Chapter 26

In the first seconds after Vegeta tore through the hull all anyone could do was react to the situation. There was no way of immediately assessing the extent of the damage. Shouga barked out commands that included instructions to make sure the rest of the ship was air-tight and to get evacuation teams moving even as she mentally condemned all aristocrats to perdition. The tilt to the deck became more pronounced. If we get caught in the planet's gravity well--! "I said, go to zero G!" she shouted at her techs.

Although most of her officers chose to drift and let the ship ponderously revolve around them, her navigator strapped in before carrying out the command. Shouga floated at the navigator's shoulder, watching as his fingers flew over the controls in an effort to identify and isolate the breech. "As near as I can tell, it's just the airlock door itself." A hint of relief seeped into his tone. "No hull breech. Structural integrity appears sound."

"We're still stuck with a hole in the side unless we can find something to seal it," snapped Shouga as the ship twisted in slow motion around her. "Lock that deck down."

"I'm on it."

On its second roll the ship came dangerously close to the planet's atmosphere. Sparks arched from the friction, racing along the conduits, dancing across the console. A strong jolt startled a yelp from the navigator. Shouga's helmsman countered with his own ki, warding off shocks as he adjusted the stabilizers to compensate. Creaking in protest, the ship rocked several times before settling into a stable orbit, low but safely above the atmosphere. Shouga grabbed the back of her command chair and forced her feet toward the deck. "Re-establish gravity," she ordered.

There were "thumps" around the command deck as "down" became a direction again. Objects (and a few unprepared officers) thudded to the floor. Shouga demanded an update.

A tech pulled himself up to study a blipping console. "Some injuries," he reported after hastily scanning data. He was trying to hold in laughter. "Apparently none of the King's Guard received zero-gravity training. A few of them landed in awkward positions."

"Any of them break their necks?"

"A few arms and legs, yes; necks, no."

"Pity," muttered Shouga.

The navigator was monitoring external communications. Incredulous, he reported, "Captain Chishan's headed to the planet's surface."

"Without a shuttle? He'll just implode if he doesn't know how to maintain a ki shield in a vacuum. Has he had any space training?"

The navigator answered with a shrug.

Shouga snorted in disgust. "Not a lick of sense. I wish we could jettison the lot of them," she grumbled darkly. "Never mind what the Elites are doing. Get the injured to sick bay. Have a repair crew meet me at the airlock. And see if you can track the King," she threw over her shoulder as she strode off the bridge, almost as an afterthought.

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Shouga did not need to inform Vegeta that there was a strong fighter in the vicinity. As soon as the warrior on the planet's surface charged his ki to killing level the other's proximity shot through the King's brain. He did not wait for the airlock to equalize to the outside vacuum. He simply tore through the door as if it were paper and sped toward the sensation, his steel-blue aura flaring white as he hit the planet's atmosphere.

He would have tracked down the strong ki quickly enough on his own but the scouter's ability to zero in on transmissions was unexpectedly helpful. He agreed to wear the scouter while on-planet to silence Zarbon. His liaison proved to be just as persistent a nag when he wasn't present to personally assure the King's safety. Vegeta had the ki reading function off — his experiences with Earthlings prevented him from trusting the machine for that — but he had promised Zarbon he would keep communication channels open while wearing the contraption. He had also ordered Shouga not to use it for communications although Zarbon didn't need to know that little detail. While Riiki's shout was all-but-lost through the accompanying static, arrows flashed across the eyepiece followed by exact coordinates. It shaved perhaps two minutes off of his arrival time.

Riiki was on her knees in the snow. She pitched forward just as Vegeta pulled up over her. The fading whine of an energy strike echoed, bouncing dully off the surrounding mountains. Vegeta dropped with a velocity that appeared as if it would create an impressive impact crater. He regulated his ki with precision, touching down with a delicacy that barely stirred a few loose snowflakes.

Deep-set eyes under an overhanging brow ridge followed the King's descent. A being that bore no resemblance to anything Vegeta had ever seen before cocked its head quizzically. "Well. Who have we here?"

The warrior was lanky with long, skinny limbs and an impressively deep chest. Solid yellow-green pupils pondered the King as a wide-lipped pale mouth against lavender flesh stretched into a broad smirk. The thin protuberances Vegeta glimpsed over his shoulders, combined with the long, compressed head and the rectangular vents where mammalian ears would be, made the King think his opponent might be an insectoid of some sort. The smell of ozone and seared flesh came to Vegeta's nostrils. He inhaled the battle scents deeply, smiling savagely at the memories of past victories they invoked. He glanced down at Riiki, his anticipation increasing when he saw how damaged she was, how unmarked the other fighter was. Ki had sliced with surgical precision through her chest armor in at least three different places. This might be very worthwhile...

