"UNBELIEVABLE! This is no doubt the most extreme fight in the history of the Tenkaichi Budokai!" The announcer shouted. For what seemed like hours, Goku and Uub had been battling full force in the air, several feet above the arena floor. Even after overseeing Uub's training for the past six years, Goku still couldn't believe the power this boy possessed. He was neither winning nor losing this battle, though to him, Uub seemed to be at a slight advantage, which was saying something, considering Goku was using all his power as a Super Saiyan at the moment.
"Ready to kick things up a notch, Uub?" He asked his pupil. Uub nodded, an enthusiastic grin on his face. Goku gave a grunt, and his golden hair became much sharper, spikier, and more ridged, his Super Saiyan aura becoming jagged and accompanied by electric blue sparks, like lightning. At that same moment, Uub was heard saying, "Kiaoken x10!" Most of Goku's friends in the audience gasped at these words. "Was it really only six years he trained that boy?" Said Piccolo, surprised. The action continued, neither side showing more fatigue than the other. Suddenly, Uub landed a blow from above, sending Goku flying into the arena floor below. He caught himself and landed, though not exactly lightly, on the arena's edge, Uub setting down on the opposite side.
"KAMEHAMEHAAAAAA!" They both shouted simultaneously. Two massive bright blue beams of pure energy collided with each other near the center of the ring. The place where the attacks met didn't falter even slightly as they stood, trying to break the struggle.
"KAIOKEN!" Uub bellowed. "Times... ONE HUNDREEEEEEED!" It was no attack that erupted from his hands. It was a sheer explosion. An explosion that blasted Goku off of his feet and sent him flying at break-neck speed into the barrier in front of the stands.
"OUT OF BOUNDS!" He knew it. Uub had actually beaten him. "Goku is the winner by default!"
"What?" Goku looked behind himself to see Uub squished behind him, sandwiched between his teacher and the barrier. Once they had both gotten to their feet, Goku gave Uub a pleasant grin. "You know, Uub, I don't ever recall teaching you to use instant transmission." He said.
"I thought you might like that." said Uub, rather satisfied. He then gave a rather glum look. "Does this mean that I failed?" He asked. Goku put a hand on his shoulder.
"Of course not. You've shown a lot of power, determination, and talent today." He said, smiling. "You as good as won that match. You pass." Uub leapt eight feet in the air, cheering.
"Due to necessary repairs to the arena, the final match will be postponed for another two hours." The commentator announced. Goku had promptly teleported to Korin and got a senzu bean so that he and Vegeta would be on even ground in the match to come. Uub had a massive lunch, as he had the appetite of a saiyan after finishing his match.
"Thank you for waiting! Now we give you the much awaited final match between Son Goku and Vegeta.
"You know Vegeta, I thought you said we'd need an entire planet for our next rematch." Goku grinned, remembering his friend and rival's last words before he left to train Uub 6 years ago.
"I'd hardly consider this a rematch." said Vegeta, who clearly seemed annoyed by the arena's limitations. "It's really more like a warm-up." They took their fighting stances.
"Ready! GO!"
At the very moment the announcer said these words, Goku and Vegeta vanished, reappearing several feet above the arena, both of them already somewhat battle worn as they fought on. With a powerful hit, Vegeta sent Goku flying to the ground, where he landed not so easily on the arena floor below.
"So," Vegeta smirked, touching down easily and powering up. "What do you say we stop holding back?" In a massive flood of golden light and electric blue sparks, Vegeta transformed, his eyes becoming dark green, and his hair turning gold and very long, his eyebrows disappearing.
"I was wondering when you'd reach Super Saiyan 3, Vegeta." Goku grinned, taking on the same transformation, just in time to stop a blow from Vegeta and turn it against him. Mere movements from these titans caused the arena tiles to break, and as they clashed on and on, they climbed higher into the air, and when they were sure they wouldn't hurt anything, they separated after a powerful collision of fists. Standing opposite each other, Vegeta shouted,
"FINAL FLASH!" just as Goku yelled,
"KAMEHAMEHA!" Their beam attacks clashed, with no sign of either having the advantage over the other. When they were beginning to strain all of their energy into it, they could hear the announcer shout,
"TIME'S UP! NEITHER CONTESTANTS WILL PROCEED!"
