Nappa's Revenge
One particularly dark night, in the bowels of HFIL, a large, burly figure crawled out of a small hole in his prison. The fugitive was anything but graceful; luckily for him the guards had fallen asleep. He had heard them talking of a secret escape, and he crept toward the place where they said it lay. He could barely squeeze through, but it didn�t matter; it was a way out.
�Hey! How did you get up here!� thundered a voice. The Saiyan shot out of King Yemma�s drawer and slipped through the ogre king�s fingers�literally.
Before anyone could stop him, he grabbed hold of fortune-teller Baba, growling, �Take me to the planet Namek, and nobody else move, or the hag gets it!�
�Hag!� screeched Baba. �Why you little�� Her words were cut short when the Saiyan�s free hand began to glow with energy. �All right, I�ll take you,� she snapped. �You won�t last long in the living world anyway.� They disappeared, and the Saiyan was dropped on New Namek. He immediately rushed to the nearest village and threatened its peaceful inhabitants until they told him the location of the Dragon Balls. He set off for the temple in which they were kept, already becoming weak.
�The Nameckians were actually stupid enough to keep them all in one place!� he snorted to himself as he flew toward their temple. �Lucky for me.�
By the time he reached the temple, he was already beginning to fade. He was sure he could see straight through his right hand for a moment, and he felt as weak as that puny bald Earthling who could shoot energy disks. He wasted no time with interrogations and just blew the whole temple up. There they were, gleaming in the rubble�the Dragon Balls! The Saiyan dropped to the ground beside them.
�At last, I will have my revenge!� he cried. �Eternal Dragon of Namek, I summon you!� He waited, but nothing happened. �Eternal Dragon, I command you to arise!� he shouted again. Still nothing happened. He caught sight of a small Namek boy who had survived the explosion, cowering in the rubble.
�Boy!� he shouted, picking him up by the collar. �Why won�t the dragon come when I call him?� The boy just stared, his eyes wide with terror. �Come on, kid, I haven�t got all day!�
�You � need to say the password,� the boy stammered.
�Ah, a password. Now we�re getting somewhere. All right, kid, now you just tell me this password and I�ll let you go.�
�Por � Porunga.�
�Why thank you, kid!� said the Saiyan, and with an evil grin blew the Namek boy to smithereens.
�Now, let�s try this again,� he said, walking back to the Dragon Balls. �Eternal Dragon, I summon you! Porunga!� The sky turned black as the enormous dragon rose out of the Dragon Balls.
�You have awakened me from my sleep. What do you desire?� it thundered.
�I want revenge!� the Saiyan roared. �I was his servant since he was born, and his father�s servant before him! I protected him with my life! When he was grown, we became partners, and we were invincible! But then we went to Earth to collect their Dragon Balls, and I was beaten by the lowly Saiyan Kakarot�and he killed me! For losing one battle! I was always strong and my loyalty never wavered, and he killed me just like that!�
�What do you desire?� the dragon repeated.
�Revenge!� the Saiyan raged. �Revenge on Vegeta, the Prince of the Saiyans! Torment him for the rest of his life! Cripple him and make him pay! I want you to�� His voice died away as his body faded into nothing.
The dragon glowed. �Your wish has been granted,� he said. Then, seeing no one else to make another wish, he disappeared, and the Dragon Balls scattered. Chapter 1: Vegeta's Curse
Vegeta never told anyone what he had done the whole time he was in space after the defeat of Frieza. He always said that he went into space to train or to search for Goku, which were both true; but neither was the whole truth. He had gone into space intending to train, and to find and defeat Goku, but that wasn�t what he did once he�d got there. What had really happened, he was far too ashamed to tell.
The first several months went fine; Vegeta traveled to exotic planets to battle the inhabitants and the elements. Some of them were actually almost a challenge. After he wiped out everyone worthwhile on a planet with particularly fierce conditions, he would train by himself for a while. He grew much stronger through his intense training, and with his muscles grew his ego.
Vegeta�s problems began when he was on the planet Goliva, which was a little too pleasant for proper training. The inhabitants were strong, however, and Vegeta was in the middle of a fight with one. The alien was no match for the great Saiyan Prince, of course, but his extra arms and the fact that he was big enough to step on Vegeta presented a bit of a challenge.
