Tournament Saga - Part 1: Mobilization

Waiting wasn't exactly one of Commander Red's hobbies. He was oftentimes more attracted to seeing immediate results than holding out for his desired outcome.

However, even he could concede that the time he'd invested into re-training his prized weapon was invaluable. Within the first few weeks of Tao's arrival, Goku had shed his childish enthusiasm for a much more tolerable monotony, something that gave Red a great relief. There were only so many pills in the world for the eternal headache that the child's high-pitched voice could so easily spark.

Speaking of Goku, Red was on the lookout for him. After hearing he had been looking for Ninja Murasaki, Red entered the forest-resembling domain of the stealthy warrior. However, as he did, a sudden wave of uneasiness came over him.

'I'm… being watched… aren't I...?' he thought, a bead of sweat dripping down his neck. He felt eyes boring into him, making him subconsciously flinch despite his power over everyone in Muscle Tower. "Who's there?! Get the hell out here, now!

"I swear to god, Murasaki, if this is your way of playing tricks on me-"

Ninja Murasaki appeared in front of him suddenly, causing the height-lacking commander to let out a comical screech and trip over himself, falling face first at the stealthy warrior's boots.

"Yes, Commander Red?" he quickly replied, saluting his overseer despite his rather unflattering position. Watching as the patch-adorning overlord dusted himself off and stood to his feet, heaving, Murasaki remained calm. "Is something the matter?"

"You know I hate it when you just show up like that!" Red barked, attempting to get his breathing under control. Once his heart felt as if it wasn't going to just burst out of his chest, he gathered himself and stood with as much poise as he could. "Anyway… I'm looking for Goku. From what I've been told, he's been hanging around with you recently. That the case?"

"I don't know what you're saying, Commander," Murasaki replied. "He's not anywhere around here."

Suddenly, a heated feeling washed over Red once again. That intense stare-it was back, and somehow it felt even more heightened than before. He could hear nothing other than his own breathing, but he somehow knew someone else was in the room with them.

Eyes flickering around the room uneasily, Red locked eyes with the ninja before motioning him closer. "Murasaki… call me crazy, but I swear there's someone in the room with us. Did… did you notice?"

"Guess I'm not as good as I need to be."

Red pivoted around and let out a primal howl as he saw Goku before him; however, this time he was able to catch himself before he hit the floor in such humiliating fashion. That said, however, he was no less spooked by the sudden appearance of the mighty alien prodigy. "Goku, I swear, that shit isn't funny!"

"It's not funny, Commander," the boy replied in a faded monotone, "it's my training. I asked Ninja Murasaki to train me in the art of stealth."

"He felt he needed to do more with himself instead of just training with Mercenary Tao, and considering he only comes here weekly, I figured I could do something to help Goku out," Murasaki boasted proudly, puffing out his chest.

Though he wouldn't admit to it in that very moment, Red was most certainly impressed. His jaw slightly agape, he looked at the child in awe. 'Mercenary Tao practically left Goku for dead the first few times he was here… and now he's walking around just fine to get more training?'

"I hope you don't mind, Commander," Goku voiced with a dull intone, folding his arms. "As good of a trainer Mercenary Tao is, I need to learn everything I can if I'm going to do well in this army."

Like a spark would ignite a flame, Red's mind suddenly lit up as he recalled something he had long since discarded. "Well, Goku… if you want to learn everything you can, how about I give you an all-expense paid trip to Papaya Island for the World Martial Arts Tournament?"

"A tournament?" Goku raised an eyebrow, a far cry to the excited outburst he would have surely performed nothing short of a year ago. Red had to smile at how much progress the boy had made since then. "Sounds interesting… but how strong will the competition be? I don't need to bother if they're just going to be weak."

"I don't think you're understanding what I'm saying, Goku," Red snapped, annoyed with the boy's immediate dismissal of the idea. "This is the World Martial Arts Tournament. Only the strongest fighters on Planet Earth would even bother showing up to this. If you can go ahead and win this, it means that we're probably in the position to make our move against the rest of the world."

