Chapter 16 – "An unwelcomed awakening of fury! Choi pushed to the brink."
Capsule Corporation…
Bulma and Dr. Briefs put together the final touches to a large cylindrical device. They were both wearing hazmat suits along with a few other staff who had been working with them diligently on this project. The cannister the two carried was carefully inserted into a slot in the middle section. When they pushed it in, they twisted it to lock it in place and closed the lid over it, locking it down with a latch.
Bulma breathed a sigh of relief as they all removed their head piece and she set it down on a table nearby.
"Everyone should be at least five feet away from the engine before we activate it. If all the calculations have been made, once Papa activates the switch, we should see the results for ourselves," Bulma said. Dr. Briefs sat down behind a computer terminal and removed his gloves, hitting a few keystrokes. He turned and adjusted several knobs and dials and then he flipped open a red panel that had a singular switch in the off position. He and Bulma looked at each other and then nodded at the same time.
When he flipped the switch on, the engine began revving up as the cylinder began to rotate counter-clockwise. Bulma watched it with a careful eye, crossing her fingers in the process. She stood beside her father, eyeing the monitor as it displayed the numbers from the device's stats. The levels fluctuated as several bars bounced up and down on the screen before they started to settle on one specific number. One by one, from the left, each bar locked in place at the same number and when the last one locked in the same place, Bulma put her hands up to her face, closing her eyes. She felt her heart racing as her nerves were through the roof. This was it, she felt it. This was the moment she and her father had been waiting for years to achieve.
"Sixty seconds have passed, the output is still consistent," Dr. Briefs stated.
"So far so good. Once we reach the five minute mark, we can probably breathe a little easier," Bulma replied, glancing back from the computer screen to the engine in the middle of the room. The other staff members eagerly awaited the good word from the two, watching the engine run.
They waited in silence as the timer counted away, each second going by seemed like a reassurance of Bulma's hopes and dreams becoming reality. She began to smile as she watched the timer reach the five minute mark and clasped her hands together in prayer as the timer passed it.
"I can't believe it's working," she whispered, her voice almost shaking.
"Hm? Wait a moment, this can't be right," Dr. Briefs noted as he was watching the computer screen more closely than Bulma was.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Bulma asked, her smile fading.
"The rates are constant but the numbers should be way higher than what's displayed right now," he said and saw that the bars began to slightly go down by a few pixels and Bulma's eyes widened.
"It's not sustaining itself," she said and within a few seconds, the engine powered itself down and suddenly a huge pop was heard from inside, followed by a cloud of black smoke. The scent of burnt metal permeated the room, forcing those inside to cover their mouths and noses, some putting the head piece back on. Bulma slunk back against the wall and slid down to the floor, defeated. She looked at the smoke billowing from the engine and brought her knees up to her chest. She buried her face down on top of them and put her hands on her head, breathing a painful sigh as Dr. Briefs took out his pack of cigarettes and lit one up. He shut everything down and walked over to grab a fire extinguisher from the wall and casually used it to extinguish the smoke and cool the engine down.
"I'm so sorry Dr. Briefs, we had our hopes up too," said one of the staff and Dr. Briefs put his hand up.
"Don't worry about it too much. We'll figure it out eventually," he said and dismissed them. When they left the room, Bulma lifted her head up with her hand to the side of her face.
"If it had stayed the same for five more minutes, it would've been a success," she said and stood up. She walked over to the engine and put her hands on it. She was careful to leave her gloves on since the engine was likely too hot to touch barehanded and she ran her hand along the smooth metallic surface. She turned around and saw a chair nearby and walked over to grab it.
"Bulma," Dr. Briefs started but she wasn't paying attention. She took the chair with a firm grip and began slamming it repeatedly against the engine, her face engulfed in anger. She hit the engine so many times that eventually the chair broke apart completely and she belted out a scream of rage before collapsing to her hands and knees, unable to hold back her pain and frustration as she began sobbing. Her father walked over to a wall that had several pictures hung on it.
This room in particular was Dr. Brief's own personal laboratory where he spent the majority of his life working on his best projects. Some of his most prized pictures were hung on the wall. Pictures of him and Mrs. Briefs, Bulma and her sister Tights, a picture of Bulma and Tights posing with Jaco the Patrolman, and one of himself with his old black cat perched on his shoulder. He took that particular picture down and smiled under his mustache as he puffed away at his cigarette.
When he hung the picture back on the wall, he walked over to Bulma and stroked her back.
"There there, my dear. We can't give up just yet," he said and Bulma shook her head, not looking up at him.
"I can't do this anymore. This technology is impossible to replicate. I don't know how Dr. Gero did it and I'm so tired it's tearing at my age."
