DBNB: Dragonball New Beginning
Fan Fiction written by D. L. Carey
Introduction
Chaos
It was time once again for the World Martial Arts Tournament. I stood at the entrance to the arena with my back against the wall, thinking about which fighting technique would work best in my situation. This was my fifth time competing in the World Martial Arts tournament, and in every one of the previous competitions I had come out a beaten and bruised loser. This time I would take home the title for the Worlds Champion or so that's what I kept telling myself anyway. I stood upon the threshold of the arena now, on this occasion, and rethought my dream. I was entered in the young adult league, so I only had to deal with the fighters from the age of sixteen through nineteen. There was only one thing bad about that, and that was the boy named Rudy.
He has competed in every Martial Arts Tournament since he was seven years old, and only left without being crowned the best in the world once. The only lose he ever had handed to him since the age of seven was when some kid named Goten or something like that threw him out of the ring in seconds. That was quite awhile ago though, so that meant a lot of training between then and now. I could take him though, or at least I kept telling myself that. It was the only way to keep my mind on the current problems at hand rather than letting it drift off into space.
I turned, and walked into the wide open space, and noticed at once how many young adults there were this year. There stood a small congregation of them in the rightmost corner of the lobby who called themselves the Temptations. They thought they were the biggest and the best in the tournament, but they would soon find out how much pain came with the title of the best. I searched the opposite corner of the lobby and found Rudy standing in the center of a circle of girls around the same age as him. He was signing autographs, or that's what it looked like. I'm not the one to be jealous, but I couldn't help it right then. If that was me in the middle of those girls I'd just have to…
I had to keep a trained mind on the coming events. They were starting the pound contest to see who could enter the tournament. The pound contest is basically a contest where you punch a soft pillow attached to a machine. The machine measures how many pounds of pressure you can punch, which averages out usually about twenty-five through forty pounds. I've seen Rudy do this before, and he can punch with around eighty-five pounds of pressure, so if that tells you how badly I'm going to lose this contest… Worth a try though, right?
Three men walked up behind the machine, one dressed in a long flowing white dress gown, while the other two wore matching orange colored robes. The men in the orange were the judges, and the man with the white was the sponsor of the tournament. One of the men wearing orange withdrew a piece of paper from the pocket of his robes, and began to read names from it. He began with Rudy, of course, and everyone held there breath as he neared the punching target.
Rudy drew back, and plunged his hand deep in the cushioned target, registering a ninety-five on the pressure gauge. Everyone began to cheer, even the adult contestants. Just wait until his twentieth birthday and becomes eligible for the adult competition. Those people won't cheer him on then. The next person that was called was a scrawny kid who punched and registered a forty-three on the gauge. You'd better hope you don't have to fight me or Rudy, little buddy I thought to myself with a smile. It was about time I smiled. I hadn't let a smile cross my face since I arrived at the tournament doors. Sit back and have a good time, everyone else is.
"Chaos!" both of the men in orange screamed. I looked up at them, horrified and I knew it was showing. I climbed the stairs in front of the punching circle with wobbling knees, and approached the target. I took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. I reared back, and the silence in the lobby let me know everyone was watching me. I threw my entire body into it, and hit the target as hard as I possibly could. The bell above the machine ringed once, signifying the hit had registered. I heard a lobby fill with the unmistakable sound of gasps behind me, and knew I had done horrible. Probably a twenty-four, right under par for the young adult competition. I feared they were going to throw me in the child competition. I looked up timidly, and almost fainted on the spot. My mouth slowly opened, and hung there for at least a full minute. The machine had registered me at one hundred and twenty pounds of pressure, which was almost unheard of in the young adult rank. Now that I think about it, that was almost unheard of in the adult rank. I walked down the stairs, this time stumbling about halfway down but catching myself before I fell.
"You probably hit a lucky spot. There's no way you can pound it harder than I can." I heard Rudy say as I stumbled back over to the brick wall, and leaned there once again. I could think of nothing else but how bad I was going to beat Rudy, and I think he knew that. That's probably why he kept taunting me. Even now he was sitting with his group of friends, or supporters more like, and shooting me evil glances every now and then. Hatred runs both ways.
I hardly remembered that last of the pounding contest. My mind was in shambles from the outrageous pound I had. All I remember was that I had to fight a kid named Neo in the first round. The kid was a little bigger than I was, but he pounded only sixty pounds. Actually I'm not sure what he pounded, but from what I gathered from the other contestants, he pounded an even sixty. Not too bad for a sixteen year old I guess. We had probably fifteen minutes until the beginning of the tournament, so I had to make my way to the cafeteria fast. Nothing like fighting on a full stomach.