A faint glimmer appeared in Goku's eye, one that had been long suppressed since Tao's arrival. "You mean… we're finally gonna do it? We're going to actually take over the world?"

Murasaki grinned. "Seems so, Goku. Seems so."

Red shot him a death glare, wiping that grin straight off Murasaki's face. "Don't get the kid's hopes up. The only way I'll even consider trying to take over the world is if Goku can beat the world's strongest. Otherwise, what's the point?"

"I have faith in the kid, Commander," the ninja defended. "He's grown strong- stronger than anything we've ever seen before."

Red paused for a moment, evidently loading up another string of choice words, but nothing came past his lips. Quietly, he thought to himself, showing no trace of his reflective state outwardly. 'Honestly, this kid's probably gonna win the whole thing with no sweat. I'm just freaked out at the idea of a potential Roshi appearance. Knowing him, he'd manage to turn Goku against the idea of conquering this time. With as strong as he's gotten now, who knows what it'd take to put him down?'

"Commander," Goku suddenly spoke, snapping the diminutive man out of his thoughts. "I will not fail you when I get the chance to fight. I'll show you and the entire world the power of the Red Ribbon."

Although his exterior was sporting a candid grin, Red internally found himself sweating bullets as his mind raced with ideas. 'I need insurance to make sure that Goku's loyalty remains with me… but how?'

His eyes widened in realization. 'Wait! That Ambrose kid!' In place of his grin slid a smug smirk. 'Yeah, Goku and him get along well enough. If Roshi actually does show up and try to bend my little weapon's mind, there's no doubt that Ambrose would try and kill him. And if Goku sees Ambrose die… well, good luck to you, old man.'

"Don't worry, Goku," Red beamed evilly. "I have nothing but the utmost confidence in you."

Far below the remainder of the army's forces sat a man bedecked in rather atypical gear when compared to the standard Red Ribbon gear; clothed in nothing but a ragtag t-shirt and a beat up pair of pants, he could do nothing but watch in fear as the famed slaughterer circled him.

"Do you know why you're here, punk?" the menacing man asked him, his deranged stare piercing through his apparent prisoner's. "Aside from you fucking up, that is?"

"S-So I didn't reload fast enough during practice!" the captive sputtered out, whimpering as the jeaned legs of his tormentor made their way toward him. "That's hardly a reason to have me kill-WWAH!"

He fell to the side as a result of a nasty backhand, leaving a huge welt on his cheek.

"Yeah, no, dude. You shoulda knew what you signed up for when you enlisted in the goddamn Red Ribbon Army." The man had a sinister smirk on his face. "One fuck up, and you're deader than a doornail. Trust me… I know."

"You've messed up too?" squeaked the kid. It was clear he could be no more than twenty or twenty-one with the sheer naviete that he had on display. "Then you should understand why this army's rules are bullshit!"

The aggressor threw his head back and let out a howl of a laugh, a bark so loud that one would wonder if it had reverberated throughout the entire tower. "That's gold, kid. I actually kinda wanna keep you alive, if only for your funny one-liners. But I kinda have a job to do here. They don't call me Ambrose the Annihilator for nothin', after all." He began a slow walk toward his charge, cracking his knuckles as the soldier curled away from him, trying to pretend as if the old adage of 'out of sight, out of mind' actually rang true.

Although such a saying was not quite true, his prayers for survival were temporarily answered by an intercom suddenly going off.

"All faculty, please pay attention to the following announcement. Big changes may be on the horizon for the Red Ribbon Army in the near future."

Ambrose lifted his head in interest. "Oh? Been a while since 'Ol Red went ahead and put out a message like this…"

"It has come to my attention that our army has grown in leaps and strides in recent memory. Quite truthfully, much more than we could have ever seen coming. With that in mind, the time is now to carry out my grand plan - my plan of conquering the Earth."