"There's nothing that's ever been impossible in the world of science, Bulma. Your friends achieve the impossible every day and even I can never figure out the mysteries behind it. But I never let it discourage me, and neither should this," Dr. Briefs assured her and she sat down, wiping the tears from her face, smearing some of her make-up that had already been smudged from her crying.
"Maybe for you it doesn't, but I'm done with this project. Unless you can pull a miracle or something," she said and she paused for a moment. Her face calmed down and began to look determined as she stood back up on her feet. She walked over to the shelving units and searched through several of the storage boxes and pulled out one of them that had her name on it.
"What are you doing?" Dr. Briefs asked.
"Something I should've done a long time ago," Bulma said, pulling out an older model of her Dragon radar from the box and blew some dust off the screen. She wiped the rest of it off with her sleeve and pressed the top button to see if it was still active and the green grid began to display seven blips on it. Two were centered of course since they were still here in Capsule Corp, but she expanded the grid outward to see that three blips were moving together towards a fourth quite a distance away.
She then took off her hazmat suit and reached in the pocket of her lab coat, pulling out a case that had several capsules stored inside. She examined each one and nodded, knowing that one of them was for a personal aircraft she used often to fly around.
"I wanted to avoid asking Shenron to give us the technology but I'm completely out of options at this point," she said, staring at her father. He nodded and turned to the engine that had suffered significant dents from the chair Bulma used to attack it with.
"I'll start repairing this while you're out," he said and Bulma walked out of the laboratory room.
On the way to New Namek…
Freeza was very particular about the cruiser he flew in. He knew the ins and outs of his own personal ship and despite the similarities of the design, it still felt foreign to him. However, this was the only cruiser that was fast enough to take them to New Namek, a planet he had been briefed on by several scouts some time ago.
He walked around the halls of the ship, ignoring Cooler's soldiers along the way. They saluted him as they would salute his brother but Freeza was never one to care about those who served under him unless their power was worthy of his attention. When he arrived on the main bridge, Berryblue was the first to greet him.
"Does this make you feel more at home, Lord Freeza?" she asked and he scoffed at her.
"It's an older decrepit model but it'll suffice," he said, glancing at his brother. Cooler was seated in his hover chair, much like the one Freeza sat on himself. He spotted Cooler's own personal Armored squadron and they all saluted him, bowing their heads. He walked over to the display screen and observed the stars moving as they travelled through hyperspace.
"We should arrive within a day," Cooler said from behind. Freeza closed his eyes, smiling.
"There's no rush, brother. Acquiring their Dragonballs without resistance while your creations keep those earthlings pre-occupied will make this run smoothly," he said and glanced behind him.
"I understand one among your squadron understands the Namekian language?" he asked and Salza, a blue-skinned henchman of Cooler's, stepped forward and saluted with his hand to his breastplate.
"Yes my Lord, I'm fluent in several thousand languages across the universe," he said, bowing to Freeza.
"Good, I will need you to summon their Dragon and recite my wish for me," he said and turned his attention to Cooler.
"I'm curious as to why you never sought out Namek for yourself, brother. Surely this information would've been useful to you, would it not?" he asked and Cooler looked bored.
"A flattering opportunity no doubt, but a waste of my time. I prefer my own method of dealing with my problems rather than the quick and easy path. Controlling the southern frontier worlds and galaxies of your Empire meant there was little time to find out where they had relocated to. Not to mention my special project for dealing with those Saiyans."
He leaned forward with his hands underneath his chin, grinning maliciously.
"They won't know what's in store for them once my children engage them. Their own ugly history will come back to bite them in the end."
"Once Goku is made aware of where we are heading, he won't resist the urge to fight me again. And when he does…"
Freeza's lips curled back in a malicious toothy grin as his fists clenched tightly, chuckling a bit under his breath.
Pan vs. Choi begins…
What was once a joyful feeling of anticipation for Videl to see her daughter fight her next match turned to a sinking feeling of dread as she watched Pan and Choi walk onto the fighting stage. Pan had a fierce look of determination on her face, focused squarely on Choi as she stared at him, while Choi looked more bored, walking with his hands behind his head.
Videl clasped her hands together and pressed them against her face. "Please be safe, Pan. Please be safe."
Arugula's vision left some of the others with a sense of unease, more so in Videl and Bulla than everyone else. Gohan felt concerned as well but one look from his father eased it a bit. Goku felt a great deal of confidence in Pan given how often he helped in her training over the months leading to the start of the tournament and Bulla occasionally would glance back and forth between Pan and Choi, crossing her arms with one leg over the other, tapping the air with her foot.
"Are you okay?" Arugula asked, looking up at her. Bulla's face reminded Goku of her mother's face when she looked annoyed or angry, a look passed down from one generation to the other.