Sighing, Goku and Vegeta powered down, landed, and piled out of the Tenkaichi Budokai arena with the rest of their friends and family.
"Well, on the bright side, we don't have to fake a loss for Mr. Satan to keep his title." Goku shrugged as they left.
"Like I said before, that match was just a warm-up for our real fight." said Vegeta.
"Strange. I don't remember anything about it raining today." Pan remarked, pointing up at the sky, which was covered with black clouds, rather than being perfectly clear, as it was a moment ago.
"Someone's using the Dragon Balls." said Goku, quite familiar with the pitch black sky.
"Not just the Dragon Balls." said Piccolo darkly. "The Black Star Dragon Balls."
"The what!" Everyone blurted together.
Meanwhile, on Kami's Lookout….
"Sire, I'm really starting to have second thoughts about this."
"It's too late for that! Look, we're almost there."
"That's what you said three days ago. Only for us to find some walking, talking cat and a fat guy with a jar of beans."
"Shut up! The Lookout is there! The Dragon Balls will at last be ours!"
For the past week or so, Emperor Pilaf and his recently reunited cohorts, Shu and Mai, had been climbing upwards to somewhere called 'Kami's Lookout' that Pilaf was obsessed with. He was always so firmly driven on Global Domination, and the Dragon Balls, the things that could easily give the bumbling, self-proclaimed emperor this wish. Their giant robots were heavily outdated, which was bad, considering that they were necessary for the newly reunited trio to reach the top of the seemingly never-ending red pole.
"Ascension cables!" Pilaf commanded. Shu and Mai obeyed, firing a series of long and thin, yet strong hooked cables that latched to the edge of the lookout above. Slowly, they were dragged further and further up, until they could finally pull themselves up over the edge and get out of the bulky robots.
"Finally!" Shu groaned, stretching his aging, stiff joints. "I thought we'd never get here."
"Tell me about it." Mai agreed, cracking her stiff back. "I'm getting a little too old for this sort of thing."
"There'll be plenty of time for that after we rule the world!" said Pilaf bossily, walking towards the small palace nearby. "So this is Kami's Lookout, is it?"
"Seems more like a palace to me." Mai remarked.
"Yes, it would more than just replace the castle that giant monkey smashed all those years ago." Pilaf grinned. Pilaf had to resort to smaller, less impressive bases of operations ever since his castle was destroyed many years ago by an unexplainable giant gorilla. Most of these hideouts were just fancy-looking houses, or historical mansions and castles, which he could only stay in for a few days at the longest.
"Do you really think we could find them here?" Shu asked uncertainly.
"I've been unable to find even one ever since we dealt with Demon King Piccolo." Pilaf said, as they explored the inside of the Lookout. "I don't know why that is, but the best place to start, I think, is with the place where they were created." Shu and Mai actually had to give it to Pilaf on this one. His reasoning was fairly logical. "This door looks like it could be containing something rather important." He noted, halting at a dark, stone door with an ornate serpentine dragon carved into it. "Help me push!" All three pushed with all their elderly might, but the door didn't budge an inch.
"I'm sorry, sire, but I don't think we're going to get it open." Mai panted. She might have been able to open it easily if she was young, but she was no pretty young woman anymore.
"We can and will see what's in there, even if…" Pilaf insisted, but he was cut off when the door suddenly opened on its own. "How did that happen?" He asked to no one in particular.
"I just tried to pull, and it let me in." Shu shrugged. Pilaf grumbled to himself for a moment, then marched into the room, his henchmen following.
"Ah! Here they are!" Pilaf squeaked delightedly. The room was small and there were cobwebs everywhere, the air thick and dusty. In the center of the room was a pedestal with several metallic gold dragon's heads sticking out of it, each one with sinister-looking red eyes, apparently made from jewels, and something clasped in their mouths. Shu and Mai exchanged a look of uncertainty.
