Ch. 110: Clearing the Rabble

"Aah! Scatter! It's Vegeta!"

"Run for your lives! Vegeta'll kill us all!"

Arriving at Frieza's unprotected ship, Vegeta sighed in midair, watching whatever was left of Frieza's staff scatter like roaches, terrified of facing his wrath, now that Ginyu was gone. Vegeta allowed them to run, since there wasn't any point in chasing after them. He wasn't in the mood, anyways.

"So, Vegeta. What's your plan now?" Raditz asked Vegeta, floating right in front of him. 

"Not all of those roaches will scatter like those. I plan on interrogating them until one of them gives up the dragon balls' location. Then, I'll kill them. Do you have any complaints?" Vegeta asked.

"You don't care whether I do or not. If the question is whether or not I want to fight you, the answer is no. Now's not the time for it. Try to spare them when you can, but I won't condemn you if you end up killing a few. They signed up for this, after all." Raditz told him, knowing how Vegeta thought. 

"That's fine. I have a deal with your friends, just so you know. I'll wait to attempt to use the Dragon Balls until they get here, so you don't have to be so on guard. All I want is for that bastard Frieza to get what's coming to him, by my hand." Vegeta informed Raditz.

"In other words, you know that you don't have a choice." Raditz muttered to himself. He knew Vegeta well. Well enough to not trust the man as far as he could throw him. He took Vegeta's words at face value, because the man had too much pride to lie, but he kept the fact that Vegeta believed that the rest of the universe was too beneath him to matter in the back of his mind. Were he to let him out of his sight, Vegeta likely would attempt to summon the dragon despite their deal.

With their mutual nonaggression pact in place, Vegeta and Raditz moved to clearing out Frieza's ship. Vegeta started this by casually tossing a ball of energy strong enough to completely destroy the ship at a nearby plateau, causing a loud, almost earthshaking explosion to be heard across the land. "Every single person inside Frieza's ship right now! Come out, or die!" He shouted into the bowels of the ship. Quick, efficient, and to the point. It wasn't long before every single one of Frieza's staff members were climbing out of the ship, leveling entirely useless blasters at him with shaking hands.

"Vegeta... You're... under... arrest..." One of them managed to stammer out, causing Vegeta to send him a glare. That glare was more than enough to make the man pass out on the spot from sheer terror.

"Where are the Dragon Balls?" Vegeta asked the group calmly. More afraid of Frieza and Ginyu than they were of Vegeta, none of the soldiers responded to him, so Vegeta raised his hand, palm-up, and created an energy ball to show them that he wasn't playing around.

"Where are the Dragon Balls!?" He repeated the question with a menacing shout. Stuck between an orb of death and a laser of death, the men were incapable of responding. They just looked at him, shaking in their boots.

"Even if they know, they're too scared of Frieza to tell us. Even if we torture, or kill them, Frieza would probably do worse." Raditz theorized.

"Yes. You're right, I know. There's no point in pressing these weak-willed fools for anything. Not even worth killing." Vegeta agreed with Raditz, letting his energy ball fade with a sigh. "IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, GET OUT OF HERE NOW AND DON'T COME BACK!!" He shouted.

Frieza's weak-willed soldiers immediately took the bait, running for their lives in all different directions. Once the dust from their mad scramble cleared, over 90% of Frieza's staff was gone, leaving a handful of men still standing there, blasters still pointed at Vegeta.

"You're not running?" Raditz asked the ones still there, "You really should. It's your only chance." He informed them.

"We-we can't! If we leave, Lord Frieza will surely kill us! But if we stay and bring you to him, we'll be rewarded instead! I'm sorry, Vegeta, but I need you to wait in the brig until Lord Frieza comes back! Even if it costs me my life, if I can hold you here for a single second, then maybe he'll treat me better!" The least shaky one of the bunch that remained declared, his blaster still pointed at Vegeta.

"You have impressive willpower. Frieza should've been proud to have someone of your character serving him. Too bad he doesn't deserve it." Vegeta raised his palm again, re-creating his energy ball. "Unfortunately, staying was a stupid decision. I told you to run or die. No third choice." He mercilessly threw the energy ball. It turned the man who'd spoken back to him into dust with a mere touch. Beside him, Raditz grimaced, but said nothing. While he wasn't softhearted enough to force Vegeta to spare someone who'd chosen their fate, watching Vegeta kill someone who couldn't fight back, after spending so much time with Goku, left a bad taste in his mouth. Had he been in charge, he would've just tied them all up and left them.

Seeing their associate killed so mercilessly and easily caused the rest of the stayers to panic and begin to run, their wills finally broken, but Vegeta had given them their ultimatum, and they'd chosen their fate, in his mind. A few energy beams later, and their bodies all stopped running and collapsed to the ground, headless.

"Alright. If you want to wait here until your friends return, that's up to you. I'm going to go inside and change my battle armor. Maybe take a shower while I'm at it." Vegeta said, already having lost interest in Frieza's staff.

"Alright." Raditz muttered.

"You sure you don't want to grab your own set of battle armor?" Vegeta asked, looking Raditz up and down. Raditz was wearing a fighting gi with King Kai's symbol, after all. It likely was nowhere near the same quality as a specially made set of battle armor, but Raditz shook his head.

"I'm fine. These clothes are special to me." Raditz's gi symbolized his connection to Earth, and to his brother, after all. He didn't want to abandon it.