien when he blacked out from consciousness. Krillin's backhand, although he was far weaker than Piccolo, caught Piccolo off guard, thus knocking him out cold. Krillin didn't know, because of the mechanics of a backhand, that he had actually struck Piccolo. Nor did he know the whereabouts of Vegeta.
   Having just been laying horizontally with his opponents feet, Vegeta lowered his altitude just below Krillin's feet and came up behind the bald brawler. Just as Goku was rejoining the fight, (which vegeta thought for sure wouldn't happen at all, planning on meeting Kakarot's descent with a lethal ki blast), he witnessed as Vegeta effortlessly shot an energy wave that completely devoured Krillin, as well as his life force signature.
   Stopping mid flight, Goku was shocked and petrified as to the events that just unfolded. All that was left in front of him was Vegeta, with his hand extended in front of him, and a cloud of smoke and smog which was all that remained of his very best and most dear friend, Krillin.
   Vegeta laughed maniacally and said as for my tail. He floated there looking at his hands, obviously relishing in his newfound abilities. Goku hadn't moved a muscle, the shock still fresh in his mind. The furthest thing from his thoughts was wishing anyone back with the Dragon balls. A good thing, too. Had he remembered, the entire earth, with everybody in it, would have been at the mercy of Prince Vegeta, the ruthless.
   Goku thought about all the innocent people, the families, the planets, that had met their end because of Vegeta. He felt his fists clinch, his fingernails digging into his palm. He imagined the horrors that Vegeta inflicted on everyday people, for no reason other than for his sick entertainment. His jaw clinched, teeth gritting so hard that they started grinding off fine powder onto his taste buds.
   Goku didn't take notice though, he was lost in thought. The full blooded saiyan turned earthling was thinking about how Vegeta would spare nobody on this planet, just as he had vowed on his first visit. He felt his ki flaring, unable to control it. Not that he was trying to, that is. His thoughts turned to Bulma and Master Roshi, along with his other friends. Then he remembered Krillin.
   He snapped back to reality, still staring in Vegeta's direction. The thought of Krillin's untimely and brutal demise had made a rage boil up in Goku, the likes of which was alien to him. The very last thing he remembered was thinking of Krillin's face as the ki blast disintegrated his entire being. His mind was replacing that face first with those he cared about, then with faces of random strangers and innocent civilians.
   Vegeta stopped looking at his hands, remembering the onslaught he was in the middle of delivering. He thought of going after Goku, who was surely about to hit the ground by now somewhere off in the distance. He decided instead that he would give Goku one last chance to return to planet Vegeta and rejoin his saiyan heritage. He might be an outcast and laughing stock for missing his tail, but at least he would be alive.
   He looked down at the 2 craters on the surface, each created moments ago by the earthlings he had smashed towards the planet. He turned to face them, palms outstretched in front of him. He decided to have some fun with them and test his new strength. Considering they were the strongest this planet had to offer, he was only going to hold back enough to keep the planet from being destroyed. That way he could continue having fun with the civilians.
   As he felt the warmth from the ki charging in his hands, he noticed something. Stopping what he was doing, his glare shot towards the sky. Out of nowhere storm clouds had rolled in thick, as far as the eye could see. But this was no ordinary storm. There was an unusually high amount of electricity in the air, more so than he had experienced on planets with the worst atmospheric conditions in the universe. He wondered as to what would be causing it, but soon concluded that he didn't care. This planet would soon be non existent, so it's meteorology really was of little concern to him.
   As his ki started to charge again, a smirk lined his jaw. Just as he was about to release, a roar came from a little distance behind him. Even the likes of Frieza would have been chilled to the bone by the ominous sound. To Vegeta, and he wasn't sure exactly why, but it sounded just like defeat. He spun around and saw Goku, about 50 yards away and 100 ft above him. The little runt must've recovered quicker than Vegeta anticipated. No worries, now Vegeta wouldn't have to go looking for him.