"God damn, man, you can't be serious!" Ambrose felt a surge of excitement rush through his veins, and he couldn't help but pump a fist in excitement. His other hand went to absentmindedly combing through his scruffy beard as he waited to hear more. "At long last, we get to hear the main man's plan…"

"Our first move will be to go after Candle Village, which I'm sure you already know as one of the more richer oil sites on the planet. With as much fighting as we're set to do, I want to stock up on one of our more valuable resources before we get too tangled up in other affairs. I'm going to be sending a good majority of you folk out there, so keep your eyes peeled for a roster in about three weeks."

"Bitchin'!" Ambrose remarked, grinning stupidly. "It's about time we got to haul ass and do somethin'." Suddenly, a pang of sorrow rushed through him as he remembered a crucial fact. ''Cept… I'm not gonna get to go… fuckin shit, I forgot all about that!'

Fury burning in his eyes, he ignored the helpless soldier's pleas for mercy and gripped him by the skull, kneeing him so intensely in the skull that it almost instantaneously caved in under the pressure. Dropping him to the floor, Ambrose flipped his head upward, his mess of shaggy hair rising and falling with the sudden motion. His hand jerked into a fist, which he gripped and held to his face in frustration. "Fuckin too dangerous to play with others… no way, not this time; I'm finding a way onto that goddamn squad!"

Ambrose burst through the door and began a swift march upstairs, back to the floor level. Everyone was startled to see him, some soldiers even beginning to take their awkward combat stances, but the bulk of the attention still went to the intercom system.

"This leads me to the two keys to our plan. Without them, this plan is going to fall right on its face. Their names are Goku and Ambrose."

The lunatic stopped dead in his tracks as all eyes went to him, whispers and murmurs immediately breaking out.

'These pieces of shit… acting as if I can't already hear them…' Ambrose lamented internally, putting a hand to his head. "Quiet, you fuckers, Commander Red's speaking!" he suddenly roared, swinging his arm and connecting with a forearm so intensely that it knocked out the soldier closest to him.

Ambrose spat at the falling body as everyone went to recover him, paying him no heed as he went and stood on a chair relatively close to the speaker itself. He cupped a hand to his ear and leaned as close to it as possible. "C'mon, Commander, what do ya got me doin'?!"

"Dude, cool your damn jets; you could've seriously hurt him!" sounded off Dolph, shooting him a death glare.

"Be quiet, shitbag; you're next on my list if you say another motherfucking-"

"Goku and Ambrose will be rolling out on a journey to the World Martial Arts Tournament on Papaya Island. I plan for Goku to participate in the tournament as a way of gauging our likelihood of succeeding in our battle against the rest of the Earth's forces. If he brings home the championship, we will make our move to conquer the rest of society with him at the forefront of it all; if he fails, at the very least, we have accurately determined the strength level of our adversaries.

"This is the closest we have ever come to realizing our dreams, men. Let's not fail here."

Slowly, a huge smile overcame Ambrose's face.

"It's showtime, boys!" he roared, pumping a fist in the air as a series of chants rang through the entire Muscle Tower. Despite the general animosity and contempt Ambrose held for a great number of the soldiers present, he couldn't help but body dive into the sea of soldiers and allow them to parade him around. It felt damn good to see the army's efforts being paid off so well…

...and even better that he'd gotten his long awaited second chance back in the field.

That all seemed like a dream, so many weeks in the past. While he had to admit, if only to himself, that he enjoyed Goku's company, the annoying chatter he had to put up with as he escorted Goku past the registration stand made the lunatic ready to rip the heads off everyone in a five mile radius. He'd had to control such urges to pound idiotic humans into the dirt through the food markets they'd stopped at, through the city streets they traveled through, and the registration desk as well. He was just glad that he could take a second to himself to finally rest.

However, even as he let his mind drift, he was still on high alert. Noticing a double glance directed at him, he stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder. A boy sporting rather odd orange gear was murmuring something to an elderly man, pointing his index finger past him and at his charge. Ambrose snarled at him before he caught back up to Goku, reminding himself to keep an eye on that bald-headed brat.

"M-Master Roshi, did you see that! That was totally Goku!"

