The planet's star had long since disappeared from the sky, leaving Vegeta and Raditz to search for their missing companion in the darkness that was night on Cooler Planet-555.
Since they were searching for their friend and no longer searching for the plant in every nook and cranny, they were both hovering above the murky marsh instead of trudging through it.
Though this proved to be more of a hindrance, as Raditz had already flew face first into a tree more than a few times.
"RRGH! DAMNIT!"
And had just done so again.
"Damnit, I can't see two feet in front of me! How are we supposed to find Broly if I can't even see you?!" Radizt yelled in frustration.
This was not an exaggeration. With no star and no moon to reflect the light from said star, the darkness that shrouded them was not your typical darkness.
It was completely pitch black.
Coupled with the fact that there was no sound except for the sounds of the planet's local fauna and their own breathing, this caused both Saiyans to be alert almost the entire time they've been searching.
Their Scouters were also of little help to them, as it only outlined their surroundings through the one lens and not the other.
"Use your energy to create light spheres." Vegeta told him. "You'll just be tripping over yourself the entire night at the rate you're going."
Following his orders, Raditz held out his hand and created a small sphere of light, with Vegeta doing the same on his end.
"It's better, but just barely..." Raditz mutters.
The light from the spheres of energy lit up the area around them for about a one to two hundred feet, which wasn't a lot considering that they were looking for Broly, but it was better than nothing.
"I swear, when we find him, I'm gonna kick his ass." Raditz growled with annoyance as he looked around behind trees.
"Go ahead. I would love to see you even attempt it." Vegeta replied, scoffing at the ridiculous statement.
"Tkk." Raditz clicked his tongue with indignation, but didn't respond to Vegeta's words.
It was a known fact that when it comes down to head-to-head confrontations, Broly was by far the most capable and strongest fighter in the Onyx Squadron. Even when compared to all of the original five members of Team Black, Broly had the most potential, even more so than Zyleth.
They knew of this because Zyleth specifically told them that when Team Black became the Onyx Squadron and leadership had been passed down from him to Vegeta.
They didn't know why Zyleth had told them that or why he thought so, but he was very rarely ever wrong.
Even so, it didn't stop Vegeta and Raditz from trying to prove that he was wrong. After all, a Saiyans power has no limit. That was another thing that Zyleth had told them. Potential or not, they would climb higher and higher regardless.
"Wait..." Vegeta ordered, holding up a fist.
"What? What is it?" Raditz asked, immediately stopping in his tracks.
A few small beeps can be heard coming from Vegeta's Scouter before his eyes suddenly widened.
"It's located Broly's Scouter." He told Raditz.
Surprise makes it way onto Raditz's face before he pressed the button on the side of his Scouter, searching for the same signal. After a few seconds, his Scouter also locked on to the signal coming from Broly's.
"I got it." Raditz told Vegeta.
"Then let's go." Vegeta said as he started to walk towards the signal. "I don't want to be out here a second longer than I have to."
Trudging along, they flew for about ten more minutes before they eventually reached where the signal was coming from, but there was no sign of Broly anywhere.
"Where is he?" Raditz asked as he landed on the ground, looking around at the partially illuminated marsh.
"It says that he's supposed to be standing right here." Vegeta replied, setting down beside him.
"Well, he isn't." Raditz replied annoyingly.
"Do you think I don't--?!"
As Vegeta turned towards Raditz, he felt something crunch under his foot. The two Saiyans looked at each other before looking down towards the murky water they were standing in.
Reaching down, Vegeta waved his hand through the water, feeling for anything out of the ordinary when he felt something hard and metallic. Gripping it firmly, he brought it out, revealing Broly's Scouter.
"What in the..." Raditz muttered under his breath before looking around at his surroundings.
"The Hell is this?" Vegeta asked no one in particular before yelling out for his lost teammate. "Broly!"
"What the--?! Quiet, you idiot!" Raditz exclaimed, looking at Vegeta as if he was an idiot.
"Why?" Vegeta asked, his eyebrows furrowing in both confusion and annoyance.
"Because what are we going to do when something answers back?!" Raditz asked.
The particular words Raditz had used caused Vegeta to quirk a brow.
"Something? There's nothing on this planet besides us." He said.