�It�s time to end this, Golivan!� Vegeta said, launching a flying kick at the brute�s head that was sure to break his neck. Just before it hit, both of Vegeta�s legs suddenly went limp, and the Saiyan collided awkwardly with his opponent. The blow was enough to knock the Golivan down, but he wasn�t badly hurt and immediately ran away at a fantastic speed for his size.
Vegeta was still on the ground. He was trying to stand, but his legs kept buckling under him.
�Blast it!� he yelled. �What the heck did he do to me? GET BACK HERE, YOU COWARD!� But the Golivan was long gone.
�I can�t believe it,� said Vegeta. �Me, the prince of all Saiyans, crippled by some pathetic giant! How did he do that? Perhaps he�s psychic. Maybe they�re all psychics on this planet. Well, I�m going to find out, and then I�ll kill them all!� He streaked off in the direction his opponent had run. Chapter 2: Vegeta's Rage
Vegeta arrived at a busy town. All of its dwellers had five arms and were about six times his height, just like the fighter had been. It was difficult to tell the difference between the women and the men; the women were only slightly taller and slimmer. They stared and backed away in fear from this two-armed midget, floating in the air with his legs dangling.
�Where is he?� Vegeta roared, darting around as if expecting the alien to be cowering behind a building. �Where is the one who did this to me?� The Golivans ran back, some jabbering in a foreign language.
�Blast it!� said Vegeta. �Don�t any of you speak English?� The Golivans just stared. �I guess I�ll just have to find him myself!� With that, the Saiyan prince flew over to the nearest building and reduced it to rubble with a punch, disintegrating another with an energy blast.
�This is just a taste of what you will get if he refuses to show himsel��
�Aamf!� From the crowd emerged a bruised Golivan, unmistakably the one who had fought Vegeta. �Iga nu bapau! Nu nolu hagrat Golivana!�
�So, you�ve got guts after all,� Vegeta smirked; then his face twisted into an ugly scowl. �Well, if you intend to keep them you�d better give me my legs back.� The Golivan understood only Vegeta�s anger and retorted in his native language.
�My legs! What did you do to my legs?� Vegeta yelled, gesturing wildly. �Blast it, you don�t understand a word I�m saying!� He pounded the ground with his fist, opening a small fissure, and his eyes snapped open wide in inspiration. �That�s it!�
Vegeta shot fifty feet into the air. �Move!� he yelled, sweeping the air with his arm. The Golivans got the gist and backed up, clearing the large town square. A thin, purple energy beam shot out of Vegeta�s index finger and danced on the ground. In a moment it became clear what he was doing: Vegeta was drawing out his words. Soon a five-armed figure took shape on the ground next to a much smaller two-armed one. Next to that was another picture of the smaller figure with its legs dangling, surrounded by dashes for emphasis. A third picture showed both figures glowing, and then the smaller one standing, once again with dashes around its legs. Vegeta pointed to the large figure and the Golivan, then to the smaller one, and finally to himself, but the Golivan didn�t seem to understand.
�You fool!� the Saiyan yelled. �How much clearer can I make this?� But the alien was drawing now, with the tip of his massive finger. He drew two figures similar to Vegeta�s in a fight. Then he drew the little one plowing into the ground, and the large one running away. Finally he drew the two figures glowing, the little one�s legs limp, and covered it with a big X.
�What do you mean, you didn�t do it!?� said Vegeta. �Then what in HFIL did?� But it was clear that even if the Golivan was lying, he had no intention of helping Vegeta, so the furious prince blew the whole city up and fled to his spaceship. Chapter 3: Fruitless Journeys and Vain Attempts
Vegeta did everything he could think of to regain the use of his legs. First he convinced himself that this was only a bad dream; he had not yet landed on the planet Golivan and was still in hibernation in his ship. But when he had left Golivan, he had not plotted a course, and the pain of a crash-landing on a very harsh planet was added to the shame of being crippled, which he could no longer deny. Vegeta had to take off again immediately to keep his ship from being ripped to shreds by the gales and acid rain that plagued this planet; it was very lucky for him that it could still fly. However, the mechanisms that allowed him to hibernate had been damaged in the crash, and there was precious little room for food or water on his ship, so all chances of flying long distances had disappeared. Cursing his luck, the Kais, the Golivans, his ship, and just about everything he could think of, Vegeta planet-hopped, always on the search for food and water and a mechanic. But Vegeta had another curse now, as well: without the ability to hibernate, he had nothing to do during the long days in his ship but brood over his injuries. And this made him angry.
