With the twisted lava-red shine leaking out of him, the Masked Super Saiyan launched himself at Goku, crashing into his son head-first. Goku flinched up from the brutal impact and couldn't resist the force of it, sending him hurling back. The Super Saiyan vanished in a blink, appearing before his stunned opponent to shove his fist into Goku's abdomen and make the younger Saiyan's eyes blank out while he spat out slobber.

Mercilessly, Bardock smashed both of his arms down in a hammering slam that sent Goku plunging down into the ocean's uneasy waters. The Masked Super Saiyan vanished, appearing right where Goku would've landed to kick his son aside, then took a plunge down underwater and appeared in front of him having pursued Goku all the way to where he would've ended up in and emerging from down underwater with a shooting uppercut.

The Super Saiyan pressed his arms by his side and took off, the corrupted aura leaking out from him made it seem like a bloody crescent moon had risen from down under the sea as the Masked Saiyan pursued his opponent into the sky, battering him with further fists and kicks before smashing him back down with a double ax handle slam. The Masked Super Saiyan cracked his head to the sides before rolling his knuckles while his oppressed opponent recovered from the sudden beat down.

"You're not holding back at all, are you?" Goku dragged the back of his fist across his cracked lip, wiping blood off of it before resuming his fighting stance. "I should probably go all-out too but... Somehow, becoming Super Saiyan and enjoying myself just doesn't feel right when you're like this."

Goku took charge of the offensive, rushing across and seeking to drive his elbow into his father's face to smash that accursed, cracked mask that still covered his face up. The Masked Super Saiyan answered Son Goku's attack by catching the point of his elbow and then driving his knee up to collide with Son Goku's. Bardock spun around, dancing around Goku's shooting high kick and then answering with a roundhouse kick of his own. Not feeling content just treating his son like a ball of rags again, Bardock tripped him up to leave Goku in a wild spin before soaring through the air with a devastating hook that detonated with explosive power.

The Masked Saiyan kept a lock on Goku's position and moves. Then, the red dots in the black X of his mask widened, and he turned around. Almost at the same time as Son Goku's image in front of him became blurry, the Saiyan raced it from behind with a spinning backhand strike, but Bardock caught it in mid-air. Goku whipped his kick, lashing it into Bardock's chest with a vociferous thud and earning the freedom to his wrist again. The younger Saiyan made good of that freedom in forming a double ax handle slam, but Bardock exploded with a surrounding energy bubble that blasted Goku aside before the smashing finisher could connect.

Clutching his ribs, Goku somehow maintained a standing position but, bit by bit, began feeling oppressed and threatened by the massive increase in his opponent's power and the completely unwavering stamina he possessed as a Super Saiyan. It was those same Android upgrades that made Goku weary of transforming as well. Super Saiyan battles usually went quite wild and Goku knew he couldn't keep up with a Super Saiyan around his level that had an almost infinite amount of stamina and could keep the form up no matter the amount of damage his body took or the time the breakneck battle extended to. Still, as he struggled more and more in his base form, Goku wondered if staying this way was a better choice in any way whatsoever too.

"Damn it... I guess you're not leaving me much choice. I never intended on using this against you, though I've worked pretty hard in pushing the Super Saiyan as far as I could training in space. I don't like using it against you, but I know you'll never forgive yourself if you end up hurting the people you love while you're lost like this. I can't allow you to bring all that onto yourself again!" Goku clenched his fists and drew his arms back while leaning his upper body down. The gloomy skies spewed thunderbolts out as one of them struck Goku directly.

Instead of electrocuting the Saiyan, it surrounded him with a bright outline while Goku's hair spiked up and tilted back behind his forehead as if manipulated by some supernatural force. The dark eyes of the Saiyan dulled in color before taking a teal tinge. The color of his hair whited out with a radiant glow, matching the luminosity of his aura, but once the intensity of the overflowing power died down, they settled on a golden gleam instead. The peaceful white aura exploded with a golden shimmer that brightened up the gloom and tore rays of dying sunlight through the layers of dark clouds. Goku's form flickered with vigorous light while thunderbolts danced around him.

