Vegeta grimaced and looked up at the sky. He was on the ground, and badly injured. But he stood all the same, and wiped the blood from his mouth.

"Kakarot!" He shouted with clenched fists, "I'm still fighting him; wait your turn!"

Goku, who was indeed up in the sky, was fighting a purple and green monster with double his power level.

"Don't be stupid Vegeta; we can't afford to lose anyone in this fight!" he said, blocking off another attack. He dared a glance down at his former nemesis,

"Not with the others still fighting over there."

Across the canyon, five small figures- Krillin, Piccolo, Goten, Trunks, and Gohan, could be seen near two other men.

Vegeta narrowed his eyes and tightened his fist.

"I don't care! Get out of the way!" He demanded.

Meanwhile, Gohan was thinking the same thing.

"He has him outmatched. At this rate Trunks won't survive," Gohan's voice wavered from his place on the ground.

Like Piccolo and his younger brother, Gohan had fought hard only to have failed when the enemies tripled their power levels-and they were only the henchmen to Dartmouth. Trunks was fighting alone now, while Goten and Krillin were lying unconscious not far off.

"I agree, this is unreal," Piccolo growled from beside him, "But we have to stay calm. Once Vegeta and Goku defeat Dartmouth then they can help us with the fight here."

Gohan glanced at his former master and then back at the fighting youth. He clenched his teeth when Trunks took a punch.

Goku grunted as he exchanged kicks and punches intermittingly with Dartmouth.

"Kakarot are you listening?" Vegeta shouted back up at him.

But again, Goku ignored him as he flew back from blocking an attack. He prepared his most powerful attack.

"Kaaaa…meeeeehhhh…hhhaaaaa…meehhhhh," Goku began.

Vegeta took a step forward.

"HAAAAA!" Goku finished.

Dartmouth smirked and shot out a similar, bright pink attack. The two blasts met in the middle and a struggle began.

Vegeta grit his teeth.

There he goes again, he thought, Kakarot always has to be the hero. /I/ could be defeating Dartmouth instead of him. I could have his skull beneath my shoe right now…

A slow smile crept upon his face. He held his hand out in front of him, and grasped the empty air.

"I'll proveonce and for all that I'm the more elite warrior. I'll wipe out the floor with Dartmouth and his associates in a single blow."

"And who knows…" he chuckled with a pause, "Maybe they'll erect a statue in my honor when it's over."

Gohan squeezed his eyes shut as Trunks took another hit. Though he couldn't help but feel the youth's energy take yet another sharp turn for the worst.

"If only I had trained more instead of studying," he said, daring to open up an eye, "Sure Mom would've killed me but that probably would have been better than this."

Gohan started to shake a little with rage, but his hair remained black as it had been since he'd been defeated.

Trunks, still a Super Saiyan, panted hard as the battle took a pause.

"I'm getting tired of this," one of the men yawned to the other. "Why don't we just kill him?"

The other, pink, just shrugged, "Works for me."

With twisted smiles they both prepared their unified attack.

Trunks was barely able to stand. Gohan and Piccolo watched as the youth fell to his knees after a failed attempt. His pants were ragged and sparse.

But the attackers only laughed at the 8 year-old, which made Gohan grow even tenser. Piccolo looked over sensing this.

"No Gohan. Getting yourself killed won't solve a thing," he insisted. He glanced back over his shoulder. "Come on, Goku, what's taking you so long?"

Goku was still evenly matched with Dartmouth. He grunted, keeping his Kamehameha in full blast. But even he could feel the boy's energy slipping in the back of his mind. He could feel the overwhelming power of the blast about to hit him.

"Vegeta!" He called down to him, keeping his eye on his own attack. "Trunks needs your help. Go! I'll handle this."

"Oh but I'm afraid you won't, Kakarot," Vegeta smirked. A small but quickly growing ball of energy was circling in the palm of the Saiyan's hand. "This time I'm stealing the show."

"What-?" Goku glanced back and by consequence lost a lot of ground. It took him a few moments to regain it. But during that glance he saw that Vegeta had become Super again.

"Vegeta! This is no time for games. Hurry now and save your son!"

"He can handle himself," Vegeta retorted stubbornly with a sneer. "I'm saving the day whether your ego will allow it or not."

"My 'ego'?" Goku echoed back. He was having a hard time concentrating on the fight at hand with Vegeta slowly building his own attack and by the verbal distraction the prince was giving him.

"This isn't a game!" He finally repeated after some struggling.

"I know," Vegeta laughed, jabbing a thumb back toward himself, "That's why I'm ending it."

Meanwhile Piccolo and Gohan were watching in horror as the attack mounted against Trunks.

"He's going to be killed!" Gohan insisted, wide-eyed. "Vegeta better get here soon or-"

"Trunks?" A small pained cry sounded. The two saw Goten coming to his senses about 25 feet away. His 7 year-old eyes looked terrified as his friend stood right in the way of the attack.

"Get up!...Get up!" he urged.

Gohan watched Goten and then looked at Trunks. His hands curled into fists.

"No," Piccolo put a green hand on his wrist. He looked right into the 17 year-old's eyes who were still focused on the battlefield. "Gohan..."

"Vegeta! Get your butt over there!" Goku yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Not a chance," Vegeta replied cheekily. "But if you're so worried, why don't you go?"

Vegeta's energy ball was now roughly the size of a football stadium.

"I…" Goku grunted painfully, "I can't, if I let go this energy blast it will destroy the Earth!"

Vegeta suddenly grew very angry, "Yeah well so can MINE!"

His blast suddenly grew to the size of a small planet.