#vegeta blew up the sun

[disgracefulthings]

Everyone asks whether or not Goku would win in a fight against Superman, but I haven't seen anyone ask if Vegeta would win. Maybe because the answer is obvious

Vegeta: If goody-two-shoes gets his power from the sun, then I only need to blow it up

Goku: Vegeta, No!

Vegeta: VEGETA, YES!

[lunarsaturn88]

Invincible Chapter 2

“Come at me Kakarot!” Vegeta yelled, waving his hand to beckon the other Saiyan towards him so they could fight.

Goku rushed forward in an attack stance before the fight was on between the two of them. The two of them dodged attacks and blocked others. Neither one of them noticed a streak flying through the air and headed right towards a rocky ridge. 

Goku stopped for a moment only to have Vegeta land a punch on him. 

“You can’t give up that easily Kakarot.” Vegeta taunted before sensing something as well. 

“Wow, that's an amazing power level.” Goku said cheerily. 

Vegeta almost scoffed at the way that Goku was acting. But it was something that he should have expected. Anyone with that sort of power level he was going to go to it like a moth to a flame. 

Goku darted off through the sky towards where the falling thing in the sky had gone. 

Vegeta shook his head. “Idiot.” He grumbled as he followed Goku in the same direction. He wasn’t about to let him have all of the fun. He landed next to Goku as the pod opened up.

You messed with your scouter as you got out of your pod. You blinked as the sun burned your eyes as you straightened yourself out on your feet. 

Goku’s eyes widened as they wen to your midsection. A TAIL! “No way.” 

Vegeta took interest quickly that she was like them. He couldn’t believe it. A female Saiyan alive and well. How was that possible? 

You looked over to see the two men standing there. They were rather buff meaning that they had to be strong. You messed with your scouter as you took the gauge of the shorter one's strength when it burst into a puff of smoke. “Not possible…” You muttered to yourself. There was no way that his power level was that high to cause your scouter to blow up. 

Goku looked at Vegeta. “Is she…”

“Yes.” Vegeta said firmly. 

Goku’s smile went wider. He flew towards her landing before her. “Hi I’m Goku.”

You blinked a few times wondering who the hell this guy was. Your hands clutched tightly at your sides knowing that this man by the way that he looked was powerful in his own right. Your tail bristled around your waist knowing that there was something about this man. Something much deeper and it worried you. Just like the other man worried you when your scouter blew up. She narrowed her eyes at Goku. “Where is Lord Frieza?”

Goku froze hearing the name. 

Vegeta’s eyes widened. You were a Saiyan under the control of Frieza? “Frieza is dead.”

Your eyes widened. How was that possible? There could be no way that happened. “What?”

“No Saiyan is under Frieza’s control not as long as I breathe!”

“You have no control of the Saiyans. I'm the last one alive.”

“But you would be the third Saiyan.” Goku pointed out.

Your jaw dropped. You couldn't believe it. More Saiyans: how was that possible? Some survived an Frieza never said that there were survivors. Your heart clenched in your chest as you looked at the two men that were before you. “He said to me that there were no survivors.”

Vegeta scoffed as he eyed you up showing no interest in you even though he was very interested in knowing how you survived. “He lied. I was working under him for a while. The question is how did you survive when he hated us?”

You looked at Vegeta. “Why would you care? I'm one of his most prized warriors.”

What was with this woman that stood before him? You benefitted better under Freiza’s control. “Prized warriors you say.”

“Yes.” You firmly said. 

“Freiza didn't have any prized warriors.

“How do you know he is dead?” You snapped in anger.

“Watch your tone with me woman.”

“And why should I watch my tone with you?” You snarled barring your fangs at him.

Vegeta moved forward stoically. “I'm prince Vegeta.”

Your eyes widened in shock, your hands going slack at your sides. Your prince was alive and well and he stood before you. How did you get so lucky to find him. Your heart rammed in your chest as the shock wore off of you. “How did Frieza die?”

“He and his father were taken care of some time ago when he came to Earth.” Goku said rather bluntly. 

“What is your name, woman?” Vegeta questioned crossing his arms as he looked at her.

“Y/n.” 

Vegeta froze remembering the name, your name. You were still alive and well. It was the only mission her regretted that he had with you when you were so good at what you did at a young age. Perhaps that's why Frieza kept you for so long. Plus made to think that everyone of your people were dead when that wasn't the case. He wondered how you would take that information. 

You squared your shoulders looking at them. Your lord was gone and there was nothing you could do. But you weren't about to allow yourself make friends with these two. Why should you when they didn't know what you did to keep yourself in favor of your lord. 

Goku grinned at you. “You don't have to follow his orders any more isn't that great?”

Vegeta smacked his forehead at the stupid comment that Goku made. 

Your hands clenched at your sides in anger how dare he think that you didn't want to follow Frieza's orders. It was all you knew. 

Goku raised his hands seeing that you were starting to get frustrated which wasn't a good sign. “You have a choice you don't have to continue to follow the orders… you can choose what you want to do.”

You looked at Vegeta taking a few sharp breaths. He was your prince he would be able to help you with this choice. 

“It's your choice woman.” Vegeta said seeing you look at him.

A scoff left your lips. It was your choice? Honestly you wanted to avenge your boss being killed. “My choice?” You questioned your voice dark.

Vegeta tried not to shudder at how dark and dangerous you sounded at that moment. It told him you were a prideful Sayian warrior and you would avenge Frieza's death if you wanted to.

“My choice would be to avenge my lord's death. I look to you my prince and you say it is my choice.” 

“He was evil. Destroyed everything in his path.” Goku said hoping that you would think again of fighting against either of them. Granted he wanted to fight but only if he had to. “Do you want to continue that path?”

You really never had a choice in the matter. Now you did. You were confused about what choice to make. Were you going to believe them and become friends with these two or get revenge on your master? The wind blew through your hair as you thought.

[hxroic-wxlls-rxborn]

"Will it? Honestly it tastes fine to me."

"Young miss, you are death, of course it tastes fine to you. Your mother and older sister loves food that's hotter then the sun."

“ Your guys’ family sure are a tough bunch, eh? But yeah, last guy who tried it blew up. Like, literally blew up. Like how Vegeta did with Buu. Not very pretty, in case you’re wondering. “

Thank goodness for Dragon Balls.

[acoldsovereign]

SUBJECT MATTER: Old (Unprompted) Meme-Move From Old Blog // sender: @peoplcshope.

SHE ALERTED HER SLAVES ABOUT AN EXTENDED ABSENCE. She wasn't sure how long the trip would take, but she estimated the timeframe to be within a couple of hours or days. Regardless, they were to run themselves as if she was still present--in other words, they had to pretend to be self-governing. She left instructions for them written in Ancient Saiya and a translation besides it (using the Modern variant), since most of the enslaved Races lacked the throat power and necessary internal makeup to make the same guttural sounds as she. Maiz made it abundantly clear that they were to report anything unsavory to her immediately.

She could (theoretically) replace Trunks, but not her kingdom.

----

WHEN SHE FIRST SHOWED VULNERABILITY, IT WAS AGAINST HER WILL. The nightmare of the Genocide haunted her dreams; screams and shrill alarms mixed together and deafened her child-like ears, thick tears, and the raging fire within tight, narrow hallways bathed in a dangerous red light effectively made her blinder than she already was. It usually ended the same way; Karne scooped her up with her tail and blitzed through the haze of death and carnage, then bumped Maiz up in her arms when the coast was clear enough. Maiz was shoved into an escape pod with hushed promises of being brought back when everything blew over, but she didn't care about that. She banged on the alien glass (of which was red too)--crying, screaming, pleading to fight with her, to know what was going on, why everyone was suddenly dying.

Sometimes the night terrors were crueler, and she perished along with them, her corpse reduced to ash in the hallways alongside the colleagues she used to know. She would perish on Planet Vegeta instead of in the atmosphere of Planet Kokytus.

Trunks had the displeasure of witnessing her cry during the first scenario, in her sleep.

----

SOMETIMES, SHE REGRETTED TELLING HIM ANYTHING. He was determined to show her 'she wasn't alone' in regards to tragedy and loss. It truthfully annoyed her that he committed her tear-streaked face and closely guarded hardships to memory; talking about her feelings didn't come natural to her. She had no equals--no peers. Merely associates she kept close to her chest (not everything was something to be shared with the time-traveler). None of them knew half of what she willfully divulged to him--not the aliens who did her hair and nails, not the tailor who customized her armors, nor any of the owners of the shopping strips she frequented who knew her by name and supplied her with the fabrics she used to design her bodysuits. Many of her slaves didn't even know why they were subjugated, either.

Outside of him, she wasn't known to be a person. She was an oppressive force of nature. She existed for a reason--otherwise, why would she still be alive? Why would she, out of everyone else, survive? She chose her purpose: to kill and destroy and enjoy it. She was a predator. A ruthless opportunist. A mass murderer and slave-owner. A ravager of worlds and crusher of dreams and hopes. Hells, at one point, she wanted to crush Trunks' own. She still carried those sadistic desires, but in a different manner with the passing days.

The device he made specifically for her--the holorogorus-disruptor, which hid her presence from other demons and Time Patrollers--on her left wrist itched, but she ignored it. Instead, Maiz listened to him go on and on about his world and what it meant to him. Talking about herself still felt foreign and out of place, so she made sure to ask pointed and highly detailed questions to keep the topic on him and off of her. Traveling to a different Earth wasn't what she expected either. The climate was the same but different--this sun felt a little hotter, the gravity somewhat weaker. Perhaps that's why her ruddy-complexion darkened progressively as he was kind enough to give her a tour of the places most precious to him . . . ?

The texture of her hair changed as the tour went on--her spikes fell towards her face and the waves seemingly shrunk. It wasn't exactly fair to say her iconic crown of bright red became straight, but it was close. She noticed the changes too late; one third of her energy was spent keeping stock of what Trunks told her, the second third was focused on memorizing the route they took just in case anything happened. Not that they'd be lost (because he knew the way), but because depending on another person outside of herself was a steep learning curve and she was abysmally failing at it. The final third of her energy was spent watching his reactions, studying his social cues (many of her relationships up until this point were either impersonal or strictly professional), and waiting for more appropriate opportunities to ask questions to keep him talking. It was when they reached the underground lab that he was seized by memories.

Silence fell when his gaze caught upon a pictured frame sitting upon a desk next to a dimly lit computer; a blue-haired, bright-eyed Bulma wrapped in what could only be called a warm embrace by two older people with vastly different hair colors, textures and clothes. She assumed this was Bulma's origin--Trunks' human grandparents. Suddenly, his purple hair made sense. (She's seen Saiyans with his shade of blue eyes before but haven't found a way to tell him yet; mostly because she didn't want to sound like she'd been staring at him too hard . . .). Maiz heard him mention the roof but she was much too taken with the genetic diversity displayed with the Brief Family genes. It all reminded her of home, eerily so. Contrary to belief, the Saiyans weren't all black haired and dark eyed. It was a misconception, a rumor started by Frieza to make them sound like an incestuous lot. Unappealing. To lower their market value overall, to make the Saiyans easier to control and eventually dispose of.

SHE TOOK A COUPLE OF STEPS BACK, UNNERVED BY A QUEASY FEELING IN HER STOMACH.

Her dead face briefly took on an expression of pain (furrowed brows, a frown, scrunched up features) before it went away. It was quick--a blink-and-you'll-miss-it event. Finally, she was able to look away and focus on other things. She looked at Trunks first, around, then up (there was exposed wiring on the walls, the plaster was chipped, the dome was indeed un-roofed, scorch marks trailed from where the roof would've began pointed at what the cause was, etc). She did this until her heart rate slowed, until her thoughts were no longer disarrayed, until her instincts no longer screamed to destroy the remnants of whatever he could call a home. She had to remind himself he wasn't mocking her, nor was he rubbing his life experiences in her face; he was showing her shared pain.

With a small sigh and slow sway of her tail, she asked, ". . .what else is here?" The quality of tone was detached, distant. Neutral, safe and boring. Not monotone--but as if she was disinterested with it all. Alas, this was simply how she sounded for the moment. Socialization in this manner was not her strong suit.

Neither was showing genuine concern.

[betaruga]

FUSION HA! DBZ Fusion - Cronenberg Style ... Horror ficlet below!

Every time they fused in DBZ I always laughed, thinking of one of my favorite childhood films, "The Fly" starring Jeff Goldblum. Wait, did I say childhood film? Haha. Ha. Anyway! Fusion gone wrong, but not resulting in charming phat or starving Vegitos but like “The Fly” where Vegeta gets freakishly strong because he absorbed Goku, before deteriorating into an awful abomination and begging Bulma to pull the trigger. Vegeta panicked--the fusion must have failed. Kakarrot was nowhere in sight! Yet a tingle in his spine built up and sparked, small but growing, before a roar of a raw, foreign power burned and mixed through him, quickly exciting and elating him to new, ruinous heights. Vegeta erupted with victory, glorifying his dramatic power up, his exhilaration driving down deep the humiliation that he'd finally only surpassed Kakarrot by taking his body into his own. And soon, he became more exuberant and aggressive in his denial--combatively and sexually. Bulma had no complaints...at first. The Prince of none has dreams with his fingers in his face, but it's not HIS face under the flesh his fingers are digging underneath, as the visage of glinting eyes and faint remnants of a smile that catches the sun threaten to surface, before he wakes up in a cold sweat... He dons his old gloves, partly to cover the bursting sores that won't heal, but mostly the new blue tints peeling through the skin around his wrists. A stranger in Bulma's unlit lab, he stood at a dim monitor, breathing hard, before jabbing gloved finger stumps to the keys. Vegeta registers the faint remains of his princely features in the dark surface of the monitor as his fingers linger heavily between prompts, eyes vacant as he remembers early on, far before she knew, when Bulma asked if he'd done anything lately to make himself more handsome... One index finger at a time, at last Vegeta types his inquiry: ASSIMILATION? DID VEGETA ABSORB KAKARROT? >NEGATIVE >FUSION OF VEGETA AND KAKARROT AT MOLECULAR-GENETIC LEVEL Weeks passed before Bulma could finally bring herself to visit where Vegeta had sequestered himself, after refusing aid and shutting off the comms. A wall of heat nearly choked her as she shorted the locks and the doors blew up their retainer shafts. The gravity chamber stank. Bulma blinked through the hot, oppressive air around her. Through stinging tears she made out his form, black spikes jutting through twisted colors blistering and bubbling from his body, as he slowly, almost welcomingly, scaled down the walls on bare hands and feet towards her. "Look what I can do now, Bulma." Before her head could turn, he was already behind her. "I can teleport now. Pretty great huh?" The voice carried two inflections at the end; his own sarcastic bitterness, the other cheerful, light, and familiar. She gulped, throat suddenly tight. That was one of the last times she'd seen him. She went to the doctor with Yamcha, unable to go through with having it. Bulma recoiled at the thought of that boiling skin, the growing deformations, the sudden, then slow loss of the two men she knew...and what the baby would be... Vegeta-rot burst through the window and stole her back, binding and arranging her body with marionette ki-strings to force a fusion with her and their fetus, in an effort to make him more "Saiyanoid" and "normal" as his last desperate, broken hope. Yamcha didn't stand a chance... When his faltering power gave out, the strings refracting & shorting through his ki channels and fraying what physical control he had left, Vegeta crumpled onto the floor--oozing--and aimed the nozzle of her refitted blaster to his crown. She couldn't. She daren't... But she did. And then in a few years the B rated sequels came out featuring her monstrously deformed Vegeta-rot Capsule Corp top secret lab baby, breaking out and unleashing grotesque havoc upon the world. 

THE END! 🥰💀

[risingsouls]

@regulus-regent​ asked: For Geets and Nabs: Unbind me

Drabble Prompts || Open!

Leave a “Unbind Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character freeing another, or the other way around, or something among the lines [be it freeing them from jail, from handcuffs, from a trap, from a curse, feel free to specify.]

"This is cruel. Even for you, Vegeta."

The prince stared down at her from his perch atop a rock, tail swaying in idle amusement behind him and a smirk on his lips. The same expression, the same mercilessly humored air that he donned since he sprung the new technique on her hours ago in their training session and rendered her near immobile. Thanks to Vegeta's brilliant insistence that it should be part of her training, she spent hours trying to free herself from the rings of ki encircling her ankles, thighs, and torso, the last pinning her arms securely to her sides. Through brute force of stretching them away from her body and trying to break them. Of powering up as much as she could to shrug them off with her own power. Of contortion attempts to slip out of the bonds. She only successfully managed to tire herself out almost completely.