"Your brother better not get carried away or I'll kick his butt," she said, staring at Choi. He could tell he was being watched and glanced out of the corner of his eye up at Bulla and turned around to face Pan.
"Pan! Fight hard and win this!" Bulla cried out, standing up. She was fired up now, and Arugula stood up on her seat as well, holding Mr. Bronto up as high as she could.
"Pan-Pan! Fight hard!" she cried out and Pan smiled, her cheeks going red.
"Hey brat, how does it feel having your family root for me instead of you?" Pan asked and Choi stared back at her, grinning.
"You honestly think I care who they cheer for? I'm not in this for anyone else but me and once that gong rings you'll be flat on your face like that trashbag I knocked out yesterday," Choi stated.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Bulla yelled and Goku had to grab the back of her collar before she could take off. She glanced up at Goku and sighed, sitting back down.
"Don't let him get to you, Bulla. Keep your focus and support on Pan," Goku said and Bulla continued glaring at Choi.
"Welcome back everyone to the second semi-final match of the 30th World Martial Arts Tournament!" the announcer cried out and the crowd roared. He held his microphone high in the air before bringing it to his lips and adjusted his sunglasses, smiling.
"Contestant Pan fought a valiant battle against Contestant Bulla and narrowly came through the victor. Now she has to come face-to-face with Contestant Choi, the kid with the lightning quick legs, who blew away the preliminaries in the blink of an eye. He soundly defeated Contestant Trunks the moment the gong rang out, stunning the crowd and one can only wonder if he'll repeat the same feat again. Or will Pan be ready for him? Contestants, are you ready?!"
Pan immediately went into her fighting stance while Choi remained still. He cracked his knuckles under his heavily taped wrists and hands and bounced up and down a couple times on his feet, moving his hands through his mohawk before relaxing his stance.
"Hey dad, what do you think? I don't see many openings in the way he's standing," Gohan whispered up to him and Goku nodded.
"Yeah, he's trained his body every day with his brother, according to Broly and Lemo," he said, glancing over at Broly.
"That girl's going to be Choi's first real challenge, I think," Lemo stated and Cheelai nodded. She stared up at Broly, who looked a bit tense.
"Are you okay?" she asked. Broly didn't respond but rather continued surveying the stage. She put her hand on Arugula's head and her daughter responded with a smile on her face.
"Come cheer for Pan-Pan with me, mama!" she cried out and Cheelai smiled, nodding.
"Okay, but we should still support your brother, he's trained hard to become a good fighter," she told her and Arugula frowned.
"Mr. Bronto doesn't like him. He tells me Choi has a scary face," she said and Cheelai sighed, staring down at her son. She glanced over at Bok and the two exchanged a look and Bok nodded.
At the apex of the drums, Choi moved his feet forward and Pan took notice, anticipating Choi's opening attack, the one that knocked Trunks unconscious. She focused her energy, keeping track of Choi's and waited for the first move once the gong rang.
The crowd went quiet as the drums were pounding, waiting eagerly for the fight to start. The drums increased in tempo until they stopped and the gong sounded. Choi disappeared right as the gong rang and this time Pan was ready for him.
A wave of energy rocked the area, shaking the ground around everyone for a moment as Pan caught Choi's fist and knee, poised to strike her vital areas that would've guaranteed a quick knock out had she not expected it. Choi's boastful and brash confidence faded into a fiercely determined look as he vanished in another high speed burst. Pan did the same and the two reappeared, knocking fists together. Choi's movements as he danced around in the air were more unorthodox for Pan as she started blocking each blow that was coming her way. It wasn't just punches and kicks, but Choi was also implementing elbows, knees, even headbutts that she narrowly blocked with the palm of her hand and he moved in a blur, catching her off-guard on her blind spot. He knocked her down to the stage with a successive array of kicks and she flipped over a few times to land on her feet.
Choi was immediately on her as she landed, appearing above her to land the back of his heel on top of her head, which she blocked by raising her arms in a cross pattern to catch his leg as it fell. He disappeared in a high-speed burst, reappearing all around her using a variation of an after-image technique where it looked like he was moving slowly but his speed was so fast that Pan was starting to show signs of trouble keeping up with his movements.
Geez this brat's fast, she thought to herself as she darted her eyes around to keep track of his energy and he moved again to her blind spot, only this time she caught him and even though she blocked an oncoming side kick, the force knocked her back as she slid across the stage a few feet, Choi's high-speed momentum creating enough force to compensate and showcasing how fast he was to her and she steadied herself back into a fighting position.
"I've gotta start watching my kids train more often," Cheelai said. "I can't see a damn thing."
