Shenron's eyes glowed purple and the wind kicked with even more tremendous force. Enough that even Goku and Vegeta were having a hard time stopping themselves from either being knocked back or swept up into the air in their ki-less states.
Yet, despite the gale, neither Goku nor Vegeta needed to cover their eyes until a bright flash from high above caught their attention. At first, they couldn't make out what it was, but as it descended through the layer of storm clouds, the glow grew less intense and more eerie. It was then that they saw that the object was some sort of crimson meteor, wreathed in flames of yellow and orange.
That itself wasn't so odd, especially to two Super Saiyans who have destroyed objects far larger than the mere three-meter long hunk of space rock descending to the earth before them. What made it odd was that the object was conical and tubular in shape, almost like a silo or… like a rocket. To make things even odder, the object suddenly veered off its original course, which would have taken it to an inevitable collision with Shenron… and headed straight for Goku and Vegeta.
The two only had a moment to look at the big red 'S' symbol emblazoned prominently on the front of the rocket-meteor and to exchange looks before they leapt out of the way, Goku going right and Vegeta going left. As they reached the peak of their jumps, the meteor impacted where they had been with such force that even the fringe of the resulting shockwave was powerful enough to knock them back a few meters.
Still, they managed landed feet first, though with a little less grace than usual, on opposite sides of Grandpa Gohan's house. Or, rather, what was left of Grandpa Gohan's house, considering that the rocket-meteor had blown up most of it and set what was left on fire.
Naturally, Goku was feeling more than a little peeved. "Shenron, what the heck was that for!?" he yelled at the dragon god.
"HEY! DON'T YOU GO GIVING ME LIP AGAIN! YOU SAID YOU WANTED ME TO SUMMON SUPERMAN SO THAT YOU COULD FIGHT HIM! YOU DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT HOW HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUMMONED!"
"Oh yeah!? Well next time, warn a guy and don't destroy his and his Grandpa's old home, would you!? Now I'll have to use the second wish to… wait... are you saying that was your way of bringing Superman—"
"Goku! Look!" shouted Vegeta.
Goku turned his head toward Vegeta and then towards the crater the rocket-meteor had formed in-between them. The reason for this was that he heard something not unlike groaning coming from there.
And that was when Goku saw him.
Like the rocket-meteor he was no doubt inside of, he was wrapped in fire, and didn't seem to be panicking from what Goku could tell. This interested Goku greatly, and he suspected it did for Vegeta as well. After all, while Goku could feel a ki signature from the man, it was no larger than an average human's, and yet, such heat would roast Goku alive if he weren't powered up.
When the man managed to pull the lower half of his body out of the crater and stand up, Goku managed to get a clearer picture of what kind of get-up he was sporting. The man was wearing a dark blue jumpsuit with sleeves that stopped at the base of his wrists, red boots, a red cape, and, strange enough, a red pair of underwear attached to the jumpsuit by a yellow belt.
But that was not what drew most of Goku's attention, though the underwear was admittedly a close second.
No.
What caught his eye the most was the symbol on the man's chest, a red diamond filled in with yellow and a red 'S.' The same symbol that he had barely caught a glimpse of when the rocket-meteor was crashing down. The same symbol that he now recalled being on the chest of the warrior in his dreams as he fought foe after foe, some of whom were not too odd from what Goku himself tended to fight, and some of whom were leagues more… 'colorful.'
Yep. This was Superman alright.
"Who… what… where am I?" Superman asked, messaging his head. "How did I—AHHH!"
Superman, for some reason that Goku wasn't too sure about, suddenly fell to his knees, doubled over in pain.
"Ummm… are you okay?" asked Goku, blinking.
Instead of receiving an answer from him, though, Goku received one from Vegeta, who was laughing up a storm.
"Hahaha! So, this is the mighty 'Superman' you've been dreaming of, eh Goku? Please! This clown looks like he could barely handle that little fall of his, not to mention he's even more ridiculously dressed than your son was during that superhero phase of his!"
Yeah… Goku wasn't going to lie. Gohan's outfit and his 'persona' as 'The Great Saiyaman' were a bit… much. But, even if he looked hilarious and acted as goofy as the Ginyu Force (by the way, Goku really needed to talk to Gohan and see if he was holding back some repressed memories from that whole ordeal and if that explained his 'superhero phase'), it was still Gohan underneath that get-up. Despite how soft the years of peace had made him, Gohan was no pushover.