"You and I both know I could do much worse," he all but purred in reply. The setting sun behind him framed him in golden light, and the blue sky transformed to hues of pink and orange. "Will you be spending the night out here on the ground?"

She blew out an exasperated huff. "I'll get home on my own, thank you."

Nabooru sat up and used the remainder of her strength to hoist herself onto her feet, righting her balance before she toppled forward, face first. She bent back to stretch her spine with a groan. Her feet lifted off the sand. "See? I can maneuver just fine without your help."

Vegeta snorted, hopping down from his perch and folding his arms over his chest. "Says the woman a gentle push away from ending up on her ass again." He only chuckled in the face of the glare she shot him and floated upward a few feet himself. "Come on. I can't wait to see how well you manage yourself like that."

He took off and Nabooru followed after him, taking a moment to adjust to flying with her limbs so tightly compressed to her body. "You're really not going to remove these? Even though we're done training for the day?" she asked, hoping her aggravated disappointed fully masked the whine that threatened to insert itself into her tone.

"Of course not." Vegeta landed in front of the capsule house and opened the door. He paused to glance over his shoulder to watch her land with incredible care and hop over to him. If she didn't need the energy to navigate the house, she might have headbutt the smirk off his face. "Your challenge was to free yourself from the rings. You have yet to do it. Your training isn't over."

"You didn't even know if this would hold me!" she protested, springing over the threshold and following him to the kitchen. She pushed her arms and legs outward against the restraints, but, once more, only budged them outward maybe two inches. She growled in frustration. "I swear, when I get out of this…"

The Saiyan returned to his full height and nudged the refrigerator door closed with his tail, arms laden with ingredients for a sandwich. "At this point, it's looking more like if you get out of it."

"What did I do to deserve this?"

His smirk widened. "You failed to dodge it."

"Fuck you."

He laughed as he stacked meats on his bread. "Tempting. It's been some time since I tied you up."

Nabooru growled and flipped around, the drama of it lost since she had to jump to make the 180 degree turn like she was partaking in some goofy dance routine. "I'm going to take a shower."

Vegeta chuckled. "Good luck."

She was glad her back was to him for her undaunted aggravation succumbed to uncertain annoyance with his well wish, for, until then, she hadn't considered the challenges the simple task would present her in her state. If she destroyed her clothes, she could likely at least undress. Flight would help her maneuver to at least turn the taps for the water. But then what? She couldn't reach most of her body to cleanse it, and her hair was certainly out of the question. She could try a bubble bath which would sort of get soap in her hair and on her body, but it didn't seem like a much better option.

And she wasn't about to swallow her pride and ask Vegeta to help her.

Exhausted by just considering how to bathe, Nabooru lost all interest and hopped back to the bedroom and fell forward onto the bed. She groaned into the pillow and fruitlessly wriggled against the ki rings. After bearing them through a good portion of the afternoon, she no longer noticed their snug squeeze and the natural heat of the energy.

And this is how she would die. Face down on the bed because she refused to accept Vegeta feeding her or helping her drink or anything else. Unless she got out of this predicament. And she would. No matter what it took. But she would need her energy, and sleeping meant she didn't have to think about the ludicrous predicament she was in.

"Pouting? Hmpt, not very becoming."

Nabooru flipped onto her back, a fish flopping on the shore. "I'm going to get out of this and kill you."

"Oh really? I was convinced you had given up."

"Don't insult me twice."

The prince sat on the edge of the bed. He pointed his index finger toward her. The rings dissipated, freeing her arms from her sides and allowing her to move her legs independently of each other. “There. You can stop moping now.”

Nabooru sat up. She stretched her arms above her head, out to the side. Opened and closed her legs, bent her knees toward the ceiling and extended them again. Light marks spanned around her ankles, thighs, midsection just beneath her sports bra and arms. Nothing that wouldn’t heal in a few days, but the longer she stared at them, the more the urge to punch Vegeta in the nose rose.

Instead, she settled for shoving him off the bed. Satisfied smirk on her lips, she stood and headed for the bathroom again as he cursed and climbed back to his feet. “Let’s go,” she demanded, waving for him to follow with one hand and the other on her hip. “You had your fun and I want mine. In the form of a shower massage. It’s more fondling than you deserve, but I deserve it. ”

Vegeta huffed. Though, after a moment’s consideration, a glance back over her shoulder and she found him following her into the bathroom, stripping as he went.

[chucklestheechidona]

Power Levels

So, something that never fails to bug the living crap out of me is when people argue over power levels.

“What’s a power level?“

In Dragon Ball Z, popular and influential anime that it is, the heroes and villains are rated on power levels. If you have a high power level, it means you’re rocking some serious firepower/chi/fighting spirit. I don’t think it’s actually based on anything like Midichlorians but it’s more tangible than spiral power.

So, Goku usually has the higher power level, and when he doesn’t, he trains until he does. Or makes his son do it. Or fights despite that.

This annoys the Vegeta.

All good so far.

HOWEVER

In Western and Eastern animation/reading material/what have you, there’s been a habit of what if’s. See, Goku is the strongest person in his universe, but what if were to fight Superman? Superman is the strongest person on HIS universe, so wouldn’t it be fun to see how they’d square up?

And let’s be honest, it is. Could Batman take on Iron Man in a game of wits and technology? Could Mega Man fight Astro Boy? Who would be the better detective, Gillian Seed or Jonathan Ingram?

It’s all fun and games until you DARE suggest that someone like Superman or Goku might lose.

And here’s where we pull into our endgame material.

Joke characters.

Seething and coming out of the woodwork, they’ll write full essays on why exactly characters like him couldn’t even come close to their fabled heroes. Did you not see that time Superman charged up with the sun? Were you not there when the Saiyan’s blew up planets just to train? When Superman is so fast and so powerful that time warps around him? Or Goku?

Well, see.

Saitama (pictured above) wins in one punch. It’s his characters reason to be. His whole life in the anime revolves around the despair that nothing can fight him. This isn’t a show where you train hard enough to fight against insurmountable odds to take on worse and worse villains. Saitama IS the most powerful being. Anything that tries gets decimated. Therein lies the entire point of his arc.

It’s not about whether he can fight something, it’s how long it’ll take him to throw that punch. It’s not about overcoming odds, it’s the despair in knowing he’ll never have to overcome anything again. The most troubled he gets is missing out on mundane events or not being popular.

So then you see people going:

“Well, Goku would easily beat Saitama. Saitama has never BLOWN UP A PLANET. He’s probably got low power levels, Goku can tap into the power of his ancestors and even in his lowest form can lift the world up with one finger while Jiren’s theme plays in the background and”

“Actuuuuallly, did you not see Superman in Issue 51 of the spinoff series where they did a what-if and showed if Superman was at his full potential he could murder everything in less than an attosecond an-“

But like, Saitama’s whole point is that he would win. Doesn’t matter the odds. And like, I like Tengen Toppa much more than I like One Punch Man. I won’t spoil anything but in the final stages the robots could destroy several galaxies by accident. And Saitama would still win. Because his entire point would be that he would go against something like that, throw a punch, and be depressed because he’s just TOO DARN powerful, his diamond shoes are too tight and his wallet’s too big for his fifties.

But you see people posting horrifically long posts about the science of it all. The science of cartoons and anime.

“Isn’t that what you did? Just because you like OPM“

I do like OPM, but he was the easiest person to use as an example for arguments over fighting over characters with very different in-universe laws and especially the point of one’s character.

I just think people who obsess that much over powerlevels and hero-worship over their favourite series need to realise that in an all-out fight, characters like Bugs Bunny would come out the victor.

[cressasdbfanfics]

And Then There Were Five? Chapter 3

Paring: Goku and Chichi

Words: 3,852

Summary: An announcement is made, followed by the first of two major expansions and then the first the first doctor’s appointment.

A/N: Thanks to the fabulous @jadefyre for the beta read!!!!

Fanfiction.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12543438/3/And-Then-There-Were-Five

Archive of Our Own: http://archiveofourown.org/works/11284710/chapters/29572035

Chapter 3: No Needles Here

We materialized in front of Bulma and found ourselves in her lovely courtyard. The moment our feet touched grass, Goten dashed off to find Trunks and Gohan went straight to Videl – leaving Goku and me to visit with the others in peace.

She smiled. "Hi, you guys!"

I returned her smile. "Hi, Bulma!"

"Your skin looks especially great, Chichi! It's so clear and radiant! Trying a new face cream? I have to know what you're using!"

I giggled and waved my hand dismissively. "Well, thanks, but it's just the makeup I donned to freshen up with this morning after not feeling real well."

"Hey, Goku!" greeted Krillin as he and his family walked up to us.

Goku greeted his best friend in return and they fell into easy small talk while Eighteen, Bulma and I did the same.

Before I knew it, the catering staff announced supper was served.

In that moment, the wind shifted just so. My stomach growled as the delicious scents hit me. Everyone in earshot thought it was Goku – who thankfully went along with it – and laughed it off while I put my hands to my face to hide my blush. As if on cue, Goku's stomach really did growl and it was the perfect additional cover. Everyone only laughed harder.

Goku just smiled knowingly at me the moment the others' attention was on the massive buffet style smorgasbord.

I made myself a very full plate and sat down. Holding back was not possible. I was famished. I clearly worked up an appetite rushing through the morning chores before heading to Bulma's. I knew seconds wouldn't fill me up. However, I was surprised at the little rumble my stomach gave as I finished off my third plate but getting fourths risked acquiring unwanted attention.

I frowned at my empty plate, weighing my options.

Goku chuckled and left his seat across from mine. When he returned, he placed a heaping plate filled with all the foods he knew I liked in front of me and winked at me. Winked!

My heart missed a beat, heat blossoming on my cheeks.

I giggled girlishly as he took his seat. "Thank you, sweetheart."

Unfortunately, his sweet gesture didn't go entirely unnoticed.

"Sheesh, Chichi! Hungry or something?" called Bulma from a table next to ours, laughing.

I glanced at her, heat flooding my face. "Heh-heh… You could say that…"

Her amused smile dropped into a thoughtful frown. "Say… I can't quite put my finger on it but there's something different about you."

I bit my lip.

After a few moments of silence, her mouth fell open as she stared at me. "No, way…"

Bulma was a genius. I should have known she'd put it together.

I nodded but touched a finger to my lips.

She grinned the widest smile I had about ever seen on her. "I thought you looked like you were glowing! And that appetite! You're giving him–" she nodded at Goku "–a run for his money!"

I glared at her as Goku chortled into his cup of iced tea.

She giggled, too and said in a low tone, "Don't worry, Chichi. I gave Vegeta a run for his money while I was pregnant with Trunks. So, are you two ready to announce?"

Goku and I exchanged a smile and nodded.

That was all Bulma needed and walked to the center of the yard.

"EVERYONE! LISTEN UP!"

Gradually, the low buzz of chatter fell silent as everyone's attention went to her.

She motioned for us to join her. "Goku and Chichi have something to share."

She nodded encouragingly as curious gazes fell upon us.

I glanced up at Goku. He took my hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze.

I smiled at our group of close friends and touched my stomach. "Yes, we do have some exciting news: I'm expecting!" During a short stretch of shocked silence, I took a deep breath and shared the rest of our news: "I'm having twins!"

Jaws hit the ground – Bulma's included.

She was the first to recover and grinned as she clapped her hands together. "Congratulations!"

I smiled back. "Thanks, Bulma."

That seemed to snap everyone out of it.

All but Piccolo and Vegeta raised their glasses and yelled, "CONGRATULATIONS!"

Goku and I laughed and I called out, "Thank you, everyone!"

Master Roshi got up from his chair – sending it toppling backwards – and staggered up to us, cheeks flushed, and hiccupping as he walked.

Once he reached us, he slapped Goku's back good-naturedly and slurred much too loudly, "Niiice shootin', son!"

Goku blushed to his ears and chuckled embarrassedly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

I shot a half-hearted glare at Master Roshi while the rest of the group snickered. I was overjoyed enough I couldn't bring myself to get angry – and Goku looked so cute like that.

I hoped my boys hadn't heard that but a quick glance at their faces proved I was not in luck. Poor Gohan looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there – cheeks tinted slightly green – and Goten looked confused. Videl blushed next to Gohan.

Eventually, the group's attention turned away from us as their chatter resumed.

I blew out a breath as I took my seat at our table. Goku wondered off to chat with Krillin while Bulma and Eighteen descended on me, immediately pelting me with questions – everything from my due date to my symptoms thus far to whether I had seen a doctor to how my boys took the news. Bulma demanded every detail.

She leaned forward in her seat. "But how did you find out you're having twins?"

I smiled, thinking about that not so quiet dinner. "Well, Goten was the first to point out there's two. He picked up on them before even his father. He told us right there at the dinner table that he sensed my ki and two others. Not just one. Goku and Gohan both confirmed."

Eighteen smirked, her eyebrow raised. "Did you faint?"

I answered Eighteen's smug smile with a glare as I sat up straight and lifted my chin. "As a matter of fact, I most certainly did not." I allowed myself my own smug smile. "But Goku did."

Eighteen raised an eyebrow in disbelief as Bulma said, "No way!"

I caught Goku's eye while he laughed with Krillin across the yard, quite possibly telling the same story – if Krillin's boisterous laughter with his hands on his knees and Goku's light blush were any indication.

I nodded and leaned forward. "Oh, yes, he did. He even crushed his chair into splinters when he went down."

Bulma burst out laughing. Even Eighteen giggled. I did, too.

In the course of our conversation, Bulma gave me the contact information of the only doctor on the face of our little blue planet that had any experience delivering a half-Saiyan baby. A doctor Bulma richly bribed into silence regarding the existence of a certain fury brown appendage as she so nonchalantly mentioned.

Half-Saiyan twins – and the risks associated – seemed a might bit more than the midwife who delivered Gohan and Goten could handle.

I had my first appointment with the doctor planned two weeks hence.

Those two weeks flew by in the rush of the fall harvest. After a long day's work on the farm, I looked over the crates filled with our delicious fall vegetables and sighed.

Ordinarily, I would have been quite satisfied with our yield but not that evening.

A large, warm hand settled gently on my back. "You tired, Chichi? I can take you home. I know how much of this to keep and how much to sell."

"I'm not tired."

Goku stepped in front of me, his head cocked to one side. "Then what's the matter?"

I felt myself tearing up – darned hormones – and Goku's eyes went wide. "There's not enough here!"

He swung his head first one way and then the other – looking at all of the full crates – and then scratched his head. "B-but there's plenty here."

I angrily brushed a tear off my cheek. "Not for six people – five of which are Saiyan! And not enough to sell the excess, either!"

Goku silently mouthed, 'Oh' but said aloud, "Well, I can just clear out more fields! That's no big deal, babe! There's lots of room out here!" He chuckled his warm, rich chuckle. "Don't worry, Chichi. We won't starve."

He kept his grin as he moved in so close we were nose-to-nose. When he looked at me like that, he always managed to pull a smile out of me. That time was no different.

He pecked me on my forehead and winked. "That's more like it! I'll get this done in no time, honey! But first…" He stepped to my side and bent, preparing to pick me up. "Can I take you home?"

I raised an obstinate eyebrow and crossed my arms as I stepped out of his reach. "You most certainly cannot. I am perfectly capable of helping you measure out new fields, Goku."

He aimed a slight frown at me – the ridiculously overprotective man that he was – but he finally gave in with a sigh and a childish pout. "Well, alright."

He walked a wide circle around a freshly harvested field and I followed. He stopped, looking out over a rather rocky patch of uncultivated dirt adjacent to the field and gestured over it. "I can clear this out no problem, Chichi. This would give plenty of room."

I nodded. "That looks promising."

He got to work, using his bare hands to pulverize some boulders and toss others well away with impressive efficiency. What would have taken a human several hours to accomplish was finished in only a few minutes thanks to Goku's immense strength.

"That's a good start, Goku, but I think we'll need a lot more than that."

He merely grinned and cleared out more space.

By the time the sun set on that chilly November evening, we had a lot more space ready to plow and seed the following spring and the yield would be higher than ever. However, our farmland wasn't the only thing that required an expansion.

After breakfast the next morning – and a quick exchange of texts between Bulma and myself – Goku, Gohan, Goten, and myself gathered in our living room. It was time for my first doctor's appointment.

I pulled on a light sweater. "Goten, I want you to be good to your brother while your father and I are gone, okay?"

He nodded. "Yes, Mommy."

"That's my good boy." I looked at Gohan. "We won't be gone long."

Gohan smiled. "We'll be fine, Mom."

"Of course you will. Make sure you both get your homework done!"

