Low clouds hung heavy over the turquoise waters of the lake as the four figures dropped onto the rocky shore. The ruined Namekian village sat in absolute silence, the scorched stone dwellings standing as hollow monuments to Vegeta's earlier rampage.
"Keep your Ki suppressed to a flicker," Vegeta ordered through gritted teeth, his eyes scanning the horizon frantically. "If one of those freaks sweeps this sector while we're out in the open, we're done."
Krillin landed beside a shattered wall, holding the One-Star Dragon Ball tight against his chest, his knuckles white. Gohan dropped into a low crouch beside him, his eyes darting toward the sky.
"Escallion, get them," Vegeta barked, standing guard at the water's edge.
Without a word, Escallion stepped up to the edge of the deep, dark lake. His eyes narrowed, calculating the depth based on the underwater rock formations. He took a deep breath, dropped his aura completely, and dived smoothly into the icy water.
Below the surface, the lake was pitch black. Escallion kicked downward, his eyes adapting to the dim teal light filtering through the depths. Fifty feet down, wedged tight inside a narrow crevice between two giant underwater boulders, three faint, warm amber spheres glowed gently in the abyss, the Four-Star, Five-Star and Six-Star Dragon Balls.
Escallion reached into the crevice, his gloved fingers gripping the smooth, glass-like surfaces of the massive spheres. He pulled them free, planting his boots against the lake floor, and launched himself back toward the surface.
SPLASH!
Escallion broke the surface of the lake, landing heavily on the rocky shore with a slick, heavy thud. He set the two glowing Dragon Balls down beside Krillin's One-Star ball. Four amber spheres now rested together on the Namekian grass, their red stars glittering under the dual suns.
"That's Four," Escallion said calmly, wringing the water from his hair, his dark eyes fixing on Vegeta. "Where are the rest?"
"Frieza has three stored inside his flagship," Vegeta snarled, staring down at the three spheres. "And without a way to track them, we can't hunt down the remaining ones blindly."
"We have a radar!" Krillin blurted out, reaching into his pouch and pulling out the small, white capsule device Bulma had brought from Earth. "Bulma built it! It tracks the exact electromagnetic frequency of the spheres!"
Vegeta's eyes widened, a sudden, dark flash of realization crossing his face. "You had a tracking device this whole time?!"
"Hey, don't yell at him!" Gohan snapped, stepping between Vegeta and Krillin. "We were using it to keep them away from you!"
"Quiet, will you," Escallion interjected smoothly, his glare shutting down the argument instantly. He looked down at the green screen of the Dragon Radar as Krillin clicked it on. Four bright green dots blinked in a tight cluster, their current location, while three distinct dots burned steadily miles away to the south, pinned directly inside Frieza's base.
"All seven are accounted for," Escallion noted, his voice dropping into a razor-sharp tone. "Four with us, three with Frieza."
Vegeta grabbed the Radar from Krillin's hand, staring at the screen with a manic, desperate grin. "Then the plan is simple. We haul these three spheres to a remote canyon, hide them, and make a high-speed strike on Frieza's flagship while his new hounds are out searching for us. We grab his four, bring them back, and grant the wish."
"We have to move now," Escallion said, picking up two of the heavy spheres under his arms while Krillin grabbed the third. "The moment I pulled these out of the water, the displacement created a minor energy shift. If those new scouters are as sensitive as you say—"
Before Escallion could finish his sentence, the sky above the lake valley flashed a violent, unnatural crimson.
A high-pitched, metallic screech echoed across the horizon, echoing off the surrounding cliffs, the unmistakable sound of four ultra-high-frequency scouters locking onto their exact coordinates.
Vegeta snapped his head toward the southern sky, his dark eyes wide with pure, unadulterated tension. "They locked onto us! Move! NOW!"
"No time," Escallion said calmly, his voice a stark, icy contrast to Vegeta's panic. He lowered the Dragon Balls smoothly to the grass, his dark eyes fixed on the clouds above. "If we fly now, our energy signatures blow wide open. They're already on top of us."
Before Krillin could even utter a word of complaint, the teal sky ripped apart. Four blinding comets of light, red, blue, green, and orange, crashed straight into the rocky plateau surrounding the lake village. The impact detonated with the force of a tectonic shift, shattering the cliff faces and throwing up a towering wall of dust and scorched earth.
