All Hell Breaks Loose, Literally

Disclaimer – never have, nor will I ever own dragon ball z

A/N I had a long author's note, so I put it at the end of the chapter instead. Please enjoy and leave a review! Ta.

Chapter 16 – I'll protect you

Broly's maniac laughter filtered through the cloud of dust that blanketed a greater portion of the wild open plains of the far east. While Broly's gargantuan body had its fair share of cuts and scrapes – he was nowhere near injured enough for Vegeta's liking, especially since his latest attack seemed to have had next to no effect what so ever.

"you'll have to do much better than that to beat me. I'm still waiting to see this almighty power of yours, Vegeta – or do you just want me to crush you now?" Broly taunted, a sly smirk contorting his demonic features.

Vegeta growled – enough was enough, it was time to end this. He lunged for the brute, aiming a Ki charged punch at his stomach – a point of his anatomy the prince knew to be something of a weakness for the legendary sayain. But, as easily as he would have swatted a fly, Broly dodged the smaller sayain. But with lightning fast reflexes and a sayain determination, Vegeta was able to get Broly's feet out from beneath him, sending the behemoth flying into the dirt with a powerful elbow blow to the stomach.

Vegeta deftly leapt away from Broly, immediately charging a ball of Ki at his side.

"FINAL FLASH!" Vegeta yelled as soon as he had amassed enough power. An immense beam of golden energy shot from the palms of his hands faster than any normal earthling would be able to react to – engulfing Broly in a blaze of crackling, golden fire and an ever expanding blur of debris.

Several moments later, Vegeta lowered his hands, breathing heavily. A bead of sweat slowly trickled along his brow – which was furrowed in a frown as the prince scanned amidst the dust for any sign of Broly. He couldn't sense his Ki – but Vegeta's instincts were telling him that Broly wasn't quite finished just yet.

But something else came to his attentions before he had found the other sayain – the sound of the spinning rotors of a flying helicopter, growing steadily nearer. He couldn't see the machine amidst the dust – but if truth be told, it wasn't actually the chopper itself that bothered Vegeta as much as who was piloting it.

The Ki of the person piloting the machine was small, and rather insignificant, but it was one that the prince had tuned his mind to detect no matter the circumstance, and the fact that it was approaching made his blood run cold - because it belonged to the very last person that Vegeta would want anywhere near him when he was in the middle of a very dangerous battle with a very unstable and homicidal lunatic. This person was Bulma Briefs.

Bulma couldn't see a thing. A cloud of dust – that, as far as she was concerned, had appeared out of nowhere – had all but reduced her visibility to zero. The small chopper struggled to navigate through the choking dirt as it rocked and rolled around – all the while fighting to remain airborne.

It was one thing that just when Bulma was sure the cloud of dust would relent, it would renew itself in a blur of murky powder – it was quite another that the small, rotary engine that was keeping the craft in the air was beginning to get clogged up with the tiny fragments of rock and debris.

Bulma flew the helicopter upwards – finally escaping the blinding fog of sand. But at a cost – the dust had gotten into the internal mechanisms of the copter, and now the machine was flying fitfully at best. The engine spluttered and coughed, and Bulma cursed.

But, it turned out that she had somewhat more pressing matters than a dust-cluttered engine – for in the near distance, she could make out four distinct silhouettes, two of which were instantly recognisable, and blinding flashes of gold and white. The sounds of yells and explosions could be heard clearly even at Bulma's considerable distance from the group.

With a particularly loud explosion, Bulma once again found herself almost completely encased in a blanket of dust. Bulma cursed loudly as the copter rolled and ricocheted in the after math of the blast.

Bulma cursed loudly, once again attempting to fly up out of the dust haze. But something large and heavy suddenly ploughed into Bulma's chopper – all but destroying the main rotor blades.

The chopper spiralled and cart wheeled through the air – the loss of the main rotors destroyed any semblance of control its mistress had over it. The tail rotor sliced through the air wildly – the entire craft losing altitude with every passing moment. Alarms were going off all around, and with a shrill yelp, Bulma braced herself for a violent impact with the earth. She waited...

The impact she had been expecting never came – confused and curious blue eyes blinked open – and through the windscreen she saw that the chopper was just two feet from the ground before it stopped falling suddenly. She heaved a sigh of relief and wiped her brow, before wondering by what miracle the helicopter had been able to defy the laws of conventional gravity.

With a jolt, the chopper lowered itself onto the ground, harmlessly. Bulma frowned, utterly perplexed – but then a familiar voice floated through the protective plastic of the windscreen. Bulma couldn't make out exactly what was being said, but there was no mistaking that voice – the voice of Vegeta, prince of sayains.

Bulma grinned – of course it was her prince that had saved her. She pushed a button that released the catch that allowed her to exit the dilapidated helicopter. She grabbed the small bag containing the six dragon balls she and Gohan had collected and stepped out of the useless chopper, dusting off her clothes as she did.

Vegeta wasn't looking at her – his eyes instead were focused on the huge man with demented, pupil-deprived white eyes that was hovering in the air above them. In his hands he held the bent, misshapen remains of what had once been titanium rotor blades on Bulma's helicopter. They had been crushed as easily as if they had been tin foil in his hands. Obviously, it had been him who had pretty much cleaved Bulma's copter in two.