They nodded as Goku touched two fingers to his forehead and extended his hand toward me. "Ready, Chichi?"

I grabbed my purse and put my other hand in Goku's. "Yes."

I blinked and Bulma stood before us in an uninhabited alley just outside the Capsule Corp compound.

She smiled. "Hey, you two!"

I smiled back. "Hi, Bulma. Thank you!"

She waved dismissively as she said, "No sweat!"

Goku scratched his head. "So… which way do we go?"

The three of us emerged out onto a busy sidewalk and Bulma pointed up the street. "Where you're going is just about two blocks that way. Good luck!" With that, she waved and left Goku and me to our own devices.

Tall and identical to almost everything else in West City, the building consisted of nothing but medical offices – as did nearly every other building on that block.

However, I knew right where I was going since running an errand there earlier that week with the help of Nimbus to drop off my registration paperwork. Goku knew nothing about my short jaunt. I was gone and back before he had any idea I left.

Just to be sure, I checked the address on the small piece of paper in my hand and glanced up at Goku. "This is the place."

Goku was a little bit pale. "Do I have to go in there?"

"Oh, good grief."

I grabbed his arm and pulled him inside – which he wisely did not resist – and then told him to sit down while I checked in.

After only a few minutes, a nurse in purple scrubs called me back and once again, I pulled Goku along with me – ignoring his imploring look.

We walked a short while down a hallway of numbered exam rooms and then the nurse opened a door and motioned for us to enter. "Right in here, please. The doctor will be with you shortly."

Goku swallowed audibly the moment the door snapped closed behind us and I shook my head.

The room was lovely and smelled of roses – the scent permeating from a vase of red roses on a small side table with a chair next to it. Rich, dark brown hardwood flooring was complimented by a soothing tone of pale green on the walls. A flat-screen tv was mounted to the wall directly across from the padded exam table – a structure of cabinets and drawers directly beneath that.

I sat down on the exam table while Goku lingered by the door and eyed the room warily.

I blew out a long-suffering sigh. "Goku, if anyone is going to get poked by needles today, it'll be me. Not you."

That my remark was perhaps the wrong thing to say was evidenced by the look of sheer horror that flashed across his face and how fast he was at my side. He frowned around the room, ready to do battle.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head but I had to admit, it was sweet of him to guard me against something he was terrified of – albeit irrational. I couldn't quite wrap my head around why a warrior like Goku would be so terrified of a mostly harmless inanimate object.

"Oh, honestly!" I pointed at the only chair in the room. "Go. Sit. Down!"

After dawdling and aiming a pleading look at me, he finally acquiesced – but remained tense where he sat.

It was a very good thing I opted to not ask Goku to take me when I had to drop off that paperwork with the doctor's office earlier in the week. In addition to my medical history, they also wanted a simple blood test, which – of course – involved a needle. No big deal.

I hoped to high heaven there would be no needles involved during my first appointment – for all our sakes. I didn't want to think about what his reaction would have been if there were one involved.

There was a soft knock on the door and I sang, "Come in!"

A female doctor walked in, clipboard in hand and a pleasant smile on her face – and no needles in sight. "Good morning! I'm Doctor Hazel Ishi," she greeted, extending her free hand toward me.

I grasped it briefly. "I'm Chichi."

She turned her pleasant smile on Goku. "You must be Mr. Son?"

He nodded as they shook hands, too. "Yep! Goku's fine."

"Great to meet you both!" She returned her attention to me. "How are you feeling? Are you experiencing morning sickness?"

I twitched my shoulders. "A little bit. It hasn't been real bad, yet." I smiled. "I'm feeling quite well otherwise."

"Good." Doctor Ishi glanced at the clipboard in her hand. "Now, says on your chart you have two boys."

I nodded proudly. "Yes, we do. Our oldest is Gohan and our youngest is Goten."

She asked me a few more questions verifying the information on the medical chart and then asked me to lie back and expose my stomach. I did as she requested while she withdrew a device with a coiled cord attached to it.

"What's that?" asked Goku as he nodded stiffly at the device in the doctor's hand.

She held it up with an air of presenting a strange new object to a skittish animal. "This, Goku, is for us to hear the baby's heart beat. It's called a fetal Doppler."

Goku worked the word around in his mouth a couple of times and then something clicked and his eyes his lit up. "We're really going to hear their heartbeats? Cool!"

Doctor Ishi smiled at first. "That's right!" And then her expression fell into a skeptical frown at Goku. "But you just said 'their'. Do you think there's more than one?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I sensed–"

I cut Goku off with, "It's… sort of a gut feeling we have."

She raised an eyebrow, her gaze darting between the two of us. "I see." She shrugged. "Well, we are about to find out."

She turned around and pulled a tube of gel out of a drawer. "So… where are you from again? Your chart mentioned an area pretty far from here."

I bit my lip.

Before I could decide what and how much to tell her, Goku blurted, "Mt. Paozu. East District."

The doctor nodded absently and then she nearly dropped the tube in her hand. "W-what!? But… that's… that's hours away! By flight!"

Goku shook his head and opened his mouth to say something but I shot him a look that – in no uncertain terms – told him to zip it and his mouth snapped shut. Knowing my husband, whatever he was about to blab was not about the kind of flight Doctor Ishi was thinking of.

Doctor Ishi frowned in thought before eventually giving another little twitch of her shoulders. "Well, onto business, shall we?"

With that, she squirted some jelly onto my stomach – causing me to jump at just how cold it was.

Doctor Ishi lightly pressed the probe down low on my abdomen. First, there was only white noise coming out of the device – kind of like the sounds one heard when under water. The doctor moved the probe around.

The rhythmic but somewhat faint ba-dump-ba-dump-ba-dump of a heartbeat was unmistakable and Goku jumped out of his chair.

Anticipating Goku's question, Doctor Ishi shook her head. "What you're hearing here is Chichi's heartbeat. Give me just a moment and the baby's should come through…"

She changed the angle of the probe just a little bit and then…

Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap

"And there we go!"

Goku scrambled to my side, wide-eyed. "But that's so fast!"

Doctor Ishi and I giggled. "That's perfectly normal, Goku. The baby sounds great. Now, let's see if we can find a second heartbeat like you suspect," she said as she slid the probe about two inches from where she started.

A second heartbeat equally as fast as the first came through loud and clear.

She smiled. "Well, I'll be. And here's heartbeat number two!" She moved the probe back to the other one to listen a few more seconds and then withdrew it.

Goku grinned at me, his eyes sparkling with wonder. "There's no way that's the same one. They were in two different spots."

Doctor Ishi glanced at him and nodded. "You are quite correct. Let's take a look, then, shall we?"

He raised an eyebrow at her, his head slightly tilted. "Wait… a look? But how will we…?"

I giggled and pointed at the machine with a screen next to my bed. "It's an ultrasound, Goku."

Doctor Ishi clicked off the lights and placed the probe on my stomach. "Now, if you would direct your attention to that tv mounted on the wall there, they will be visible in a few moments."

And then there they were, wriggling away. Our babies!

Goku glanced down at me with wide, shining eyes and I smiled up at him.

I looked at the tv again as an arrow drew a circle around a black mass with the little wriggling shapes within. "Here's Chichi's uterus. And here are two very active little babies. See the flickering in them?"

Goku and I nodded, not taking our eyes off the screen.

"That's their heartbeats."

The view on the screen changed as one of the embryos was magnified, and then all movement stopped – as if a movie was paused.

Goku looked anxiously at Doctor Ishi. "Everything okay?"

She smiled and nodded, her attention on the small computer screen in front of her. "Just fine! I need to take some measurements of them both in order to calculate Chichi's due date and that's a bit difficult to do with them being so active." The cursor drew circles as she labeled different parts. "Here's the head. The little buds here are the beginnings of arms and legs."

I reached for Goku's hand. He wrapped his fingers around mine as Doctor Ishi pressed a series of buttons.

"This one is right at eight weeks and looking real good! Onto the next one."

Goku smiled at me and gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

The image on the tv zoomed out to show both again and then she magnified the other.

After several long moments of silence as she took measurements with a series of button presses, she finally said, "This one looks great, too. And right at eight weeks as well!"

Goku and I exchanged smiles. "That's great!" His head tilted to the side in a look of cute curiosity as he looked at Doctor Ishi. "But how are there two?"

"Twins, Goku," she began, "can happen one of two ways: in some rare cases, two separate eggs are fertilized and then implant together and are called fraternal twins. In other rarer still cases, one fertilized egg splits into two babies and are called identical twins. Your twins, Chichi–" she nodded at me "–are identical."

Goku listened with a slight frown on his handsome face. "So… one became two? I didn't know that was possible."

"It is." Doctor Ishi pressed a button and the picture zoomed out. "Now, because there are two babies here sharing nutrients, we'll need to keep an extra close eye on their growth throughout your pregnancy, Chichi."

Biting my lip, I looked up at the tv screen just in time for the screen to go black.

Goku rubbed my shoulder.

Doctor Ishi chuckled. "Now, don't worry too much. They both look just fine. Also, expect more severe pregnancy symptoms due to increased hormone levels. That's perfectly normal when expecting twins. Any questions?"

Goku and I glanced at each other and shook our heads. We both had a lot to absorb.

She handed a few small photos to me. "Okay. Please make an appointment with the receptionist set for a month from now. We'll do an ultrasound every month to check on them."

Goku gestured toward the tv, an excited smile on his handsome face. "You mean… we can see them like this again?"

Doctor Ishi nodded and smiled. "Yes! You'll be seeing them just like this every appointment!" She got up from her seat. "I'll see you both in a month."

With that, the doctor left the room.

I mirrored Goku's excited smile as I extended the pictures to him. "Oh, I can't wait to show the boys!"

[krillin-fanfic]

Release

‘sup, y’all? So I figured I’d upload another older one shot of mine for your reading pleasure. This one came about when I was flipping through the ol’ FF archives and noticed a disturbing trend in which Yamcha was often depicted as abusive, thoughtless, a cheater, and so on, despite no real evidence suggesting that’s what came between the two, especially given Bulma’s worldview of seeing another girl flirting with HIM as his fault. And truth be told, based on both of their behaviors in the past, it’s simply far more likely that not only was neither a saint, but the ‘betrayal’ (such as it may or may not be) was on Bulma’s end, especially given Yamcha’s still-sore behavior when they met up to face the Androids. And from that idea, this was born. Please keep in mind I tried to do this in a way that avoids any direct bashing or assignment of blame, this is just Yamcha’s POV and perspective on things. Hope you enjoy.

The Great Desert. A place of savage heat, harsh terrain, where the unforgiving sun beats down upon the residents without mercy. A place where hardly the hardiest of cacti can even survive. The perfect place for training.

It was here that a lone warrior stood, face to the wind, allowing the sand and pebbles to whip freely across his face, welcoming the feeling of resistance as he waited for the dust to settle.

'Why?' He thought to himself. 'Why did it have to happen like this?'

When the dust finally settled, he opened his eyes to take in his surroundings. Great sand dunes were scattered about the horizon in such a way as to appear to be waves on an ocean of sand. These would be his targets. These would be his focus.

These would be his release.

The warrior set his focus on a particularly large dune and closed his eyes. His senses were heightened, he could sense the individual grains of sand in the dune, could hear the various notes carried by the wind, he could feel everything around him. Drawing back his arm, almost in preparation to strike, he began to concentrate, too feel his energy focusing on that one spot in the center of his palm and slowly began to trot forward, hearing the echoes of recent events flow through his mind.

"What are you doing here?"

He began to pick up speed, still focusing all his energy into his palm, beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead.

"I can explain, please…"

He began rushing now at a furious pace, sweat running down his forehead, a low growl taking form in his throat.

"This doesn't mean anything. I'd been drinking, and… this is just an accident, really… I didn't mean to hurt you like this…"

The growl intensified as sweat rand down his face in rivers, his pace intensifying to an all-out charge across the desert sands, the air around his palm swirling with a heat all its own, as the forlorn face of his former love appeared in his mind's eye.

"Yamcha… I'm sorry…"  Her voice faded with her image, and a new yet familiar face appeared. The face of a smirking Vegeta.

Unable to restrain himself any loner, Yamcha's eyes flew open, and his growl erupted into a roar as he thrust his arm forward, forcing the energy gathered in his palm forward in the form of a blast of air, exploding as it collided with the sand dune…

Still fifteen feet away.

Yamcha slammed his eyes shut as the inevitable mini-sandstorm blew past him, whipping his already wild hair into a frenzy, his skin pelted by the small pebbles that had been within. He opened his eyes to see a sizable piece of the dune missing, but little more damage, far from his desired result.

'Too soon. I fired it off too soon… again.' He sank to the desert floor and hung his head. 'What's wrong with me? Why can't I keep my focus? That was… months ago…' He sighed.

"Why did this happen to me?" Yamcha demanded, pounding his fist on the table.

Master Roshi simply stroked his beard in silence.

"I just don't get it! I mean, I know we'd been fighting, but I go back there and… and… " Yamcha struggled to fight back his tears. "And now she's pregnant… and by HIM?" Yamcha's fist tightened at the very thought. "I knew I couldn't trust that filth around her."

Roshi peeked out over his sunglasses. "So… Vegeta, huh?" Yamcha managed a weak nod. "Good Lord, if that child's anything like him, we're doomed."

Yamcha squinted at the old master. "Forgive me if I fail to find any humor in all of this."

Roshi sighed. "I only WISH I were joking. But that's besides the point, boy." Roshi picked up one of his magazines and leafed through it lazily. "So do you happen to feel like sharing HOW this happened, or am I going to have to make it all up in my head? Because I'm perfectly comfortable with that, you know…"

Yamcha groaned. "Drunk. She said she'd been drinking, of all things, and Vegeta had some too…"

Roshi dropped his magazine onto the living room floor. "Cripes, she's getting a planet-destroying space pirate with a temper drunk. I'm convinced the woman is trying to kill us."

Yamcha slammed the table again. "This is NOT A JOKE, old man! She cheated on me! And of all the… I've gotten wasted before, and you never found ME knocking up some other chick, now did you?"

Roshi adjusted his glasses. "No, you haven't. But not for lack of trying, I can tell you that much." He looked back at Yamcha's shocked expression. "Boy, if only you knew some of the things Pu'ar and the other boys have told me about some of the exploits they've saved you from. Heck, one time you hit on Launch. The blonde version. That's downright certifiable, lad!"

Yamcha swallowed hard. "Uh... I don't really remember that, but…" his face hardened. "But that still doesn't make up for what she did."

" Ah, but that did happen, didn't it? I'm not making excuses, Yamcha. I'm not going to say what she did was right by you. I'm just saying she wasn't in her right mind when she did it either." He frowned. "And according to you, neither was Vegeta." Yamcha shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "I know you're no fan of his, but I think you know Vegeta's not quite petty enough to do this intentionally."

Yamcha sighed. "But it… I… "A tear made its way down his cheek ad he wiped it away furiously. "I need to be by myself right now. Need to get back to my training, sort this out." He rose to his feet and stomped out of the room.

"Yamcha!" Roshi's voice carried after him. "I don't know if I approve of this. You could hurt yourself if you can't focus properly."

"I'm sorry, Master", he said, not bothering to look back. "I just can't sit here and dwell on this. I'm more worried about what might happen if I don't do this."

And that had been that. Yamcha had made a beeline straight for the barren desert lands and thrown himself into his training. Day and night, he worked, sleeping in what few caves offered shelter from the elements as he came to them. Day and Night he forced himself to focus, to work his body and mind to the fullest extent possible… and yet his mind kept wandering back to that… event. He couldn't seem to forget it, it constantly pushed itself to the forefront of his mind, so strong that he could hear her voice, see their faces… and no matter how hard he tried to avoid it, the sight of Vegeta would set him off almost instantly.

Yamcha absentmindedly picked up a handful of sand and watched as it idly slipped through his fingers back onto the desert floor below. A light came on in his mind's eye, and the words of a wise old man came floating back to him.

"Learn to master your mind, son. Only then can you truly master yourself."

Yamcha stood and dusted off the seat of his pants. 'This time', he thought to himself, 'I won't miss.' He raised a hand and began his focus, slowly drawing back his hand. He set his eyes on an even larger dune and once again began his charge over the hot sand. The energy gathered more swiftly this time, his charge more fluid as he seemed to glide rather than run toward his target…

Then came the visions again.

"What are you doing here?"

He stumbled a bit as sweat again began to run down his forehead.

"I can explain, please…"

The flow of the energy became more irregular, less smooth, as if it were boiling forth.