"Yes, Krillin, I most certainly did see…" Roshi replied, taking off his signature shades and narrowing his eyes. "I have to wonder who that man with him was. I've never seen him before in my life."

"But you're sure that was the boy you mentioned? That's really Goku?" asked another elderly man beside him. "Why, he looks harmless; he's hardly even Krillin's size!"

"The Goku we knew was harmless, yes. He was a very kind boy," Roshi iterated. "Ever since his sudden disappearance, though, he's shut us out completely. We're in the dark as to what he's like now."

"Don't worry, guys. I'm sure we'll get answers sooner or later," offered the final competitor of the group, a long-haired warrior by the name of Yamcha. "That death glare the guy with him shot Krillin has to mean something."

Krillin frowned. "That's true. But what could it-"

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Turtle Master!"

Everyone turned to see as an incongruous crew of three made their way toward them, the center featuring a rather old man with his head half-bald and either of his sides being flanked by what could only be described as… rather odd individuals. Such a description was not deemed invalid when one considered the almost doll-like features of the one on his left and the three-eyed stare of the man on his right.

Roshi threw his shades back on and looked the aged fellow up and down before breaking out into a half-smirk. Although it was hidden by his bushy mustache, it was by no means concealed. "The Crane Master! I'm surprised you're still alive, Shen. What brings your aging face here?"

"As foul-mouthed… and as foul-faced… as ever, I see." Shen coldly replied. "If you must know, I heard a rather interesting rumor that two of your students went far in last year's tournament. I figured that if your demented teachings were still considered legendary to these people, it was time for me to remind them all of the proper martial arts style."

"Of course, if you want to leave now, that's also an option," spoke the triclops abreast him. He wore a cocky smirk on his face before beckoning toward the group. "I wouldn't blame you at all if you wanted to save yourselves the embarrassment of losing to us on the grand stage."

"We'll pass, hotshot," Yamcha fiercely declined, staring him down intensely. "I hope I get you in the first round just to shut you up!"

Shen smirked. "What a terrible comeback. I see your master didn't prep you well in the art of trash talking, either." He turned his back to the group and began walking toward the registration stand, arms folded neatly behind his back. "Come, Tien, Chiaotzu, we have no time to waste on such menial folk. We have a tournament to win."

"Shen and the Crane… well, even discounting Goku from the mix, this is going to be a tournament to remember."

"Ooh! That guy got my blood boiling!" Yamcha seethed, clenching a fist. "I mean it when I say I hope I get the first crack at him; I wanna send those guys packing early!"

"From the looks of things, this one isn't gonna be easy," Krillin remarked. Then, to himself, he added, 'but I have to advance in this tournament. If not just for Master Roshi and the pride of the Turtle… so I can finally find out why Goku left…'

Although this is a shorter chapter compared to the 10K plus chapter 6, do not let yourself think I winged it; this chapter hit all the points it needed to and FINALLY takes us into the action that we needed to get into. For reference, the next chapter hit a crisp 7.2K words, which I'm hoping to make kind of a standard for you all. I'm not gonna try and get a chapter buffer anymore, but now I'm just waiting on each chapter to make sure I feel it's completely ready. I've also been revising some of my chapters with Supersaiyaninfinitygohan, a longtime friend of mine, who has again posted this chapter for me as I wait for Firefox to install.

Now that the long-awaited journey into Red Son's main plot has begun, let me speak from the heart one last time:

The last few months have been a trial for me, both physically and mentally. First I had to deal with FanFiction burnout, then life gave me a swift kick in the butt that kind of forced me to get my priorities straightened. I'm thankful for it, however, because it's gotten me back to where I feel I need to be in my life. I've grown a lot as a person and learnt what I can and cannot handle. I'm not making any more thinly veiled promises to lure you all back here or to leave a favorite or follow; all I ask for is the validation that comes with being a writer. Showing your support for RS, whether it be reviewing, favoriting, following, or just reading the story itself does wonders beyond words for me.