The former Captain raised her head from the snow, craning her neck back to identify the owner of the boots in front of her face. "Vegeta," she murmured, her voice distant. He wondered briefly what she saw, if she were really addressing him or the Vegeta she had served for so long. "Avenge me."

He snorted. "You overrate yourself." He strode past her, concentrating his attention on the opposing warrior. Behind him, he heard the creak of armor and the wet slush of the snow as Riiki shifted, repositioning herself so she was sitting cross-legged, propped up with locked arms.

He had not been in snow since he realized — what he had realized — about Bulma on Chikyuu.

Am I trying to get myself killed? the King wondered in irritation. He banished all thoughts of his family into the deepest recesses of his mind and ruthlessly sealed it off.

The other's gaze was riveted on the tail wrapped over the armor at Vegeta's waist. "Another Saiyan," sighed the enemy fighter. "I think you guys have lost your entertainment value."

He doesn't have a scouter. "Oh, let's not be hasty. Here." Vegeta took his scouter off, flinging it dozens of yards to land precisely at the warrior's feet.

The pyramidal eyes arched into ovals. The quizzical gaze did not leave Vegeta as the scouter levitated upward. The warrior carelessly snagged it out of mid-air. His oblong head prevented a Saiyan scouter from achieving a proper fit. He held it cocked over one eye as he tapped rapidly against the controls with fingers obviously used to calibrating scouters. A low whistle came out of him. Smirking, he dropped the scouter back into the snow and casually ground it underfoot. "You sure you're Saiyan?"

"I am Vegeta. That's all you need to know."

"Ho. I have heard of you." Settling his hands on his slim hips, the warrior studied Vegeta, gaze sweeping over the diminutive form before him. His smirk grew. "Well. I guess you deserve the full treatment before I kill you."

Looking bored, Vegeta folded his arms. A small anticipatory quirk to his mouth betrayed him. "Is all you do talk?" he queried. "Bring it on."

Smiling smugly, the opposing warrior studied him for another moment. Then he slid his feet apart in what appeared to be a fighting stance. Smirking, Vegeta waited in anticipation for his first move. A sense of exultation at his first real fight in years made his blood tingle.

One knee straightened as the warrior lunged to the side. His arms swept gracefully through a series of sharp-angled designs. "You think you're strong, but you can't compare to the power —" he blurred out of sight appearing again yards away, dramatically posed with one flattened hand toward Vegeta, the other curved over his head — "the speed —" vanishing again, appearing right in front of Vegeta, balanced precariously on one leg, arms straight out from his sides and wrists cocked up at a precise ninety degree angle — "or the style of — Captain Puipui!" Supremely confident, the alien beamed at Vegeta.

Vegeta's expression of boredom slowly morphed into one of incredulity. A single large sweatdrop stood against his temple.

"Oh, great," moaned Riiki. "One of those. On second thought, if it gets me out of listening to this tripe dying doesn't seem so bad."

Vegeta stared at the posturing warrior in stark disbelief. "Captain of what, stork imitations?" he growled in grim disappointment. "What a waste of my time." He thrust a hand straight in front of himself, snapping out, "Big Bang Attack!" His strongest blast flared out from his palm, fanning into a width that would take out the popinjay no matter where he posed.

Except the popinjay wasn't there.

Vegeta had barely registered his absence when the sense of something powerful whirled him around. Vegeta lashed out blindly, a backhanded glancing blow that still would have removed the head of any Saiyan Elite.

The head of his enemy snapped sharply to one side. Then, slowly, the solid-colored eyes centered again on Vegeta's face. Swiping easily at the corner of his mouth, Puipui drawled, "You do have an heir, right, kingy?" Then he whacked the King under the chin with one powerful uppercut. His own teeth dug painfully into his lower lip. Vegeta found himself staring wide-eyed at the great space of clear sky above him. A double-handed blow pounded against the small of his back. Out of control, Vegeta flailed toward the white expanse below.

Puipui flung a rapid-fire series of energy spheres after Vegeta's body, laughing scornfully. The King struck the snow with a loud C-R-AAA-C-K that buckled the underlying ice. The shock caused fast-moving rifts to fan out from the impact. The flurry of ki spheres hit, setting off a series of explosions that flung snow and ice shards into the air, completely obscuring the impact site. There were more loud reports as the ground itself rent apart. Sprays of liquid shot meters into the air. Nicely framed by the geysers Puipui drifted overhead, gloating at the destruction of the Saiyan King.