"This doesn't mean anything. I'd been drinking, and… this is just an accident, really… I didn't mean to hurt you like this…"

Yamcha tried to suppress the voices, his focus entirely on his target. He could not fail this time; too much was hanging in the balance for him to let all his training go to waste.

"Yamcha… I'm sorry…"

His steps once again became smooth, his path straight as an arrow. The energy no longer boiled forth from him, but flowed like a gentle stream once again. This was it, no turning back now…

Then he saw it again; the smirking face of the Saiyan Prince, that mocking stare focused on him and his misfortune. It was so tempting to fire; he wanted to hurt him, cause him pain like he'd been caused. Wanted to make him suffer…

Instead, he merely looked beyond it, his eyes fixed on his prize as he drove his hand forward again, rewarded by the feeling of soft sand against the tips of his fingers as he unleashed the power he had gathered there. The inside of the sand dune glowed for a brief moment before it exploded, nearly two tons of sand whipping about through the air, creating a virtual wall as it expanded outward into the desert beyond.

Shortly after the dust had settled, Yamcha straightened his stance, large piles of sand falling from his head and shoulders into the bottom of the crater where the dune once stood. In fact, where several dunes once stood, he noted with pleasant surprise. A frown soon made its way across his features, however.

'Not enough," he said to himself. "Not for the levels of training I've done". Yamcha inwardly cursed himself. All this time spent dwelling on the past had cost him, both in time to train and in progress. He was only at the level he'd been at two weeks earlier. And yet…

He couldn't help but smile. 'Not there yet' he thought to himself, 'but I'm getting there.'

'Soon enough… I'll get there.'

[ultiman73]

The Saiyan and the Avenger, Chapter 3: Confession

Clouds hung low in the still, grim sky, blanketing the world above in a mantle of grey and stealing the sun before it reached the ground. No wind blew across the land. No wildlife made a sound. Bright flashes reflected off the surrounding landscape, booms and crashes tearing at the unmoving air. Goku turned away from the angry waves of dust and dirt that barreled toward him, shielding the food with his body as best he could. Shifting his grip, he continued up the hill. Reaching the top, he scanned his surroundings.

                Before him lay a vast field of soft earth. Once, it had probably been a beautiful stretch of land perfect for picnics and lazy afternoons, but now almost no grass remained. Hundreds of craters pick pocketed the field, many of them smoking and filling with falling dust. Shattered rocks, splintered trees, and other debris littered the landscape.

                Across the land raged a small, bright-orange army. Dozens of Narutos blazed at each other, crashing and blasting and punching and screaming in an endless storm of fury. As Goku watched, a group of Narutos were struck down by one wielding a gigantic shuriken of wind, only for twice as many to take their place and destroy the attacker. Through the chaos, as he searched for the real Naruto, Goku noticed that they all bore red, raw eyes.

                “Hey, Naruto!” Goku called. Almost instantly, all the Narutos stopped and glared in his direction. “Are you hungry? I brought lunch!” He held up a pair of covered Saiyan-sized ramen bowls to prove it.

                The Narutos hesitated for a moment. Then they began dissipating. One by one, each shadow clone vanished in a cloud of smoke, until only the real Naruto remained in the distance, covered in dirt and grime, dried blood surrounding his mouth and numerous other small wounds on his body.

                “Hey, Goku.” Naruto jogged over. “Thanks.” Joylessly, Naruto accepted the bowl and sat down on the side of the hill. Goku joined him. Together they opened their bowls and began eating.

                For a long moment, they ate in silence. Then, Goku glanced over at Naruto. “Looks like your training’s going good.”

                “Thanks,” Naruto said quietly, avoiding his gaze. “I’ve been working almost non-stop for awhile now.” He hesitated. “How… how is everybody doing?”

                “Oh, they’re fine. Chi-Chi’s doing alright, Vegeta’s being grumpy and short, same as always, and Pan… wow, you should see how big she’s gotten. Pretty soon she’ll be able to lift me!”

                “Glad to hear it.” Naruto ground his knuckle into his eye as if trying to rub out a speck of dust, but his finger glistened as he lowered it.

                Goku studied him. “So what’s this all about? Everybody in the village says you’re upset about something. What’s going on?”

                Naruto stayed silent for a minute. Then: “I screwed up, Goku. Worse than I ever did before. And there isn’t a damn thing I can do to fix it.”

                Goku froze. “Naruto…”

                Naruto raised his head, his eyes focusing on a jagged piece of wood a few meters away. “I’m guessing Grandma Tsunade told you what’s been going on around here?”

                “Just that there’s a war going on now. Still can’t believe how lucky you guys are.” Naruto’s eyes tightened sharply. Goku winced inwardly and looked away. “Sorry.”

                “Yeah, there’s a war going on. Fourth Shinobi World War, if you can believe it. And we’re lucky enough to be in the middle of it. It’s been a little quiet around here, so Grandma Tsunade managed to get a lot of us sent back here. We’re supposed to be protecting this area, but really we’re just resting. At least for now.”

Naruto sucked in a breath. “It all started awhile back. Remember Sasuke, the guy I told you about?”

                “Yeah, Tsunade talked about him, too.”

                “Well, he never stopped causing trouble. He kept killing people, breaking all hell loose, you name it. But that’s where I screwed up the first time: I didn’t stop him while I could. I kept trying to bring him back and get him to turn good again, but it didn’t work. Pretty soon, he got so strong nobody could touch him. He wouldn’t even fight me anymore. He decided he was so far above me, fighting me would just be a waste of his time.

“Awhile after that, some crazy guy named Madara showed up and kept making noise and going on about how he wanted to make world peace. He turned out to be even worse than Sasuke. And since we didn’t stop him, he got Sasuke to work with him. Everything got so bad that all the kages met at the 5 Kage Summit, but they attacked that, too. Sasuke even set the Raikage’s whole body on fire with black flame that you can’t put out.”

“Is he okay?” Goku asked, slurping a noodle.

“Fortunately, he was able to run super fast and use the friction to burn off the top layer of his skin. He’s fine, but that’s where the good part ends. Madara declared war on the whole world, announcing that he was going to completely beat down everybody everywhere. And when there was nobody left to challenge him in the whole shinobi world, he was finally going to bring about world peace, whatever that means.

“Soon after that, the war started. The Pale Army exploded everywhere, backed up by the Deathless Legion, a small army of ninja that have been brought back from the dead under Madara’s control. When the Pale Army kills somebody from our side that they like, they steal the body and resurrect it as another one of their soldiers.”

“That’s awful!”

Naruto nodded, picking up a piece of chicken with his chopsticks. “I was supposed to be sent off someplace where they couldn’t get to me, but Kakashi-sensei got them to let me fight alongside everyone else.

“Anyway, Sasuke kept showing up on the battlefields and slaughtering our guys. Everybody said he had to die, but I wouldn’t listen. I swore over and over that he was my friend, and that I wouldn’t give up on him. Everyone told me I was wrong, and that they wouldn’t help me. Even though I said that Sasuke was our comrade, and we couldn’t abandon him, every one of them turned away from me. Everyone… except Hinata.”

Goku searched his memory. “Hinata… that’s Neji’s sister, right?”

“Cousin, yeah.” Naruto turned away, his bowl forgotten. “Hinata approached me when everybody else was gone. I still remember what she said to me on that day: ‘I’ll fight for you, Naruto. No matter what it takes, I’m going to stand by your side.’” Naruto’s voice caught. The next day we set out to find Sasuke.

“Weeks passed. I dragged us all over the Nations looking for him. Over mountains, through storms, across oceans of corpses… I didn’t care, as long as we could get to him. And through it all, Hinata never complained, not even once. And I never asked if she was tired, or miserable, or anything. Then, right when I was starting to lose hope, we found him.

“He was standing at the base of a pile of bodies he had made, watching it burn in that black fire I mentioned. Me and Hinata… we shouted at him that we were there to bring him back. But Sasuke just smirked at us. He looked at Hinata and said ‘Looks like your pet got tired of stalking you from the sidelines.’

“We tried to convince him to come peacefully, but no matter what we said, he wouldn’t listen. That’s when I got desperate. I tried to force him to come back with us. And that’s when all hell broke loose.

“We fought as hard as we could for longer than I can remember. I pulled out more Wind Rasenshuriken than I knew I could make, and I threw them all right in his face. Hinata… she gave it everything. In the middle of the fight, she did that flaming-lion-fist thing, the one that’s her most powerful attack. She blasted Sasuke with it for a full minute, punching him so hard her arms were a blur.

“But he didn’t even flinch. The whole time, he just stood there while she punched his chest over and over again, still wearing that damn smirk. Then when she was too tired to keep going, he just reached out and pushed her, and she went flying.

“I lost track of how long he kept screwing with us. But finally it happened.

“We were both finished, so exhausted we could barely stand. But Sasuke was still as strong as ever. The bastard moved in, still smirking. Hinata tried to raise her hand to hit him, but he just knocked it away. He moved behind her and grabbed her hair, forcing her head back. With his free hand he made a chidori. Hinata starting crying out to me, I can still see the tears streaming down her face. I begged Sasuke to stop, but he just looked at me and said ‘After all this time, you still don’t see how pathetic you are. You’ve failed everyone else. And now you’ve failed her.’ My eyes met Hinata’s. And as I watched, Sasuke tightened his grip, raised his hand, and…”

Naruto made a sobbing, choking noise, his body lurching uncontrollably. The ramen bowl on his lap fell to the ground and spilled. “I don’t know how long I sat there holding her body, begging her to come back. But no matter how much I…” Naruto wiped his eyes and tried to compose himself. “Somehow I made it home with her body across my shoulders. And when I got there…

“The way everyone looked at me… I don’t even know how to describe it. Neji was the worst. He glared at me like he wanted to skin me alive, but when I found him later, he was crying his eyes out where he thought no one would see him. And everyone else… it’s like I wasn’t even human anymore. And they all kept talking like I was missing something, but I didn’t know what it was. And it was only later that learned the truth.

Goku held his breath as he watched helplessly.

“She loved me, Goku,” Naruto finally managed. “That’s why she agreed to go with me. From the first day we met, she loved me. That’s why she was always following me. That’s why she always fainted when I was around. That’s why she was always so nice to me when no one else was. Why didn’t I see it before?” Not caring if Goku saw, Naruto buried his face in his hands.

Goku looked for a way to help. Hesitantly, he reached toward his friend, but stopped and awkwardly pulled his arm back, fighting the sense of helplessness that came with it.

Naruto reached into a pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Without turning, he held it over his shoulder, and Goku wordlessly accepted it. “Hinata’s sister found this in her room.” Goku opened the paper. Staring back at him was a remarkably well-drawn picture signed “Hinata Hyuuga” in the lower right corner. In the picture, Goku beheld what appeared to be older versions of Naruto and Hinata, smiling happily. With them were two small children. “Boruto. Himawari. She had already named our children. She was hoping that someday we’d get married and start a family and nothing would ever be wrong again…” Naruto’s body convulsed as another sobbing, choking sound escaped him. After a minute he mumbled something too low for Goku to hear.

“What?”

“I said Neji was right,” Naruto finally got out, trying in vain to stop. “I don’t know if you know, but Neji’s a big believer in fate. Years ago, during the Chunin exams, he told me how we were all doomed to an escapable fate from the moment we’re born. I thought he’d gotten over it, but it never went away. He believes he’s always going to be held back by his fate, and someday he’s going to die because of it, no matter how much of that do-not-go-gently stuff he does. And when I brought back Hinata’s body, he told me that he had always believed it would be her fate to die because of her devotion to me. And I could see it in his eyes: he wasn’t lying.

“It’s all my fault, Goku. The one person who ever really loved me is gone because of me.”

Goku sat in stunned silence, not fighting the pressure he felt building behind his eyes. Unsure of what else to do, he moved closer and wrapped his arms around Naruto in a bear hug. Naruto hugged back, continuing to cry into Goku’s shoulder without caring who might be watching.

“I wish I could do something,” Goku whispered. “If I could bring her back, I’d do it in a second.” He stopped himself from adding, But I already talked to Dende. Whatever this place is, it’s not part of my world. The dragons have no power here. “I’ve made my own mistakes in battle before, so I know what it’s like.” At least you never healed a powerful enemy and made your son fight him. “So I’m here for you, always. You’re my friend, Naruto, and no matter what happens, you’ll always be my friend.”

For a time, Naruto cried without restraint. Goku remained motionless as his friend released all of the sorrow he had been holding in. Eventually, Naruto got himself under control and disengaged from Goku. “I know Sasuke has to be stopped. I know that nothing is going to bring him back. But I can’t beat him. He’s too powerful, and there’s nothing I can do to stop him from hurting everyone else I care about. If only I’d taken him down when I had the chance…”

Goku listened in silence. Slowly, he pulled his arms away from Naruto. Sucking in a breath, he clapped his friend on the shoulders as his face twisted into a glare. “I’ll take care of him.”

Naruto blinked away some tears. “What?”

“Go get yourself cleaned up. I’m putting an end to Sasuke’s rampage. Today.”

“Really? You’d do that?”

Goku pressed his own uneaten bowl of ramen into Naruto’s hands. “I didn’t know Hinata very well, but I’m not going to let Sasuke get away with hurting her or anyone else.” Goku stood up. “So finish that ramen and go get some rest. It’s my turn.” Goku clenched his fists, savoring the cracking sound that came from his knuckles.

Naruto stared up at the Saiyan towering over him. “Goku, I…”

“Just one thing.” Goku placed two fingers on his forehead. “I need to borrow your forehead.”

“Huh?”

“You’ve been around Sasuke a lot, right? I need to search your mind for what his chakra feels like so I can find it.”

“Oh, okay.” Naruto let Goku place a hand on his forehead.

Goku searched for a moment. “Got it. Now go take care of yourself. It’s time I met Sasuke.” Without waiting for a reply, he adjusted his fingers, bowed his head, and vanished.

[fighttowinfanfic]

Fight to Win - Zod Vs Frieza

A battle of intergalactic conquerors--in a battle of power and hubris as these two possess, you either win or you die.

Some will wage war and destroy planets, killing millions and forcing all to bend knee. Conquerors of a galactic level.

Zod, the Phantom Zone’s breakout master of war

Frieza, he who destroyed Planet Vegeta

When everyday prisons can’t hold a particularly dangerous, otherworldly force, that won’t stop Superman from finding a way to lock up anyone trying to threaten mankind. To that end, he utilized the Phantom Zone; an interdimensional rift where the most gruesome and unruly of aliens remain, where they can’t hurt people.

However, the Phantom Zone has one very notable, repeated escapee; a Kryptonian with a history with Superman’s father, Jor-El, and an immense power matched only by his ego; Zod.

Name: Dru-Zod Age: Not documented Height: 6’3” (190 cm) Weight: 230 lbs. (104 kg) Homeland: Krypton Race: Kryptonian Alias: General Zod Former Kryptonian War General When Zod escaped from the Phantom Zone, he found Krypton was destroyed, and instead settled for conquering Superman’s new, adopted home, Earth. As soon as the Last Son of Krypton is fallen, Zod will spread his influence until the entire galaxy kneels before Zod. 

Like all Kryptonians beneath a Yellow Sun, Zod possesses a wide range of superhuman abilities. He’s capable of flight, super strength, speed, advanced hearing, freezing breath, heat vision, and accelerated healing. On his A-Game, Zod has been shown to trade blows and be more than a match for Superman in physical combat, able to knock him great distances with physical blows. He can easily pick up pieces of a broken Kryptonian spaceship to use as a melee weapon, and his heat vision can slice deadly robots to bits in mere moments.

Though what allows Zod to stand out among other Kryptonian combatants is his military experience. Zod was a general of war, and as such, has extensive knowledge of politics and battle strategy. He excels at zeroing in on a foe’s weakness and exploiting it, including many times where he has taken advantage of Superman’s humanity, or the collective fear of humanity. His training in hand to hand combat has allowed him to even best Brainiac in close quarters.

Zod is fast, able to clear the distance from Earth to the Moon in mere seconds (238, 900 miles). Speaking of which, we know that because Injustice sees him fly a foe to the moon, and punch them directly through it. The moon is 2,159 miles, and weighs well beyond 73.5 million million million metric tons. 

Zod was able to endure direct impact from Superman’s heat vision to his head, (which is impressive considering Superman’s heat vision can melt one’s brain at thin signatures), and can keep fighting after being shoved through building after structure in battle with his super strong fellow Kryptonian.

Zod also carries a Kryptionian rifle--one shot of which is capable of killing another Kryptonian. The ammunition can be loaded to travel both as a slow and quickly moving projectile for different situations.