Eventually Vegeta arrived on a planet renowned for having the best doctors in the galaxy, but they could find nothing wrong with him. Vegeta raged, snarled, and threatened, but they never changed their diagnosis. Finally he gave up. If they could not help him, then they could not live knowing the great Saiyan Prince was a cripple. Vegeta gave them a parting gift of a Galick Gun blast big enough to destroy a sun.
The Saiyan prince went from planet to planet in much the same way but never found a cure for his condition, or his wounded pride. Eventually it became clear that there was no cure, a truth Vegeta could no longer deny.
This came as a real blow to him. He fled into space, half-sane, with nothing left but his obsession with getting stronger. He convinced himself that if he just got strong enough, he would be able to make his legs work again. So he spent the next several months seeking out planets with increasingly strong gravity and vicious weather on which to train, carefully burying his ship each time to protect it from further damage. He might have gone on this way until he�d trained himself to death if it hadn�t been for one thing� Chapter 4: A Saiyan�s Epiphany
Vegeta was battling the elements on the planet Ndromsta, a planet so dense it had three hundred times the gravity of Earth, though it had nowhere near three hundred times the volume. Vegeta had had to land his spaceship on a moon at the edge of the planet�s atmosphere because the planet seemed to be one ferocious sandstorm, fathoms of sand being flung in all directions by the unrelenting gales of the atmosphere. In truth it wasn�t even a planet, but sand and air revolving around a core so dense it was just short of a black hole.
Through this Vegeta battled, punching at the swirling atmosphere and sending energy blasts in all directions. These would often circle the planet and come back at him with the added force of the gale. He�d been at it for hours and he was so fatigued that he could barely keep himself from falling to the planet�s core, but he stubbornly kept going. Suddenly a blast came from behind and exploded on his back. Vegeta nearly fell out of the air, then, bellowing, raised his power level to disintegrate all his blasts and create a huge spot of calm in the storm. Then he used all his remaining energy to return to his ship and collapsed into a deep sleep inside.
* * * * *
Vegeta jerked awake when an explosion sent his ship bouncing down a crater. He staggered out and saw thousands of tons of space rocks colliding with the surface of the moon, some barely missing the spot over which he hovered. The Saiyan prince quickly began blowing up any meteors that came near, to protect his ship, but he had not fully recuperated and his energy was fading fast. Suddenly a colossal meteor, almost as big as the moon itself, loomed on the horizon. If it hit the moon, both would surely shatter. Normally Vegeta would have been able to destroy this meteor with a finger, but with his energy so low the strongest attack he could muster barely dented it. Vegeta looked around. There was no way he could navigate his ship through the meteor shower without it being hammered into a tin can.
�So this is it,� the Prince muttered. �I�m going to die here. I�ll never get to fight Kakarot again.� He began to laugh madly, his laugh quickly increasing in volume, and then he yelled, �You hear that, Kakarot? You�re safe! We�ll never get to fight! I�ll never get to fight yooooouuuuuu!� The last word was drawn out in a long howl of anguish; he was overcome with rage. He couldn�t die like this; it was a disgrace. A Saiyan prince, defeated by a mere meteor! Kakarot would never be defeated this way! Vegeta had to beat him to restore his honor!
�I WILL DEFEAT YOU, KAKAROT!� All of Vegeta�s rage burst out of him and his energy was renewed, doubled, tripled. Tenfold his energy was, and still growing, so much that it made him glow gold. He aimed and shot an energy beam a thousand times more powerful than anything he had ever felt before, and the meteor disintegrated instantly. Vegeta stared at his hand, wide-eyed, all the smaller meteors exploding on contact with his energy field.
