Hey, guys! Time for Goku to fight Chiaotzu, something that I just now realised never happened at any point in canon. Isn't that weird, though?
Stuff:
mellra; Goku does not have his tail at this point.
oscurolight; The general public will be learning about ki eventually, but very few will find out before Z begins.
abowden; I was hoping to include newborn Gohan, glad to hear people'd be interested in that. They're definitely gonna meet up more often than in canon, especially once Bulma figures out that gravity chamber thing.
...
Chiaotzu started the match with a pair of Dodonpa from mid-air, piercing through layers and layers of stone and dirt as Goku leapt backwards, tossing a yellow orb in response. The jiang shi waved a hand, the orb curving away from him and dissipating once it flew outside the stadium.
"Heh. That's really cool, the way you can just move stuff with your mind like that." Goku smiled, bouncing into the air and throwing a punch into Chiaotzu's hasty guard. He pressed the attack, spinning into a powerful kick that sent the smaller fighter spiralling through the air. Chiaotzu managed to right himself in time to see Goku barrelling towards him.
"Solar Flare!" he cried, closing his eyes so as not to blind himself. Not expecting the technique, Goku didn't quite react in time, and he flew past his target, unable to see anything around him. Chiaotzu focused his ki, splitting into two identical copies, which moved to catch Goku in a pincer attack. "Sorry about that, Goku. Dodonpa Barrage!"
Goku ducked to the side, evading the first salvo of beams instinctively, though one of them clipped a hole in his gi as it passed. Both Chiaotzus grinned, gesturing with one hand to redirect their attacks back towards Goku.
About half of the shots went wide, having lost precision when reflected, but two of them landed, detonating against Goku's shoulder and stomach. The saiyan burst out of the smoke, throwing his hands out to both sides. The two Chiaotzus ducked and weaved around Goku's energy barrage with some difficulty, since the saiyan's accuracy was increasing the longer he focused on Chiaotzu's energy.
'This won't work. He'll be able to see again soon, and I can't count on outlasting him,' the pale fighter thought to himself, trying to return fire whenever he saw an opening. 'Time to try something new...' Chiaotzu allowed his doppelganger to vanish, eyes glowing blue as he focused on Goku's mind.
Goku blinked, trying to bring his vision back into focus. All he could see was a white and green blur, and even as he watched, that vanished too. He felt something moving behind him and threw a kick, phasing through an afterimage and simultaneously throwing up his arm to block the strike he knew was coming.
'Chiaotzu' burst apart into pale mist, as something smacked into Goku's jaw, something he couldn't see. Goku dropped back down to the ring, taking a defensive stance as the mist followed, forming a circle of smoke, hiding him from view.
"I didn't know you could do that!" he exclaimed, looking around for Chiaotzu. "Did you turn invisible?"
"Not quite, Goku," the reply came from everywhere at once, as the mist clumped together into a dozen uneven blobs. As Goku watched, the blobs shifted to a familiar shape. "I've been working on this for the last three years, and I've been waiting for a chance to try it out." Chiaotzu said, the echoes from twelve voices giving his voice an unsettling overtone. Goku took a breath to center himself, before he barrelled ahead to attack.
OoOoO
"Hang on, what's he doing?" Yamcha wondered, looking out at Goku, who was currently fighting empty air, Chiaotzu launching the occasional ki blast or punch when he found an opening.
Tien looked from one fighter to the other, noting Chiaotzu's glowing eyes and Goku's desperate lunges for something that none of the audience could see. "Chiaotzu's doing something with his telepathy... if I had to guess, he's messing with Goku's senses."
"What? Since when can he do that?" Bulma gaped, having given up on following the movements of the fighters. "That'd make him pretty much unbeatable!"
Krillin frowned. "Maybe not. He hasn't been able to build up any powerful attacks to take advantage of the situation. It's probably taking all his concentration to keep Goku from breaking through his illusion," he pointed out, folding his arms. "And Goku's still got a lot more stamina, even if he's taking all these hits. It comes down to whether or not Chiaotzu can land a strong enough attack before Goku manages to adapt."
"They've still got power in reserve, even now." Roshi noted solemnly. The fight was not even close to being finished.
OoOoO
'Aw, crud...' Goku thought, as he tried to block yet another illusory attack, the Dodonpa phasing harmlessly through him. "How'm I supposed to fight him if I can't find out which one's real?" he muttered to himself, wrinkling his nose as a very real cloud of dust was thrown up around him.
Hang on...
As two of the Chiaotzus leapt at him, Goku closed his eyes, relying on the air movements to know where to block next. Relying on his ki sense hadn't worked, whatever Chiaotzu was doing was hiding his exact position. With his hearing, sight and ki sense nullified, the saiyan must have seemed totally vulnerable, just as any earthling would have been in that situation.
But he wasn't an earthling, and he'd figured out that there were more differences between the species than just their tails. His colour vision wasn't as good, (which was something he liked about his gi, the simple, solid colours were easy to discern) and his body used up a lot more energy, even when he was just resting. But there were benefits to being a Saiyan as well. He healed a little faster, and got stronger much more easily.
Most importantly, he had a way of finding Chiaotzu that wouldn't work if he were human.
Chiaotzu tried to split his focus, charging an orb of ki while still keeping Goku's mind trapped in his illusions. He ignored the twinge of guilt at using something so blatantly unfair, especially considering what they'd heard about Baba's fighters. If it came down to a brawl, Goku would have just as clear an advantage as he had now. He released the blast with a fierce cry, intent on knocking Goku out with the sheer impact of the energy sphere.
