Ch. 32: Goku vs. Vegeta

"Here. We'll fight here, alright? No-one'll get hurt if we fight here." Goku finally chose a wasteland area with tons of mountains stretching high into the distance. The only ones who followed him were Raditz and Hanna, who had reappeared after Raditz finished beating Nappa down. Piccolo and Tien were staying behind to look after Nappa, just in case the big guy woke up.

As they landed in Goku's chosen spot, Vegeta stood tall and made a declaration.

"Raditz, Kakarot, listen carefully. I will only say this once." He declared, "I have decided to offer you two a rather lucrative proposition. I, Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans would like to offer both of you, Raditz and Kakarot, the opportunity to stand beside me in this conquest. I could use your newfound powers, with Nappa as useless as he is." Neither of the brothers were willing to answer this stupid proposal, so Vegeta was met with only silence, which he took as hesitation.

"Think about it... We would rule the planets. You could have anything that you desired. There's no-one in the universe that could touch us! Nothing would be out of your grasp! All you have to do, is join with me." His speech over, he made eye contact with both Goku and Raditz individually, "Well? What do you say?"

"You must be a real idiot to expect me to rejoin you after all of this, Vegeta."

"He's right. We won't join you. I have everything that I could ever want right here on earth! No thanks." Goku said, "Besides, I've seen how you treat your partners. You throw them away like garbage the moment that they aren't useful to you anymore. Not much job security..."

Vegeta laughed, expecting an answer similar to that one, "Alright, then. So be it... you had your chances."

A strange silence came over the wastelands where we were standing. Those two were alike... far more than Goku and Raditz ever were. Their fight was probably written in the stars before I was ever thought of. It'd be the start of a rivalry that spanned generations, I could tell. I'd succeeded in not changing the story too much, I was pretty sure, despite all the bumps on the road. Everything would turn out pretty much as I intended. It'd all start with this one fight.

They stared at each other for the longest time, sizing up the other's form, looking for weaknesses. Finally, they struck, both moving at the same time. Faster than a normal person's eye could see, they exchanged countless incredible blows at each other, jumping between the rocky outcroppings of the wasteland as they did so.

Unfortunately, just as it was in the anime, Vegeta's power outshone my father's by a pretty noticeable margin. Luckily, my dad's instincts were superior, so Vegeta's advantage wasn't so insurmountable, but he was still better than my dad without the Kaio-ken.

After clashing fists nearly a hundred times, Vegeta finally managed to land a good blow on Goku, knocking him backwards into an outcropping. Luckily, it was just a glancing blow, and my dad was able to get his bearings almost immediately, landing on the rocks feet first and using them as a board to spring into the air, but his eyes lost track of Vegeta for a single moment, which was all that the Saiyan Prince needed. Vegeta snuck up behind him and attempted a karate chop at his head, but my dad's instincts led him to duck, and counterattack, leading to another clashing of fists as they flew into the air. Fortunately for my dad, he was still able to contend with Vegeta, as he began to annoy the Saiyan Prince with the fact that he couldn't immediately take him down. Naturally, though, my dad ended up taking a knee to the gut before Vegeta delivered a bone crushing blow to his back "Say goodbye!" He shouted, putting a ton of power into the blow.

Fortunately, all of this was just the warm-up. My dad landed perfectly safe and sound on a rock far from where the exchange had initially begun, not even breathing hard.

Having won their little exchange, Vegeta stood on another rock nearby, looking down smugly at my father, 

"Man, he's good. Far better than I expected him to be." Goku said, "I'll still beat him myself."

"Kakarot... What's wrong? I was hoping for a more interesting fight!" Vegeta yelled, "Though, I haven't had this much exercise in quite a while." He admitted, also indirectly admitting that Nappa wouldn't have been able to beat Goku either.

As calm as he was on the outside, Vegeta was internally panicking a small amount. He trusted his power as a Saiyan Prince, but he'd have to use an exceptional amount of that power to take care of Kakarot. He wasn't totally certain that he'd have enough left to take care of Raditz once the younger Saiyan was killed. He put on a tough facade, though, because he knew that he needed to act like he had everything perfectly in control, or else the brothers would likely pounce in his weakness.

'A Saiyan Prince does not have... Is that girl eating lunch while he's fighting for the future of the planet...?'  Sparing a glance towards Kakarot's young child, he noticed that she was sitting on one of the rocks behind Raditz, carelessly eating 'Instant Noodles' while her father fought for his planet. Vegeta was enraged at the idea that she was making light of him. 

Unfortunately for Vegeta, while Hanna was making light of his threat, since she knew how unlikely the idea that Vegeta would eke out a win was, Goku was reeling. He'd clearly been vastly overwhelmed during that last exchange in just about every area.  On top of that, Goku always started fights with his cards close to his chest, and he assumed that Vegeta did the same thing. Vegeta was definitely stronger than him, and he wasn't going to take him lightly at all. His two-on-one advantage wasn't a huge advantage in the face of Vegeta's clearly superior strength, and if he lost, Hanna would almost certainly be the next one to die, followed by Raditz. He decided to put out the next card in his 'deck' so to speak.

"You want an interesting fight? You'll get one... I promise!"