So, while Goku couldn't rightly support his fashion statement, he couldn't rightly dismiss Superman as 'weak' as quickly as Vegeta did, either. Heck, considering how crazy his own hair was and he mostly wore training gi's, Goku wasn't sure he could even talk about Superman's style.
Maybe red under wear worn on the outside was in this year.
Regardless, perhaps there was something else fueling the incredible power he had seen Superman display besides ki. After all, while Babidi wasn't the greatest ki-user ever, he did make up for it for being exceptionally talented in the arts of magic.
Goku decided to ask.
"So… are you any good at magic? Because, I'm not sensing that much ki from you and I'm pretty sure you're pretty strong."
Superman, who had previously been staring at the ground, suddenly bolted his head up towards Goku. His eyes glowed a fierce crimson and half his face tried to form a coherent scowl while the other half was trying to fight it.
"You… who are you? Why do I have so much rage telling me to… fight you?"
"OH, THIS IS GONNA BE GOOD," Shenron said, magicking up a paper bag filled with popcorn.
"Me? I'm Son Goku, but I prefer to be called just 'Goku'."
"Son Goku?" asked Superman, trying to look back down at the ground and away from Goku. "That's Japanese. It translates out into something like, 'The Child Aware of Emptiness,' right?"
"Eh, I think that's about right. Truth be told, I may have been schooled a little bit in Japanese, Chinese, and English when I was younger, but language was never really my thing," Goku said, shrugging. "As to why you're feeling like you are, I guess that's a side-effect of bringing you here to my world so that you and me can go a few rounds."
"What!? How!? Why!? Are you insane!?" yelled out Superman, looking up at Goku with his glowing eyes only to force himself to look back down again.
"To answer your first question: a magic wish granting dragon god named Shenron," Goku said, pointing his finger, which Superman followed towards Shenron.
"YO," Shenron said, his free claw making a 'peace' sign.
"For your second question, the answer is: I think fighting you will be fun."
"OH, YOU BET IT WILL," Shenron said, stuffing his maw full of popcorn.
"And for your third question: I don't know. All of my friends, family, and enemies have called me that, so they might be onto something. Yet, ever since Gohan gave me the official definition, I'm not so—"
"GOKU!" yelled Superman, snapping Goku away from his speculations. "You seem like a swell enough guy, but please, for your sake, GET OUT OF HERE! NOW! I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU!"
Goku knew that Superman probably meant him no harm with that statement. Though, considering his dreams about him were vague enough that he couldn't tell what Superman's personality was like or whether he was even a hero or villain, perhaps he did. Then again, if he really meant Goku harm, why was he fighting the urge to fight him?
"GOKU! PLEASE!"
Regardless of whether Superman's statement was genuine or cocky, though, to Goku, thems was fighting words, and he couldn't help but poke the bear with a stick. Especially not when the bear had the potential to test Goku like he had never been tested before.
"Hurt me?" Goku said, raising an eyebrow before smirking. "Please. From the looks of things, you could barely handle that birthday entertainer you stole that costume from."
Goku looked over toward Vegeta and winked while nodding.
Vegeta apparently got the message, if what he said next was anything to go by. "If you think you're the least bit threatening, then I think we know what the 'S' on your chest stands for!"
"Uhhh…" Goku said, scratching his head and wracking his brain for another verbal jab to throw at Superman. "You're… uhhh… wearing blue?"
Vegeta shook his head, but continued onward with the insult hurling. "I bet even that shaggy loser my woman used to date could knock you flat on your ass!"
"Yeah!" Goku said, feeling a sudden wave of inspiration before going through with his next taunt. "In fact, I bet your parents were terrible, since they obviously never told you that underwear goes on the—"
Goku would have finished that sentence if Superman did not suddenly yell out, "Don't you mock my ma and pa!"
And then, it happened.
In the span of three point four microseconds, Goku felt a palm close the three meters (ten feet) of distance between it and his chest, traveling at three million, two-hundred and eighteen thousand, six hundred and eighty-eight kilometers an hour (two millions miles an hour). It connected solidly with his chest, lifting him up off of his feet and sending him shooting like a cannon through the air.