"This is what we came here for?" said Shu. "I mean, this thing's pretty cool and all, but it's not that cool."
"You're so clueless, it's pitiful." Pilaf grinned. "They're just a bit dusty." He inhaled a great mouthful of air, making him cough, and blew hard at the top of the pedestal, clearing a very thick layer of dust from the items in the dragon's mouths. Shu and Mai covered their eyes and coughed thickly. When their eyes were clear of dust, they stared in awe as they saw the dragon balls in the mouths of the dragon statues. "Nice, huh?" Mai looked perplexed however.
"The stars are… Black?" She said, taking one of them carefully from one of the dragon's mouths. "It's been a while since I've seen these things, but I remember them having red stars, not black."
"Hm?" Pilaf didn't notice before, but Mai was right. "I guess they've been improved somehow since last we've seen them." He projected without any real evidence that this was true. "Anyway, if there is anything I remembered about the Dragon Balls, it's that Shenlong's a big dragon. So let's get these things outside." They each took a few handfuls of balls and, found their way back outside, where their robots lay.
"You know, it seems strange that there'd be a palace like this up here, and yet no one living in it." Mai remarked.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter." said Pilaf dismissively, setting dropping some Dragon Balls on the ground. His henchmen followed suit, and Pilaf shouted. "ARISE, SHENLONG! ARISE AND GRANT MY WISH!" At these words, the balls glowed orange and the perfectly clear blue sky was shrouded by jet black clouds, red lighting flaring through the darkness.
A bolt of red lightning struck the Dragon Balls, making Shu, Mai, and Pilaf freak out, only for them to freak out even more when the lightning started to take on a serpentine form, winding this way and that around the lookout, growing longer, bigger, and thicker, until straight above, the head of a massive red dragon, which overshadowed the entire lookout and then some, came into shape.
"Tell me your wish!" The Dragon spoke, its voice booming loudly like the lightning around it.
"Um, Shenlong? You certainly seem different since we've last met." said Pilaf nervously.
"I am known as Tatsukami, the Eternal Dragon of Absolute Power!" The dragon's voice reverberated.
"Well, I don't know what happened to Shenlong, but I like this new guy." Pilaf smiled. He turned to see someone else come into focus.
"Huh? Hey, I remember you guys. You're Emperor Pilaf, right?" He said, as though greeting old friends.
"Shu, who is that?" Pilaf whispered.
"Sir, that's Son Goku." said Shu. "All grown up."
"THAT'S what that little monkey boy grew up to be!" Pilaf screamed, frightened. "He was terrible before, what he could do as an adult… ugh! I wish he was a kid again, then maybe we could…" He slapped a hand over his mouth. He said completely the wrong thing in front of the wrong dragon.
"So be it." said Tatsukami, and with a glow of his bright yellow eyes, Goku began to shrink, until he was only a little under five feet tall, staring up in confusion.
"Everything looks like it got bigger all of a sudden." he blinked, freezing in shock at the sound of his new voice.
"Your wish has been granted." said Tatsukami, who began to vanish into a bolt of lightning again. "The man is a boy once more."
"NO!" Piccolo shouted, flying from out of nowhere and grabbing one of the glowing hot Dragon Balls before it could ascend and scatter along with the rest. His hand blackened and burned the longer he held onto it, but as the other balls made long straight arcs as the scattered in opposite directions, he saved it. His hand blackened and withered, he ripped it off firmly and a new one grew in its place. "Are you okay, Goku?" he asked, but winced in surprise at what he saw.
"Yeah, I'm alright. Why?" Goku asked.
"Well…" said Piccolo awkwardly.
"What happened!" Dende called as he and his attendant, Mr. Popo came running out where Goku and Piccolo stood. He saw the newly de-aged Goku and looked more surprised than before. "And what happened?"
"What do you mean?" Goku asked. Mr. Popo supplied him with a mirror, and Goku looked with horror at his reflection.
"WHAT THE?" He shouted. "I'M… I'M A KID AGAIN?"
To be continued….