"You're going to be missing out on a lot, mother," Bok told her as he watched the fight. "Choi hasn't even begun to show his true speed. He's waiting for the right moment when Pan starts elevating her own power to compensate so he can continue his advantage. As much as I hated the way he bragged about it, sometimes during our training he moves so fast I have trouble sensing his energy and it took all my effort in my perfect defense to keep him from overwhelming me completely. I hope Pan's got the sense to anticipate him better than I could."
"Hey brat, don't get too confident on your speed," Pan said, smirking at him. Choi didn't waver as his gaze was still serious. When he gets into his fighting mode, his usual cocky attitude is replaced with a very serious state of mind where he doesn't want to commit a single error during his match.
He doesn't say anything as he bursts into a sprint towards Pan and vanished before Pan could make a move. She caught him appearing above her again and went for a counter, which Choi deftly dodged with another burst of speed, reappearing behind her. He used as many chances as he could to take advantage of his opponent's blind spot that Pan spun around and caught his hand and wrist, going in for a kick to the gut, which he blocked with his other hand.
The two threw down on the stage with Pan going on the offensive, and Choi blinking in and out from side to side, dodging and blocking each of her shots. Pan began to focus her energy to bring it up and increase her movement speed and she too began to blink in and out, forcing Choi to start blocking more of her shots as she sped up. His face grunted a bit as she started to move slightly faster than he was and she managed to catch him with a right smack across his face, open handed and she followed it up with a right hook, which Choi narrowly dodged to force him down onto the stage. He caught himself with his right hand and he twirled around to sweep Pan with his leg, spinning around to catch her with a double kick in the gut with his feet. He flipped back onto his feet and she recovered quickly to fire a few energy blasts in his direction, creating some distance. She flew back and unloaded a barrage of energy balls, firing them rapidly at Choi, who dodged and blinked around the stage to avoid them.
Choi sprinted forward again through the energy blasts, firing some of his own. His energy attacks were smaller in size and thinner as they flew towards Pan, who countered each energy blast with her own, the two energies colliding against each other and exploding, creating a cloud of dust which concealed the two fighters from the spectators.
Pan and Choi could still gauge their location as the cloud was still present, and Pan took to the air to get away, while Choi reappeared above and behind her, coming down with a double ax-handle blow that caught her in the back of the head and sent her crashing down to the stage. Videl gasped and winced when she saw Pan get struck down and Choi crossed his arms, palms facing up and outward, and began charging up energy from them.
Pan held the back of her head as she stood up, wincing at the pain and she immediately could sense something large was coming her way. The cloud had thinned itself out as she could make out Choi's figure from above her, charging an attack.
Her eyes widened as he brought his hands together, swinging his arms outward, and the impact of the two energy balls colliding with each other created an energy blade which arched outward, flying fast down towards Pan, who didn't have much time to react.
The energy narrowly missed her but created another explosion that sent her flying backwards and she had to power up to keep herself from landing outside of the stage, a bright white aura surrounding her. She flew up at Choi but he was ready for her, moving his hands in an arc-like pattern, throwing more of those energy blades at her, forcing her to dodge them as she moved upward.
She countered with a few energy blasts of her own, forcing Choi to stop his attack and knock the energy blasts away from him. She flew in rapid bursts of speed, and he was a bit stunned at her own display of speed that he readied a counter in case she caught him in his blind spot. When she appeared to throw a punch, he was ready. But she suddenly glowed brightly and separated into two separate beings that caught Choi by surprise and they both punched him in the gut and she kicked him hard to send him flying down to the stage, crashing into it to create a small crater. She merged back together as one and flew down to land nearby, waiting to see what would happen next. The crowd roared and chanted her name, with even Buu's Fanclub firmly behind the young girl as they cheered her own.
"Down!" the announcer yelled and he began counting. Choi was half buried in the stage, his legs sticking out and an arm burst outward, followed by the other one. He pushed his head back out and he gasped, taking a deep breath before he stood back up to dust himself off, the announcer stopping at the count of six.
Pan waited while she took up a fighting stance again and she was fired up, smiling at him. She felt her power continue to rise up as she focused on Choi, wanting to finish this fight quickly. Choi cracked his neck a couple of times as he was back on his feet, not looking back at Pan and rolled his shoulders. He glanced back at her and a small grin appeared on his face.
"There's more where that came from, brat," Pan said, smiling at him. Choi chuckled a bit.
"Good, because your performance so far has been a huge disappointment," he said and Pan's smile disappeared quickly. He took up a fighting stance again, only this time he raised one leg up, bent at the knee and he positioned his hands in such a way that Pan noticed there were no openings for her to attack.
Is this him getting serious, or is he trying to toy around again? Damn this brat is pissing me off, Pan thought as she took a deep breath, keeping herself calm and her wits sharpened, staring at Choi.
