Disclaimer: don't own DBZ, or anything related to it.

just so everyone stays clear, here are the names of the clones again:

Gohan – Nahog
Videl – Levid
Vegeta – Furuti
Trunks – Tapara
Bulma – Ropa

Goten was getting seriously bored standing where he was. As per his brother's orders, he had been standing guard outside of Oolong's mansion all day, exactly like how he had seen the guards standing in the comics he used to read at Trunks' house.

But standing here outside of the door, looking at nothing but the empty and never-changing plains, the young half-saiyan was just so bored.

"How do adult people just stand around al day? Must be something about growing up or something…" He mused. But no matter how bored he was, he knew he couldn't do something else. His brother had trusted him with the important duty of guarding the mansion, so he would guard the mansion! Even if he did want to leave and play with Trunks' toys now that his friend wasn't around.

Suddenly Goten felt something odd; an energy-presence he wasn't used too. It was very small, but still too big to be an animal of any sorts. It might have been a dinosaur, or a dragon, but that wasn't right… the signal was coming from inside the house and there's no way a dinosaur or dragon would fit in there.

"Wait, someone's in the house!" the boy yelled before turning around and dashing inside. 'How'd they get inside, I stood outside that door all-day long.'

But there was no time to question such abilities now; he had to find out what was going on.

'The kitchen!' Goten realized as he turned the corner. That's where the energy signal was coming from! Increasing his speed a bit more, the pre-teen dashed right through the door, ready for a fight.

Only to run straight into Master Roshi, who had been looking around the kitchen as well. With a almost unnatural balance and reaction, the old master prevented himself from falling and stabilized Goten before either of them fell to the ground. He immediately spun the child around, making them stand back-to-back.

"Hey, Master Roshi, why're you here?" the child asked, turning around to face the older man, just as his mother had taught him.

"For the same reason you are Goten." He answered, his eyes scanning the room for whoever had infiltrated the mansion. "I sensed a strange energy enter the building and it seems to be hiding somewhere around here, but I can't see it. You look through that part of the room, I'll look through here."

"Okay!" Goten's response was not nearly as cheerful as would have been expected of the child, but Roshi's tone had held something in it that made it clear to the boy this was no game.

The two swept through the room, Goten lifting and opening everything he could – including the refrigerator, dinner table and spice supply, while Roshi calmly walked in between the objects, his sharp and well-trained eyes looking for any disturbance left by the infiltrator.

Hiding in her spot inside the wall, Levid was forced to rely on her hearing to know where the two males were looking. She had heard Goten's loud approach, which allowed her to hide mere seconds before Roshi had entered the room, quiet as a mouse. Had it not been for the boy's distraction, she would have already been caught. But even so, this hiding area left her without anything to see.

Her enhancement was to become immaterial, allowing her to pass through any and all objects as she desired, but it didn't mean she could look through the wall she was hiding in. and worse; staying in her immaterial form was quickly taking it's toll on her; in a few minutes, she would be unable to keep it up and would materialize. Inside the wall she was hiding in.

Without any other options, Levid took a step back and then another, moving out of the wall and into a hallway. Quickly re-assuming her material form, Levid turned around and dashed down the hallway, as far away from the two who had somehow discovered her presence as she could.

Turning a corner, Levid nearly ran right into the back of another of the residents, a middle-aged woman with black hair. Unable to stop herself, the cloned girl did the only thing she could; she re-activated her ability and dropped right through the floor, an instant before Chichi turned around and looked in her direction. Levid had barely avoided being detected, but now she was underground, completely blind and needed to get out fast.

Moving in a random direction, Levid quickly resurfaced, but now she was in a living room, which was fortunately empty. Carefully, she stepped out into the hallway, using all her senses to make sure no-one was approaching, and moved up the stairs to her left. The house was almost empty, but she couldn't afford to be discovered now. Nahog had warned her not to fight any of the warriors one-on-one.

'Ah-ha, found it.' she thought as she peered through the second doorway. She was looking into a large conference room, a long table and plenty of chairs filling up the room, with a large computer projection at the back. Softly pushing the door open, she stepped into the room and moved to the computer. It was still on and it displayed a file with text. The outline of Gohan's plans!