It wasn't a deadly blow, as Goku had been smart enough to charge up his base form to its maximum discreetly as soon as he had seen Superman crawl out of the crater. But, Goku had to admit that he felt it. He had little doubt that if Superman came at him with a fist, his sternum would have been cracked. Sure, if Goku wasn't so into his taunting that he had dropped his guard, he would have been able to see the attack coming and react accordingly, even considering that the speed Superman had come at him with was a little over three times greater than the maximum velocity of his base form.
But still, he counted himself lucky that Superman had apparently exercised enough self-control to 'pull his punches,' as it were.
Even after Goku pierced all the way through most of the Mt. Paozu mountain range like a bullet, back of the head first, he counted himself luckily.
In about twice the amount of time it took for Goku to be hit, he landed miles away from the Mt. Paozu area and into a very familiar wide open plain. The Spinach wastes, if he recalled. The very same place Raditz had landed in when he first arrived on earth and where he had returned to after kidnapping Gohan.
The very same place, where Goku had embraced death for the first time ever.
Goku, however, did not think that today's bout was nearly as do or… well… die.
At least, not yet.
With a smile, he flipped his body around and landed in a crouching position, his recovery so skilled that he only managed to ruffle up the grass some when his feet touched earth. He didn't have long to rest, however, when he sensed Superman above him. Goku rolled out of the way of Superman's attempt to tackle him into the dirt. Before Superman could turn towards him, Goku lunged forth, kneed him in the stomach with both knees, followed up with an uppercut that sent Superman cartwheeling into the air, and hurled a ki-blast from either hand right into his face.
He had put enough power into those two blasts that he was certain he had a little bit of time to catch a breather.
He found, though, that he had to breathe through gritted teeth upon being gripped by a striking pan in his knees and his fist. At first, he wondered why those areas were hurting, until he realized that the pain must have resulted from his physical attacks on Superman.
"Jeez… hitting that guy felt like hitting a brick-wall!" Goku thought.
The 'brick-wall,' both his fists outstretched before him, then flew out of the dust cloud both ki-blasts had created. Goku was about to side step when, suddenly, Superman's acceleration doubled. Naturally, this surprised Goku greatly. Though he still managed to evade the attack for the most part, Superman's fists managed to knick his shoulder to the point where Goku could feel a bruise forming.
"Alright, if Superman can outpace me in my normal state like THAT, then I guess it's time to power up!"
Quickly, before his opponent could veer around and try again, Goku powered up to Super Saiyan 1 and used his vastly increased perception, strength, and speed, each multiplied by a factor of fifty, to blitz Superman with a series of punches, kicks, and chops that would have threatened to turn Frieze, even at his best, into a vegetable.
However, despite the amount of punishment Goku was liberally applying like he liked to do with soy sauce on a roast duck, Superman didn't seem to be getting progressively worse for wear. Granted, his attempts at counter-attacking were slow and telegraphed enough that Goku could easily predict, track, and avoid them. Yet even still, moving at a little over forty-eight million kilometers an hour (thirty million miles per hour), Goku could not completely ignore the pain building up in whatever arm or leg he used to strike Superman.
He also could not ignore that Superman's attempts at counter-attacking were getting progressively swifter. Many nanoseconds into this phase of the bout, and one of those attempts took the form of a haymaker that almost connected with his face.
Luckily, Goku ducked under it, grabbed ahold of Superman's wrist, and kicked off of his nose with both feet to perform a backflip. When he was facing Superman again, Goku let out a war cry, struck the air in front of him with both of his palms, and hit Superman in the stomach with a powerful kiai. Before he could recover, Goku then decided to take a page from Vegeta and sent out a volley of a dozen ki-blasts, each ten times as powerful as either of the two from before. Each of them struck their target, whether it was a shoulder joint, a shin, or the solar plexus, with machine like accuracy and precision.
The resulting smoke cloud eclipsed the previous one. Goku cupped his hands together to attempt to perform a staple of his, the kame-ha-me-ha wave.
"Ka—me—ha—" were the only words he managed to get out of the little chant he liked to do whenever he was charging the kamehameha. For it was then that the smoke cloud was blown away by an unusually strong just of wind. A gust that struck Goku and was so cold to the touch that he found himself frozen in his charging position and falling like an ice sculpture.