He then suddenly brought his foot down hard on the stage and it knocked a few of the tiles up from their foundation. He moved much faster this time as he blurred around the area, knocking each of the tiles simultaneously at Pan, which caught her by surprise.
"What?!" she cried out and she moved as fast as she could to knock them away, breaking them apart with punches and kicks. This provided enough of a distraction for Choi to move through the debris and make a move that Goku recognized as something Choi was going to use on him when he first showed up on Planet Bloss. Goku's eyes widened a bit as he saw the movement and Choi flipped over to hover above Pan, but when Goku was expecting Choi to come down with another heel drop, he instead twisted his body in a corkscrew, flying down towards Pan.
"Pan! Watch out!" Goku cried and Pan reacted with a quick defense but part of her shoulder was caught in the movement and it caused her to stagger back a few steps. Choi used this moment to continue to pelt her with kicks, which for the most part she was able to block but caught some of them to her face and shoulder area, forcing her back. He kept going with his barrage, pushing her back towards the edge of the stage. She gritted her teeth as she sensed the edge of the stage was drawing close and felt that if she didn't act quickly, she'd be kicked off the stage.
She waited until one of Choi's kicks was aiming for her face before she grabbed hold of his ankle and she stopped his momentum. She then took to the air, dragging him up with her and he spun around trying to kick her off him and loosen her grip. But she blocked his attack and kept flying upward.
She grabbed his ankle with both hands and began spinning him around several times, going faster and he began feeling a bit of frustration coming through, glaring at her a bit. He fired a few energy blasts in her direction but they were wild and out of focus that they missed their target and flew outward. Pan tossed Choi down hard towards the ground and flew immediately down in pursuit to ensure that he would land.
Choi recovered quickly and noticed how close he was getting and flipped over a few times, propelling himself back up with an energy blast from his feet that gave him the boost needed to fly back up, the energy crashing into the ground causing an explosion that spread dust and debris around the area, some covering the crowd.
As he flew up, he fired several quick energy blasts at Pan, who flew out of the way. He pursued her with an ongoing barrage of energy attacks which Pan had to move as quickly as she could to avoid them, sometimes deflecting those that were too close to call. She glanced behind her and decided to lead him away from the tournament grounds for now. She brought her hands up to her forehead and made a few corkscrew spins to dodge Choi's energy blasts, turning around to face him.
"Masenko!" she cried out and brought her hands down to fire a huge energy beam at Choi, who was on a direct path to collide with it. His eyes widened a bit out of surprise and he moved his hands in front of him as quickly as possible to catch the energy beam. It stopped his movement and began pushing him back, his face deeply focused on containing this energy beam and sending it elsewhere. He moved his hands over the beam and channeled energy into a pulse-like thrust that shifted the direction of the energy beam down towards the tournament grounds.
Pan's eyes widened in fear as she saw where the beam was heading and she quickly made several high-speed bursts to catch up with it but felt a sense of dread as she realized she wasn't going to make it in time.
"No…" she muttered to herself. It was just at that moment that the energy beam suddenly exploded in the air, causing a flash of bright light to blanket the area and forcing the spectators to shield their eyes. Pan felt the winds blow hard from the explosion, shielding her face and Choi stared at the explosion with a suspicious gaze.
Piccolo was the first to notice what had happened as he glanced at Kelerot, who was staring at the explosion. For in that one moment, he saw a flash of light burst from Kelerot's eyes as he was staring up at the energy beam coming down. He frowned as he watched it all happen and stared back up at Pan and Choi. That kid's going to be problematic if this keeps up.
"You left yourself open!" Choi yelled as he caught Pan staring down at the energy beam. She gasped in shock and spun around too late to be hit with a roundhouse kick that sent her down. She looked around frantically, realizing that she was on a one-way course to the outside of the stage for sure and there was no time to propel herself back up. She only had seconds to react and decided to make a gamble.
Channeling energy, she split herself in two. They looked at each other and one of the Pans fired an energy blast at the other to push her back to land on the stage, while the other concentrated to make sure she rejoined as one whole Pan as she crashed into the stage, the other one changing into a bright light that flew back towards Pan and joined up with her anew.
Choi scoffed at the strategy and flew down to land on the stage as Pan was slow to get up. She took a few deep breaths and dusted off her gi, staring at him.
"Is winning this match worth putting these spectators in danger?!" Pan cried and Choi glanced for a moment at the crowd.
"What makes you think I was aiming at anyone specifically? I redirected your energy beam, nothing more," Choi said as he walked towards her.
"That looked intentional, you brat!" Pan yelled, clenching her fists as she took up a fighting stance again and Choi stopped.