'Variations of the plan; supplied by the others?' She was shocked. If this was true… if Gohan had changed his plans from what Nahog had expected them to be…

- SLAM -

The sound of the door slamming shut made Levid react instinctively; she jumped forward, away from the door, rolled on her shoulder and immediately stood up in a fighting pose on the table, looking at whoever had closed the door on her. She was looking right at a small, fat man holding a very sharp katana in his hands, eyes focused on her. Videl readied herself for the fight, but was distracted by a movement to both her right and her left.

She quickly glanced around and understood just what was going on; somehow, a small child, an old man, a floating cat and a green-skinned human-looking thing had snuck into the room and were now surrounding her.

'Oh shit!' She barely had time to realize how much trouble she was in, before she knew she had to act. Nahog had been specific; no matter how weak or easy they might look, she was not to fight any of these people, because they could all kill her in a second. And without knowing who the strongest or the weakest of them were, she still had nothing to go by.

She could attack the child, but for all she knew, he was also stronger then her. The old man gave off the air of an experienced fighter who would break her in seconds, the cat and green-skinned thing were too different from anything she had ever fought before, so she couldn't predict their movements, and the fat swordsman looked like he knew how to wield his weapon very well…

"Kiyaah!" She cried out as she raised her arms and fired a set of blasts all around her, rotating on her heels while keeping up the barrage. Unable to properly control the strength of the blasts, she was quickly exhausted, but her purpose was none-the-less reached; her attackers were covered in enough smoke to temporarily blind them, allowing her to quickly make her escape.

Flying straight through the skylight, Levid sustained more then a few scratches while leaving the room, and shot away. Before any of them could follow her – they could probably all fly, just like her, only faster – she dropped herself below the ground once more and kept up her movement.

'Keep moving in a straight line!' she told herself, 'You're on the right direction, just keep it up!'

The fear of being caught sustained her long, but after nearly three minutes of flying below the ground, she had no choice but to resurface. With some luck, she had created enough confusion and distance between them to safely make it to Nahog's base…

Reappearing above the ground, Levid let out a breath, before suddenly collapsing on the ground, her body exhausted beyond her expectations. She could barely drag herself underneath a bush to her left, preventing her from being seen from above immediately, before fainting.

XxX

The sky was bright with explosions, the clouds around them blown to bits. To the people on the earth, it would appear like several suns had risen at once, but each of the blasts fired was strong enough to destroy the planet, should it not be cancelled out by an equally strong attack.

Vegeta was facing his clone, Furuti, in battle and the two were now matched as equal as could be; every punch either of the two threw was blocked and followed by a counter-attack, which was subsequently evaded or also blocked.

Both fighters backed off at the same time, staring at each other for a few seconds as they devised their strategy for the next exchange. They were upon each other again in seconds.

Vegeta opened with a left punch, which Furuti mirrored, the two fists slamming into each other and creating shockwaves strong enough to crush buildings, had any been around. Vegeta followed up with a left-knee, but Furuti blocked it with his elbow, sending his right fist flying, only for it to be pushed aside by Vegeta's own fist, before it went straight towards Furuti's jaw.

Swinging his head and entire body back, Furuti evaded the blow and kicked out at Vegeta, forcing the original Saiyan Prince to dodge to the side, firing a blast to keep up the offensive. Furuti slapped it to the side with one hand, spinning himself around and round-house kicked Vegeta. The prince dodged underneath the kick and brought up his fist to counter into Furuti's stomach. It hit, but Furuti didn't let up on his offense.

Snapping his other leg Furuti, he kneed Vegeta in the face, but the husband of Bulma moved in the direction of the kick, reducing the damage and allowing him to kick his counterpart in the stomach. Both fighters backed off from each other. Flipping over, they were looking at each other before both raising their hands and returning to firing salvo after salvo of energy attacks.

The space between them – small as it was – was filled with light, heat and smoke from the explosions, but neither Saiyan warrior relented, using their senses to locate their opponent and every attack he launched.

'Damnit,' Vegeta thought to himself, trying to come up with a strategy. 'I'm beginning to feel the strain from keeping up my fully powered form. And thanks to healing after the Namek's attack, he's matching me blow-by-blow while keeping up the basic transformation…any more and I'll have to go to the second level, but even then I won't have the power needed to destroy him instantly.'