The shockwave knocked Krillin back half a step, but Gohan held his ground, dropping into a wide turtle-school stance.
As the dust settled, four towering figures emerged from the haze, standing atop the crumbling rocks that encircled the group.
On the left stood Jeice, tossing a fiery red sphere of Ki between his palms with an arrogant smirk, his long white hair whipping in the wind. Opposite him was Burter, his massive blue frame towering over the ledge, tapping the side of his dark-cased scouter.
In the center, blocking the only canyon exit, was Recoome, a mountain of muscle with a wide, toothy grin that looked completely devoid of sanity. And waddling down into the dirt beside him was the squat, four-eyed Guldo, wiping a bit of sweat from his forehead.
Jeice tapped his scouter twice, listening to the rapid, high-pitched chirping of its readouts. "Well, well, well... look what the new gear dragged in, boys."
"Three distinct readings," Burter boomed, his deep voice echoing off the valley walls. "Plus those three glowing orange rocks Lord Frieza wants so badly. You owe me that chocolate parfait, Jeice, I told you we'd find them in under five minutes."
"Shut it, speed-demon, we haven't secured 'em yet!" Jeice snapped back, though his grin never faded. His eyes drifted over the group, landing squarely on Vegeta and Escallion. "Though I gotta admit, Captain was right. The rogue prince brought a little friend along."
Down on the shore, Vegeta's teeth ground together so hard a tiny thread of blood trickled down his chin. His hands trembled, his aura flickering violently beneath his skin. "Recoome... Burter... Jeice... Guldo..."
"Hey, don't forget the grand entrance, boys!" Recoome shouted, thrusting his massive fists into the air.
Before Krillin or Gohan could even process the threat, the four warriors dropped onto the flat ground twenty paces away and instantly snapped into an absurdly elaborate, synchronized pose.
"RECOOME!" "BURTER!" "JEICE!" "GULDO!"
"THE GINYU SPECIAL FORCES!" they roared in unison, a small pyrotechnic burst cracking behind them as they held their ridiculous stances in absolute silence.
Krillin's jaw practically hit the dirt. "A-Are they... are they making fun of us?"
"Don't let the foolish act fool you," Escallion warned, stepping in front of the four Dragon Balls, his body perfectly relaxed, his mind rapidly running through the math. "Every single one of them outclasses us in raw power."
Recoome slowly dropped out of his pose, cracking his massive neck until it popped loudly. His small, cruel eyes locked onto Vegeta, then shifted to Escallion.
"So," Recoome drawled, a wide, terrifying grin stretching across his face as he took a heavy step forward. "Who wants to get broken first?"
"Rock-Paper-Scissors!" Jeice shouted, thrusting out a rock.
Recoome threw paper, a victorious grin breaking across his massive face. "Ha! Paper beats rock! The two Saiyans are mine!"
"Unfair! Best two out of three!" Jeice whined, crossing his arms in a huff, but Recoome was already lumbering toward Vegeta and Escallion, stepping over the rocks like a man going for a stroll.
Meanwhile, the squat, four-eyed Guldo stepped forward, glaring at Gohan and Krillin. His four eyes twitched with pure malice. "Then I get the two pint-sized brats! I'll make you pay for staring at our poses like we're circus freaks!"
Guldo took a sharp, deep breath, holding it tight inside his chest until his green skin turned a darker shade of teal.
Freeze!
The entire world locked up into absolute stillness. The rustle of the wind stopped, the ripples on the lake froze mid-wave, and Gohan and Krillin were pinned like statues. Guldo waddled behind them, giggling as he picked up two large, sharp boulders and positioned them floating directly behind their heads.
His chest burned, his lungs screamed for oxygen, and Guldo finally gasped for breath.
Snap!
Time lurched back into motion. Krillin and Gohan instantly felt the sharp rocks grazing the backs of their necks and dove forward into the dirt, narrowly avoiding being crushed.
"He stopped time!" Krillin yelled, scrambling to his feet with cold sweat pouring down his face. "Gohan, don't let him catch his breath!"
Gohan nodded sharply, his latent energy surging to a peak. "Masenko... HA!"