Under the ice in salt-saturated freezing water, Vegeta's eyes were open and gleaming with pleasure. Small bubbles escaped from his grinning mouth. Either lolling around the palace has made me soft, or this one can do more than dance...

He cast out with senses he didn't need when battling Bulma's robots, tracing the ki of his enemy, knowing when Puipui was directly over his position. Floating on his back, the King stretched his hands toward the impression of Puipui's ki. A solid beam of ki ripped out, cleaving the ice, startling Puipui. Small energy balls followed, exploding around the Captain as he spun wildly in search of his enemy. Vegeta shot from beneath the ice, the streaming water freezing then vaporizing on his bodysuit as he flew straight up, his fists clenched in front of him. He caught the unprepared Puipui in the stomach. The alien's mouth gaped wide, retching from the impact. Vegeta struck under the pointed chin, feeling the satisfying sting in the flat of his knuckles as he connected, sending Puipui arching back.

Vegeta barely had time to smirk before Puipui, still in mid-arc, hooked the King around the neck with his booted ankles. Using the momentum of Vegeta's blow Puipui took the Saiyan monarch with him through two flips before he gained enough control to jackknife his body with a whipping motion. The ankles released their grip. Vegeta was again forcefully propelled to the ground. This time when the ground buckled solid dirt was flung up with the ice and snow. Arms splayed wide on either side of him, Vegeta lay unmoving in the crater.

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Until he saw the King face-down in the snow-crusted depression, Chishan was convinced that the most terrifying thing he had ever experienced in his life was stepping into a vacuum with just a few seconds of air caught in his ki shield to protect him, closely followed by his fire-encased entry into the atmosphere of Koorim. Catching sight of the King, unmoving, surrounded by pink-splashed snow was far worse. One horrified thought took over his mind — How do I tell the Queen? Then, with a roar, he charged the enemy.

Without sparing him more than a sidewise glance, the creature held up a hand as its attention centered once more on the King's still form. Chishan bounced back. He did not waste time being startled. He simply tucked, spinning to dissipate the energy, and with a small, smooth skid landed ankle-deep in the crunchy white stuff that coated the planet's surface.

He was totally focused on the unmoving foe, which is why he nearly ran right into the broad beam of ki that intersected his path.

"Whoof!" Chishan pulled up so sharply air was forcefully expelled from his lungs.

Vegeta, a foot planted on the rim of the crater as if he were about to step out, was slowly closing one sparking hand into a fist. "Come between me and my prey again," said he to Chishan, smiling, deadly, "and you will be the one to experience my wrath."

"Why be in a hurry?" agreed Puipui affably. "I'll get to you soon enough. Enjoy the show."

Avenging a fallen Vegeta was one thing. Defending a fully-functional one was, Chishan acknowledged, absurd. Lifting slightly off of the ground he flew past Vegeta, setting down next to the Saiyan warrior slouched in the snow with his feet firmly planted shoulder-width apart. He promptly went down on his backside. He stared wide-eyed at the soldier, insanely wondering how she had done that. A cold smirk lifted a corner of her mouth. "Lesson one, 'Captain.' Snow is slippery. You also freeze your ass off if you sit in it too long. Trust me on that."

That's...Riiki, isn't it? He contemplated the feel of what he was sitting in and ruefully acknowledged that she was right. But if a common solider could sit in the stuff without turning blue, so could one of the King's Elites. Crossing his ankles, Chishan rested his elbows on his knees as he regarded her critically. "You don't look so good."

"I'm bleeding to death," replied Riiki, her hoarse voice prosaic.

The rusty brown across her punctured armor wasn't a tribal color. "Energy should cauterize."

"Rookie. If you do it just right, you leave a jagged edge that rips. Great if you're in a hurry and don't have time to check every single body on the planet to make sure they're all dead. Takes skill," she noted with professional approval.

"You should get back to the ship."

"I missed the arena fight between Zarbon and Vegeta. I'm not missing this. It's got great potential, and we have front row seats. Lucky us," she added with no trace of sarcasm.

Chishan squinted up into the sky, watching the two fighters blur in and out of his vision. Every time he could concentrate enough to see them clearly they were just a flurry of arms and legs. Neither appeared to be landing any decisive punches; neither appeared especially alarmed by that fact. Feinting. They're playing with each other. He tapped on his scouter. The readings merged together so that he couldn't tell which belonged to whom, but the overall energy reading was more than twice what he knew Vegeta's ki to be. "The King's in danger," chaffed Chishan.