Speaking of the Namek, Piccolo had left Vegeta immediately after Furuti had healed from his surprise attack. In terms of raw power, speed and fighting skill, the Namek knew he was no match for Vegeta or his clone, so he would only get in the way. Even with his extensive experience – which he had inherited from both Kami and his father, King Piccolo – he would not be able to tip the scales. He would be more of a problem then an aid in this fight, so he had send a telepathic message that he would go help the others and bring back reinforcements. Normally, Vegeta was a force to be reckoned with… but if he could heal from every injury and grow stronger thanks to his Saiyan heritage…

But Vegeta had no time to waste thinking about the green man, he was far to busy countering every single blast and returning it in kind.

The horizontal rain of energy-blasts stopped for a second and Vegeta rushed forward. In the middle of the smoke, he clashed with his clone once again. Earth-shattering punches and kicks were once again exchanged, the fight slowly moving up higher and higher. Within seconds, the two warriors were moving into the stratosphere, reducing their ability to breathe. If either of the fighters would get the wind knocked out now, it would create a critical opening for the enemy.

'Vegeta, keep him occupied, I'll come back with Gohan and the others as quickly as I can.' Piccolo's parting words – or thoughts, since they were telepathically sent – rung through Vegeta's ears again.

'No!' The prince nearly shouted, but instead only let out a large burst of energy, sending his clone flying away. 'Í will not let anyone interfere, this is my fight now! I will kill this pathetic copy before anyone else can interfere!'

Furuti didn't say anything, merely flying back enough to evade the burst of energy and returning a two-handed blast. Vegeta caught it with both of his own hands and re-directed it towards the sky, only to find Furuti suddenly in front of him, his fist already flying.

As his head swung back from the force of the punch, Vegeta released even more power, electricity running visibly over his body. Before Furuti had a chance to react, Vegeta kneed him in the stomach, forcing the air out of his body, and quickly grabbed his clone around the throat.

'Die! I will not be defeated by an imitation of myself!' Vegeta knew he couldn't say the words, no matter how much he wanted to taunt his enemy, but speaking in this level of the atmosphere would rob him of his precious air supply and he had no way of regaining oxygen at this height.

The lack of oxygen combined with the choke-hold Vegeta still had around his throat, made Furuti purple in the face, before he too could gather enough energy to blast everything around him away. Vegeta held on for a few seconds, but was forced to release his opponent when bolts of lightning appeared on his body as well, stinging the Prince's hands and threatening to affect his nervous system.

As soon as the hold was released, Furuti shot downward, desperate for air he could breathe, with Vegeta in hot pursuit. A sudden blast of energy distracted Vegeta long enough for his opponent to take a gulp of much-needed oxygen, before he turned around.

Two identical smirks looked at each other, as the two Super Saiyans sized each other up. Both were now in the advanced stage of the transformation, the same level that Gohan had reached seven years ago when facing Cell.

Now the battle was really on.

XxX

Directly above the island where the World Summit had been held, four figures were floating as they sized each other up. Gohan, still in his disguise of the Great Saiyaman, floated alongside Android #18, as they stared at Nahog and the adult clone of Trunks, Tapara.

Although Tapara had managed to attack Gohan from behind, the advantage had been short-lived, since #18 had quickly come to the Half-Saiyan's rescue by blasting both clones away. This had resulted in the two duo's staring each other down.

"Why did you make him an adult, Nahog?" Gohan suddenly questioned, obviously surprised by the appearance of the adult Trunks. "Why did you risk artificially enhancing his age, while we both know the risks involved?"

But neither Nahog nor Tapara said a word, nor did they take any immediate action. At Gohan's side, #18 was also silent, her sensors and processors fast at work to devise her optimal combat strategy and the tactics that her opponents were going to use.

'Wait, of course!' Gohan thought as realization dawned upon him. 'Heneeded the clones to help him out in the battles against us. And the younger Trunks is too dangerous and rash, so he aged him. He needed an adult fighter to take us on, and by accelerating his growth, Trunks has reached a much higher level of maturity then the real-life version has. Well, he may be more mature… but if what I'm sensing is right, his power hasn't increased from the real Trunks. He'll be no match for me.'

On the other side, with Nahog and Tapara, the two were exchanging hurried whispers about their strategy.

"No, Nahog, look! He's completely distracted; we can take him right now, right here!"

"No, we can't. He's too strong to take down in just one attack, we have to be careful."

"No risk, no gain!" was all Tapara quickly said, before he immediately rushed forward, straight towards Gohan.

"No, Tapara you idiot, you're no match for him!"