I walked into the cafeteria, and looked around. The same as always. The brilliant blue ceiling rose high above the polished marble tile floor. The seats, or booths rather, were organized in sets of four on either side, and had about sixteen running straight up the center. The buffet line was curved along the outer wall, and held some of the most delicious food imaginable, ranging from roast beef to turkey legs. I was walking towards the buffet, drool running in streams down my chin, when I heard my name echo over the speaker system.
"Chaos, please enter the preparation area for the first round." Yelled the female voice. I was disappointed, but ready for the first round. I raced out of the cafeteria, and ran along the sidewalk towards the dressing rooms. I opened the door in a hurry, and rushed inside. There had to be at least thirty men in the locker room, and all of them were trying to find a place to dress themselves. The lockers took up most of the space in the small room, but there was plenty of room for twenty people, but when thirty people tried to cram inside, it was a little difficult to squeeze around them. I had little to prepare considering I was already wearing my best fighting attire, so I walked through the locker room, shoving my way here and there, and opened a door on the opposite side.
I emerged in the stadium area, filled with thousands of fans roaring and screaming. This is where I want to be. No where else but this. I thought to myself for a moment as I stood in the doorway looking out over the ocean of people. I let myself loosen, and felt my aching muscles in my back and sides ease. I knew I was going to beat the first opponent, that was nothing, but the second opponent would be a little bit more rough because if I prevail in this match, the next match would be against Rudy. I knew that would be the fight of a lifetime.
"Are you Chaos?" a short man dressed in a white robe asked. His words forced me back into reality, and I was a little jumpy. I shook my head, acknowledging that I was Chaos. He motioned with his hand toward the large square of concrete in the center of the stadium. It was perhaps fifty feet by fifty feet, so there was plenty of room to move. I knew what I had to do, and I knew I was going to do it well.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages! Welcome to the thirty-first World Martial Arts Tournament! Our tournament this year will be for a grand prize of one hundred thousand zenny and the title of Worlds Champion! We will have three different brackets to go through, those being young adult, child, and adult. The first bracket this year will be the young adult. Our first match will be Chaos, who is a veteran at this competition by now. His opponent will be Neo, a newcomer to the competition. Let the games begin!" shouted the loud female voice over the speakers.
I stood at one end of the battle square for quite some time. I stared into the eyes of my opponent, who seemed to be a little bit nervous. I lived for such a contest, and loved every moment of it, losing or winning. I noticed how Neo twitched every time I blinked. A sign basically shouting that he was scared to make the first move. I kept my stare, waiting for the first move to be made by the so-called fighter.
It finally happened after about three minutes. Neo broke out of his motionless stand, and ran full speed towards me. He was yelling the entire time, probably trying to cover up his nervousness. He threw a wild punch at my head, but I ducked under it. I decided to reply with a right hook to his ribs, which landed perfectly. The kid doubled over, but regained his composer quickly. He didn't give me a second to get to my feet before he tried a kick at my head. I brought my right arm up to block the kick, and succeeded in just that. Before Neo could take his leg back, I grabbed onto his ankle, and pulled him close. He was maybe three inches from me when I rammed my fist into his stomach. He doubled over once again, but this time he didn't get up so quickly.
"What's the matter, Neo? You don't have what it takes?" I taunted him. I loved to taunt the little weaklings, it was a hobby of mine. I'm not usually big headed, but why not when you have a chance to be. I got to my feet as quick as possible so he couldn't try his kick again, and found myself facing a fist. Neo clocked me in the jaw with a hard right hand, and literally knocked me down to size. I dropped to one knee, and found myself on the receiving end of a knee to the chin. It was the most pain I can remember having since my last confrontation with Rudy. I raised my head a little, and felt the warm blood trickle down my lower lip. I could see that no good so-called fighter laughing at me, which I thought rather untimely considering I just rattled his guts when I leveled him with that punch.
"I have more than what it takes, wimp!" Neo said, continuing his outrageous laughing. I couldn't handle it anymore, so I decided to pull out the stops, and just put him down with one of my trademark techniques. I stood up, and let my mind free itself. I could feel all of my energy flow into my right leg, and explode into my foot. Neo was standing opposite of me, looking stunned in the sunshine coming through the roofless building. I allowed the energy to free itself until I thought it was enough. I looked directly into my opponents eyes, and nodded with a devious smile.