Riiki's always-low voice, although barely audible, was dominated by scorn. "And what do you expect to do about that?" Her chin fell forward to her chest, but her eyes rolled up in her head, following the swift movements of the fighters. Sighing, Chishan began to rip strips out of his white cloak to fashion bandages.

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After an initial exchange of testing blows, Puipui flipped out of reach. Rather than follow Vegeta folded his arms and let him go. The two hung in mid-air, eyeing each other. "You're very fast," taunted Vegeta. "Let me guess. Your favorite game is hide n' seek, right?" He swept an arm out to indicate the wide, barren white expanse under their dangling feet. "No place to hide here, Puipui. You might as well just fight."

The alien laughed at him. "Give it up, kingy. I train on a planet with ten times normal gravity, which means I'm light as a feather here. There's no way you can touch me. You're just going to wear yourself out."

Vegeta chuckled, his eyes narrowing in amusement. "I live on a planet with ten times normal gravity," he retorted, contemptuously. "Maybe you don't really know — " to Puipui's evident surprise, he blurred out of sight, to materialize practically in the Captain's face " — what fast is!"

"Oh, I'll give you fast." Chortling evilly, the insectoid began to spin rapidly, one leg cocked away from his body with the knee bent. He rotated toward Vegeta, his scissoring feet a blur, as he shouted out, "Whirly-bird attack!"

Vegeta caught him by the ankle. Turning inside the leg, Vegeta slammed his back into the other's body, sharply digging an elbow into Puipui's abdomen. The grunt of released air was satisfying. Then Puipui wrapped his arms around Vegeta's neck, an embrace that almost completely encased the smaller man, and crossed his ankles across Vegeta's chest as he squeezed. Snarling, Vegeta twisted this way and that, but found no escape from the long limbs of his enemy. Spots jigged in front of his eyes as Puipui's relentless grip forced the air from him. Vegeta brought his knees up and flexed his feet, concentrating on feeling the molecules of air around him as solid particles. Puipui, not realizing Vegeta was maneuvering deliberately, began to gloat. Vegeta looked at the clouds overhead and smiled savagely. Clouds in front of him meant the ice-covered surface of Koorim was directly under him--and, more importantly, directly under Puipui as well. He thrust out with his legs. Suddenly, instead of just containing a squirming Saiyan as he squeezed the life out of him, Puipui was plummeting to the planet below as one very heavy Saiyan used his weight to accelerate them both to terminal velocity.

Swearing, Puipui released his grip, twisting out from under the King, leaving the Saiyan alone in his plunge to the surface. Vegeta extended his hands, using the flex of his elbows to rebound against the ice and flip to his feet. In the snow, his footing was uncertain; he skidded, slipped and fell to one knee.

Overhead Puipui's characteristic smarmy grin was missing. "I'm done playing with you." Snarling, Puipui slapped his wrists together, palms facing outward, fingers bent. "Star shine scream!" he screeched.

A phalanx of solid energy streaked toward him. Vegeta made no attempt to avoid it, but threw his arms out to the side. As it hit, its light briefly outlined the curved ki shield surrounding the Saiyan King. Then nothing could be seen in the single bright flare of explosive energy. Earth and ice vaporized. A curtain of thick, billowing vapors seethed around Vegeta's final position.

A satisfied grin curved Puipui's wide mouth upwards. He crossed his arms and puffed out his chest. "So perish all who face — the magnificent Captain Puipui!" He struck another dramatic post, fists against his narrow waist, chin high.

From out of the dank mist, "The magnificent Captain Puipui needs to get his eyes checked," drawled a cool, harsh voice.

A slight breeze stirred the haze, thinning it out. A figure could be dimly glimpsed, shrouded in hissing steam and smoke. More of the debris blew away. Puipui's mouth slowly creaked open. The King was kneeling on a small snow-covered promontory of ice, his hands casually draped over one knee as he smirked up at the Captain. His gloves were intact, but patches of roughened skin showed through dozens of small rents in the battlesuit. Around him, the ice had been excavated to a depth of meters.

Laughing, Vegeta stood in the dirty snow, wiping a trickle of blood away from his nose. As far as the eye could see the snow was sullied by blast craters and scorched trenches. Behind Puipui's floating figure smoke lazily curled up from what was left of a once-impressive mountain half blown away by Vegeta's original Big Bang attack. Vegeta could hear water gushing from several broken spots in the ice, the harsh squeaks of newly-created ice floes rubbing together, the sharp retort of cracks forming in the newly created crevice. Folding his arms, Vegeta drifted slightly upward just as the ice walls gave at the base and churning water rushed in to fill the blast site under his feet.