Then, at a moment's notice, it was all gone. Son Goku stood in a calm fighting stance with his spiky golden hair and teal eyes and a calm demeanor, ready to tackle any opponent but in front of him. Even though that very much was the genuine case with his attitude and power level, had he any choice in the matter, he'd have much rather not fought a battle for his father's soul against him right now.

Rushing with the high of his lava-red aura, Bardock thrust a spinning aerial kick at his opponent, but Goku weaved out of the way. The Saiyan hurled himself rolling through the air over Bardock's sweep and blocked his soaring cross by shoving his knife-edge chop to restrain Bardock's arm by the elbow. Seeing his opening from the side of Bardock's restrained arm, Goku swiftly jabbed in the face to flinch his opponent up before exploding with a devastating uppercut but instead of sending his opponent soaring through the clouds, Goku locked his grip around the cracks in his mask and vaulted the Masked Super Saiyan over his shoulder before kicking him in the back and littering the entire mask with cracks that spanned its entire structure.

A loud, cybernetically enhanced growl filled the stormy lighthouse mountainside outside West City but Goku blinked right in front of his opponent, driving his elbow into the center of Bardock's mask and sending chips scattering off of it while the Super Saiyan exploded with a machinegun flurry of fists covering his opponent's entire body and finishing with a power blow to Bardock's abdomen that left his father covering up his gut and staggering back in mid-air. The golden gleam of Goku's aura withdrew inside of his body and coated his right arm while the Saiyan slammed his forearm into his opponent's mask, sending him soaring upward like a reverse golden comet.

The upper right chunks of the mask covering up Bardock's face shattered, revealing the front of Bardock's golden hair and a dull stare of his right eye, devoid of any life though his face seemed somewhat unaltered, except for a few visible, glowing, cybernetic patterns. Goku lightly breathed out and swung his arm slowly in mid-air to relieve the tension in his body. He moved with a previously unseen lightness of motion, ease, and fluidity to the usually straining, explosive, and brutish Super Saiyan transformation.

"Amazing... Light... So light..." Bardock coughed out through great restraint and effort, constricting his entire body as his voice flowed out with a heavily altered cybernetic tone to it. "Powerful..."

"Yeah. From what everyone went on and on about, these Androids sounded like they were trouble with their infinite stamina. I had to learn to master the Super Saiyan transformation to feel as natural and as easy to use as my ordinary form, so I've learned to ease up and relax completely while still keeping up the Super Saiyan transformation, removing the strain from it altogether. I meant to use this against the Androids though. If I ever had to show this against one of our friends, I thought it to be during sparring," Goku admitted while stretching out and rolling his arm while gripping his shoulder.

"Must... Beat you... Protect you..." Bardock grabbed his head while growling it out loud while the collapse of his mask caused more than a few malfunctions throughout his body as crimson electrical jolts shot out all over that seemingly caused the Masked Saiyan a decent amount of pain.

"I know that's what you think you're doing but... Truth be told, you're just hurting all of us by being so lost and not giving us a chance at bringing you back to us. Mother passed away, that's true. It hurts and there's nothing we can do about it. She's died already and by the time we replace our Dragon Balls to bring back people that already died, she'll likely be reincarnated already," Goku replied to his father's tormented, self-conflicted rambling.

"Eternal life... Protect you... Protect everyone!" Bardock bawled out while throwing his arms aside and staggering forward. While Goku reached out to his father, worried that he might collapse from the short-circuits caused by the extensive damage to his mask, the Masked Saiyan suddenly sprung to life and manifested a dark-blue energy ball over where his mouth would've been.

Before Goku could return to a proper fighting stance and protect himself, the mouth blast burst into an energy wave of matching color and imbued with a blazing outline of flames on the outside as the surrounding heat rippled like a mirage of a scorching desert. Goku covered himself up with a cross-shaped block, looking to weather the devastating storm and the energy wave hit him full force. The mouth blast engulfed him with infernal flames as well as delivered a lively energy blast that sought to take him away, but Goku stood his ground.