But the warning was too late. Gohan reacted exactly as Nahog had expected; the lowering of his guard while thinking about why the Trunks clone had been aged was a trap, which Tapara had fallen for. Before the purple-haired youth could even get close to hitting Gohan, the older warrior disappeared and re-appeared behind him, slamming his elbow into Tapara's back.

Before the clone had a chance to recover, Gohan brought up his knee and hit Tapara in the stomach, followed by a Jackhammer on the back. Tapara let out a groan of pain, but Gohan didn't give in; he flipped himself over, placing both his feet on Tapara's chest, and kicked as hard as he could. The clone impacted on the third island over – which was uninhabited – almost instantly, cracking it in two before being brought to a stop in the ocean.

Immediately turning around, Gohan caught Nahog's fist and launched his own, only for it to meet a similar fate. The two identical men now held the fist of their opponent as they glared at each other.

"#18; go and deal with that Trunks clone!" Gohan quickly ordered as both he and Nahog started powering up. Not making any sound of acknowledgement, the blond android disappeared in the direction that Tapara had been shot, leaving the two half-saiyans to deal with each other.

In an instant flash of light, both warriors were engulfed in their own glowing aura's of power as they quickly raised their power, their grunts of effort clearly heard. The two auras combined, growing into a large white flame surrounding the two, growing brighter as their power grew.

"GUWAAH!" Both men cried out as their auras exploded outward before shrinking to a normal size again, both now glowing gold as they transformed into a Super Saiyan. Even so, they didn't stop raising their power, until they both drew back their heads simultaneously and bashed their skulls together.

To them the blow felt as if it was nothing, but what remained of the taller buildings on the island cracked and started to crumble from the shockwave. Both backed off after the headbutt, but immediately continued their fight, now striking and kicking as best they could.

A stray energy blast from Vegeta or Furuti made it's way past them before exploding almost harmlessly in the sea outside of the island. A large wave smashed upon the beach of the island, but no-one was swept away by it.

Still separated because of the energy blast, Gohan and Nahog glanced at each other before flying away simultaneously, their eyes still on each other as they flew. Some thirty miles away from the island – barely three seconds of flight for the warriors – they were floating above nothing but ocean, and their battle was rejoined.

XxX

"Think you're so smart, being invisible huh tough guy?" Yamcha said as his eyes swept across the room he was standing in. he was still battered and bruised from his encounter with Nahog mere minutes earlier, but whoever this was, he could easily hold him off if power levels were anything to go buy.

A punch hit Yamcha at the back of his head, and he kicked out behind him, but didn't hit anything but air. It didn't matter; the punch hadn't hurt the human at all, just like the previous three hits that were landed. His opponent was definitely strong enough to kill a normal human without a problem.

Fortunately, Yamcha was anything but a normal human.

Another hit, this time in the gut, and again Yamcha felt nothing.

"That's it, time for games is over!" Yamcha proclaimed when his counter-attack missed again. Instead he slammed his heel into the ground hard, cracking the floor. A small raise of his power level was enough to send the dust that appeared flying all over the room.

The dust wasn't nearly intense enough to cause a problem to anyone fighting, but it did make a crucial aid for Yamcha; the floating dust stuck to the form of his invisible opponent, making him visible for the first time.

Before the invisible fighter could react, Yamcha rushed forward and struck a blow in the chest with enough force to obliterate the energy he was feeling. His opponent flew back, straight through five walls until they were out in the now-deserted courtyard, with Yamcha hot in pursuit.

As soon as he exited, however, Yamcha could barely evade a big energy blast that was aimed straight for him. Phasing out of the way by using his super-human speed, Yamcha tried to look around, only to realize he had again lost the advantage. Although the courtyard was still indoor and thus dark, there was no dust or anything else in the room to reveal his enemy. This fact was made doubly clear, when an invisible fist suddenly made contact with his face.

But unlike before, the punch was now strong enough to hurt him, even forcing his head back and nearly causing blood to erupt from his nose. Before he could react, the punch was followed by a nasty kick in the back of his knees, forcing him to the ground. When he was there, he felt an elbow making contact with his face as well, but the sudden power was gone, the attack no longer dealing any damage.

The subsequent knee in the back, however, was almost strong enough to snap his spine.

"KIYAAH!" Yamcha cried, releasing a burst of energy from his body. Whoever it was he was fighting was backed off allowing Yamcha to gather energy in his hand.