Though he swiftly busted out with his strength, he was just as swiftly struck by a right cross, the first legitimate punch Superman had managed to land so far in the bout. It was angled in such a way that he went blasting off into the sky, kind of like a reverse shooting star. Speaking of stars, Goku was seeing them until he managed to shake his head clear and decelerate himself at the top of the troposphere.
Though the air was thin up there, and he had just taken a hit that still left the left side of his jaw ringing, he did not greedily suck in any air. In fact, all things considered, his breathing was rather relaxed.
"Satisfied?"
Goku turned around to find Superman hovering threateningly close, his eyes still glowing red and his arms crossed over his chest.
"A little." Goku smirked and rubbed the left side of his face with the palm of a hand. "You?"
"That you managed to survive? Yeah. You might have goaded me into attacking, but I'm not fond of killing people I just met, or in general, even if they are rude enough to insult my parents."
Goku chuckled nervously and ran a hand through his now blonde hair. "Yeah… sorry about that. Though I can't talk for Vegeta, I didn't mean any of what I said and was just trying to get the fight started."
"You seem to like fighting a lot."
"E'yup. You could say it's in my blood." Goku snickered at his little in-joke.
"Well, I can't say that I'm fond of it myself."
Goku scratched his head in confusion. "Why? From what I've seen in my dreams and in real life just now, you seem to be pretty decent at it."
"That's more due to necessity than genuine enjoyment."
Goku placed a hand on his chin and looked thoughtful for a moment. "So, you are a hero where you come from, then. Am I right?"
"Yeah. You could say that."
Goku placed both his hands behind his head and looked towards space. "So, what's the problem? We're both good guys here. Just stop fighting the magic of the wish and let's REALLY get this fight started already."
"The'problem,' Goku, is that while I don't doubt that you'd have beaten me to a pulp if I had let you land all of those hits just a week ago, I haven't seen anything to suggest that you could take me on if I were to come at you with everything I had right now."
"Look, I know you think you might accidentally kill me if you don't pull your punches, but I'm telling you that I can handle it. Ya see, I still have an ace, or two, up my wristbands," Goku said, blowing out a loose strand of hair from his face.
"Like?"
Goku smirked. "Like this!"
With a burst of golden light and crackling bioelectricity, Goku became a Super Saiyan 2. Though he had mastered this level of Super Saiyan to the point where powering up didn't need to be so flashy, just like he had with the first level, he intentionally made it so this time. The reasoning behind this was that he thought the resulting shockwave of power would surprise Superman and lower his guard.
His assumption proved correct.
He quickly shoulder checked Superman so hard that he went sailing in a circuit around the circumference of the earth. As Superman completed his trip, Goku then tackled him again with his other shoulder, sending him sailing in an opposing circuit around the earth. When Superman arrived again, Goku kicked him in the chin as hard as he could with the soles of his boots, sending him into the highest layer of the atmosphere. Goku, though, beat him there and knocked Superman in-between the shoulder blades with a precise double-axe handle strike, so powerful, that Superman crashed not only through the crust of the earth, but the mantle, and the core as well, before coming out the other side, shooting up from the ocean, and reaching the upper atmosphere again. Though Goku wasn't there waiting for him this time, three-dozen ki-blasts that Goku had rapidly shot off the moment his double-axe handle was finished, were. They struck Superman with such force that he was now moving into space only at escape velocity.
That left Goku plenty of time to make it ahead of Superman and finally charge up a decent kamehameha, chant and all.
"Ka—me—ha—me—HA!"
Pouring in half of the ki he could output into this particular kamehameha, he made sure to angle it in such a way that, when it struck Superman, it would send him back through the hole in the earth he had just come out of and explode harmlessly in high-orbit.
When it did, Goku panted for the first time since the bout had kicked off. After three seconds, though, he stopped and a look of horror overtook his features. For even though the kamehameha was gone and should have stopped obscuring Superman's relatively meager ki signature, he couldn't sense Superman in that direction.
At all.
"Oh crap! Don't tell me I killed him!" Goku said, sweat dropping from his brow. "If he's dead, then that means that I'll have to wait months until I can use either Shenron or Porunga to fix Grandpa's old place since I'll have to use both wishes to bring Superman back and send him back to his world!"
He placed the index and middle fingers of his right hand onto his forehead in preparation to use instant transmission to get to where the kamehameha had exploded and see if he couldn't find Superman.