It does stand to president, however, that Kryptonians grow stronger the longer they’re under the sun. Because Zod takes such frequent trips to the Phantom Zone, his power often resets, meaning over the years, he hasn’t compiled nearly as much overall strength as Superman. He’s also an egomaniac, and his tremendously forward nature has lead him into hot water more than once.

However, the Kryptonian General has several victories (read: war crimes) beneath his belt, and his immense decoration could not be farther from unearned.

The Dragon Balls--seven mystical artifacts that, when gathered, will summon the patron eternal dragon of the planet of their origin, who will, in turn, grant the gatherer one wish. Those adventurous enough to seek them out wager life and limb for a chance at having their greatest wish come true.

Some desire wealth, others strength, or even the revival of a lost loved one. However, one evil mastermind sought to make a wish for eternal life, so his reign over the galaxy would be ubiquitous with time itself, and his name was Frieza.

Name: Frieza Age: 70< Height: 4’11” (150 cm) Weight: Not documented Race: Frost Demon Homeland: Unknown Alias: Lord Frieza, Mecha-Frieza Intergalactic Conqueror Relentless and entitled, Frieza won’t rest until every planet is beneath his thumb. Gathering soldiers from every planet he invades and destroys, Frieza seeks the Dragon Balls in order to wish for eternal life, so he may destroy and plunder for all time--putting him at odds with Goku and the Z-Fighters.

While Frieza leaves most of this process to his ever loyal soldiers, he’s no pushover by any means. He can hit someone with his tail hard enough to crash them into the earth, breaking the surface. He’s fast enough to keep pace with, in movement and striking, with the super fast likes of Goku and Vegeta to boot. Frieza also has powerful telekinesis, which can command with enough force to push an ill fated foe forcefully through the vacuum of space.

Like most Dragon Ball characters, Frieza can harness his ki energy into a personal and preferred method of projectile attack. Frieza’s manifests as bright purple, which he often fires as a razor thin beam out of the tip of his finger he aptly calls the Death Beam. This technique can pierce through any matter of armor and flesh, cutting through with great precision--enough so to kill Vegeta with a single shot to his heart.

Frieza has also been known to shape his ki into other attacks, such as the spherical Death Comet, which has a wider range but less precision that the Death Beam. The Death Wave is a blade shaped attack that can create a noticeable fissure in the earth of Planet Namek, and the Death Saucer is a disc of energy so deadly, not even Frieza himself is safe from the razor’s edge. Frieza’s ultimate technique, however, is the Death Ball. If allowed to charge up a sphere of ki energy the size of a small moon, the Death Ball is capable of destroying entire planets.

Speaking of planetary destruction, Frieza has SURVIVED IT. After his reckless fighting lead him to be disemboweled by his own Death Saucer, Frieza endured the detonation of Planet Namek--point blank from the planet’s core. If Namek’s core is comparable to earth’s, Frieza survived the explosion of a 10,800 degree surface.

Most recently, Frieza discovered his strongest form; Golden Frieza, which outclasses Goku and Vegeta’s Super Saiyan Blue forms. According to Old Kai, the mere colliding of Golden Frieza’s fist with Goku’s could destroy an entire 7th Universe (about the size of the one we live in).

Sadly, Frieza is impatient and temperamental. He can’t always carry on fighting and manage his own stamina, his debut as Golden Frieza cut short simply because he passed out from over exertion. While meticulous and shrewd, Frieza can’t be bothered past the bare minimum, and has put exactly this degree of effort into his training and attacks.

However, Frieza’s brutality and power are more than enough to carry him through most situations he finds himself in. He’s stubborn, adamant not to die, and has his eye on every marble in the galaxy.

The galaxy just ain’t big enough for the two of ‘em. Let’s settle who rules the stars and who clears out.

Location: Planet Namek

DJ Funky Freeman’s Music Choice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVEGMax42dw

Frieza’s saucer shaped choice of intergalactic teleportation made a loud hiss as its air jets blew the planet Namek’s fauna and grass about. As the ship’s door opened, out deployed several rifle toting soldiers, clad in the trademark armor all of Lord Frieza’s elite guards wore. Once all of the soldiers were on the ground, Frieza followed, his arms crossed, an impatient look in his eye. “Well? Is it here?” Frieza quickly demanded. “I’ll be quite disappointed if the radar was wrong.” The sentiment of Frieza’s displeasure was enough to send his soldiers in a hurried tizzy--before one spoke up. “H-here, Lord Frieza!” One of his soldiers exclaimed, lifting the orange Dragon Ball high into the air, the orange stone reflecting sunlight. “Excellent…” Frieza rubbed his chin with consideration, envisioning the wish he will make once all seven of the treasures are gathered. Behind him, one of Frieza’s soldiers reached for his scouter device over his eye. “My scouter...it’s picking up some power level off the charts!” Were the soldier’s last words before his body was crushed by the sudden impact of a second space ship--this one much smaller and more akin to what Frieza thought of as an escape pod. Frieza looked over to the new arrival, watching as the pod opened to reveal a humanoid looking fellow, his face lined by the beginnings of a brown beard. “A new planet…” The stranger said as he emerged from his pod. “A new population, to kneel before ZOD!” Frieza stepped toward the Kryptonian, his arms still crossed. “Kneel before you? My, how presumptuous…” The galactic overlord’s tone shifted as he neared Zod, enough to prompt the remaining crowd of soldiers to back away from both of them. “There’s always one.” Zod approached Frieza himself. “One I must make an example of.” FIGHT Frieza and Zod’s respective, steady strolls became mad dashes at one another, met at the middle, their hands tightly gripping one another. Both alien overlords pushed at one another, Frieza’s purple aura shoving against the sheer heat cone produced around Zod. Zod pulled upward with both arms, throwing Frieza up into the air, before flying straight up, crashing his head directly into Frieza on his way up, sending Frieza up further upon impact. Frieza shook the blow off, before looking up to see Zod, still flying upward, before stopping mid air. “It’s useless to resist!” Zod chuckled, as his eyes glowed bright red, blasts of heat vision shooting down toward Frieza. Frieza was quick to fly out of the attack’s path. “How rude!” Frieza extended a single finger, sending a barrage of his razor thin Death Beam attacks speeding upward at Zod. Zod looped around the energy blasts, careening down into Frieza, his shoulder out. He crashed into Frieza, who guard with his own arm. The two ascended into the air, pushing against one another and making direct and point blank eye contact. Zod smirked as he released another flare of his heat vision, shooting directly into Frieza’s eyes. The alien conqueror groaned in pain as he was blown back by the attack. “Checkmate!” Zod lifted both of his arms, before reaching to grab his opponent. Before he could grasp the alien’s body, Zod found that his foe had disappeared from sight. Zod choked in confusion before he could notice Frieza reappear behind him. “What a pity.” Frieza rotated quickly in the air, whipping his tail around and slamming it into Zod with incredible force. The Kryptonian general was flung downward, sent crashing into the Namekian earth. Frieza chuckled as he lowered himself from the air, his feet planted firmly on the ground, he stepped toward Zod, who was picking himself up out of the rubble. “I didn’t expect you to survive…” Frieza admitted. Zod, retaining his composure with a quick blow to his own face, reached below his feet. The Kryptonian began picking up a particularly large chunk of earth out of the dirt where he had landed. By the time his makeshift projectile was above his head, the shadow cast by it loomed over Frieza. “It’ll take more than that to make Zod kneel!” Zod exclaimed before throwing the cluster of earth in Frieza’s direction. “Child’s play.” Frieza commented as his bright pink ki energy shined on his finger tip. He released a second barrage of Death Beams that, bit by bit, reduced the stone to rubble out of the air. “This is growing tiresome…” For the first time over the course of the battle, the ki Frieza conjured surrounded his entire hand. He let the Death Wave barrel at Zod, crashing through the earth as it coasted. Zod reached around his back, unlatching his Kryptonian Rifle. He took a moment to aim as the barrel of his weapon extended. Zod, with great care, pulled the trigger, sending out bolts of plasma that intercepted Frieza’s attack, causing it to detonate prematurely. “I hate an uncooperative plaything!” Frieza next generated his Death Saucers, one spinning above each hand. “DIE!” Frieza sent both discs flying at Zod, who took a deep breath in response. Zod inhaled, and then exhaled, releasing a gust of super breath--traveling with all the force of a hurricane. The Death Saucers were stopped in their tracks and sent back at Frieza. Frieza’s eyes widened. While he was able to step out of the way of the first disc, the second made contact with his arm, slicing into his upper arm, causing his purple blood to spurt out. Frieza growled in pain, reaching for his wound. “I gave you a chance to kneel!” Zod flew toward Frieza, who was paused by his pain, gripping his neck once he was close enough. Zod lifted off into the air, taking Frieza with him and choking him before swinging him around. Frieza couldn’t let an anguished yell to escape his throat as Zod, several feet in the air, turned his foe upside down. Zod forced Frieza back downward, smashing the conqueror into the ground. The general then fell to his knees, looking down at his grounded opponent. “There is but one fate for those who refuse to kneel!” Zod raised his fist, slamming it into Frieza’s head, before raising the opposite and repeating the process, forcing Frieza further into the dirt with each punch. After six punches, Frieza was no longer struggling. Zod drifted up into the air, above Frieza, before his eyes emitted a massive blaze of heat vision. The lasers struck Frieza where he was planted, creating an immense explosion below Zod. Dirt and soil kicked upward among the fire, engulfing Frieza. “Not even worth bragging about.” Zod scoffed. Zod, still hovering, turned around. His hands folded behind his back, Zod was prepared to move elsewhere, before he noticed Namek shake violently. The clear waters rippled and serene grasslands quaked as the crater created by Zod’s assault on Frieza erupted, a golden light cutting through. Frieza rose from the where he was beaten down, his pale flesh now a glimmering gold. (music shift: www.youtube.com/watch?v=khk5V6L8Vos )) “Not many have pushed me to this limit.” Frieza stated, his eyes locking to Zod’s. “Consider this an honor.” Zod released a straight blast of heat vision at his foe, who quickly teleported out of the attack’s path. Frieza reappeared behind Zod, quickly jamming his knee into the Kryptonian’s back. Frieza was quick to disappear again, reappearing in front of Zod and punching him in his face, breaking his nose. Frieza left sight and reentered several times, each time at a different angle around from which he could strike, creating a new dent in Zod’s armor each time. “That’s...ENOUGH!” Zod attempted to swing his arm full circle to strike Frieza, but he wasn’t quick enough to track the tyrant, who had reappeared directly in front of his face, albeit facing the opposite direction. Without turning around to face Zod, Frieza raised a single arm, slamming Zod with the back of his hand. Still looking into the distance, Frieza lifted his tail above Zod’s head and brought it down, sending Zod hurdling into the waters of Namek. The waters settled after the impact of his body. Frieza eyed the waters, waiting for Zod to reappear. He was instead treated to the sight of the entire body of water boiling, turning bright red, the source of radiation seeming to be where Zod had landed. Out of the red, hot waters shot an array of heat rays, shooting with enough force to knock Frieza out of the air. Frieza found himself in a nosedive for the ground below. Zod emerged from the water, trudging toward the grounded Frieza, his eyes still glowing red. “I am a champion of war!” Zod barked. “And I will direct every year of experience I have in the art unto YOU!” Frieza rose back to his feet, throwing back both of his arms, causing his golden aura to flare. Zod ran at Frieza, surprising the alien quickly enough to grab ahold of his tail. Zod pulled Frieza high above his head by his tail, and slammed him into the ground, to his left, and then his right, leaving imprints on Namek with every swing. “Fatal mistake…” Frieza flexed his tail, seizing control by wrapping it around Zod, tightly constricting his chest with it. With the Kryptonian tied down, Frieza returned to his feet, taking the time to strike his opponent while he couldn’t move. After creating two more bruises on Zod’s face with his bare hands, Frieza loosened his tail’s grip on the General, turning around and exposing his opponent to a beacon of ki energy shooting from his hands. Zod was sent flying backwards by the attack, his crashing body creating further chunks of debris around both combatants. Zod got back up once more, trying to shake off the blow, now bleeding out the assault. Frieza lifted both of his arms, concentrating his ki. “I’ll create a proper tomb for you!” Frieza lifted two of the largest rocks in sight, left over by the impacts of their battle, with his telekinesis. With a quick swing of his arm, Frieza forced both rocks into Zod from the left and right. The Kryptonian extended both of his arms, catching both rocks with his hands, pushing back against Frieza’s attack. Frieza’s energy allowed him to push back just as hard, and with mere motions of his hands, he was able to force the rocks against Zod. Before long, Zod could not push back any longer, and found himself smashed between the two stones. “And THIS is your cremation!” Frieza lifted off into the air, pointing a single finger high above himself. On the tip of his finger, a cluster of dark red and purple energy trickled and formed. It expanded as Frieza drew more and more power into the attack. Before long, the Death Ball, a sphere of energy about the size of the moon, was complete. Frieza, smiling wickedly, threw the Death Ball down onto Namek, where Zod was encased. The crashing ball created an immense explosion, blasting Namek’s earth into a dried crust as the bloody red energy created an immense tremor, sending rocks and rubble rolling about the field of battle. When the blazes cleared, there was only ash and molten stone and veins remaining. Frieza drifted down back to the ground, his golden aura slowly dissipating. When he landed, his skin returned to its prior state, as he fell to one knee with a deep sigh. “That form...it still leaves me drained.” Frieza recollected himself, his tail waving back and forth as he reclaimed the feeling in the places Zod struck him. “Lord Frieza! We found you!” Frieza was a bit surprised--he hadn’t realized how far Zod had moved him from where they began. His soldiers had finally tracked him down. “We followed your energy readings--you look like you need help!” Two of Frieza’s soldiers began to help him up. “We’ll prepare you a medical machine…” Frieza heard a slight crumbling noise. He pushed the two soldiers off of himself, standing up tall again. From within the mounds of dirt, Zod burst out, a wicked look in his eye. Bloodied and beyond fatigued, Zod breathed heavily, before lunging at one of Frieza’s men. Pressing his chest to the soldier’s back and tightly grabbing him from behind, Zod reloaded his Kryptonian rifle, pressing the barrel to the soldier’s head. The rest of the squadron gasped, while Frieza looked on at the scene. “Make one move...and your bodyguard dies!” Zod explained between labored breaths. Everyone on the scene tensed up from anxiety. Frieza’s eyes did not fall from Zod. His expression unchanging, Frieza lifted a single finger, and shot out one last Death Beam. The thread thin stream of ki extended from his finger into the heart of his apprehended soldier, and then directly into Zod’s behind him. A splash of blood escaped Zod’s mouth, as he and the the once terrified soldier he so tightly gripped fell over, dead.

KO The rest of the soldiers gaped at the sight their lord had created. Frieza turned to his men. “Well, don’t just stand there.” He insisted. “You have two bodies to dispose of, don’t you?”

((Victory circle music: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH2qYnUfjIc )) Zod was an imposing threat with his military training and physical prowess, but not enough so to keep pace with Frieza’s wide range of Ki energy attacks and absurd tenacity. While Zod could likely outfox Frieza in a close up brawl, Frieza had a counter for just about everything. Punching a hole straight through the moon is extremely impressive, but Frieza’s Death Ball, not even in his strongest form, can destroy an entire planet. And as proven by his survival of Namek’s destruction, Frieza can endure just as much as he can dish out. Zod was faster than Frieza, but Frieza’s Afterimage teleportation rendered this moot, and just as well, allowed Frieza to distance himself from Zod any time he needed, leaving the Kryptonian little chance to overpower him physically, and himself plenty of time to overwhelm him with longer range techniques. Theoretically, any Kryptonian can grow infinitely strong underneath a yellow sun, but we’ve never seen Zod reach a level the likes of Superman has, due to his repeated Phantom Zone sentences, which, effectively, render his power back to zero. Frieza, on the other hand, can reach the highest potential of his species in his Golden form. Even if Old Kai’s statement on Frieza’s power (able to break a universe) is hyperbole, the divide in raw power is very clear. But most importantly, Zod has a history of victory through manipulation. Rather than out muscle even the likes of Superman, Zod has been known to take advantage of his surroundings and exploit the moralities of the heroes he faces--such as hold a child hostage or threatening to kill an innocent. This is Zod’s most common method of escape or pushing Superman to his limit. Luckily for Frieza, the wicked emperor is cold as ice and nearly impossible to coax into any kind of submission. The winner...is Frieza

Next time on Fight to Win...

The God of the Dead, Hades, is taking time out of his busy sorting of damned souls to join the battle! Against who, you ask? Stick to this blog to find out!

