(Meanwhile)
(Vegeta & Cal)
For two of the dozen warriors back on Earth, their battle, which had started out explosive and full of energy, was now quickly coming to a head.
When Vegeta's opponent had began using his weird energy based weaponry against him, the prince's exciting brawl with the alien humanoid quickly transformed from a battle of wills into a glorified interstate-baseball match, where the extra terrestrial in spandex spent the next portion of their fight smacking every energy attack sent his way across the continent.
This development forced Vegeta to take on a more strategic approach to fighting his opponent, where he had to avoid the big swings from his foe's melee weapons and get inside the warrior's reach. He had no other choice, because as he found out rather painfully and unexpectedly during one of their exchanges, simply being tapped by Cal's energy weapons was enough to send him straight through a mountain. Being sure to keep an extra eye out for them, Vegeta started striking his enemy from different angles, out of range of the man's attacks. It wasn't easy, since the man was built like a brick house, but the prince was persistent.
By this point in time, the forests and mountains Vegeta and Cal had been fighting in had been reduced to a barren wasteland, with only a few logs and bushes left standing here and there. Random fires burnt across different parts of the country, filling the clear blue sky with smoke, signifying that the stage was set for a decisive and climactic finish between the two fighters.
Golden aura blazing around him like the fires of the sun, the prince, with the top half of his spandex suit disintegrated and blood caking a majority of his face, charged across the torn up battlefield like a bat out of hell. Roaring at the top of his lungs, Vegeta loaded up his right fist and prepared to deck his opponent in the face. Cal, also sporting a thoroughly ripped suit and a busted up mug, brought around the energy shield in his right arm and attempted to cut his enemy off.
Head-slipping the shield on the warrior's forearm, Vegeta then jumped when the large man swung at him with the energy hammer in his other hand, avoiding it and allowing him to hit the humanoid across the face. The blow landed with a deafening crunch sound, knocking Cal off his feet and sending him across the wasteland. By the time he managed to dig his feet into the ground to stop from sliding, the dazed extraterrestrial was able to ready himself for Vegeta's next attack, as he saw the Saiyan with his arm extended, and his thumb, index and middle finger pointed directly at him.
Lightning shooting off of Vegeta's battered and bruised body, the Ascended Saiyan gritted his teeth before bracing himself. "Final Impact!" A powerful golden bolt of energy then exploded from his extended fingers, flying towards his target straighter than the edge of a ruler and several times faster than the speed of light. Its path was marked by a high-pitched whistle, which tore a trench through the ground from the force it was producing.
Cal, his bloody face reflecting alarm, quickly dispelled his energy hammer and gripped his forearm where his Spartan shield was suspended. Doing so allowed him to focus whatever energy he had left into the energy dish and, upon taking a crouching stance, allowed his barrier to double in size. He managed to divert his energy just in time to take the full force of Vegeta's attack, which struck his shield with a deafening thunderclap, before bouncing off of it and flying back at its owner.
Vegeta, stunned to see his blast deflected, barely had enough time to throw up his guard before his own attack slammed into him and detonated with concussive force. The explosion sent him spiraling across the countryside like a ragdoll, bouncing several times across several hills, and eventually crashing at the base of a rocky slope. His landing punched yet another crater into the ruined landscape.
Body scorched and burnt from head to toe, Vegeta coughed up blood over his chest and glared across the smoldering valley. His eyes then shot wide open when he spotted his opponent descending towards him from above like a meteor, bathed in an orange aura and holding a war hammer made of pure energy above his head the size of a small trailer.
"Planet Crushing Hammer!"
With a deafening battle cry, Cal thrust his weapon down at the prince with all his might, slamming it into the surface of the Earth. The shockwave from the impact was so great it caused the entire countryside to bounce several feet into the air and parted the clouds in the sky. When silence fell, the extraterrestrial thought it was over.
However, after looking down at the spot where the face of his weapon had struck, he spotted his opponent lying there, arms pressed up against its edge and holding the hammer just three inches above his face. Teeth bared and a look of pain reflected in his eyes, the determined Vegeta let out a growl of effort as his aura roared to life, giving him the energy he needed to slowly push the giant energy weapon further away from him.