"Super Kick!" I shouted, and hopped into the air. I only let my feet leave the ground about four inches. I spun in midair, and brought my supercharged foot upwards until it was level with Neo's face. I remember looking into his eyes before I made the deadly connection, and I remember seeing fear. The thought of just stopping the technique came to me, but before I had a chance to stop I heard a dreadful thud as my foot made contact with the side of his face. I knew he would survive the move, but not without some reconstructive surgery. I landed on the opposite side of my opponent, and heard the sound of his body hitting the ground. I knew I was in trouble now, I hurt him seriously.
"What on God's green Earth is that thing!" I heard the announcer yell. I turned and noticed the boy I was fighting, the boy I had just leveled, was a machine of some sort. The kick must have been a little more powerful than I thought because the side of his face I had hit was completely removed, and lying in a puddle of oily liquid on the other side of the square. I was shocked when I found out the boy that had tried to break my jaw with his knee was a machine. Maybe that's why it hurt so bad when he hit me, he was made of metal. Could that be legal though, an android fighter. It's been done before hasn't it? Would it mean me being disqualified since I just beheaded it? So many questions to ask right now, and not enough time to do it.
I stood beside my fallen foe, and took a second to think about how I had just murdered a machine. I looked over the crowd, and noticed the shocked people sitting in the stands. I couldn't take this anymore. I have to find out what's going to happen to me since the android fought, and I had decapitated it.
"Don't you feel stupid now, Chaos." Rudy's voice came from behind me. I knew it was him from the overall tone and cockiness. I turned, and looked him dead in the eye. I brought my hand to right above his level of sight, and motioned for him to come at me. I could almost feel his anger rise, and I knew I had touched a nerve. It was about time for me and him to do battle outside of the tournament. Where there were no rules or regulations to abide by. Where I could just take him out for trying to annoy me.
"Anytime, Chaos. Wherever and whenever you want to do it, but remember how many times I've taken this contest home, and how many times you've been there but lost to me." Rudy said, taunting me in that same old fashioned style. I felt the energy flow into my leg once more. I was going to knock him back for fun and see what the officials had to say. I was going to have a good time watching him pick himself up off the ground.
"Super Kick!" I yelled, and brought my right foot upwards to meet the side of Rudy's head. It struck with such force I thought his head was going to slide right off, but no such luck. He turned, and landed face first on the ground at my feet. I looked around the fighting arena, and noticed everyone was staring at me again. It was the second time I used the deadly Super Kick technique, and everyone knew it meant sudden disqualification.
"Everyone, may I please have your attention!" screamed the small man in the white robes. He looked a little worried, but mostly angry. He held the microphone to his mouth with a tightened fist, clenched so tightly his hand was turning a pale white. "I have some disturbing news for you all. Since the discovery of this android shook us all, we are going to take a recess. We are going to take an overnight session to talk about what we are going to do about the rest of the young adult rank. Everyone's tickets will be good for tomorrow also, so don't worry about that. The tournament will resume tomorrow morning at nine o'clock sharp, thank you everyone, and try to have a wonderful evening." The man said. He took a sharp glance in my direction, then left the square.
"You want to try that again you little bastard!" Yelled Rudy, finally stumbling to his feet after I almost kicked his head off. The entire side of his face where I made contact was beat red, and had started to form little whelps. I laughed it off, not caring about him at that moment. All I could really think about was whether or not I was going to be thrown out of the contest. I worked so hard over the past year with my training in hopes I would be strong enough to take the gold home in the tournament, it would be a great disappointment if they let me down like that.
I was disrupted by a hard chop to the back of my neck. The force caused me to fall forward, but I instantly extended my hand out in front of me, and pushed myself back into a standing position. I turned sharply, and caught Rudy's fist just before it hit me in the face. I could see the anger in his eyes, and now I wondered to myself why I even wanted to pick a fight with him. My ego grew to big, that's what it was. My ego skyrocketed, and now I placed myself in the middle of something I may not be able to get out of alive.
"If you want a fight, Chaos, then bring it on. I've been waiting for this since the last time we squared off. It's my turn pal!" Rudy yelled, not letting his guard slip. I was going to fight him, of course, but did I want to fight him? Of course not! Who would want to fight a guy they knew was more powerful then they were? That was almost too stupid of a question to ask wasn't it?
"Let's go then. I'll take you on with my eyes closed, and still beat you within an inch of your pathetic life." I said. I knew it was a bluff, but I had no choice. I wasn't about to let him think I was scared of him, even though I had a deathly fear of him. I watched as he found his fighting stance, and looked into my eyes. I found my own fighting stance, and stared back, trying not to break the glare. It was time for the battle between me and Rudy. Let's begin.