"Let's see how you like my Super Spirit Ball." He proclaimed as the large ball of light glue in his hand, casting an eerie white light over the entire room. Adding to that was more dust, which had been created by the burst of energy used mere seconds before. Floating around, the dust revealed the figure of someone lying in a corner, while the white light of the Spirit Ball made the form even clearer to identify.

But unlike what Yamcha had expected, this was no male form he was looking at. Instead, he was looking at a very beautiful, long-haired woman whose curves he recognized instantly. After all, he had dated her several years.

"Bulma?" He exclaimed, his surprise taking over. The woman he had knocked aside raised herself, shaking her head a few times to clear it, before she slowly stood up. Having recognized her original's name, Ropa de-activated her invisibility and stepped into full view.

The Super Spirit Ball Yamcha had formed faded out of existence harmlessly as his concentration was broken.

"Oh, Yamcha… you… you're not going to hurt me, are you?" The beautiful woman softly pleaded as she stepped closer. Yamcha took a cautious step back. He knew this wasn't the real Bulma, it was her clone and she was an oppo- no an enemy! But… he just couldn't bring himself to fight against his first love.

"Please, don't hurt me." By now Ropa was close enough to carefully touch Yamcha's shirt, holding it softly with one hand, a perfect image of weakness…

The next thing Yamcha knew, Ropa had smashed both her open hands into the sides of his head, sending a jab of pain shooting through his brain, ringing his ears and ruining his coordination at once. From that same position, she grabbed his ears and some of his hair, and brought his face down for a violent meeting her knee.

As blood shot from Yamcha's now-broken nose, Ropa finished her job by giving him another knee right in the crotch. Unfortunately, all three hits had been strong enough to cause Yamcha serious pain, so he was stunned and motionless as the Bulma-clone stepped back and grinned at him.

"You know, I think I could seriously learn to enjoy this. I always wanted to fight you guys on your own level, even if it was just once. That was payback for being a cheating bastard!"

Quickly moving both her hands forward, Ropa unleashed as strong a blast at Yamcha as she could, engulfing him in yellow-white light.

XxX

A small distance away from Tower Castle, #18 was floating above the ocean as her scanners tried to find her quarry. He had yet to resurface after Gohan had kicked him away. Like the superior warrior, she too had been surprised to see an adult Trunks, when they had been expecting a child, but it mattered little to her.

Unlike the others, she could still place reason above emotion if need be, and she had never built a particularly close relationship with the Briefs Family. She could fight him, just as she had once fought his future self. That one had been stronger, even more so, than the Trunks she knew as a child now is. And from what her sensors had shown her so far, this adult Trunks wasn't much stronger then the child Trunks.

Suddenly the water below exploded, as the Trunks-clone shot forward with gold hair. Floating to the side, #18 evaded the reckless charge and kicked the youth in the back. He quickly managed to stabilize himself and flipped around to return the attack. #18 brought up her hand to defend herself, but she was an instant too late.

Tapara's hand shot forward and hit the blond on the forehead.

'Damn.' She realized, as she launched a volley blasts while backing off. 'He's stronger and faster then I'd thought. There must have been a few more advantages to him gaining a fully-grown body.'

Glowing with a shield of golden energy, Tapara burst through the explosion, swinging his fist. Even without moving, the attack missed #18 by a wide birth.

'That's odd… why did his attack miss me so easily?' Even while wondering about it, #18 countered, her punch making easy connection with Tapara's jaw, forcing his head back. Without a pause, the teen's leg snapped forward, intending to kick the blond android away, but it stopped before it made contact, allowing #18 to land another clear counter.

Pressing her advantage, #18 launched a fresh assault, keeping Tapara on the defensive, but something was off; based on the boy's speed and power, he should have been able to at least parry or defend against her assault. This wasn't the case, however. His blocks were always just off; either too fast, too slow, too high or too low. These holes allowed the android to easily land many hits, each striking critical area's with surgical precision.

'What is wrong with this guy?' #18 thought as he performed yet another pathetic attack. 'My sensors indicate he should be a major threat to me, but he can't even seem to hit me… is his coordination really this terrible?'

By now Tapara was coughing up blood, courtesy of #18's precise attacks, and he tried to gain some breathing space, but the beautiful blond would not yield. Her assault continued unabashed, forcing the super saiyan back further and further. Losing control over the situation apparently made the clone lose his cool as well, because he send out his arm flying forward in a weak attempt at a haymaker, but #18 easily caught it.