"Yeah, as far as we know, but we both saw the mission data!" Raditz replied urgently, but with a hushed tone.
Cooler Planet-555 was completely devoid of all life. The data Vegeta read about the planet said something about some sort of alien species using this place as some sort of hunting ground, hunting all the creatures here before eventually capturing species from other planets and bringing them here for them to hunt as well.
Apparently they liked making sport of their prey before ritualistically killing them, taking their skulls and making them trophies.
But even so, the planet was completely wiped clean of all life once the Cooler Force took it over a few months ago.
"What else could have happened to Broly?" Raditz asked. "You think he would just drop his Scouter and go running off in the dark? He was probably taken!"
"Taken? Don't be ridiculous. Like I said, the planet is uninhabited. Besides, what could possibly be strong enough to take Broly? Honestly, do you even hear yourself?" Vegeta asked back.
As they were arguing, they suddenly heard the sound of something moving around in the water. They immediately stopped, looking in the direction of where it had came from, not daring to look anywhere else.
From within the darkness, they saw a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring back at them.
Focused on them.
Aimed at them.
"What... is that...?" Raditz whispered.
"Don't. make. a sound..." Vegeta whispered back to him, his voice barely audible. "Don't move a damn muscle..."
"Yeah, great idea... make it easy for it..." Raditz replied.
The sound of slushing water grew louder and louder the more they waited, making the two Saiyans even more tense and on edge with each passing moment.
Suddenly, the sound of movement stopped just before whatever it was making it could enter the circle of light. Its glowing eyes were sitting right at the edge, no more, no less, and they were left in complete silence once more.
"FUCK THIS!"
Having enough of whatever it is stalking them, Raditz held up his hands and started firing off multiple blasts in the direction of where it stopped.
As Vegeta was about to chastise him for his sudden outburst, he saw that Raditz's attacks were connecting with thing that had been making its way towards them. While he couldn't see exactly what it was, he could see that it was big.
And that Raditz's attacks were doing absolutely nothing.
Without anymore hesitation, Vegeta followed Raditz's lead and started firing energy blasts towards the creature.
"NOTHING HERE, HUH?!" Raditz yelled out.
"SHUT UP AND KEEP FIRING!" Vegeta yelled back.
With only the feint light coming from their attacks, they could hardly see each other, let alone whatever it is standing in front of them. But they didn't need to see it to know that it was coming closer.
It was walking through their attacks as if they were nothing but an inconvenience.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!" Raditz shouted out, getting increasingly more concerned.
"JUST HIT IT WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT!" Vegeta replied back.
The two Saiyans stopped their attacks, leaving them in complete darkness before their immediate surroundings were lit in a dim purple light.
Vegeta raised both his hands together near his face, his fingers curled and charging an a sphere with a light purple color.
Raditz did the same, raising both of his arms up and charging two light purple energy spheres in each hand.
"GALICK... GUN..."
"DOUBLE... SUNDAY..."
""FIRE!!!""
Both Vegeta and Raditz fired their attacks at the same time, the beams merging into one before directly colliding with whatever it was heading towards them.
As the beams hit their mark, the area surrounding them was suddenly engulfed in a massive dome of light purple energy, lighting up everything for miles before suddenly dissipating into nothing.
"Did we get it?" Raditz asked as he summoned another light sphere in his hand.
Vegeta looked over at Raditz with a blank stare that gave away nothing before conjuring his own light sphere and heading towards the crater.
"Only one way to find out..." Vegeta muttered.
Walking towards the massive crater, the two Saiyans watched for anything out of the ordinary as they approached, but before they could reach the crater, the planet had started to violently shake.
"What?!" Vegeta shouted.
"What the hell?!" Exclaimed Raditz.
They both stumbled back and forth as what felt like an exceptionally powerful planet-quake rippled through the ground.
Suddenly, from within the crater, a dark green light had started to shine and the air around them became more and more dense with energy. An energy that the both of them were all too familiar with.
"Wait, this energy, isn't it--?!"
Before Raditz could finish his words, a large green dome of energy rose out of the crater, and in the center had revealed the sight of their lost companion.
"Broly?!" Vegeta yelled out.
[Word Count: 1,660.]