"Whatever it takes to win," Choi said and he vanished again. Pan focused and caught him as he reappeared but felt that a change in strategy was needed. As Choi was ready to throw a punch, Pan split again into two and both flickered around to appear behind him, re-merging. She threw a punch at him that he narrowly blocked with a forearm and as he was moving in for a counter, she split again, throwing him off. She flickered as two separate bodies around him, causing him to miss his shots and she caught one hand as he was going to throw another punch, allowing the other to hit him squarely in the face. The first one put him in a full-nelson hold, trapping him while the other used his open chest and face to throw several punches that hit him.
Damn this girl! Choi yelled in his head and head-butted the first Pan behind him with the back of his head and caught the second one's fists, countering with his own that staggered her back, following up with a few kicks and a roundhouse that hit Pan in the back, sending her forward to crash into the other one, the two merging back together again.
He spun around and flew straight at her with another burst of speed to catch her before she recovered but she gambled another split form and both Pans caught Choi's arms mid-flight and rocked his face from both sides with a forward punch. They let him go and he covered his face in pain, the Pans merging back as one again.
"Pan's amazing, dad!" Gohan cried. "I can't believe how well she's doing."
"Yeah. She worked hard on her split form techniques. She said if she wanted something unique to her fighting strategy, splitting into multiple forms and working on their weaknesses was one of her main goals during her training. You saw her split into 16 copies, but her best strategy involves only splitting into two with only a ten percent drop in her energy rather than her energy split in half."
Gohan smiled at Goku's analogy and he glanced over at Videl who was still holding her hands together.
"This is so nerve-wracking, I can't help but worry about what that kid might do to Pan," she said and Gohan took her hand in his.
"Pan's going to be fine, she's a very capable fighter," he told her.
"Wooo! Go Pan!" Bulla cried out.
"Pan-Pan! Keep going!" Arugula joined in and Pan blushed a bit, hearing the two of them. Choi felt his face again and glared at Pan. He narrowed his eyes as he stared at her for a moment, then reached down to untie the pelt around his waist. He lifted it up and tossed it to the outside of the stage, and when Pan saw the impact it created, her eyes widened a bit. The pelt landed with a heavy crash, embedding itself in the ground below it. This took everyone but Broly's family by surprise and Gohan's smile faded.
"He was wearing weighted gear the whole time?" Gohan asked and Goku glanced at Broly.
"Was your old fur pelt always that heavy?" Goku asked him.
"No, Bah's ear was enhanced with special weights for my sons to train and fight with. Choi only does this when he wants the fight to end quickly," Broly said and Bok wore a somber grin as he stared at his brother.
"Choi can be pretty scary sometimes when he takes the weights off. His speed increases exponentially as a result. I don't know what else Pan has up her sleeve but if she's not careful she'll either be knocked out of the ring or knocked out completely."
Choi did a few stretches with his legs before rubbing his hips a bit.
"Finally decided to get serious for once, brat?" Pan asked but Choi didn't say anything. He did have a small reaction when he saw that she was smiling rather than look worried and he frowned at her.
"I guess I'll have to get serious too, then," she said and stared at him.
"I'm ending this so don't bother," Choi simply said and vanished, reappearing behind her before she could even process a reaction. Her eyes widened but it felt like she was moving in slow motion as she moved to spin around. She raised her arm to strike back but he disappeared right before the swing even connected and reappeared behind her again. She kept trying to attack but he was dodging and moving around her so fast she was having a great deal of difficulty handling the situation as she felt a bit worried about the state of the fight.
He appeared above her and flipped over forward a few times before dropping his heel on top of Pan and she barely managed to jump out of the way before Choi hit the stage where she stood, causing a massive crack that sent chunks of the tiles flying around it and the ground to shake a bit. Pan, as she flew back, fired a few energy blasts at Choi, thinking she could catch him before he recovered but he was still moving so fast that he swerved around each energy blast that avoided him and hit the stage behind him, causing small explosions.
Choi burst from the stage and flew straight at her, dodging with flickering motions as she continued to fire at him, and she quickly changed strategy by taking to the skies to avoid him. Instead, Choi darted right past her and stopped above her in the air, crossing his arms for another one of those arcing energy blades he threw at her earlier, connecting his hands to fire a large green arc of energy down at her, which looked more streamlined and narrower than the previous one.
Pan's eyes widened and she had to think quickly. Cupping her hands together, she brought them to her side and charged energy, thrusting them forward. She let out a yell as she fired a Kamehameha blast to take out the energy blade and it connected, causing a huge explosion of light and energy that cascaded below them to the crowd. Goku and the others were still fine except for Arugula who had to cover her face on Cheelai's lap, Cheelai herself shielding her face. Broly was a bit shocked at the explosion and both Goku and Gohan stared at Pan while Videl looked even more worried than before. She stood up, her hands still clasped together and closed her eyes. Please get out of this, Pan.