A bright yellow beam ripped from Gohan's palms, while Krillin fired a volley of rapid double-hand blasts from the flank. Guldo panicked, taking another sharp breath to freeze time again, dodging the incoming energy by a hair's breadth.
When time resumed, Guldo was panting heavily, sweat dripping from all four of his eyes. "Dammit... you fast little pests!"
Desperate, Guldo planted his stubby feet, his eyes glowing with a violent purple aura as he unleashed his psychic telekinesis. A massive wave of invisible force slammed into Gohan and Krillin, lifting them straight off their feet and pinning them mid-air.
"Gah! I can't move!" Krillin choked out, straining against the invisible weight crushing his ribs.
"Now I've got you!" Guldo cackled, his veins bulging on his forehead as he summoned a massive, splintered tree trunk from the edge of the canyon, sharpening its tip with his mind. "Let's see you dodge this when you're frozen in place!"
The sharpened log hovered above them, aiming straight for Gohan's chest.
"Escallion! Vegeta!" Krillin screamed.
Vegeta didn't even turn his head, his eyes locked on Recoome. "Idiots. Dying to a runt like Guldo..."
Escallion, however, tracked the flow of Guldo's psychic energy. "His concentration is entirely locked on the earthlings. He's completely wide open."
Before Guldo could launch the tree trunk, Vegeta vanished in a flash of speed, not out of mercy, but out of sheer irritation at the distraction. He reappeared directly behind Guldo, his hand swiping horizontally like a guillotine.
SWIPE!
A clean blade of purple Ki severed Guldo's head from his shoulders. The telekinetic grip instantly shattered, dropping Gohan, Krillin, and the massive tree trunk harmlessly to the dirt.
Guldo's head bounced across the grass, still blinking in shock. "W-What...? Vegeta... you cheap..."
Vegeta casually stepped forward and crushed Guldo's head under his boot with an unceremonious crunch.
"One down," Escallion said quietly, stepping up beside Vegeta as the energy from Guldo's death faded.
Recoome didn't even flinch. He just cracked his knuckles, rolling his massive shoulders with a lazy, terrifying grin. "Poor Guldo. Always was the weakest link. But thanks for cleaning up the field, Vegeta!"
Recoome flexed, his power flaring violently, the sheer wind pressure cracking the plateau beneath their feet.
"Vegeta, Escallion," Krillin called out, wiping blood and dirt from his face as he and Gohan dropped into stances beside the two Saiyans. "We take this big guy together!"
Vegeta sneered, though his jaw was tight with tension as he locked eyes with Recoome. "Don't get in my way, earthlings. If we don't hit him with everything we've got right now, none of us are leaving this rock alive!"
Vegeta didn't wait for a tactical plan. Driven by a volatile mix of royal pride and sheer desperation, he erupted in a violent flare of Ki.
"Stay back, all of you!" Vegeta roared, his voice echoing off the canyon walls. "I am the Prince of all Saiyans! I don't need help taking down Frieza's oversized trash!"
Before Escallion could even reach out to stop him, Vegeta vanished. He reappeared a split second later directly above Recoome, bringing both fists down in a hammer-blow to the giant's crown. The impact sent a massive shockwave tearing through the plateau, kicking up a blinding wall of dust.
Vegeta didn't stop. He pressed his advantage with a terrifying, high-speed barrage: left hook, right gut-punch, a sharp knee straight into Recoome's jaw, followed by a double-handed Ki blast fired at point-blank range into his chest.
BOOM!
The explosion lit up the canyon in a brilliant flash of gold. Vegeta vaulted backward, landing heavily on a rock ledge, panting for air, a manic grin stretching across his face. "Hmph... big, slow bastard."
The smoke cleared.
Recoome was standing in the same spot, completely unbothered. His armor was slightly singed, and a tiny thread of blood dripped from his lip, but his wide, goofy grin hadn't faded in the slightest.
"Not bad, Vegeta!" Recoome chuckled, wiping the blood with the back of his hand. "That actually tickled! Now... my turn."
In a blur of speed that defied his massive frame, Recoome closed the gap before Vegeta could even raise his guard.
CRACK!
A brutal, heavy knee slammed directly into Vegeta's stomach, shattering his chest armor and driving the air completely out of his lungs. Vegeta gasped, his eyes bulging as he doubled over. Recoome immediately followed with a vicious, axe-handle strike to the back of Vegeta's neck, smashing the Saiyan prince face-first into the solid rock plateau.