[vulcanlsj]

Rightful Heir Chapter 3 (Alternate Timeline DBZ Fanfic)

Vulcan was awoken by a very loud knocking and yelling. He looked at the door puzzled. He reached for his scouter and put it on. He pushed a few buttons and looked at the time. '8:19 in the morning, which means I was asleep when Lenora showed up', Vulcan thought as he got up.

"Vulcan, Kami damn it, wake the fuck up!" The loud voice boomed into the room, along with the pounding at the door, "It's time to fight Vegeta!"

Vulcan rubbed at his eyes, and looked at the door, "Just a minute," he replied sleepily. He began to ponder who could possibly be waking him with such a nuisance. Vulcan stood up from the bed, and quickly shed his clothing. He walked over to the shower area, and grabbed a towel. Hitting the button on the wall next to the shower, a steamy stream of water erupted from the nozzle. He walked into the stall, and quickly lathered himself up.

The person at the door was still pounding away, screaming at Vulcan for making them both late. Vulcan obviously ignored the noise, and kept showering. After he was satisfied that he was clean enough, he allowed himself to be rinsed off. He then walked out of the shower, and toweled himself until he was dry. He then grabbed a fresh set of armor and Saiyan fatigues, and stretched them on.

"Who the hell is it anyway? You couldn't be any louder could you?" Vulcan queried the person at the door.

"It's Nappa you dumb-ass, hurry the fuck up already." The pounding finally stopped as Vulcan reached the door, and pressed the switch to open it, revealing Nappa in all his balding glory. The brute stood a good 5 inches over Vulcan. "Vegeta is going to be pretty pissed if you make us late." Veins could be seen throbbing across his bald forehead. "Hell, I'm pretty pissed that I had to come down here to wake your ass up. It's not a job I do normally. But Vegeta insisted I wake you personally."

"Well, nice to know you listen to that short bastard," Vulcan retorted as he walked past Nappa.

"I hope you're ready? I was standing at the door for almost twenty minutes." Nappa suddenly threw a punch at the back of Vulcan's head hoping to give the Saiyan a good headache. Vulcan was faster though, as he spun around, grabbed Nappa's fist with his right hand, twisted it around his back, and smashed his left elbow against the side of Nappa's head. Vulcan released his hand, and Nappa shot to the side, favoring his face.

"Yeah, I'm ready, though you seem to have a headache, might want to see a medic for that." Vulcan continued down the hall, not looking back at Nappa as he did.

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Kakarot caught Bardoku's fist as he looked toward the sky. He had a puzzled look on his face, as if he had a familiar feeling all of a sudden. It took him a few seconds, but his mental receptors recognized the ki of the power nearing the planet. He became even more puzzled, as the man he sensed was supposed to be dead, killed by Vegeta and himself years ago. More confusing is that there appears to be someone with the man, someone with a Saiyan's ki emanating.

"Hey, Kakarot, what are you doing?" came from the boy Kakarot was fighting. "Let got of my hand already, you caught it, you don't have to hold on to it without attacking me, Kakarot, LET GO!" Bardoku screamed.

"Quiet whelp," Kakarot barked, "I just sensed someone nearing the planet. It appears to be someone from the past, someone related to Vegeta, though he is too strong to be what I remembered."

"If he's too strong, then he is obviously not the person you thought he was. What does it matter? You're fighting me, and I plan to kill you with your full undivided attention focused on me as I do it!" Bardoku tried again to remove his fist from Kakarot's grasp.

Kakarot continued his thought, "Unless..."

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Vulcan walked out from a dark damp hallway into a brightly lit stadium. He is forced to shield his eyes as the sun suddenly hit his face. He could sense someone nearby, no two people nearby.

"Welcome to my arena, Vulcan. This will be where you get to have your entertainment," came a voice from the shadows to the side.

Vulcan brought his hand down from his face as he adjusted to the light, and cracked his knuckles. "Vegeta, why are you hiding in the shadows?"

"I'm not hiding, I am just waiting in a cool spot. After all, it's hot, and I've been here for almost an hour waiting for you." Vegeta's voice had a hint of annoyance. "Do you think you're ready?" He walked out from the shadows, and threw a smirk upon his face.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Vulcan relaxed for a moment, but it was a mistake as Vegeta threw a quick elbow at the back of Vulcan's head. Vulcan caught a glimpse of Vegeta's shadow, and managed to spin around to counter the elbow. Punching at Vegeta's neck, he aimed to deal a decisive blow early on. Vegeta jumped into the air, landing a few feet in front of Vulcan. Vulcan focused his ki into his palm, and brought his hand to face Vegeta. Forcing the ki out of his palm, a blast jetted toward Vegeta. Vegeta judged the blast, and gathered an appropriate amount of ki to deflect it into his hand. Swinging his hand at the blast, it was redirected toward the seats, and detonated, killing a few spectators.

Vegeta then took to the skies, until he reached a height of about 50 feet. He looked at Vulcan, and put his hands to his sides, gathering a huge amount if ki. Purple light began to form around his arms, and surrounded his hands, eventually forming energy balls of the same purple color. Forcing his hands together, he call out "Galick Gun," and fired a beam directly at Vulcan. Bolting out of the way as fast as his ki could take him, Vulcan barely missed the beam. However he was still launched by the shock wave from the explosion.

Above the fight in the royal seating section of the stadium, Lenora walked up to Nappa. She reached up to her scouter, and programmed it to scan for any movement other than Vulcan and Vegeta's. When the results came back that there were no other movements. It seemed as though the rumor of an assassination attempt was false, or it just hadn't happened yet. She looked behind her to see Kakarot and Raditz. Raditz leaned forward as Vegeta charged his Galick Gun, anticipating Vulcan to be obliterated by it. Frowning as Vulcan dodged, he sat back down in his seat. Kakarot looked concerned. Thoughts kept going through his head of his last fight with Vegeta, in which he nearly died.

He was worried that Vulcan might prove to be more of a challenge to Vegeta that Kakarot had posed. Kakarot had done well against the prince of Saiyans, more so than any warrior or Saiyan had previously. He had proven himself to be the most powerful next to Vegeta. However if Vulcan did better than Kakarot's last fight, or even beat Vegeta, that would mean his status was suddenly obsolete. He started to hope that Vulcan started to lose quickly.

Vulcan attempted to evade one of Vegeta's kicks, but was too slow, and received a blow to the side. His armor cracked from the hit, and Vulcan was force to the side. Vulcan reacted with a few quick blows of his own, trying to break through Vegeta's defenses. Vegeta sped up his movements, and began to circle Vulcan. Vulcan gathered ki into his hand again, and blasted Vegeta in the leg, trying to slow the prince down. Vegeta didn't see the blast coming, and was struck full force and was thrown back a few feet. Vulcan put a bit of distance between Vegeta, looking for the opportunity he was looking for.

Vegeta gathered his ki into a disc, and pulled his arm back, prepared to throw. Vulcan gathered his ki as well, and formed his right hand into a V. Vegeta launched the disc at Vulcan before he could fire his blast, forcing Vulcan to duck. The disc struck a few spectators, slicing them into pieces. Vulcan's ki erupted from his hand prematurely, launching him up into the air. Vulcan smashed into the ground forcing a crater to form. The disc returned to Vegeta, as he walked up to Vulcan in the hole. He thinned out the Kienzan into a blade, and held it against Vulcan's neck.

"I was expecting more from you Vulcan," Vegeta said as he drew blood from Vulcan's neck. "That was way too easy."

"It won't be like that next time," Vulcan grunted as he removed himself from the crater. "I'll make sure of that." Vulcan dusted himself off, and took in his current appearance. His armor was shattered from Vegeta's severe blows, and his fatigues were rags after Vegeta's energy assault.

The crowd rustled a little as a group of Saiyans wearing gold battle fatigues jumped down from the seats. They charged Vegeta and Vulcan, energy blasts at the ready. The biggest one yelled out "Hail the new Royalty! Kill Vegeta!" as he threw his blast at Vegeta's head.

Lenora stood up from her seat in the royal chamber, and began to rush toward the glass when the door to the hallway burst open. Another group of Saiyans in the same gold battle fatigues ran in, and targeted Nappa, Raditz and Kakarot. Nappa was the first to react, as he clotheslined two of them, snapping their necks in the process. Raditz focused on the ki of the man closest to him, and forced it to explode violently, sending his bits across the room. Kakarot fired three blasts at three targets, and when the blasts connected, it blew them away with no trace of them in the aftermath. Lenora reacted by grabbing at her belt, and throwing collars out to the rebelling Saiyans. Each collar found its mark, and attached themselves to their necks. Lenora reached to another part of her belt, and pushed a button that sent a pulse of electricity through the collars, knocking them out.

Back in the arena, Vegeta dodged the blast thrown from the large Saiyan, moved up to him with intense speed, and punched him in the chest. Vegeta's fist shattered the man's armor, and pierced his pectoral muscles. Vegeta then unleashes his ki into his chest, exploding the Saiyan. As another Saiyan reached Vulcan, he ducked under his attack, and grabbed a hold of his tail. With a quick yank, the Saiyan's tail popped off, and Vulcan formed his hand into a V again, blasting the Saiyan into oblivion. Vulcan then looked to where he had set his sword, and focused on it. It flew to his hand, and he activated the lever that switched the broadsword into a three bladed sword.

A pile of Saiyans jumped on top of Vegeta, trying to hold him down. Their energy levels began to soar as they prepared to detonate themselves and take out the prince with them. Vulcan took his sword, and slashed at the next attacker that neared him. The blade easily sliced into the Saiyan, ending his life quickly. Vulcan then focused on the pile on Vegeta, and focused his Ki into the sword. Firing on the Saiyans through the sword, the energy blew the Saiyans away, leaving Vegeta unharmed

Vegeta picked himself up, and dusted himself off. He looked at Vulcan, and noticed the sword in his hand. "A sword? Quite a show of power." Vegeta reached out to grab the sword so that he could examine it, but Vulcan pulled it away. "Why didn't you use it in our match? Weapons are allowed."

"I wanted it to be a fair grounded fight. And no one informed me that they were legal." Vulcan picked up his sheath, and deactivated the lever that transformed his sword into the three bladed behemoth. Sliding the sword into the sheath. He looked up toward the royal sky box, and noticed Lenora. He lifted himself into the air with his ki, and flew to the skybox. Tapping on the window, he notices the remains of the Saiyans that had attacked Kakarot, Raditz and Nappa. Lenora spun around, prepared for another assault, and blushed when she saw Vulcan. Vulcan smiled, and gestured to the door that lead out from the royal chamber.

She met him at the door, and spoke first, "Can I help you?"

"Why don't you show me to a regeneration tank?"

"Only if we get to have that meeting, or did you forget about that?" Vulcan was the one to blush then.

"I'm sorry, I overslept. But we can have it right afterwards. This time, I won't forget." He put his arm around her, and began to walk. The fight must have had a delayed effect on him, as he collapsed from the pain. Lenora caught him, and carried Vulcan back to his room. She spotted the regeneration tank, and set him inside. He regained consciousness as Lenora removed his torn battle fatigues. As she administered some ointment to his wounds, and removed the shrapnel of armor, Vulcan winced in pain. He reached his arm out around her shoulder, and pulled her close to him.

Whispering in her ear Vulcan said, "Lock the door, we need some privacy."

Lenora complied as she blasted the light, and closed the door with her tail. She set the tank for a delay activation by voice. Focusing another blast of ki into her hands, she fired on herself. Allowing herself to be injured, she then removed her battle fatigues, and entered the tank with Vulcan. Embracing Vulcan, Lenora called out to the tank, and the seal closed on them, and filled the tank with green fluid. Lenora looked deeply into Vulcan's eyes, and brought her face close to his. Their lips locked as they kissed, and their tails wrapped themselves around each other. They continued on into the night.

[junker-town]

How many other Suns also don’t want to be at the salon?

We have that and more in Tuesday’s NBA newsletter.

On Sunday, amid Earl Watson getting fired as coach, Eric Bledsoe tweeted "I don't wanna be here." He talked to the Suns' front office about that tweet shortly afterwards. He claimed to have been talking about being at a salon, not his imploding basketball team.

Suns GM Ryan McDonough did not believe that hilarious excuse, so he sent Bledsoe home while the team looks to trade him.

Here are five potential destinations for Bledsoe. Devin Booker seems a bit jaded about the Watson decision, which is worth watching. I wrote about how the Suns' problems go all the way up to Robert Sarver, who owns the franchise. The Suns later beat the Kings for their first win of the season. The Dead Coach Bounce is a strong force in the NBA.

Shout out to the Suns for being interesting, at the very least, while they tank.

Scores Galore ...

PHI 97, DET 86 ATL 93, MIA 104 MEM 98, HOU 90 CHA 94, MIL 103 GSW 133, DAL 103 TOR 97, SAS 101 WAS 109, DEN 104 SAC 115, PHX 117

... And So Much More

We have some saltiness. I repeat, we have some saltiness. The Warriors were (predictably) trouncing the Mavericks late on Monday. Dubs rookie Jordan Bell got into the open court in the closing moments. He decided to ... alley-oop himself off the backboard. It was glorious! It was also plainly disrespectful to the point where Rick Carlisle blew off Steve Kerr after the game. Sheesh.

Draymond Green was also in rare form against the Mavericks, clowning Dennis Smith Jr.

Nice piece by Jared Dubin on how the Jazz are changing their style.

Nikola Jokic picked up a foolish technical foul in a close game against Washington because he bumped Scott Brooks, seemingly in frustration. It turns out Brooks flopped pretty good. Can coaches flop? I guess so!

Wait wait wait ... Andre Drummond is making free throws now?!

What if Giannis Antetokounmpo never needs a jumper?

A very important investigation into De'Aaron Fox's Vegeta-like borrowing of Goku's catchphrase.

Ben Simmons had a triple-double in his fourth game! The Sixers got a win in their fourth game! I feel a parade coming on ... (But seriously, when Philly looks good, they look really good.)

Something's happening in San Antonio. The team is 3-0 without Kawhi Leonard, with LaMarcus Aldridge getting fiery and Dejounte Murray taking a leadership role (and also balling out). Come on guys, you're hurting Kawhi's MVP case!

Dwyane Wade requested to start coming off of the bench, and Tyronn Lue agreed because, well, duh. It should have been that way all along.

Shout out to the undefeated Grizzlies.

When people in the NBA get fired, they usually show grace, even if it's faked. Not Mehmet Okur. He got fired by the Suns too, and peaced out from the NBA with a legendary Eff You Instagram.

Stephanie Ready is no longer an analyst for the Hornets -- she's been moved back to sideline duties. This is absurd.

Metta World Peace is now a G League assistant coach.

Who Got Next?

Tuesday features six games, including two on NBA TV: Bulls-Cavaliers at 7 p.m. ET and Pelicans-Blazers at 10. The best League Pass exclusive is Jazz-Clippers at 10:30. Full schedule here.

Be excellent to each other.

[betaruga]

Cronenberg Fusion HA!

“I’m sorry Vegeta... if only I hadn’t bent my finger...”

Fusion gone wrong, but not resulting in charming phat or starving Vegitos but like “The Fly” where Vegeta gets freakishly strong bc he absorbed Goku before deteriorating into an awful abomination and begging Bulma to pull the trigger... Fic below!

Vegeta panicked--the fusion must have failed. Kakarrot was nowhere in sight! Yet a tingle in his spine built up and sparked, small but growing, before a roar of a raw, foreign power burned and mixed through him, quickly exciting and elating him to new, ruinous heights. The prince erupted with victory, glorifying his dramatic power up, his exhilaration driving down deep the humiliation that he'd finally only surpassed Kakarrot by taking his body into his own. And soon, he became more exuberant and aggressive in his denial, combatively and sexually...

Vegeta has dreams with his fingers in his face, but it's not HIS face beneath the flesh his fingers are digging underneath, as the visage of glinting eyes and faint remnants of a smile that catches the sun threaten to surface, before he wakes up in a cold sweat...

Vegeta donned his old gloves, partly to cover the bursting sores that won't heal, but mostly the new blue tints peeling through the skin around his wrists. A stranger in Bulma's unlit lab, he stood at a dim monitor, breathing hard, before jabbing gloved finger stumps to the keys.