Goku lowered his bruised and dirty, muscular and tensed-up arms while meek trails of smoke lingered on the tears over his gi on his shoulder and over his trousers. Carrying a serious and just a bit peeved face, Goku blinked up to his opponent, delivering a soaring uppercut. His body had completely absorbed the radiant golden aura while leaving with explosive impact only when the Super Saiyan put significant effort into his hits. Thus, the uppercut burst into an explosive pillar of energy that sent Bardock soaring while Goku vanished again and appeared in front of his opponent in mid-air. Roaring with wrath and out of a sheer physical strain of his rush attack, Goku delivered a hypersonic flurry of fists before finishing it with a stiff kick that punted Bardock away. The Masked Saiyan took the beat down hunkered down, with his arms over his head and his elbows guarding his upper body while he tensed up his abdomen and his chest to do the best possible job at taking these hits he could.

After he had stopped himself in mid-air, Bardock's arm weighed down from the punishment they prevented his whole body from taking, though the Masked Saiyan didn't pant, nor did he huff. The lack of physical strain from this highly demanding battle alarmed Goku, though it was par for the course of what he had expected. Still, being faced by something this terrifying was a wholly unique thing entirely than merely theorizing it in your mind while training. His father just wouldn't stop coming until he got what he wanted. And he'd come at Goku at full power every time as if he had just started this fight.

The worst part of it all was that he didn't yet realize that what he wanted would only bring pain to everyone he knew and loved in the long run. In that way, only causing him further torment. That was what peeved Goku most of all and what made him unable to keep his cool and wits about him as the Saiyan promptly lowered his arms and tensed his entire body, letting his golden aura explode with a terrifying rumble felt all throughout the Earth.

The father and son charged at one another at the same time, leaving sonic booms behind them before becoming just blurring beams of golden light that collided with one another and created a fiery ring that expanded indefinitely from the epicenter of the crash point. The tension around the two colliding forces made the air electric, crackling with wild jolts and bending the space around them while the two ground their teeth with full force, looking to push their opponent away and overpower them.

"Can't you see, dad!? You're... Going to hurt everyone! By forcing this onto Chi-Chi, Gohan, and me... You'll just make us all miserable... Just like you're miserable and hurting right now...! Is that what you truly want on us!?" Goku yelled out at his lost and misguided father, transferring all of his frustration and physical wear at the same time. Instead of replying, Bardock cocked his head back and then slammed it at Son Goku's own forehead, splitting it open and letting a gush of warm red trickle down Goku's face while the Super Saiyan blanked out for a second.

A cybernetically augmented, almost animalistic, and wild roar came bellowing from Bardock's chest as the muscles of the Masked Saiyan buffed up with a primal twinge of wrath and adrenaline flowing through his system through artificial hormone injectors and bodily system scanners present throughout his body. Just like it was the case with Future Gohan, Dr. Puri used cutting-edge nanotechnology that allowed the manual release of endorphins, chemicals, and hormones at the needed time to grant the converted artificial warrior a necessary burst of power and efficiency. The converted warriors weren't just preserved, eternal versions of themselves, they were wild improvements and more than just the best versions of themselves.

Bardock's entire body worked like a merciless automaton in a wild rush of fists, elbows, knees, and kicks. Finishing his combination with a high kick to Goku's chin that stretched the Saiyan's neck way back and sent him flying into the air. The Masked Saiyan pursued Goku and slammed into him with his shoulder before driving his fist into the core of Goku's chest, rattling his ribs, jabbing at his face a few times, and turning around with a roundhouse kick before transitioning into a double ax handle slam but this time it was Son Goku who exploded with a destructive energy wave around him. Goku extended his arms with a Kiai pulse that propelled Bardock back.

