They are surprised that their power reading in the scouter can increase. It does not matter HOW they do it, if its because they suppressed their power or because they can somehow increase it at will. They see a certain power level in their scouter and then that power level changes and increases, that's what they find abnormal and surprising.Darkprince410 wrote:
The way that Nappa and Vegeta look down on Raditz because he's such a weakling (seemingly only interacting with him because he was the only other known living Saiya-jin), I don't see him having the same capabilities in combat (namely the ability to increase his battle power from a base point) that they do. If it was something they all shared the ability to do, then why do we not see Raditz "power up" at any point?
Both Nappa and Vegeta's comments still stem from their surprise of being able to suppress battle powers below their own "base", not just the ability to power up, and Vegeta's later comment was more a surprise as to how drastic their jumps can be from being suppressed to full strength, and more a confirmation of their abilities rather than shock about it.
As said, it's the ability to drop it below their base that was beyond their capabilities at the time. Like Nappa could go above 4,000 if he wanted to in battle, but he lacked the ability to suppress his strength below 4,000, so no matter what, that was as far as he could get. Whereas if he had the abilities that the Z Senshi had, he could suppress it down to 5 if he wanted to just to throw them off. Fundamentally I see no difference between what scouters can pick up and what ki sensing can pick up, other than scouters can give precise readings while ki sensing can just give estimates. If scouters were that much better than ki sensing, then Vegeta wouldn't have destroyed his on Namek once he learned how to sense ki. They do the same thing, just one's more accurate than the other.
Vegeta and Nappa's reactions to that fact are perfectly consistent with Radditz's reactions and they never suggest that Radditz shouldn't have been surprised by it, so the fact that Radditz was a weakling compared to them has no bearing in the issue.
If you still have any doubts then think about the fight between Kiwi and Vegeta in Namek. Kiwi read Vegeta's power level with his scouter and was immediately sure that he would win. Then, Vegeta increased his power level and his scouter reading increased. Kiwi immediately started to panic. He had absolutely no idea that Vegeta could do that and then Vegeta kills him. And Pui Pui was not the only one surprised. Dodoria and Zarbon, who were following the battle with their scouters, were also very surprised and even considered if it was a scouter malfunction.
How do you explain all that if Vegeta and Nappa could alter their scouter readings at will while on Earth? You can't, it doesn't make any sense.
EDIT: replaced Pui Pui with Kiwi. I used Pui Pui by mistake.