The lone Saiyan registers the faint remains of his princely features in the dark reflection of the monitor as his fingers linger heavily between prompts, eyes vacant as he remembers early on, far before she knew, when Bulma asked if he'd done anything lately to make himself more handsome... One index finger at a time, at last Vegeta typed his inquiry: ASSIMILATION?  DID VEGETA ABSORB KAKARROT? >NEGATIVE >FUSION OF VEGETA AND KAKARROT AT MOLECULAR-GENETIC LEVEL ~~~~ Weeks passed before Bulma could finally bring herself to visit where Vegeta had sequestered himself, after refusing aid and shutting off the comms. A wall of heat nearly choked her as she shorted the locks and the doors blew up their retainer shafts. The gravity chamber stank. Bulma blinked through the hot, oppressive force around her. Through stinging tears she made out his form, black spikes jutting through twisted colors blistering and bubbling from his body, as he slowly, almost welcomingly, scaled down the walls on bare hands and feet towards her. "Look what I can do now, Bulma." Before her head could turn, he was already behind her. "I can teleport now. Pretty great huh?" The voice carried two inflections at the end; his own sarcastic bitterness, the other cheerful, light, and familiar. She gulped, throat suddenly tight.

That was one of the last times she'd seen him. She went to the doctor with Yamcha, unable to go through with having it. Bulma recoiled at the thought of that boiling skin, the growing deformations, the sudden, then slow loss of the two men she knew...and what the baby would be...

Vegeta-rot burst through the clinic window and stole her back, binding and arranging her body with marionette ki-strings to force a fusion with her and their fetus, in an effort to make him more "Saiyanoid" and "normal" as his last desperate, broken hope. Yamcha didn't stand a chance... When his faltering power gave out, the strings refracting & shorting through his ki channels and fraying what physical control he had left, Vegeta crumpled onto the floor--oozing--and aimed the nozzle of her refitted blaster to his crown. She couldn't. She daren't... But she did. And then in a few years the B rated sequels came out featuring her monstrously deformed Vegeta-rot Capsule Corp top secret lab baby, breaking out and unleashing grotesque havoc upon the world. THE END!  

[risingsouls]

Recruited: Chapter 29

[Shoutout to @kiealer for letting me include Ninazu in this! We all know this series needs some more badass and interesting women that don’t get housewife-ified, so I’m glad she’s letting me include her in this self-indulgent fan fic! :3

As usual, read the rest of the fic and other things I’ve written here!]

Nabooru

The first few months of what would be a grueling three years of training with the Saiyan prince proved taxing but worthwhile. To Nabooru's surprise considering his insistence on training in higher gravity levels than Goku, they started off at 100 times the Earth's normal gravity. The previous limit of the machine until Vegeta bullied Dr. Brief into enhancing the controls to reach at least 300 times if not higher. The other surprise was that he did it with, as far as Vegeta revealed, little more than a warning of the dangers of it. Additionally, he and Bulma would put aside everything to make repairs or adjustments to the ship, the controls, or training equipment. Vegeta said jump and they asked how high, which made her inwardly cringe every time considering he already viewed them as servants meant to bow to his every whim. However, she did little to question it for the quick turnaround with repairs benefitted her, too. Whether motivated by fear of Vegeta's retaliation if they said no--one she wasn't convinced would be overly catastrophic so long as Super Saiyan eluded him and Goku's shadow loomed over him as a reminder to behave for the time being--or that this was their way of contributing to the android-slaying efforts, it was none of her business. She would reap the benefits either way.

It only took about a week for Vegeta to crank the dial on the intensity of the gravity in the chamber, both of them adjusting to 100 with relative ease. Before long, they were training for hours on end at 300 times the normal gravity with breaks when they deemed them necessary. At first, they abandoned the ship and found an open area to spar in several times a week. However, as time wore on, the spars became fewer and further between. As his frustration grew with once more failing to transform, Vegeta trained nearly nonstop until his body forced him to quit. He spurned any attempt she made to coerce him to take a ten, five, or even a two minute break with her. Any amount of conversation they used to entertain petered out to a few muttered words between them if anything at all. Nine times out of ten, they went full days without a word exchanged. In recent weeks, more often than not Nabooru felt her presence went wholly unnoticed by Vegeta, his mind and focus so entrenched within his training and overall goals that she probably could have punched him and he wouldn’t notice. Concerning, but nothing she could say or do would alter his regimen. It didn't take long for her to simply give up outright suggesting breaks, spars, meals, or sleep. Instead, before she retired for the day herself--she couldn't berate him much for the length of time he trained, anyway, when she more often than not didn't retire until long after the sun set or into the early morning hours herself--she compromised by reminding him to make sure he ate, drank water, and got some rest no matter how little. He usually ignored her if he heard her at all.

And then, he blew a hole in her theory that he forgot she existed.

She landed on Capsule Corporation's manicured lawn thirty minutes before 4 AM as she always had since they began their training. However, the red lights of the ship already cast bloody discs on the dewy grass, and the unmistakable sounds of laborious training could be heard from inside. Eyebrow raised, Nabooru ascended the ramp to the door. She pressed the button on the call system Dr. Brief installed next to it.

Her voice sounded through the speakers inside: "Vegeta, have you been training all this time? You do know what time it is, right?"

She released the button and waited, uncertain if he would respond at all. "I don't need your damn coddling!" he roared, loud enough that she heard him over the speaker and through the sealed door. "Leave! I'm training alone today!"

She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from pointing out that, since he stopped sparring with her, he was already basically doing just that so it really made no difference. Instead, she broke part of their agreement. "And why is that? I've kept out of your way and done everything you asked. I need to train for these androids, too!"

"Don't argue with me!" Nabooru rolled her eyes and considered blowing the door in anyway. "I'm tired of you distracting me! Kakarot trained alone, so I will too! Now get lost before I ban you entirely!"

The Gerudo huffed, jaw and fists clenched. Asinine as his reasoning was, arguing would stoke his temper further and she had no doubt he wouldn't hesitate to bar her from training with him in the gravity chamber. The strides she made already were enough to contain her temper for the moment. However, she refused to leave without the last word.

"Fine. I'll be back tomorrow. I just hope you're drinking water in there."

The corner of her lips twitched upward when she heard him snarl at her comment. She took to the sky once more, the cool morning air whipping around her and draining her of any amusement she gleaned from the exchange within moments as realization sunk in. A day of training alone and without the added resistance of the enhanced gravity wouldn't hurt her, and yet the idea of losing precious time and even an ounce of strength 24 hours of training under the conditions she had been could potentially afford her annoyed and perturbed her. It was still early in the three year deadline they were given; that one day wouldn't hurt her in the grand scheme of things. She could train twice as hard the next day and make up for it. However, no matter how reasonable her reminders, they did little to ease her frustration. The more she slipped behind, the further she remained from keeping the promise she made to herself.

Still, she convinced herself to spend the morning and into the afternoon training alone, using the gift of space in the desert to her advantage. The freedom from the cramped environment of the ship was appreciated, and putting herself through grueling drills, with and without ki as well as combining the two, brought her back to her days of training in her youth. The heat dampened her skin with sweat, and the sun scorched her and the planet beneath it. She kicked up sand with her motions, the larger combinations and attacks whipping up short-lived sandstorms. She could hear the clang of steel against steel, the hollers and shouts of her fellow warriors engaged in practice and spars of their own. Though not the desert she grew up in, her penchant for them, for the overlooked beauty they possessed, transcended planetary boundaries. She could find solace there no matter where she found one, a notion that eased her anxiety for her future.

It was well after noon when she broke for a quick lunch, flying back to her house to find something to tie her over until she finished training later that evening. She wandered through the living room and around the bar separating the kitchen from the living room to her fridge. Due to her lack of cooking expertise let alone understanding the cuisine of Earth, the shelves inside were mostly bare save for items she deemed staples or learned were must haves. She picked up a few simple recipes here and there, but the easiest and most efficient meal she discovered on Earth was something called a sandwich. Meat, cheese, usually some kind of condiment, and sometimes some vegetables pressed between two slices of bread. It was simple and tasty, and she found it easy to be creative with it when she felt the need to change it up. For the moment she kept it simple, fishing out ham, cheese, some lettuce and tomato, mustard, and a bottle of water.

Grabbing the bread, Nabooru assembled her sandwich and leaned against the counter to eat it. She reached out with her senses, easily locating the rest of Earth's strongest preparing for the android menace to come. She could still feel Vegeta's energy at Capsule Corp., though another lower ki signature trained not far off, elsewhere in the city she guessed. Further south she sensed another that she recognized as Krillin's. Two more were further off in the distance, one far more powerful than the second. Finally, she sensed Piccolo and Gohan along with the third she recognized as Goku's. Her brows rose in mild surprise when  she sensed a fourth with them. Weak and constantly fluctuating from its peak and back to near nothing, but certainly there. She guessed it was simply one of the fighters she wasn't familiar with, but couldn't help her rising curiosity. And, the more she monitored their training session from afar, the more enticing an attempt to request a spar with them became. 

Why shouldn't she? The worst they could say is no, and she was powerful enough to fend them off should they react to her presence with hostility. And if Vegeta was going to leave her out in the cold and abandon her for the day as her designated training partner, why shouldn't she seek out others to ensure she made the most of her training time?

Downing her bottle of water, Nabooru headed back outside and conducted a quick series of stretches before taking off toward Goku and the others. Desert transformed to grassy prairie then thick forest. Before long she reached mountainous peaks topped with glistening snow. Among them, she spotted her targets.

She slowed to a halt a ways out, unnoticed for the moment. Goku, Piccolo, and Gohan were engaged in a high speed spar, the two former pressing the latter to his limits in a combined assault. The young Saiyan impressed her on Namek, in both his fighting ability as well as his courage, and he only seemed to have improved since then. He dodged and blocked a fair amount of his father's and mentor's attacks and skillfully took advantage of any openings to attempt an offensive. Before long, however, the combined onslaught forced a slip up. In dealing with increased pressure from a ki wave shot by Goku, Piccolo read his dodge direction and picked him off. Gohan soared downward and crashed into the snowy landscape below.

"You lost track of your opponent," Piccolo called gruffly after him. "Always be aware of your opponents' location no matter what!"

Goku rested his hands on his hips, the slight grimace he wore softening to a pleased grin when Gohan clawed his way out of the snow. "Still, you're really improving son! I'm impressed!" He blinked and turned his attention to Nabooru. His grin widened and he laughed. "Guess we should take our own advice, Piccolo. How long have you been there?"

"Not long. A few minutes, tops," she responded. She didn't miss Piccolo's glower before he descended to join Gohan on the ground. Goku waved for her to follow and did the same. 

Nabooru accepted the invitation and landed near them. Nearer now, she noticed the source of the fourth ki signature, crouched beside Gohan. A girl about his age with deep plum-colored pigtails rested her hands on his arm. She gazed up at the Gerudo with clear blue eyes, the orange energy radiating from her hands faltering in her distraction. Piccolo caught it and urged her to focus. She sputtered a, "Yes, sir!" and returned to her task. Which, as cuts and bruises faded from Gohan's face and arms, she realized was to heal him.

"A healer?" Nabooru asked, diverting her gaze from the girl to Goku and back again. A rarity in the universe from what she understood. A few served on the Frieza Force, a couple of survivors plucked from their home planet for their useful skill. She met the twins personally on a few occasions when they happened to be stationed on the same base and she needed medical care. Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz revealed that they were the ones that purged their planet, a tale they enumerated with more detail than she cared to hear and made for tense and awkward meetings when the Saiyans needed healing, too. If she recalled, they not only shared similar healing abilities with the kid, but also the same shade of hair. Likely a coincidence, but she had no idea what became of them after Frieza's fall or if there were other survivors. Vegeta and the others seemed sure that only the ones taken prisoner survived, but perhaps some of them slipped through the cracks.

If only she could remember what they called them…

"Where did she come from? You're not just kidnapping kids off the street, are you?"

Piccolo growled, more or less a warning to mind her own business. Nabooru and, to her amusement, Goku ignored it. The Saiyan waved his hands in front of him with a nervous laugh. "No, no! Nothing like that! Not really!" 

He glanced at Piccolo, and his grin only widened in the face of the Namekian's aggravation. "See, I sensed her energy one day and went to check it out just in case it was a threat. I sort of instant transmissioned straight into her kitchen and freaked her out, so she accidentally cut my hand." At this point, Nabooru noted the girl's cheeks flood with a tangerine hue, her gaze drifting anywhere but at Goku or Nabooru. An orange blush...was her blood orange, too? Earthlings' blood was red like hers as far as she knew. She had never seen the twins bleed, but it did somewhat confirm that she likely wasn't human. Not fully, at the very least.

"But then she healed it for me within seconds! I figured a power like that would be useful to us in fighting these androids, so I went back a few days later to talk things over with her mom who told me her father was from a race of healers. She was reluctant to allow her to come along with a stranger to fight some killer androids, of course, but Ninazu insisted she wanted to help and use her powers for good. So here we are, teaching her how to fight and helping where we can with developing her healing abilities."

Nabooru hummed, and returned her attention back to the girl. Ninazu. "Where are you from, kid?"

"I-I'm from East City, but we recently moved to the countryside?" she responded, her inflection from her confusion turning it into a question. 

She deserved that for asking a child where she was from. Hands on her hips, she appealed to Goku with a glance and a raised eyebrow. It took him a few seconds, but he finally caught onto her meaning. “Oh, you mean where did she get her healing powers, right?” He scratched his temple. “Let’s see. Her mom said her dad was…hm, I think she called him an Ankian. Is that right, Ninazu?��

Ninazu nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”

“I see. I was curious because I met a few healers on the force. I think that’s what they called themselves. Hard to say for sure when it’s been a while.” The name sounded familiar to her when she jogged her memory, even if she couldn’t be certain she ever gleaned the name of their race from the short conversations with them or from the Saiyans. With the three clues pointing to it, she was willing to make the assumption with some certainty: this girl was of the same race as those healers and was likely one of the last of her kind. Something she figured she wouldn’t bring up to the child, if she didn’t know already.

“I find it hard to believe you interrupted our training to discuss Ninazu,” Piccolo growled, arms crossed. He glared down at her, one of the few people who could. “Here to spy for Vegeta?”

“Definitely not,” she replied. “I’m here to train.”

“And what makes you think we would allow that? Trusting anyone who gets along with Vegeta and served under the likes of Frieza sounds like a horrible idea, frankly.”

Though unsurprising and all sentiments she couldn’t blame him for, Piccolo’s comments still prodded at her temper. Vegeta busting the status quo and forcing her into this situation in the first place hardly helped. She bit her tongue on telling him off or reinforcing that he didn’t understand her background in the slightest. It would be a waste of breath as she doubted it would change his mind, and she didn’t care for an explanation to come off as a sob story and an attempt to use it to get her way. Actions outweighed words, and, from what he knew and had seen from her, the feelings were valid based on them. Talking would do her no good; if she wanted to prove to them or anyone that that wasn't the path she walked now--or ever wanted to--she would have to let her actions speak for her.

"Yeah, you've been training with Vegeta, right?" Goku asked, tilting his head to one side. Gohan found his feet and both he and Ninazu inched closer to Goku's legs. "I can still sense him so he's not hurt or anything."

With Goku suspicious of her motives, her faith in any ounce of success in her mission dwindled further. "Yes, he's fine. He just told me he wants to train alone today. Considering that's how he thinks you reached Super Saiyan, I'm not all that surprised by it." The dip of her eyebrows and downturned corners of her lips, her folded arms and rigid posture, revealed her true impatience and annoyance with the turn of events hidden beneath her clinical response. However, with their eyes surveying her, searching for any sign of deception or foul play on her part, her follow up statement better matched her impatient demeanor.

"Look, I just came to see if you might spar with me. I've been training on my own all day, but I feel like I'm not getting enough out of it and I refuse to fall further behind."

"We're not interested," Piccolo replied without missing a beat. "I find it hard to believe you're fighting the androids because you care about this planet, and that you won't join up with Vegeta in trying to kill us all after we deal with them. I won't help someone who might try to kill me in the near future get stronger."

"Hmph. Fine. I can't blame you for that," the Gerudo conceded. The hint of a smile returned to her lips. "Figured it was worth asking. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I'll see you guys in a few years, then."

She turned her back to leave and hide her disappointment. Orange energy flared around her. "Wait a minute."

The light of her ki dimmed and disappeared, and she glanced over her shoulder. The thoughtfulness that momentarily hardened Goku's expression eased, and his usual carefree countenance returned. Eagerness flickered in his eyes, and was reflected in the grin that slowly made its reappearance. "I'll spar with you. Your name's Nabooru, right?"

"It is." She turned to face them again, her excitement tangible. 

"Goku, you're not thinking this through."

"It's alright, Piccolo. If she can keep up with Vegeta, I bet she's an impressive fighter, and I can respect someone looking for a challenge." His easy grin evolved into the beginnings of a smirk. "Besides, I've sensed her while training. If she tries anything, I can take care of it."

