"Hahaha, fair point." Krillin scratched the back of his head with a sheepish laugh. "According to the Ginyu Force guys, our power levels are already in the tens of thousands. We should be able to walk all over Vegeta, right?"
"We'll see when we get there." Piccolo smiled, the faintest hint of confidence in his expression.
"Alright, since we've decided — I'll change course now!" Yamcha announced, and began following Cranberry's instructions.
Whoosh!
The ship carved a wide arc through the stars and shot off toward Vegeta's location.
A few minutes later, the ship touched down on the planet.
Whoosh — whoosh — whoosh!
Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, and Chiaotzu — all six of them launched out of the ship and materialized in a line directly across from Vegeta.
Vegeta looked back at them, his expression cold and composed.
"Now that you're here — take Frieza's ship back to Earth with me." Vegeta gestured toward Frieza's spacecraft with an easy nod. "It's faster than what you're flying. We should make it back to Earth in a few days."
There was a short, stunned silence from Piccolo and the others as they looked at one another.
Vegeta just... said we should go back together?
"What do you mean by that, Vegeta?" Piccolo's brow furrowed. "You're going to Earth too?"
"Wasn't I clear enough? Yes, I'm going to Earth." Vegeta said, perfectly calm.
"Earth doesn't want you there." Piccolo said coldly.
"Yeah! Get lost!" Yamcha jabbed a finger at Vegeta and shouted.
Vegeta glanced briefly at Yamcha, and something uncomfortable stirred in his chest.
This guy used to be Bulma's boyfriend.
Looking at him is already getting on my nerves.
That's my Bulma.
"In that case," Vegeta said with a slight snort, "I'll just have to put you all on the ground first."
"You're saying you want to fight us?" Yamcha was the first to step forward. He pointed at his own nose with his thumb and smirked. "We've gotten a lot stronger, you know. You might not win this one anymore."
"Yamcha, don't — I can feel that Vegeta's power has gone up significantly." Krillin shot a warning glance at Yamcha and lowered his voice.
"Relax — we trained hard at King Kai's. Our power has gone way up. Even the Ginyu Force was nothing compared to us. We can handle this." Yamcha laughed with easy confidence and patted his chest with a broad grin.
"There's someone over there!" Tien's gaze sharpened suddenly as he spotted a figure standing motionless in an open patch of ground in the distance.
At Tien's words, everyone immediately turned to look.
"That's — that's Ginyu!" Krillin exclaimed. "Wasn't he killed? Why is he just standing there without moving?"
"He's dead." Vegeta said without expression.
"Go check." Piccolo instructed Krillin and the others.
"Right." Krillin nodded gravely and flew over.
"Uncle Krillin — I'll come with you!" Gohan plucked up his courage and fell in step beside him.
The two of them flew over to Ginyu and found him exactly as described — standing perfectly still, head tilted limply to one side, not a single twitch.
Krillin steeled himself and reached out to check under Ginyu's nose.
The moment his fingers got close, Krillin snatched his hand back and yanked Gohan with him as they both leapt backward.
"He's — still alive." Krillin blurted out.
"What?" Piccolo's expression flickered, and he flew straight over.
The group gathered around Ginyu together.
Vegeta followed at his own easy pace, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
Cranberry: ...
Should I make a run for it? Get on the ship and get out of here right now...
Nobody will notice, will they?
But just as Cranberry turned to go, Vegeta flicked his wrist without even glancing back and launched an energy blast.
BOOM!
The blast engulfed Cranberry completely. When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left. He was thoroughly, irreversibly dead.
The sudden violence made everyone on Piccolo's side tense up at once.
"Don't worry about him. I just didn't want that one slipping off in the ship." Vegeta said without inflection.
"Ruthless bastard — he even takes out his own men!" Yamcha couldn't help shuddering.
Vegeta: ...
Vegeta fought down the urge to cave Yamcha's head in with a single slap.
If I take Yamcha out right now — would Bulma forgive me?
Wait — at this point in the timeline, Bulma and this guy called Yamcha haven't broken up yet.
Damn it all. Why did I have to be reborn at this particular moment in time?
Does that mean I have to go win Bulma back from scratch?
Something thoroughly unpleasant twisted in Vegeta's gut.
"What happened to him?" Krillin noticed that Ginyu wasn't moving a single muscle, and once the tension had eased out of him, he couldn't help asking.
"This guy has a unique ability — he can swap bodies with someone. He tried to swap with me, I dodged, and he ended up swapping with that tree over there instead." Vegeta gave a brief, matter-of-fact explanation, pointing toward the gnarled tree nearby.
Krillin and Piccolo and the rest all looked at each other blankly — then walked over to get a closer look at the crooked tree, murmuring among themselves in collective disbelief.
A long silence.
"So... that tree has basically become Ginyu?" Krillin looked back at Vegeta with wide eyes.
"Precisely." Vegeta gave a single nod.
"That's awful. He turned into a tree." Krillin said, genuinely moved.
Piccolo: ...
"Enough of that. Weren't you all here to fight me?" Vegeta smiled and raised one hand toward Piccolo's group, beckoning them forward with an easy, confident wave. "Come on then. All at once."
Piccolo and Krillin and the others immediately went on guard, settling into fighting stances.
"Don't mind if I do!" Vegeta smiled — and detonated his Ki.
Whoosh!
In an instant, Vegeta's silhouette blurred — and reappeared directly behind Piccolo.
Piccolo's expression changed in a heartbeat.
THWACK!
Vegeta brought the edge of his hand down in a sharp chop directly onto the back of Piccolo's neck.
Piccolo didn't even have time to react. He crumpled, out cold.
Seeing Piccolo go down that fast, everyone else immediately snapped to high alert.
Whoosh!
Vegeta flickered again — materialized directly in front of Yamcha — and backhanded him across the face without breaking stride.
Yamcha was sent tumbling across the ground for a hundred rolls or more.
When he finally stopped, he was flat on his back in a textbook Yamcha-shaped imprint — out cold.
"Next — the three-eyed one?" Vegeta glanced at Tien, then at Chiaotzu.
"Tri-Beam!" Tien launched his signature technique at full force.
The Tri-Beam hit Vegeta dead on.
And that was the end of it.
At Tien's current output, the Tri-Beam had no chance of breaking through Vegeta's defenses.
Whoosh!
Vegeta appeared in front of Tien in an eyeblink and drove a sharp uppercut straight into his stomach.
To be continued…
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