"Vegeta!" Gohan yelled, taking a step forward in horror.
Recoome grabbed Vegeta by the hair, lifting his battered, bleeding form effortlessly into the air. "Is that all you've got? I thought you rogue Saiyans were supposed to be tough!"
Recoome wound up a massive, Ki-infused fist, aiming straight for Vegeta's head to finish him off. "Time to go to sleep, little prince—"
BOOM!
A dense, hyper-concentrated beam of dark blue Ki slammed directly into the side of Recoome's face at point-blank range, driving his head sideways with a sickening crack. The force broke his grip, sending Vegeta sliding across the dirt.
Escallion stepped out of the dust cloud, his hands lowered, his dark eyes cold, sharp, and completely calculating.
"You're fighting like an amateur, Vegeta," Escallion said, his voice dangerously level as he stepped between the bruised prince and the towering brute.
Recoome slowly turned his head back, his grin gone for the first time, replaced by a dark, annoyed scowl. Half of his face was covered in soot, and his cheek was bleeding heavily.
"Well, well..." Recoome growled, rolling his neck until it popped. "Looks like the quiet one wants to play."
"Gohan, Krillin, take Vegeta back and keep him breathing," Escallion ordered, without taking his eyes off Recoome. His aura flared, his boots hovering an inch off the ground. "He's durable, but he relies entirely on momentum and wide swings. I'll break his balance."
Escallion stood motionless on the shattered rock, his dark eyes locked onto Recoome's massive frame. He didn't drop into a standard stance, nor did he let his energy bleed outward in useless waves. He closed his eyes, drawing a deep, deliberate breath that settled deep in his chest.
Thump... thump... thump...
The sound echoed from deep within Escallion's own ribcage, a heavy, rhythmic pulse that vibrated through his very blood.
Through countless hours of solitary meditation and dangerous self-experimentation, Escallion had unlocked the fundamental truth of the Great Ape. The vast, overwhelming strength of the Oozaru wasn't locked away in the monstrous body itself, but hidden inside the dormant, ancestral Ki of Saiyan blood. He had learned to force that raw power into his human shell, a state he called Ikari.
But compressing the wild, instinctual rage of a giant ape into a small frame came with a lethal cost. There was no room left for rational thought. No room for speech. Only absolute, blinding aggression.
THUMP-THUMP. THUMP-THUMP.
The heartbeat accelerated, booming like a war drum. Escallion's eyes snapped open.
His dark brown irises were completely gone, replaced by a pair of striking, luminous yellow eyes that burned with cold, predatory instinct.
"What the...?" Jeice muttered from above, his hand instinctively flying to his scouter as the device began to beep frantically, its numbers skyrocketing past 30,000, 40,000, and climbing. "His energy! It's shooting through the roof!"
Escallion threw his head back and unleashed a deafening, chest-heaving roar, a primal, guttural sound that tore through the canyon, sounding far less like a man and far more like a colossal Great Ape echoing across the ancient plains of Planet Vegeta.
ROOOOOAAARGH!
A violent surge of bright, jagged green-and-white Ki erupted around him, detonating the solid rock beneath his boots and carving a crater five feet deep into the plateau. The sheer wind pressure kicked up a localized storm of gravel, forcing Krillin and Gohan to shield their eyes as they dragged the battered Vegeta backward.
Vegeta, coughing up blood, looked up through blurred vision, his pupils shrinking in sheer disbelief. "That... that pressure... It's the Great Ape's power... without transforming?!"
Recoome dropped his smirk entirely. He braced his legs, his massive brow furrowing as the violent wind from Escallion's aura whipped against his face. "Okay... so you're not just a sidekick—"
Escallion didn't let him finish.
Driven by pure, unfiltered battle instinct, he vanished. The air behind him shattered with a thunderous sonic boom.
He reappeared directly inside Recoome's guard. With the raw physical mass of a Great Ape condensed into his human frame, Escallion drove a brutal, green-infused straight right into Recoome's sternum.
BOOM!
The shockwave blew out the back of Recoome's battle armor, sending the giant skidding backward fifty yards, his boots tearing deep trenches through the Namekian dirt before he finally managed to dig his heels in, coughing violently as he clutched his shattered chestplate.