"That's it, time to break you!" She pronounced as she grabbed the appendage with both hands, elbowed the boy in the face to distract him and brought her knee up, ready to smash bone to dust.

However, she felt no impact; where before there had been solid muscle beneath a shirt, there was now formless, liquid metal, which parted to let the knee pass through harmlessly. In fact, Tapara's entire arm suddenly transformed into a strange form of mercury, the liquid metal slipping through #18's fingers before she could react.

"What the hell?" She barely had time to exclaim, before a heavy kick almost crushed her back. She created some distance for herself to focus on the problem at hand, but now that Tapara had the advantage he didn't let it up either. The boy attacked with a renewed vigor.

Fortunately, despite his liquid metal arm quickly reforming, his coordination was still as terrible as ever; #18 easily dodged, parried or blocked his attacks, hardly taking hits in the process. Frustration once again taking the best of him, Tapara drew back one fist completely, giving #18 a wide opening to his side. Without hesitation she kicked.

Only for her leg to get stuck in the same mess of liquid metal as Tapara's gut also transformed. Her kick passed halfway through before the metal kept it encased, holding #18's foot in place.

Trying to keep her cool, #18 raised both hands to fire a point-zero blast at Tapara, but the boy raised his own hands and kept the energy orb in place, preventing an explosion while the orb grew stronger and stronger from the struggle.

Suddenly another blast struck Tapara in the back, freeing #18's leg just in time for her to form an energy shield to protect herself from the explosion. More blasts rained down from above, adding more power to the explosion that Tapara was caught in.

Protected by her shield, #18 flew out of the explosions unharmed, quickly joining in the assault on the teen. After almost thirty seconds of none-stop firing, both #18 and her rescuer stopped firing. From above, Piccolo hovered into sight, his eyes trained on the explosion below, ready for any movement.

#18 noticed that he had already removed his cape and turban, so he was ready to get serious. But from the explosions sounding above, Vegeta and his clone were still fighting… something must have gone wrong then, for the Namek to be here.

Not that it would really matter; between the two of them, the young clone they were fighting would be killed in a matter of seconds. The Namek was not only far stronger then #18, he was also the single most experienced fighter alive on Earth, maybe even in the universe. It had helped, having absorbed the experience of both his father – King Piccolo – and Kami.

The explosion below slowly faded, revealing Tapara looking on the verge of death; he was no longer a Super Saiyan, there were only straps of clothing left on him and he was covered head to toe in bruises and blood. But the most disturbing of all, was the fact that the left side of his face, his right hand and both feet appeared to have gotten stuck in a state between solid and liquid metal.

Looking up as well, a look of pure terror appeared on the purple-haired boy's face. He knew that, if he couldn't defeat #18 on her own, with Piccolo added to the battle he was as good as dead.

After a second's hesitation, Tapara turned tail and fled. Piccolo and #18 were in pursuit a second later, ready to overtake him if need be. They couldn't fire their energy blasts at him, because if they did they would hit the inhabited islands around Castle Tower and the other islands.

While he was fleeing – which went against every principle he had ever been taught, but the orders Nahog and Furuti had given were clear – Tapara desperately tried to find a way out. However, the more he thought the more he realized he was working himself into a hornet's nest; he was flying straight towards the other Z-fighters, he could feel them near. Tien, Krillin and Chiaotzu, as well as the original Trunks were straight ahead, quickly closing in on him. And not only that, but Yamcha was also lifting off from Castle Tower.

'Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!' He ranted, still unable to find a way out. 'I couldn't keep up with #18, let alone Piccolo. In a normal condition, I might have been able to fight off either Yamcha, Krillin or Tien, but the way I am now, I'll get killed! I can't face up to them; the difference in experience is too big.'

Suddenly he felt a presence flying next to him, followed by a calming hand on his shoulder as he flew.

"Mom? Are you here?"

"Yeah sweetie, I'm here." Ropa said as she released her invisibility. "Now's not the time to panic, we have to get out of here. Hold on to me, I'll try to add you to the invisibility as well. It should buy us enough time to make an escape."

Firing two random blasts, more for blinding the Z-fighters then actually doing damage, Tapara grabbed his mother around the waist and felt an odd sensation sneak over him. The next thing he knew, the two flew straight past Krillin, but the small man didn't even see them.

"We have to abort, the plan's a failure." Ropa said grumpily as they flew. "They can't see us, I'm bending the light around us, so we appear invisible to them, but we can see ourselves and them just fine."