"Impossible!" Cal, shocked to see his foe was still conscious after managing to block the planet splitting hit, gritted his teeth and powered up to maximum. His orange aura blazing around him and supercharging his muscles, the humanoid warrior's energy hammer increased in size. Its structure pulsating, the energy weapon then proceeded to push down on Vegeta even more, the weight of several dozen stars multiplying three times over.
The ground giving way beneath him as he attempted to fight back against the increasing pressure, Vegeta tried to push back, only to find his arms steadily giving way. Limbs going numb and blood beginning to pour out of his nose as the blood vessels in his body began to burst one after the other, the Saiyan Prince tried to muster all the strength he could to stop from being flattened into the planet. But try as he might, he just could not remove the weapon growing closer and closer to turning him into a pancake.
Cal sensed his opponent's approaching defeat and, wanting to avoid killing him, snarled at the man through bared teeth. "Please… surrender!"
Hearing his foe loud and clear, the Super Saiyan gritted his teeth as the veins in his eyes began to throb. "Never!" Snarling as the ground split and crumbled around him, the short fighter then began digging deep for whatever strength he could muster. Already at his limit, the man's hopes seemed lost. But this didn't stop the most stubborn man on the planet from putting up one last fight. "I… am… Prince… Vegeta! And I will not… be beaten… by a commoner… like YOOOOOOUUUUUU!"
All of a sudden, a bloodcurdling cry echoed across the country as the prince's aura intensified, warping the space around him and covering the land in a bright, flashing light. A miniature lightning storm then fell around Vegeta's position as Cal, watching in utter disbelief, felt his opponent's energy levels skyrocket and watched his hair grow down to his waist. The locks fanned around the prince like a mane while his eyebrows evaporated with his aura, his sudden and explosive transformation quickly ending with a titanic shockwave that pretty much disintegrated the alien's energy hammer and sent rubble hurtling in all directions like snowflakes.
Skidding across the battlefield to a stop, an astonished Cal looked ahead in awe as he watched Vegeta rise up from the ground, his form shrouded in an electrical aura. When he saw the man's gaze fixate upon him, the large humanoid felt a chill of fear run down his spine.
"He… He can ascend to that level too?" the alien warrior whispered.
Lightning running up his body, the Prince of all Saiyans, sheathed in the glow of Super Saiyan 3, huffed confidently, "You're done."
Feeling his body trembling with fright, Cal quickly shook his head and clenched his fists, so as to stop his strength from running out on him. Even though his opponent's power had ascended to a level far beyond his own, the warrior was not going to go down without a fight. Being one of Sandra's most loyal and trusted friends, the gladiator of a warrior was determined to give this battle his all, and was not going to be dissuaded.
Powering up with a blast of orange flames surrounding his body, the humanoid alien rushed forward in a flicker and nailed his opponent in the face with a right cross. He immediately followed up with a few more blows, cracking Vegeta's mug over and over again with powerful hooks, before finishing with a sharp uppercut and a chopping right. However, though his blows landed with enough force to generate a string of earth quaking shockwaves, all his knuckles managed to do was knock the prince's head left and right a couple of times. As soon as he'd finished his combo, Cal stepped away in amazement, drawing a firm glare from Vegeta.
"Not bad," the prince remarked. "But…" All of a sudden, with speed Cal couldn't track, the Saiyan Prince drove a punch into the man's gut, nailing him with such force that it caused the large fighter to buckle over. "Not good enough."
His orange aura dispersing, the stunned warrior choked up whatever air he had left in his lungs. Unable to support him any longer, Cal's legs quickly gave way and, despite his best efforts to stay upright, dropped forward into a hunched over position. The man collapsing to his knees was all the signal Vegeta needed to retract his fist and, as his bio field continued to crackle around him, the new Super Saiyan 3 glared at his fallen adversary with a harsh gaze.
"Like I said… you're done." Taking this opportunity, the prince extended his right hand and held it directly above his foe. It was almost like he was preparing to finish his opponent off right there on the spot, which was made more apparent by his energy beginning to climb and the electrical currents running over his body intensifying.