Goku tensed, abruptly turning in exactly the right direction. A ki-infused fist shot up, backhanding the orb over the horizon. Still with his eyes closed, Goku crouched down on all fours. Combined with his wild hair and unusually stern expression, his stance made him look like a wild animal. He inhaled deeply, before suddenly pouncing, darting after his opponent, even changing direction whenever Chiaotzu tried to dodge.
Startled, the psychic lost control of his illusion, eyes returning to their normal colour when he was struck in the stomach by Goku's knee. He forced out a wave of psychic energy to drive back the saiyan, fighting the urge to retch. "H-How?" he managed to splutter out.
Goku grinned, flaring his nostrils slightly. "I figured out you were probably messing with all my senses, seeing as I couldn't hear anything except you, and all the copies. But you forgot about how good my nose is, and since you don't know what other people smell like like I do, you couldn't fake that."
Chiaotzu had to chuckle at that. "I never even thought about creating illusions with smells. You're a fighting genius, Goku," he praised, before taking a new stance, one fist cocked at his hip, the other hand making a three-fingered claw in front of him. "I was planning to save this in case I had to fight Piccolo, but you'll just overpower me if I don't try it."
"Sounds good to me. Bring it on!" Goku was practically vibrating with anticipation. This had turned out to be a pretty good fight after all. He'd felt guilty about it, but he hadn't thought Chiaotzu could be a real threat without the Kaioken. He was glad to be proven wrong, especially since he'd lost out on fighting Yamcha or Tien.
"Kuukyoken!" Chiaotzu cried, twisting his hand and thrusting his palm outwards, outlined with pale blue energy. The air shimmered, Goku tensing as he prepared for another pulse of telekinetic force.
Then something slammed into his side like a freight train. Goku stumbled, not having sensed any ki. Chiaotzu wasn't finished, the blue glow jumping from one hand to the other as he threw a punch. This time, Goku saw it. The air in front of him flickered like a heat haze, before another strike slammed into his face.
"You can't sense my telekinesis," the time traveller panted, now losing steam. "So I just have to compress it into a smaller area, instead of a huge wave."
The saiyan smiled, wiping away the blood from his nose. "I wasn't expectin' that either. You've got a lot of cool tricks, Chiaotzu. But you've used up a lot of stamina with your combos. It's time to finish this. Kame..."
Chiaotzu's eyes widened, and he threw a barrage of psychic punches, watching as they impacted against Goku's torso. The saiyan was resolute, however, unmoving as he continued charging his attack. "Haa... meee..."
Chiaotzu dropped his psychic exertion, instead building as much ki as he could in his index finger. "Super..."
"HAA!/Dodonpa!" they yelled at the exact same moment, blue and yellow meeting between the two of them. Goku was calm, looking as though he was barely exerting himself, his Kamehameha slowly overpowering Chiaotzu's own. The Crane-style fighter gritted his teeth, making his decision.
Swirls of red mixed with his white aura, energy pumping into his beam and greatly increasing its size, to where it was as wide across as he was tall. "KAIOKEN!" he cried, trying to ignore the way his body was burning as he forced himself to overcome his limits.
Goku's face twisted, suddenly having to put in a lot more effort, and even then, the yellow beam began to overcome the blue. Slowly at first, but increasing more and more as Chiaotzu yelled. With a flare of light, the yellow broke through, bombarding Goku's corner and tearing apart the earth below it.
OoOoO
"He- he killed Goku!" Bulma blurted out over the sound of the energy blast, sounding horrified. She hadn't seemed to notice how unconcerned her fellow watchers were, with Krillin even smirking. "Why? How could he do something like that?"
"Goku's not dead," Yamcha assured her. "He's just getting ready to go all-out. He wasn't prepared for Chiaotzu to be this strong."
"So Goku hasn't even used his full strength yet?" Lazuli asked, directing the question more to Krillin than the others.
The monk shook his head, still smiling. "Not yet, but Chiaotzu's backed him into a corner. Make sure you pay attention, guys, he's about to show you some of his real power."
Mashi just gulped, still awestruck at the sight before him.
OoOoO
Chiaotzu was panting, sensing that Goku's ki was still strong despite the blast trying to consume him. In fact, Goku seemed to be getting stronger-
With a fierce yell, Goku burst upwards through the beam, a heavily scorched and torn gi visible through his blazing red aura. His arm blurred, Chiaotzu only barely able to follow the movement, and smashed into Chiaotzu's side, knocking him to the ground with a kick before he had a chance to recover.
"Chiaotzu has fallen out of bounds! Son Goku moves on to the final to face Piccolo!"
"Hey," Goku greeted his opponent, wiping away sweat from his forehead. "That was great! We'll have to try those moves in sparring sometime! If you had somebody helping you when you had that illusion thing working, you'd be able to beat pretty much anyone!"
"Thanks, Goku." Chiaotzu smiled back, accepting a senzu bean from Krillin as he left the ring.
"Now, we come to the final match of the Twenty-third Tenkaichi Budokai! Piccolo against Son Goku!" The two fighters squared off, both ready to move as soon as the announcer signalled for it.
"Begin!"
...
So, I already had a good chunk of this done before I posted the last chapter, all I really needed to do was clean it up. Next chapter will take a bit longer, since I want to do this fight justice. And just remember, Piccolo hasn't shown 100% of his power yet, even against Roshi.
Power levels:
Chiaotzu; 380 (228 multiforms; 316 tiring; 490 Super Dodonpa; 640 Super Dodonpa+Kaioken)
Goku; 480 (550 Kamehameha; 670 Kaioken)
Again, these are just rough guides, but everyone's much stronger than they were at this point in canon. Feel free to ignore them if power levels bug you.
Anyway, let me know what you think!