Escallion's glowing yellow eyes stayed locked on his target, his chest heaving with heavy, animalistic breaths. He bared his teeth, letting out a low, dangerous growl as he charged forward again, a streak of blinding green light intent on tearing Recoome to pieces.
High above, Burter's jaw dropped. "No way... he pushed Recoome back with a single hit?!"
Escallion's raw power surged like a breaking dam.
High above, Jeice's scouter flared into a chaotic, high-pitched frenzy of metallic beeps. "Fifty thousand! Fifty-two! Fifty-five! Sixty thousand! And it's still rising! It's not stopping, Burter! The damn scanner's gonna overheat!"
ROOOOOAAARGH!
Escallion's feral roar shattered the remaining rock arches around the lake as he closed the distance in a fraction of a second. Recoome barely had time to raise his massive forearm before Escallion was on him, a blurred hurricane of green-tinted Ki and savage force.
Escallion caught Recoome's raised guard with a brutal sweeping forearm, snapping the giant's arms wide open. Before Recoome could react, Escallion drove a devastating left hook directly into his ribs, the sheer impact echoing like a cannon shot. CRACK!
Recoome gasped, his mouth flying open in a spray of blood, but Escallion gave him no quarter.
Driven by pure Oozaru instinct, Escallion grabbed Recoome by his neck and hair, bringing his head down into a savage, rising knee to the jaw. Recoome's head snapped back, his teeth shattering as he was launched skyward.
Escallion kicked off the earth, leaving a crater behind him, and appeared directly above Recoome. With his glowing yellow eyes fixed on his airborne target, he brought both hands together into a heavy double-axe handle, smashing Recoome straight back into the dirt.
THUMMMM!
The ground buckled. A cloud of pulverized stone and dust shot hundreds of feet into the air.
Down in the crater, Recoome lay battered, his battle armor completely demolished, coughing up blood as he tried to push himself up on trembling arms. He looked up just in time to see Escallion dropping from the sky like a meteor, his aura crackling with violent, uncontrolled green electricity.
Escallion slammed his boot directly onto Recoome's chest, pinning the giant to the earth, and grabbed him by the throat with one hand. His chest heaved with heavy, guttural breaths, his luminous yellow eyes burning down at Recoome with zero trace of mercy, zero speech, only the terrifying, quiet promise of absolute destruction.
Down on the sidelines, Krillin was frozen in sheer awe, his jaw hanging open. "He's... he's completely manhandling him! Recoome can't even touch him!"
Vegeta, struggling to prop himself up against a rock, stared at the towering green aura with a mix of utter dread and burning envy. "What is that power...?"
But then, the surge of green Ki violently sputtered and snapped like broken glass.
Escallion's grip on Recoome's throat loosened, his fingers trembling violently as the wild, ancestral power began to collapse back into his bloodstream. His glowing yellow eyes flickered, reverting to black as his pupils dilated with sudden, overwhelming agony.
"Ngh... AAGH!"
Escallion let out a ragged, strangled grunt, staggering back a step and clutching both sides of his head with slick, blood-stained gloves. The sheer pressure of compressing an Oozaru's colossal mass into his normal body took its devastating toll, his muscles locked up, his lungs screamed for oxygen, and his vision swam in black spots.
He collapsed to one knee, the heavy, war-drum heartbeat fading into a weak, exhausted thrum. Sweat poured down his face, pooling on the cracked rock beneath him as he fell out of the Ikari form entirely, his power level plunging back down to a fraction of its peak. He pushed himself onto all fours, chest heaving, completely spent.
On the ground in the crater, Recoome lay battered and twitching in his shattered armor, barely conscious, coughing up blood through broken teeth.
High above, Jeice tapped his scouter frantically as the numbers plummeted. "H-His power! It completely dropped! He's burned out!"
"Now's our chance!" Burter barked, his blue frame blurring as he kicked off the air, descending toward the defenseless Escallion like a swooping hawk.
Down on the rocks, Vegeta gritted his teeth, forcing his battered body up despite his fractured ribs. "Dammit... he pushed it too far!"
"Gohan, cover him!" Krillin yelled, charging forward with his palms outstretched to keep Burter from finishing off the exhausted Saiyan.