Broly cast the scrap metal away carelessly - a demented look on his face as he looked at Bulma.

Vegeta positioned himself protectively between his enemy and his wife – casting Broly venomous glares. He wasn't going to let him put Bulma in anymore danger than he already had – and he really didn't like the grotesque look the gargantuan sayain was sending in his wife's direction.

King Vegeta, who had gone pretty much unnoticed for a while now, was curious as to who this new woman was, and why Vegeta was acting the way he was – was she someone of importance to the prince? She must be, he speculated, he had, after all, gone out of his way to save her.

"Trunks!" Vegeta called to his son, who was watching all three people anxiously. "Take your mother out of here. Find someplace safe!"

Broly, who had also been wondering who this woman was to Vegeta, smirked upon hearing of the relationship they evidently shared. Oh, what an interesting turn of events this was – so she was Vegeta's mate? All the better for messing with his head before finally crushing him. Getting rid of the woman suddenly seemed like a very appealing idea to Broly – a demonic grin spread across his face. Yes, a very appealing idea indeed.

Broly laughed to himself – a wild, animalistic laughter that sent a chill down the spines of even the most hardened and battle weary of men. And, without any warning of any kind, he fired an immense beam of blinding Ki towards Vegeta and the helpless Bulma.

Vegeta, who normally would have simply dodged such a forceful attack, retaliated with a blast of his own – slowing the beam down enough to give trunks enough time to fly his mother out of the way of the blast.

"What're...you waiting for, boy? ...Get out of here!" Vegeta gasped, trying to stop Broly's attack from incinerating not only himself but everything around him.

"uh, right! Come on, mom!"

Trunks was about to take off – but with a sudden surge of energy, Broly was not only able to send Vegeta flying, but was able to place himself directly in the path of the retreating trunks – forcing the youth to slow down immensely to avoid a head on collision.

Both mother and son spat obscenities at the large sayain – but with Trunks' hands full with his mother, he had no choice but to retreat lest he be beaten to a bloody pulp.

But Trunks once again found his path blocked by the legendary

"hey – why don't you quit hogging the road and let a lady through?" Bulma snarled, gesturing angrily at Broly, who only smirked.

"oh, I'll let you through – to the other world that is!"

Broly grinned evilly, charging up his energy in his hands. Trunks was about to turn and move away when

"EXCECUTION BEAM!" a huge beam of burning gold energy streaked passed Trunks and Bulma, striking Broly hard in the chest. King Vegeta – who had floated into obscurity for whatever reason, had suddenly decided to get back in the game, taking full advantage of being obsolete and taking the giant sayain while he was off his guard.

Broly drifted away – the energy ball he had been forming dissipating into nothing. The giant was dazed and surprised, but uninjured despite the ferocity.

But before he could shake himself out of his daze, he was once again engulfed in a blinding blast of bright, golden light – accompanied with a yell of "FINAL GALLICK GUN!"

In the confusion, Trunks landed, depositing his mother on the ground where it was – relatively – safe from Broly. With a growl, he took back off towards Broly, charging up his own patented finishing move.

"FINISH BUSTER!" He yelled just as a distinctly battered looking Broly appeared from the fading light of the Galick gun. Broly – who had dominated the fight without trial was obliterated as a huge orb of burning orange flames engulfed his once-nigh-invincible form as it deteriorated back into the formless cloud-creature it had been before.

He was gone this time – if any of the sayains saw Broly again it would be too soon. They each breathed a sigh of relief, their hairs simultaneously resorting back to their natural hues.

Vegeta turned to his father – who looked more than a little weary.

"if you're going to say something, then out with it – you know I'm not a patient man!" King Vegeta snapped.

Vegeta glared at the King – though admittedly with considerably less spite than he had done before. He then frowned – he really didn't know what to say to him now. Sure, the resentment was still there, and he wasn't about to forgive him – but he had just saved both Trunks' and Bulma's lives for reasons known only to him. He growled.

Bulma, who had only noticed the King for the first time just a moment ago, looked bemusedly between the bearded stranger and her husband – immediately noticing the striking resemblance they shared.

"hey, 'Geta. Aren't ya going to introduce me to your friend?" asked Bulma, playfully elbowing her husband, as she inclined her head to the man who looked so like him.

"this is...my father!" he said quietly, not bothering to look at either his father or his wife. The words hadn't exactly come from his mouth easily – but he figured he could at least give the man that much respect – he had certainly gone up a peg or two as far as respect was concerned.

A/N This chapter is dedicated to the 96 Liverpool football club fans who were crushed to death on the 15th of April, 1989 in one of the worst football tragedies in British history – if not the world's – the Hillsborough disaster – as my sign of respect, twenty years on. My grandfather, who I never got to meet, was killed in this disaster – because the police are idiots who couldn't tell that a football stadium was full to bursting point and kept on letting more and more people in. May you rest in peace, You Will Never Walk Alone. T^T

I'm sorry to finish off on such a negative and depressing note – but as a Liverpool football fan myself, I felt it was necessary to show my respect to those who died (some of which were as young as ten years old) even though it happened several years before I was born. Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter.

Please leave a review.