Ch. 84: Vegeta Vs. Recoome (2)

"Recooooome... Kick!" Suddenly, there was a foot in Vegeta's face, and he wasn't anywhere near fast enough to stop it. When Recoome's kick landed, the only thing that kept Vegeta from losing consciousness was force of will, but as he was flying through the air, on the verge of unconsciousness, one thought blasted through every nerve in the Saiyan's brain.

'I AM... THE SAIYAN... PRINCE!!!!'

With sheer force of will, Vegeta looked up just in time to stop himself from blasting through a rocky hill, and used energy to forcibly slow himself down before using the rocks as a springboard for his own counterattack. But Recoome had an insurmountable power advantage.

"You keep surprising me! But let's see you bounce back from this!" Recoome said, blocking every single one of Vegeta's blows without losing a single beat or exerting himself in any way. "Recooome... Boom!" 

Recoome countered Vegeta. Hard, in the head again, Recoome's elbow shot Vegeta through a rocky outcropping, but Vegeta wasn't close to losing consciousness this time. Dodging the burly man's follow-up, Vegeta blasted into the sky and tossed a ball of energy haphazardly backwards, using Recoome's energy to aim. 

Vegeta's blast missed, and Recoome blew past Vegeta yet again in a show of terrifying speed before kicking him into the ocean with such force that Vegeta could hear the 'Crack!' of his battle armor through the 'Whoosh!' of the air before he hit the water.

'He's vulnerable to surprise attacks, but fighting that thing head on is a fool's errand... unless...' Vegeta came up with a plan as he sank to the ocean floor. 

"Aww, don't tell me you're done, Vegeta! I haven't had fun like this in ages, you know! At least lemme test a few more attacks on you before you go and break on me!" Recoome shouted from the air. In response, Vegeta tried to begin his attack... when the energy in the air changed.

Even Recoome, dumb as a rock and flying high in the air, could feel it. A huge release of energy, but only for a split second... then... 'BOOOM!!!!!' 

The sudden explosion of energy caught even Vegeta off guard, stopping his advance right as he started it, but he immediately realized what had happened.

'That girl...'

Indeed, the sudden explosion of energy in the air was Hanna, destroying Guldo by suddenly making dozens of individually strong orbs of pure energy converge on his location, mix, and then explode all at once. The five Z-Fighters could all feel Guldo's energy disappear at the same time.

"Wow. Guldo must be having fun!" Recoome noted, seeing the explosion from his vantage point in the air. Recoome knew Guldo's limits, more or less, so he did have doubts whether or not his friend would have been capable of pulling off an explosion of that magnitude, but Recoome also had an intrinsic trust in the other members of the Ginyu Force, so he immediately decided that Guldo had to be the cause of that explosion, because it was impossible for a member of the Ginyu Force to lose a fight. "I better pull Vegeta out of the water before he dies... I don't want to be punished by Lord- Un!" 

Just as he started to shake away the images of what Frieza would do to him if he ended up killing Vegeta, Vegeta burst out of the water below him at top speed, barreling into his stomach while he was distracted. Recoome unintentionally let out a noise as all the air escaped his lungs, but yet again, Vegeta's strength had fallen short... just a bit.

"I'm glad you're back, Vegeta! But even you should know that it's rude to punch someone while they're distracted." Recoome berated Vegeta condescendingly.

"Ah!" A gasp escaped Vegeta's lips as Recoome grabbed him, hurtling down towards the planet's surface like a meteor with him in tow.

...

"Grr... Come on, Vegeta. Hold him off just a bit longer, it's not enough yet!" Piccolo muttered from the sidelines, still gathering energy in his fingertips. Only time would tell if his pleas would be enough.

...

"We should be closing in on Namek, but I can't sense anything down there yet... I hope the others are alright." Goku told Raditz in their spaceship. They were both standing in the control room's console area, looking through the glass 'windshield' into the space below. By now, they could actually see Planet Namek in front of them with the help of the system, but it was asking too much of the two Saiyans for them to sense the planet's surface from half a solar system away.

"They're your children down there, Kakarot. The girl's even mastered the Kaio-ken better than either of us. They'll be fine." Raditz reassured his brother.

"I hope you're right. We need to be ready for anything, Raditz. " Goku told his brother, gritting his teeth in annoyance at the fact that they didn't know what was going on down below.

...

"Alright! I give up!" Yamcha shouted in the middle of his training exercises, surprising King Kai out of a nap.

"What's up, pumpkin? Get it? Cause you're wearing orange?" King Kai asked, "You've still got quite a few exercises to go." Yamcha clenched a fist and pointed with the other hand at Pigero, who was calmly meditating beneath King Kai's tree, floating in mid-air, his hair a light shade of grey.

"Not your best, King Kai... but I'm giving up martial arts." Yamcha told the blue overseer, "I just don't have any talent. Training on your world has shown me that." 

Pigero cracked an eye, but he didn't say anything. Whatever he said would only seem condescending. He didn't even spar with Yamcha anymore, because the older fighter was too weak to teach him anything. Even without Grey Mode, Yamcha's power level was incomparably lower than Pigero's now. Even when he held back as much as he could, it was like squashing an ant.

"You really think that you don't have talent, Yamcha?" King Kai asked questioningly, "Then fine. If you don't want to learn, then I don't have anything to teach you. Give up, if you honestly think that's all you can do."