"I won't let you grieve alone and ruin your life anymore!" Goku bellowed out before dashing over to his father and sweeping his legs to throw him off-balance. A myriad of lashing, rising kicks that whipped the calves, the knees, the thighs, the gut, the chest, and the face of Bardock's face battered the Masked Saiyan into a hazy stupor. The golden shimmer once more withdrew back into Goku's body only to coat his right leg as the Super Saiyan turned around with a roundhouse kick that bent Bardock's body backward and out of shape. The only reason that his spine withstood such a crude yank was because of the implants and Android 21's tampering.

Goku's image vanished in an after-image, appearing before Bardock as he thrust both his feet down into the cracked mask, sending the whole right half of it shattering into tiny chips. Vaulting behind Bardock, the Super Saiyan turned around with an elbow slam and another barrage of rising kicks that exploded into a combination of rising roundhouse kicks while Goku's golden aura burst to life over both of his calves and feet. Instead of merely sending his opponent flying and letting him recover, the golden shine exploded all around Son Goku at once as he formed a pair of large Ki blasts around both of his open palms and propelled a barrage of Ki blasts from them toward Bardock.

The barrage detonated with golden domes that interconnected into a singular, massive explosion that decimated the mountainous pillar atop of which the nearby lighthouse stood, also expanded over the mountain road and the entire shore mountainside, sending rocky landslides slipping off into the roaring ocean maelstroms down below. As Bardock returned for his cashback, Goku had none of it, deflecting Bardock's strikes and then sweeping his leg inward to throw him off-balance again while Goku exploded with a hypersonic beat down. This reduced Bardock to a staggering, dull-eyed mess that seemed primed for a coup de grâce of the force of Goku's resolve.

"Snap out of this, damn you, Kamehameha!" Goku roared out, thrusting both his arms out in a cupped position and unleashing a golden Kamehameha wave from a point-blank range that enveloped the entire shaky and uncertain Masked Saiyan and washed past him and into the oceans below, drilling a colossal crater all the way to where a bright shine of magma boiled at the bottom. Electricity crackled all over the town-sized crater that let the stormy waters wash down into its bottomless depths reaching almost to the Earth's core while the trembling continental calamity spewed blizzards of charred stone from the sea level all the way to the bottom of the exposed mantle.

Bardock remained where Goku last saw him. With his arms crossed up, and his armor completely blown off, the extent of the cybernetic augmentations, implants, and modifications was in full sight as scars from surgery, cybernetic patterns, and mechanical patches of steel and cybernetic parts stuck out in plain view. Now, most of those parts malfunctioned with violent sparks and short circuits, while Bardock grumbled and twitched in torment. With his blow finally lowering, the rest of the Masked Saiyan's mask, save for a tiny patch over his left eye, crumbled away.

Before Goku could embrace his father and try to ease his worst fears and grief, the almost-unmasked cybernetic Saiyan warrior yelled out, digging a gutshot into Goku's abdomen at a blinding speed and forcing all air out from Goku's lungs while the Super Saiyan staggered back to a respectable distance from his opponent who seemed to have a unique way of letting his opponent know that the battle was still not over.

"Alright then..." Goku panted out. "Tell me what you're still worried about. Show me everything you're still afraid of and let me ease those fears with my fists, the only way you'll understand."

"Yeah..." an altered, strict response came from Bardock's side. "If you want to talk high and mighty and promise me that everything will be alright, then defend yourself and show me the power that'll protect our family from everything in the future!"

"Heh, I guess just because that mask's almost off, doesn't mean Puri's completely out of your system, huh?" Goku chuckled through a painful wince.

"You forget Puri didn't brainwash those feelings into me, brat. I've seen artificial conversion that grants everyone eternal life as the best way to prevent everyone feeling the pain I've felt from losing Gine as the solution long before she put that mask on me," Bardock grit his teeth that were now fully visible, as was all of his wrath and as were all of his pent-up frustrations and fears.

"Alright then, let's settle this, dad!" Goku tightened his fighting stance while letting his Super Saiyan aura burst out again.

"Come on!" Bardock yelled out, exploding with his own untainted golden shine while his previously hazy eyes now shined with a lively teal color, except for the sole eye that still hid underneath the chip of the mask that left it glowing red underneath the remains of the vizor.