When the chaos settled, Choi stared down at Pan, who glared back.
"The more you resist the worse it's going to get for you, so give up," Choi said. He didn't have his usual snarky tone this time and he brought his hands forward, gathering energy in his palms that began to glow green and Pan clenched her fists.
"I NEVER give up, brat!" Pan yelled and she began powering up, her brilliant while aura growing more intense. Her energy pulsated around her, causing the crowd to shield themselves from the blowing winds her power up was creating and Gohan's eyes widened, unable to hold back his own excitement.
"Dad, Pan's, her energy's incredible!" he shouted, though Videl didn't share the same enthusiasm.
"Your little girl's really strong, you should be proud," Goku said but as much as he wanted to smile at Pan's display of strength, he kept staring at Choi and closed his eyes.
"It's still going to take all she's got to keep up with Choi, given his speed advantage," Goku iterated and Gohan frowned, nodding.
"You're doing really great, Pan!" he shouted up to his daughter, raising his fist in the air. Pan glanced at it for a moment and smiled ear to ear.
She stared at Choi and vanished in front of him. He was ready for her when she reappeared behind him and the two connected with their forearms. Choi went for a counter that Pan deflected away from her face and the two looked evenly matched with their punches and kicks connecting against each other without any one gaining ground over the other.
Choi flew back and swung his arms in an arcing pattern, firing energy blades from them at Pan. Her power boost gave her the speed she needed to swerve around them and she flickered around him, creating afterimages which drew his attention.
He stared at them cautiously, waiting for the right one to hit and he sensed one was coming his way and he punched at it, but it faded upon impact. His eyes widened a bit and searched for where Pan might appear and went for another one but that too faded.
"What's wrong? I thought you were faster than me," Pan said with a smile on her face and Choi focused his energy to sense the real Pan from the images and fired energy blasts around him. When he saw one that was deflected from Pan's hand, he made a high-speed burst to appear in front of her and throw a punch, which she caught. But she was still smiling and he looked at her confused until he was pelted in the back with a few energy blasts. He flew back and had a shocked look on his face when the afterimages all solidified into several copies of Pan.
"I know how I'm going to win this fight, brat," the Pan behind him said, forcing him to turn around and glare at her.
"YOU, win this fight?" Choi said and began to chuckle. "You've gotta be kidding me."
"I have one thing you don't that gives me the biggest advantage of this fight," Pan boasted and Choi crossed his arms, staring at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Ho? No one beats me, get that in your thick skull, Fanny Panny," Choi said. He began to frown when he kept seeing Pan's grin.
"Great, you beat a bunch of guys in the preliminaries and fought an unprepared Trunks, big deal. How many opponents have you really had that gave you a proper challenge?" Pan asked and Choi lowered his arms.
"W-well, plenty! You wouldn't know how many I've fought! You don't know who I am at all!" Choi cried out, glaring at her.
"Plenty huh? Must be nice fighting plenty of people on that planet you're from, unless that "plenty" is just your dad and brother?"
Pan's words had an effect as he scoffed at her, clenching his fists.
"Like I said, I have one distinct advantage over you in this fight and I'm pretty sure that it'll give me the victory," Pan stated and Choi stared back.
"And what is it that you're so proud of, then?" Choi felt compelled to ask and Pan crossed her arms, grinning proudly at him.
"Discipline," she said.
"Discipline?"
"Yes. I'm more disciplined than you, which means I make fewer mistakes. You're so damn cocky that you showboat yourself around the stage thinking you're the best when the real lesson hasn't been taught to you yet that there's ALWAYS a stronger opponent than you."
"Shut up!" Choi yelled and charged forward, flickering around Pan, who flew out of the way to re-merge herself whole and he charged up a large energy ball in his hand that he sent at her at an incredible speed. Pan cried out and knocked the energy ball up to the sky with a double ax-handle blow.
Choi wasn't done though, he followed up with several more large energy balls that he began firing down at Pan, and she deflected some while countering others, causing her energy and Choi's energy to collide and explode once more.
When the energy cleared, Pan was ready with a Kamehameha while Choi was looking more flustered as his frustration became apparent on his face. It suddenly turned to shock as she fired directly at him and he brought up his arms to defend himself as quickly as he could, the beam connecting. He screamed as it collided, sending him flying back and Pan flew out of the range of the explosion with a burst of energy, arcing up over it to come down on Choi with a right fist. She screamed as she came down on him and when he lowered his arms, she connected squarely in his face with her punch, almost caving his face in and it sent him flying down fast at the stage. She wasn't aiming at anywhere in particular, only let his momentum carry him down to crash into the stage, creating another crater from the impact. She flew down to land nearby on the stage and stared at Choi, wondering if he was actually going to get up from that.