Behind them both Piccolo and #18 aborted the chase when their target had disappeared and turned around, shooting towards where Gohan and Nahog were still dueling.

XxX

Thirty miles away from Castle Tower, an odd and completely unnatural phenomenon was occurring; the water of the ocean, several miles deep, had been pushed aside and, without anywhere else to go, forced up. It now formed an eerie blue-green, ever-changing and moving wall around the two Saiyans as they fought. The light that came through it cast the battle in an eerie light, but the warriors didn't pay attention to it as their battle continued.

Since arriving here, neither fighter had fired a single energy blast, both preferring hand-to-hand combat. And with each hit that connected, whether clean or blocked, send out such massive amounts of force that the wall of water around them shook again.

Both bore the marks of heavy combat, even if the fight hadn't even lasted two minutes so far. Gohan's helmet had been smashed already, the upper and back parts still attached to his face, while the visor had been completely destroyed, his cape had been torn off his shoulders, the green toga was now hanging on one shoulder and the black bodysuit was covered in cuts and blood.

Nahog looked just as bad, his white jacket had been shredded as soon as they arrived, quickly followed by his usual black shirt, leaving him topless. This showed the many injuries he had suffered nicely, his chest marked with bruises and fresh blood. Blood was flowing slowly from his mouth, while nothing remained of the left sleeve of his pants.

Both identical saiyans had caught a cross-punch from their opponent, putting them at point-blank range in mid-air, unable to do anything but smash their heads together time and time again, hoping their enemy would back off first, but knowing they wouldn't.

Finally, Nahog swung his legs back a bit and kneed Gohan in the stomach, doubling him over. An elbow to the back of the neck was evaded by the original; who phased out and re-appeared to smash his foot into Nahog's face.

Some small room now created, both fighters took a quick breath, sizing each other up. True, Nahog should have been stronger by now, thanks to his little bout with Vegeta, but Gohan had had a chance to train some more. And apparently, it had worked out; both Half-Saiyan, Half-Human warriors were perfectly equal to each other.

Looking over Gohan's shoulder for a second, Nahog saw two distant figures arrive, but the image blurred by the constantly flowing water. Before the clone had a chance to properly see who was coming, Gohan was upon him again, striking blow after blow. Twisting the fight around, Nahog had a split second to see the two figures and identify them, before Gohan made him pay by planting his fist in Nahog's stomach.

As air and blood escaped Nahog's mouth, he realized that the figures were #18 and Piccolo; they were moving quickly to come to Gohan's aid.

'Not good!' Nahog knew. 'I can fight Gohan one-on-one, but a three-on-one is suicide. And from what I can tell, Tapara and Ropa haven't been successful either… damnit!'

Using more energy then he could afford to waste, Nahog created an explosion, himself at the centre. The blast forced Gohan to retreat, and gave Nahog the time he needed; with one hand he created a white energy ball and launched it into the sky; the signal of retreat.

But he couldn't escape just yet. Tapara and Ropa were probably already on their way to escape, but Furuti was still locked in combat with Vegeta no doubt. And the moment Nahog would turn around and flee, all the Z-fighters would gang up on Furuti. He couldn't afford to lose the flame-haired clone, not at this crucial stage of the plan.

So, instead, he used the best distraction he could create; once again wasting more energy then he could afford, Nahog launched what could only be described as a vertical carpet bombing; he fired as many energy blasts as he could towards Gohan, the other Z-fighters and the remains of the Castle Tower and the surrounding islands, each blast more then powerful enough to create a gaping hole in the Earth.

From the distance, five figures could be seen quickly lifting off from one of the islands, obviously attempting to stop the bombing. An instant later, two other but identical to each other figures appeared from above the clouds, both glowing gold. Furuti – the only sign of battle being his torn clothes – flew towards Nahog and they both continued on, while Vegeta joined the other Z-fighters in re-directing or destroying all the energy blasts before they could explode.

Lowering their altitude to avoid being seen, the two strongest clone-warriors flew towards the rendezvous point, where Tapara and Ropa were already waiting for them. Furuti gave both of them a concerned look, but said nothing.

"This mission was a failure." Nahog finally announced. "But for now, we have to get out of here. Stay low and keep your power down."

Without another word, the quartet of clones flew away, all barely above the ground as they moved back to their hideout.

As always much thanks to my beta Kushin eX for going over this chapter.

Please leave a review telling me what you think,