As things turned out, though, he didn't have to. In fact, he couldn't. For, as if from nowhere, Goku suddenly felt Superman's ki approaching quickly from behind. Before he knew it, he felt a double-axe handle connect between his shoulder blades and was sent careening through the planet. Unlike Superman, though, Goku never made it to the upper atmosphere after becoming more acquainted with mother earth than he had ever wanted to be. Instead, he was clotheslined in the neck and felt his body constrict under the grip of a full nelson, the most powerful he had ever been in.
As Goku tried to break out, his efforts in vain, he gasped out, "So… you're not dead after all."
"Disappointed?" Superman asked.
"Not at all. As much as I enjoy fighting, I don't like killing good guys if I can help it." Goku yelled out in pain as he felt his muscles stretch in ways he wasn't sure they were designed to do. "So, you took the blast head on, did you?"
"Yes."
"Wow. I'm impressed."
"Why?"
"Because, I'm not even sure I'd have enough self-control to fight off the urge to fight AND just take a blast like that without even moving out of the way. You've gotta have some mental discipline for that."
"Thank you, Goku, but I'm afraid that this fight stops here. Though this world might be different than the one I come from, I don't want either of us to end up destroying it accidentally. I'm ending this."
Goku then felt Superman REALLY start to apply the pressure. In response, Goku doubled his efforts to break free, only to find himself tiring twice as fast.
"Superman, wait! Before you go through with this, please, hear me out."
"I'm listening."
"Remember when I said that I didn't mean any of the nasty stuff I said earlier?"
"Yeah."
"Well, for the most part, I didn't. However, part of me really wasn't sure that you could offer the challenge I was expecting." Goku wheezed out a little. "In fact, you could say that this fight up to this point has been a test.
"I'm assuming I've passed with flying colors."
"Oh, you bet," Goku said. "Now, I'm positive that you can handle me at my best."
Goku could practically hear Superman raise his eyebrow.
"Come again?"
"E'yup. Just like you… I've been holding back this entire time."
"What? Another one of those 'aces' up those wristbands of yours?"
"Yeah. You could say that."
With a mighty roar that the wind carried like a colossal king for thousands of miles in all directions, Goku pushed himself, forced himself, into drawing the amount of ki necessary for what he was about to do.
"GAAAHHH!"
It was enough ki that the entire hemisphere lit up like an erupting supernova. Enough that the whole earth shook like ball grasped within the clutches of a capricious child god. Enough that any ki-users worth their salt could sense, even from as far away as the planet of the Kais.
The golden aura enveloping Goku's body grew richer and more vibrant and the arcs of bioelectricity he was sending in every direction was like an entire squall line of thunderstorms.
Finally, after a moment too brief for the human eye to even notice, yet a small eternity for those who could perceive events of such swiftness, Goku had reached the peak of his power.
With a sudden yet strenuous flexing of his muscles, he broke out of Superman's hold by driving both of his elbows into his stomach. Quickly, Goku grabbed Superman by one of his legs, drove one of his elbows into his calf muscle, and dragonthrew him.
Though Superman stopped himself a mile away, even at that distance, Goku could see Superman clutching at where his blows had struck.
He even saw him cough out a bit of blood.
Taking a combat stance, Goku ran a hand through as much of his now four foot long golden locks as he could, and wiped just beneath his nose with an index finger.
Now was the moment. The very same that Goku had felt excited about ever since he had made the decision to use the dragon balls.
The moment he would fight Superman as a Super Saiyan 3.
"Now, the REALLY fun part," Goku said, smirking.
With a cry of war, Goku rushed Superman.
0-0-0-0-0
Well now. This should be interesting. Trust me when I say, that it'll be A LOT tougher for them both from here on out and, if you thought this chapter was all to see in terms of action, then you ain't seen Clark and SS 3 Goku go at it yet!
So, yeah, this chapter. Kind of obvious from the get go that it was designed to counter-balance the slower, expositiony scenes of the last chapter, ain't it? I understand completely if some folks couldn't get through the first chapter because of just how heavy with text it was, but for those folks who did and have soldiered onto these bolded words, I say thank you, and that you should all be given medals for your dedication. I hope the action was to your satisfaction, as well as the character interactions, and I hope that the next chapters will deliver in ways even I didn't expect.
Auf Wiedersehen!