"DOWN!" the announcer cried out after the dust had cleared and the winds calmed down. The crowd roared with cheers for Pan as she blushed a bit and Videl cried out in happiness, jumping up and down with tears in her eyes, hugging Gohan. Broly's family looked a bit nervous now that they saw Choi stuck in the stage, Cheelai covering her mouth with her hands, eyes wide, and Broly frowning down at the stage. Bok was standing up, staring at his brother with concern on his face while Arugula was cheering for Pan with Bulla, waving Mr. Bronto in the air. Lemo was just as worried as Bok, standing beside him and the two glanced at each other for a moment.
Choi moved his arms slowly to push himself up to his hands and knees, getting his head out from the soil. He processed his surroundings for a moment and for a brief second he was relieved that he was still on the stage and hadn't landed outside. He could hear loud noises around him from the crowd who were roaring with cheers and tried to listen to the announcer counting away. He could've sworn he heard ringing in his ears as the tension built up on the back and front of his head and he felt his face.
He wasn't sure what he was feeling initially and wanted to get back to his feet first before he could assess how badly things were. He was slow to get up, staggering to his feet. He took a huge hit to the face that rocked him hard and his legs were shaky as he managed to get himself to a standing position. Pan glanced at him for a moment and couldn't help but gasp a bit when she saw what her punch had done to his face. A huge bloody gash had formed in his nasal area and his left eye had popped a blood vessel, making the whole eye look as bloody as his nose. That drew notice from the crowd as well, some wincing at the sight.
"What happened to my baby?" Cheelai said, her face growing pale.
"Looks like that girl broke his nose pretty fierce," Lemo said and Cheelai gasped, staring at him. She covered Arugula's eyes.
"Don't stare at your brother, he's hurt," she told her and Arugula glanced up at her. She held up Mr. Bronto in front of her face.
"Okay, I'll let Mr. Bronto see what's going on," she said. She glanced at Gohan and Videl and while she knew they were cheering for Pan; she still felt a bit of disgust at the way they were ignoring Choi's predicament and frowned.
Choi brought his hand up to his face and had his bearings together enough to focus more on what damage he had sustained. He felt his nose and it was like nothing he had ever felt before. He felt confused at his vision, like part of it was covered in a red hue as he blinked, unable to process this. He hissed and winced as he touched his nose and brought his hand down. He stared at his blood soaked hand and his eyes widened. He had never seen anything like this before, not on him anyway. He was used to seeing the blood of others, mainly the animals he had hunted before with his brother on Bloss, but he had never seen so much of his own blood spilt like this before and he felt a disturbing feeling in the pit of his stomach. It felt nauseating, and he didn't like it. Lots of things at the moment felt nauseating and he didn't like those either. The noise from the crowd, the pain he was in, the blood on his hand, the tension in the back and front of his head. It was throbbing, it was painful, and it was pissing him off.
"You…" he said calmly, his voice shaking. He looked up and saw that face of hers, that face of Pan's, the one who caused him to feel this, a feeling he had never felt before, not even when he was hit by his brother.
"YOU…" he said louder, clenching his blood-soaked fist and Pan's eyes widened a bit.
"Huh?" Goku muttered as he began to notice a huge power fluctuate within Choi and Gohan paused celebrating with Videl to notice as well. Goku stared at Choi for a moment before a memory from earlier came to his mind when he heard Arugula say that Pan was in danger and his eyes widened in shock.
He glanced up and saw that the skies above were changing, bringing in storm clouds. When they obscured the sun, eyes were starting to stare upward and people began to mutter that there's a storm coming. Piccolo could overhear a lot of the comments and he stared at the stage rather than the sky. That's no storm.
Kelerot, who had been intrigued by the fight, frowned as he could feel Choi's power growing inside and stared at the boy.
Broly looked a bit more uncomfortable as he watched the anger swelling within his son and he felt his heart racing out of anxiety for what's to come.
"YOU HURT ME…" Choi said but his voice was both calm and deep and Pan could see a change in his eyes. He had his mother's lavender colored eyes, but those were changing into a frightful yellow. Choi's anger was causing his energy to swell up to unexpected heights and the unusual storm clouds were shooting lighting bolts down around the island as the ground shook violently. Choi's fists were shaking, as was his body and his muscles began to grow a bit and his hair stood up a bit more and Pan wasn't sure what to make of this but she knew she was feeling a growing sense of dread as she watched Choi lose control of his senses and his anger taking over.
"I~HATE~YOU!" Choi screamed and his aura blared outward, the wild energy and the ground shaking causing panic in the crowd as they weren't prepared for this, nor was Goku and everyone else. All Pan could do was keep a firm control over herself and prepare for the worst, a trickle of sweat coming down the side of her face.