There was a long, slow moment as Puipui simply gaped in disbelief.

"That was it, wasn't it?" Vegeta queried with a small, amused grin. "The biggest thing you've got. You should have used it right away. You might have caught me then. As it is — " suddenly he was right in front of the flabbergasted Puipui, spread hands lightly touching the other's chest armor "— all you can do now is die. FINAL FLASH!"

For all his vaunted speed, Puipui was not even quick enough to gasp before he disintegrated under Vegeta's outstretched hands.

"Fast enough for you?" Smirking, Vegeta lowered to the planet's surface, contemplating the drifting ash that lightly coated the ice under his boots with supreme self-satisfaction. His expression gradually shifted into hard, aloof lines. Turning his head, he glanced toward the other two Saiyans who had witnessed the bout. Chishan's jaw was hanging loosely to his chest, his eyes rounded, one hand covering the earpiece of his scouter as if he were afraid it would blow off. Riiki was still slumped in a sitting position with her chin down, but her eyes glinted at him briefly before she closed them.

With an unhurried, measured stride, Vegeta calmly walked toward his warriors. Chishan barely remembered to get to his feet in the presence of his King. Riiki all but ignored Vegeta as he stopped in front of her, coolly staring down. The aftermath combined with blood loss was taking its toll on her. She scanned the scene from her sitting position, glassy eyes lingering on the bodies of her teammates. "I'll have to break in another squad commander," she murmured inanely.

"You aren't squad commander? No, I suppose not. Feh. You were good enough to lead my father's Guard; you're good enough to boss a handful of low-class Saiyans around."

"My King—" started Riiki, awkwardly working to form words of gratitude.

She was cut off. "This is no reflection on you, but on the value you had for my father," the King said, coldly, "It was more than you realize—"

Riiki weakly tossed up a hand. "I don't want to know," she snapped.

"That," said Vegeta in contempt, "is why you will never be anything more than what you are now." Without ceremony he snagged the torn furred edge of her parka and hauled her over his shoulder. Riiki gave one weak protesting yip before her head lolled forward. "Come," the King said curtly to Chishan before taking off.

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The call asking which airlock to use came from Chishan. Shouga barely bit back a sarcastic rejoinder suggesting the King make his own entrance; knowing Vegeta, he would likely do it. As she stood before the clear view-port watching Vegeta alight in the airlock, Shouga went over and over in her mind why she shouldn't chew out the King like the royal screw-up that he was. Instant, messy disintegration was one consideration. She was inclined to risk it. She had personally witnessed Zarbon screaming at the King in the middle of fire-fights when the alien thought he was being far too casual about his personal safety. She rather thought endangering his ride home counted.

The King stood ramrod straight as the metal door slowly began to close out the vacuum of space, his aura faintly glowing around him. He had something slung over one shoulder. All Shouga could see from her perspective were bare thighs and booted feet dangling over his chest. Behind the King a red-faced, puff-cheeked Chishan landed. Holding his breath? Like that matters. Rookie. Shouga was tempted to leave them all in the airlock until Vegeta's air nearly ran out, but she knew her duty to her King. Besides, unlike Chishan, he showed no sign of distress. Pointless. Grunting in frustration, she gave the order for air to be pumped into the room.

Chishan exhaled in a great rush before gulping in air. He bent over at the waist, clasping his knees, his entire posture indicating stark relief.

As Shouga and several other officers stepped into the pressurized airlock the King shoved the body off of his shoulder. It hit awkwardly and limply, rolling a short distance away, flopping like a rag doll. Shouga looked down into Riiki's unconscious face. The Elite's eyes were frozen into a sightless stare while her breathing was uneven and shallow.

"Get her to a tank," ordered the King.

Something had done that to an Elite — and the King had taken whatever-it-was out with nothing more to show than a few dried flecks of blood and a split lip that was neatly healing. Shouga stared at him in amazement. The thought crossed her mind: He's not Saiyan. He's something beyond Saiyan.

"What's our E.T.A. for Vejiitasei?" demanded the King.

"We're stuck here for a while." The edge crept back into Shouga's voice. "We're space-worthy, but hyperspace is a whole different set of stresses. We still have to make sure the ship can handle warp speeds."

The King's brows went up. "So? There's a planet to purge, Fleet Commander. I'm sure that will keep the soldiers occupied while you effect repairs."