�I�I did it,� he said in astonishment. �I�ve become a Super Saiyan.� He hovered silently for a moment, shocked by his own power. Then he realized with a smirk� �Ha! Take that, Kakarot! You�re not the only Super Saiyan! I have once again earned my throne! Oh, how I hated that day, the day you ascended�
�It was Frieza! The fiend who held me captive all my life, who killed me! You rose up to fight, to defend our Saiyan honor. But what chance could a puny low-class Saiyan have against the destroyer of us all? You had some trick up your sleeve, Kakarot. I�ll never forget when you brought me back, and all I wanted was my wish from the dragon. But then I saw you, and I knew you�d gone all the way! And�� Vegeta stopped in midsentence as realization hit him. �The dragon�how could I have forgotten? I can use the Eternal Dragon of Earth to wish for my legs back! And once that happens, I will be unstoppable!� The Saiyan darted into his spaceship and sped off in the direction of Earth, still disintegrating meteors with a shield of Saiyan might. Chapter 5: Summoning Shenron
Vegeta made it to Earth in a week, too impatient to stop and so rationing what little food he could fit in the ship with him. He broke into Capsule Corporation and stole the Dragon Radar, and soon he had all seven Dragon Balls before him.
�Shenron, I summon you!� he bellowed. �I command you to rise and grant my wish!� The balls began to glow and an enormous green dragon rose from them.
�You have awakened me from my slumber,� Shenron boomed. �What is your desire?�
"I want my legs back!� the Prince yelled into the night. �Give me back the use of my legs!�
"I�m afraid I can�t do that,� Shenron rumbled.
�Well, why not?� Vegeta was nearly mad with fury.
�I cannot counteract the powers of the Nameckian dragon. To undo that wish, you must summon him.�
�What do you mean, �to undo that wish�? Namek is DESTROYED! THERE IS NO NAMECKIAN DRAGON!�
�There is a new planet Namek and a new dragon,� said Shenron.
�Then I wish I had the new Nameckian Dragon Balls and I knew the password!�
�You may only have one wish,� thundered the dragon, sounding annoyed. �Which do you want?�
�Then I wish I knew the coordinates of the new planet and the password for the new dragon!� Shenron�s eyes glowed.
�Your wish has been granted.� The Dragon Balls flew off into the sky and the darkness lifted. Vegeta strangled a passing dinosaur and ate the whole thing raw. He split open the femur and stored the marrow in his ship; this would sustain him for weeks if he was careful. Then he punched in the coordinates of New Namek and prepared for a long ride. Chapter 6: Your Wish Has Been Granted
Vegeta finally landed on New Namek. Finding the Dragon Balls was not too difficult, for the Nameks still kept them all together in a temple. All he had to do was blow up a few walls, doors, Nameckians.
�At last, it is time to return to my full power!� the Saiyan cheered. �Eternal Dragon of Namek, I summon you! Porunga!� The sky went black and an immense dragon erupted from the orbs, just as Shenron had done on Earth.
�You have awakened me from my sleep. What do you desire?� asked Porunga.
�Porunga!� Vegeta called. �You granted a wish that took away my dignity and crippled me, paralyzed my legs. I want you to undo that wish!� The dragon glowed. Vegeta felt the life tingle back into his legs. He raised one foot and kicked the air. He moved his other foot and did the same.
�Your wish has been granted,� said Porunga.
�I�I can�t believe it.� Vegeta kicked the ground hard and made a small crater. Then he jumped up and down. �Yes�it worked! My legs work! I can stand! Walk! Fight!�
�What is your second wish?� Porunga interrupted.
�My second wish? Uh�I wish my ship was fixed!�
�Your wish has been granted,� Porunga said again. �And what is your final wish?�
�My final wish. For my final wish�� The proud Saiyan shut his eyes tight, head bowed, and mumbled his third wish so that it was barely audible. �Can you make Bulma like me?� The dragon�s eyes glowed for the third time.
�She already does.� Vegeta�s eyes snapped open and his head jerked upward.
�Huh!?�
�But I have made her more willing to show it.�
The Dragon Balls scattered. Now, if Vegeta had known Bulma was going to make him wear pink the next time she saw him, he might have rethought that last wish.