Moments later, a look of genuine surprise crossed Vegeta's face when he saw his foe look up at him with a hard glare and a pained expression twisted into one of courage and grit. Though it was clear the blow had done a lot of damage, there was not an ounce of panic or dread on Cal's face. In fact, it appeared as though he was welcoming his opponent's final move with open arms.
The sight had the royal blink. "You're… not going to beg for your life?" Vegeta asked in confusion.
The kneeling man braced himself, "No."
"Why not?"
Taking a deep breath, the winded fighter then spoke in a hoarse yet clear voice, "For as long as I can remember, my entire existence has been spent resting underneath the heels of men more powerful than myself. To them, I was nothing more than a piece of trash… an insect groveling in the dirt. When Kure and her friends rescued me from that wretched hellhole of a planet I called home, they showed me I was more than what I was… that I was more than just scum." Struggling to his feet, the man shakily stood before his opponent, even as the warrior's hand was pointed squarely at his face. "For the sake of my friends and the people I now call family, I vowed from that day forward to never let anything break me… because if I did… I would go back to being a lowly insect." Cal shook his head firmly. "I would rather die than face that humiliation ever again."
Staring at the fighter now glaring him down with blood trickling over his swollen and cut-up face, Vegeta considered his words for a moment. After several bolts of lightning sparked down his arm, making it seem as though he was still going to finish his opponent, a smile then broke over the Super Saiyan 3's visage.
Closing his eyes, Vegeta lowered his arm. "I must say, I'm impressed. Normally whenever I defeat someone in battle and have them kneeling before me, their first instinct is to whimper and beg for me to spare them like the cowards that they are." Chief examples included Cui, Dodoria, Zarbon, and Jeice. There was no conviction or metal behind their actions. No honor. No bravery. "But you my friend… you're the first one who's ever stood their ground and faced their defeat with pride… even after being beaten to the point of collapse. For that, you have earned my respect."
Hearing this drew a nod of understanding from the big man, who allowed his body to relax and drop from its powered up state. "I'm grateful."
Disengaging from his newly acquired Super Saiyan 3 form, Vegeta groaned and stumbled a bit, feeling the fatigue of the ascension hit him like a ton of bricks. Now he knew how Gohan felt after his first few days testing out his new form. Even two minutes in such an overpowered state was murder on the body.
Once he'd shaken off the flashes and the spottiness in his vision, the Saiyan Prince turned to his opponent and smiled at him. "Back in the day, there wouldn't have been a force in the galaxy to stop me from blasting you and scattering your ashes across the planet's surface. But now… well…" The man snorted and looked away, "I guess I just don't give a damn anymore. I think my time spent on Earth living amongst these fools has made me grown soft." Receiving no response but a curious blink from his wounded foe, Vegeta then looked up thoughtfully. "Shit. I'm supposed to be the Prince of all Saiyans… and yet here I am showing mercy to a stranger I just met. What's this universe coming to?"
Cal could only stare silently at the prince. When the Saiyan looked in his direction, the large warrior saw the much shorter fighter chuckle and turn away with his arms crossed.
"You don't talk much do you?" When Vegeta saw the warrior nod, the flame-haired man chuckled and rested his knuckles on his hip. "That's fine by me. I actually prefer people who don't say a lot. Makes my days on this ball of dirt a lot more bearable." As soon as he'd said that, Vegeta then turned heel and took flight for another part of the planet. His take off was shaky at first, due to the amount of energy he'd spent during his battle, but he was quick to correct and divert whatever ki he had left to stabilizing himself.
The large humanoid in spandex lifted his head curiously. "Where are you going?"
"Where do you think?" Vegeta spoke back, a smirk remaining plastered on his face. "To see how the other imbeciles are doing without me." He sensed two very powerful combatants clashing somewhere nearby on the continent, with both of them throwing some serious attacks at each other.
Needless to say, he was very curious to see how that battle was turning out and, with Cal following close behind, made all speed towards the disturbance…