Now, some quick final notes:

This is the last of the sped-along chapters of RS. It should be known by now that I suck at establishing a setting without having something to work off of; now that my basic templates and plots have been set in motion, you will see a lot more characterization, a lot more action, and a hefty amount of content. This should be the last 3K chapter for a long time, if ever, and I am absolutely thrilled about that.

Speaking of those kinds of chapters, I might be heading back and revamping the first five chapters in an attempt to pretty them up, so to speak. If I do, feel free to leave your feedback there as well, as I'd rather not have them serve as weak points to my story that were written before my burnout.

And finally, just thanks in general. I've forgotten how much FFN meant to me in the past years, and I'm so happy I have a chance to revisit it again with a story I know will truly go far.

Oh! One last thing. I would greatly appreciate if you readers would start up a TV Tropes page for this story. My reason for doing so is not to gain any additional publicity or notoriety, but rather because I've been using trope sheets a lot in order to better organize my story(and flesh out some original characters; in fact, one debuts in the next chapter that I'm excited to see your initial reactions to) and I would love to have an additional space to better justify my use of tropes and all the like. It's more for my love of writing and literary elements than anything else, honestly xD

Anyways, I'm glad to see that my return was met with a(generally) positive reception, and now I can respond to you all to end this chapter's festivities.

-Guest: Another great chapter! Thanks for the update and merry xmas to you too!

Also, will you bring chichi and add a bit of romance cuz I want to see a dark goku x chichi pair and honestly, your writing's great and would love to see you writing them! :D

Goku's romantic life in this story is set to be one heck of an experience. We'll see just how that works, but let me say that I've always been fond of the canon couple and that I have no intentions of leaving any path unexplored. Trust me… this is going to be something interesting to follow.

-Astroman1000: Wowza just read this whole thing and im very impressed with the way you're going about writing it cuz its really good... though i will say the prospect of months long waits for chapters is horrifying this idea is mystifying, the title alone told me all i needed to know about the story and its been spot on awesome

Cant wait for the next chapter

Thx ;)

Comments like these remind me why I keep writing. I look forward to your thoughts and perspectives on the chapters to come, as that's when I'm really breaking my element by going into RRA combat detail. I still think I did pretty well, but it's comments like these that restore my faith in my ability.

-WhisperingNinja: I distinctly remember reading that somewhere that someone did not care about the quality of their work. If I have annoyed them to the point that they WILL care, then I'm thrilled and look forward to being impressed. None of us are perfect but do the readers not deserve our best?

You raise a good point, one that's valid enough to the point where I actually feel sorry for being snarky to you. So I do hereby apologize, as I thought you were nothing short of a troll.

Basically when I said I didn't care about the quality of my work, I have to admit that is partially a lie. I think I used that as my justification for why I seemed to keep writing despite the fact that I was getting mentally burned out from the process(and thus putting in less effort). However, I seem to enjoy myself much more when I don't go ahead and try to write a descriptive masterpiece; I will admit that. To try and retain the quality of my work, I oftentimes go back and pepper in my usual style to make it look and read better.

However... when I do this, I find myself having so many ideas to add in that I sometimes forget to finish a few things and, thus, have a few mistakes within my work. I don't like being snobby, but I just don't really make mistakes unless I go back and try to add more words or twist a particular sentence's structure. It's something I've taken care of by waiting to release chapters instead and proofreading them more carefully, which I think not only tightens up the plot but also the flow of the story.

In short: I humbly extend my apologies and would also like to thank you. It's readers like you that remind me why I held myself to high standards before and why I will continue to do so again. I may not catch every small thing, but I know I'm better than most in the grammarian sense and, more importantly, realize that I'm not perfect(although once I start posting my own chapters again I can look even more efficiently). That said, I will do my best to give you and everyone else a story worth reading...

-Guest: Typos ignored once again. Point proven!

...Except to folks like you who are rather 'in your face' about it.

That's all from me, folks (Expect Chapter 8 to hit the internet in the first few weeks of January). 2016 is looking to be a kickass year for me, and I hope it is for all of you as well. Be happy, stay safe, and have a Happy New Year!