Piccolo growled. "I'm not sticking around to watch. I have my own training to think about." He sped off, but Nabooru noted he landed not far from where they stood.

Goku crouched down in front of the kids. "Gohan, why don't you and Ninazu go with Piccolo and continue training. I'll join you guys in a bit, okay?"

Nabooru saw Gohan's eyes flitting over to her, his weight shifting from foot to foot before he nodded. "Okay, dad."

"That's my boy." Goku ruffled his son's and Ninazu's hair. "Don't let Piccolo's bad mood ruin your training, okay?"

Both children grinned and nodded before flying off after Piccolo, leaving Nabooru alone with Goku. "I hope you know I've improved quite a bit since Namek," she said, stretching her arm across her body. She hadn't missed the cocky comment about easily stifling any threat she posed. While true with his transformation and she intended to keep their bout friendly, she had no intention of holding back in this spar. She couldn't if she wanted to know where she stacked up to the planet's most powerful warrior. "Maybe I'm not as strong as a Super Saiyan yet, but I'm no pushover either."

Goku chuckled. "Sure, I could tell that from what I've sensed lately. I've been curious about how good of a fighter you are since we met." He performed a few stretches himself then shifted into a fighting stance. "Ready when you are."

Nabooru finished her stretches and followed suit. She had little to go on for strategizing. On Namek, she never really got to witness Goku's fighting style or techniques, for the only fight of his she witnessed was with Ginyu's consciousness calling the shots. She didn't have quite the height on him like she did Vegeta, meaning her longer legs didn't offer any advantage (though it didn't take the prince long to compromise for it anyway, much to her challenge oriented mindset's delight). Outside of knowing about the Super Saiyan transformation and her assumptions about the overall boosts it gave his strength and speed, she could only approach their spar with the same mindset of battling any unknown foe.

Fine with her. It even made it more exciting.

Goku reacted as soon as her sneaker crunched the snow beneath it. They clashed at the midpoint between their sets of footprints, each of them blocking the other's incoming punch with their opposite arm. They soared upward, taking their spar to the sky. Each connected blow was met with swift retaliation, every gap created by a more forceful knock back or down closed in an instant. 

Adrenaline helped Nabooru ignore the pain of bruises, pride and boosted confidence over the fact that she could fight on par with Goku in his base form spurring her to push her own power higher, surging it straight for its peak and beyond. The suddenness of her jump in power and speed was enough to catch her Saiyan opponent off guard. She took further advantage of that split-second wide-eyed surprise by firing a shot of yellow-ringed orange ki straight into his chest at point blank range. Powerful enough to empty his lungs, damage his gi, and force him back but not to blow through flesh, muscle, or bone. 

Goku yelled and soared in the opposite direction. Nabooru chased after him. She caught the front of his ruined gi. Spinning him around once, she launched the Saiyan to the ground. Two more spheres of ki materialized in her palms, and she sent a barrage of them after the blur of orange careening toward the frozen ground. She halted after several seconds. When the cloud of dust and snow faded, she found a crater with a series of wide cracks stretching out from its boundaries. She kept her senses alert, searching for his ki signature but finding no sign of the Earth-raised Saiyan. Her brows pinched closer and closer the longer he remained hidden. She knew that wasn't enough to beat him.

It was too sudden. His ki appeared directly behind her, but his bound together hands slammed down onto her her upper back before she could dodge or flip around to block it. In a near mimic of him, she sailed to the ground and slammed into the same crater he had created moments ago. Her spine hit the bottom and she hissed, the force deepening the pit another three levels. Her head and body pounded, but she growled and forced herself to sit up. Orange light flared in the darkness and she shot out of the crevice, a missile aimed straight for Goku. She read his attempt to dodge and re-engaged him in another flurry of lightning-speed trade punches and kicks. Another well-placed punch sent her falling to the ground, but she regained control and her feet quick enough to resume the fight without losing too much ground, and they continued the spar on the surface.

With time, both combatants' breathing became more labored and sloppiness became more apparent. Goku caught each of Nabooru's fists in his hands as a result. To attempt to free herself before he could further embarrass her, she used the position to slingshot herself forward and headbutt him. A shot of pain pierced her skull like a well-placed arrow. But she heard Goku's own pained cry and her arms were freed. She stumbled back, holding her bleeding head.

She knew she should have worn her headpiece.

Goku shrank back as well and was rubbing his forehead. "Yeesh, that really hurt!" He wiped his blood on his wristband and giggled. "Talk about using your head."

Nabooru straightened and brushed loosed strands of hair from her face and blinked the stars from her vision, a sly grin on her lips. "Sometimes you've got to get a little more creative than fists and legs, right?"

"Hehe, sure," he answered. "I knew you were strong, but you really surprised me. I feel a little bad having to use Instant Transmission on you earlier."

She shrugged. "It didn't hurt my feelings. It was worth getting a taste of."

She paused then, her words dredging up another consideration. Perhaps not an intelligent one, but her fighter's spirit would kick her for months if she didn't take advantage of this chance.

"Goku?"

He paused his assessment of any injuries he might have sustained, left arm lowering from his eye level to blink at her. "Huh? What's up?"

"This probably sounds like a death wish, but I want to fight you as a Super Saiyan."

His arm dropped back to his side and he tilted his head. "Hm, I don't know...are ya sure? I think I've got pretty good control over it, at least, but the fight will be pretty one-sided."

"I know," she said. "But I want to try and see where I stand. The androids are stronger than a Super Saiyan, so I want to have a better idea of how much work I need to do."

Goku folded his arms and stared down at them, brows knit in thought. Finally, he nodded and uncrossed his arms. "Alright, that's fair enough."

He balled his hands into fists at his hips, inhaled and exhaled. Gradually, his energy rose, higher and higher. His dark eyes lightened and shifted to an aquamarine hue. The ground cracked beneath his feet and he seemed to draw the very wind currents toward his body. The spikes of his hair lifted and straightened upon his crown, gold shooting from the roots to the tips. The white of his aura now shone a magnificent gold to match his hair. But, despite having sensed the energy twice now, it was the pure power that had her heart thudding against her ribcage. Truly a great and terrible power worthy of legend as far as she was concerned. 

"Whenever you're ready," he said at last, his smile returning. He didn't bother to shift his stance.

Powering up herself, orange light surrounded her again and she shot forward. This time, each of her attacks were dodge with ease, as though she were an amateur taking on a master or moving in slow motion. His speed had increased so much that what was a fairly even fight before became an exercise of just trying to land a single hit. And, even when she finally did, her fist striking his cheek, his head only turned a few degrees. He was otherwise unfazed. 

He batted her hand away and threw her off balance. She blocked the punch that followed, its force reverberating painfully from her forearm throughout her entire body. His speed and the jarring nature of the blow kept her from even the beginnings of a thought of what was to come. His other fist found her abdomen. Her feet left the frozen ground, but her whole body found it again not even a second later. A brutal kick sent her skidding on her side across the snow and ice, the building mound stopping her sooner than she might have otherwise.

Teeth clenched, the Gerudo stood once more. Her knees quivered under her weight and she released a bitter laugh. In just a few attacks, he had her ready to throw in the towel. As much as it stung her pride and further solidified just how wide the gap was between them--between her and any Super Saiyan potentially--it further strengthened her desire and need to acquire that level of strength and speed for herself. 

She started to vocalize such, but Goku's voice cut her off. He crouched slightly and blue light formed between his hands at his hip.

"Ka...me….ha...me...HAAA!"

Dazzling blue light shot straight toward her. Too fast to dodge. Not enough ki or time to combat it with a wave of her own. She mustered her remaining energy and surrounded herself for it. Feet braced for impact, she threw her arms up in front of her and crossed them. She had no choice but to take it head on. To hope it didn't kill her. She squeezed her eyes shut.

But impact never came.

Wind and heat surged upward instead of consuming her, and she felt her hair whipping wildly behind her. She opened her eyes to find the beam bent upward feet in front of her, diverting the pillar of cerulean energy upward instead. She lowered her arms and watched the tail of the blast disappear into the vastness of space. She bit her bottom lip. She couldn't help but wonder if that was a warning of sorts. A show of how easily he could dispose of her if she or, perhaps, Vegeta, threatened his friends or planet.

"Wow, you were really going to take that head on!"

The cheerfulness in Goku's voice immediately weakened her resolve on that theory and returned her gaze to him. Sapped, her energy wavered back down to normal. "I don't think I had much choice. That Super Saiyan power and speed really is nothing to scoff at."

Goku's hair and eyes returned to their typical dark hue, his ki following suit. "Heh, yeah, it's something." His easy grin returned and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry if I scared you with that, by the way."

"I've been training with Vegeta for a long time," she snorted. "I'm fine."

"Speaking of Vegeta…" The Saiyan trailed off and tilted his head. "Are you two...you know?"

Nabooru raised an eyebrow. "Are we what?" She snapped, harsher than she intended. "Planning to betray you when we fight the androids? Plotting to destroy your planet? I can't speak for him. He might very well be. He at least wants to settle things with you. But I don't have any plans like that."

He chuckled nervously. "O-oh! Well that's a relief! Piccolo seems to think you want to kill us, too. He told me about how you might have destroyed the planet if he didn’t step in.”

It didn’t surprise her that the Namekian would warn Goku about that or her in general. “I’m glad he did, honestly.” She rubbed her bicep. She had enough blood on her hands without adding Goku’s friends or the entire Earth’s population to it. “If I didn’t die from the outburst, I would have regretted it. I was…in a bad place at the time. Which isn’t an excuse. Just the truth.”

Goku nodded, and she noted his calm visage waver for the barest second. “Namek was pretty rough on all of us, wasn’t it?” He shook his head and his grin returned. “That was good to hear straight from you, but I actually wanted to ask you something else: are you and Vegeta…you know…a couple?”

"I didn't realize you were such a busy body, Goku," she responded dryly. "No, we're not. We're just training partners."

"Oh, that's good! I was a little worried there…"

"What is that supposed to mean?" she demanded, her temper grasping at the last dregs of her energy and readying her for a potential retaliation. Why would a relationship between her and Vegeta matter to him? Or anyone for that matter? "Why do you ask? You're married, aren't you?"

"N-No reason really! It's not like that! In fact forget I asked at all!" His grin widened and Nabooru's eyes narrowed further. He clapped his hands together in front of him. "It's nothing to worry about, honest! I was just curious!"

Nabooru huffed and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "If you say so. I'm too worn out to argue, so I guess you're in luck."

Goku visibly deflated as relief washed over him. "That was a great spar though! You really are tough!" He stretched his arms over his head and, despite minimal damage, he didn't seem nearly as worn out as she was. As if transforming not only offered a boost in his strength but a second wind as well. "If you ever want to go again, you're welcome to come find me. Piccolo can work with the kids for a little while so we can get a round or two in."

Glad to be back on a comfortable topic, Nabooru swept her hand over her damp brow. Her fingertips glistened with both sweat and blood. "I will probably take you up on that. At least on days where Vegeta is in one of his moods." She wiped her hand on her leggings. "I hope this isn't going to be a trend but…"

It was her turn to trail off and stop herself mid-sentence. She ventured into territory that skirted information too personal for both her and the man in question. Namely, for her part, her concern for the Saiyan prince. As long as she knew him, he had never been the picture of mental stability. Infamous temper and violent nature aside, he had always been on the obsessive side when it came to his goal to defeat Frieza, for instance, but it was never all-encompassing. He still acted as a competent leader of their team, still spoke with all of them as he usually did about topics other than their future coup, and maintained his usual routines with the added spars and training they squeezed in. Conversely, becoming a Super Saiyan and besting Goku seemed to eclipse everything else in his life, from neglecting his physical well-being, forgoing meals, and what little sleep he managed anyway to a disinterest in any activity or conversation that didn't revolve around his goals or training. Their spars became less and less frequent, and she feared he may never entertain her with one again which, in her mind, seemed like more of a detriment to his development than anything else. 

She tried to remind herself that everyone was different. That what worked for her didn't necessarily work for him. And when their spars while on the force didn't produce the results he wanted, perhaps he simply deemed them obsolete and unhelpful for him personally. But she couldn't shake the idea that he wasn't thinking clearly to realize what really would work for him. Calling her a distraction, his insistence on following the same regimen and then some he suspected helped Goku ascend, it all had her wondering if he needed to remember the same. That he wasn't Goku and, just because they were both Saiyans, that might not mean the same strategies would work for them.

"But?" Goku pressed.

Nabooru sighed, gazing at the snow sparkling in the sunlight at her feet. "But I have a feeling it might be more frequent than I would like. He's...I don't think he's himself right now. I can't say I knew him incredibly well; he's not exactly an open book. But he just seems...off. Different, and not in a positive way."

Goku hummed and, after a few moments, nodded. “You care about him, huh?”

She blinked, staring stupidly as if he spoke in a foreign language not programmed into her translator chip. She never considered her view of the Saiyan prince in such simple terms. While on the force, they had a working relationship and, occasionally, a physical one. They trained together back then and currently. The parallels in their pasts certainly made her more sympathetic toward the Saiyans than most, despite her warnings to herself against developing anything akin to a budding friendship with any of them upon her recruitment. Letting her guard down in that way at least made her stint more bearable.

“I probably shouldn’t, considering it will never be reciprocated, and I’m not entirely convinced he won’t kill me given a good enough reason in his mind,” she answered, “but I suppose I do. Working together in a hostile environment and in a loose definition of a team will do that. He’s been through a lot. But I guess we both have.”

“You never know. People change all the time." He laughed. "Piccolo used to be my greatest enemy, but look at us now. Training together to take on the androids."

"Hm, maybe. I'm not going to hold my breath, though." The Saiyan's smile persuaded one of her own onto her lips. "Speaking of Piccolo, I should let you get back to them. I need to tend to these wounds and get some rest anyway."

"Good point. I'm sure I've already put him into a worse mood making him wait like this." Goku's feet lifted from the snow and he saluted her. "This was fun. Like I said, feel free to come back any time!"

Nabooru waved and watched him fly away, mildly confused by the sense of wonder he left her with. Though she could guess from the meager interaction she had with him and the bits and pieces she gleaned from what Vegeta and Nappa told her, she wasn't entirely certain just how drastic of a difference there would be between the Saiyans she became acquainted with, all raised to some degree with traditional Saiyan values and mindsets, and Goku, raised as an Earthling. If it hadn't been so easy to talk to him, how he instilled an odd calm within her despite even her initial misgivings with approaching them, it might have given her whiplash and make her question if he was a Saiyan at all. The Super Saiyan transformation made it difficult to actually entertain such a thought, however. Goku disproved how his kind staunchly defined a proper Saiyan, breaking past barriers and achieving a legendary state that not even the prince had managed yet despite his kind-hearted and softer nature as well as his lower class, and she could respect that. She had always thought that, even with only three of them left to their knowledge at the time, her Saiyan comrades clung too tightly to their old ways. Nothing she could blame them for, and there was merit for a warrior race to uphold strength and power as the most coveted trait a person could be born with or obtain. The Gerudo were similar, considering most of the Elite consisted of warriors with a few others with different occupations and talents sprinkled in and warriors enjoyed the most respect and esteem. Though she felt some shame for it, it took meeting people who took the idea that only warriors, especially the strongest of them, truly had value to the extreme for her to realize just how blinding a mindset like that could be.

Wishful thinking she was sure since he had yet to, but perhaps Vegeta might begin to understand that, too. Being surpassed by someone he considered beneath him, born with a low power level and sent away for that weakness. Having to push himself harder than ever to catch back up to him in an attempt to prove his notions of the way the universe should work right. She supposed if it hadn't sunk in already, it might never dawn on him. And that might be what she truly feared in concern to him: that the Saiyan prince would truly prove to be his own worst enemy. That he would slowly deteriorate into madness, depression, or both because reality wasn't living up to his standards. 

She still believed what she said on Namek that, without Frieza's hold, she wanted to see what he was capable of becoming. She saw his potential the day they properly met and through the scant layers he let her peel away over time. He had been in survival mode for so long, and with his freedom from the cause assured, she was sure he would flourish. Only now it seemed she would have to wait longer. One obsession, one all-encompassing need to restore his honor and place as the most powerful Saiyan in existence to match his title as prince, replaced the other. 

She bit her lip, the ache in her heart frustrating but one she couldn't deny. She managed to beat off her demons and readjust her ingrained notions of life on the force and in Hyrule to offer her room to begin anew. To grow and reform. How long until he managed similar and freed himself from this new prison he built?