Cyborg Gothic

Part 26

I appeared somewhere on Snake Way, and then I looked around. Not only was I in the process of learning how to use Instant Transmission to its full extent, Goku was also teaching me how to combine it with energy sensing in order to increase my range. For what felt like hours I'd been tracking his Ki and teleporting all around Otherworld.

In theory this technique worked by briefly moving the user into a pocket dimension, and from there you could travel to any location instantly. However in practice it was much more limited than that. The user of the technique could not travel to an area they had never been to before, unless they could detect someone familiar to them in that place. Then that other person become a homing beacon of sorts.

This was the role Goku was playing, but while I could sense him I couldn't see him.

"Kamehameha!" I then heard.

I only just managed to get out of the way, and it wasn't until the dust cleared that I saw a Super Saiyan floating above me with a big grin plastered across his normally gormless dace.

"Oh so we're fighting now" I said.

Goku floated down onto the Serpent Road before he answered me.

"It was your idea for everyone to keep training" he pointed out.

In this part of reality both eating and sleeping were optional for me, and while resting I'd had some freaky dreams. Because of them I knew that there were dark times ahead, and he was right we did need to prepare for them.

"Well you if want to get your butt kicked that badly" I said.

When I went Super Cyborg I was stronger than Goku, and faster too, but the difference wasn't that great due to his natural talent and years of fighting, so it was worthwhile training with him. However I wasn't going to power up to that level just yet.

"Don't worry I'm ready" said the Saiyan as he went all golden again "Give me your best shot".

That I did, but the hero was able to dodge the blow, and the follow up ones as I wasn't yet using my Super form. I didn't have time to transform because as soon as I tried to take a moment to power up it was Goku's turn to go on the offensive. Then I was being forced to dodge all of his blows, and since was being all super it was not easy.

Thankfully for me he made a mistake. He overextended when trying to kick me in the head, and I was able to grab his foot. While taking a firm grip on the limb I swung the alien fighter around, and slammed him into Snake Way as hard as I could. Which judging by all the cracks I made it had to be very hard indeed.

This brought me the moment I needed to power up to Super Cyborg, and while it was still strange I was starting to get used to how my body felt when the silver energy was all around me. It was true transformation I felt like somebody right now, and perhaps that was what had held me back when I had been trying to master this power. Some fear of losing myself.

"Okay now I'm going too..." I said.

That was as far as I got as that was when Goku teleported away. I reached out with my Ki sensing ability and soon I located him. He was far away, but he was powered up so I had no trouble locking on to presence and teleporting to where he was.

From this part of Snake Way I could see both Heaven and King Kai's planet in the sky so I had rough idea of where I was. What I didn't know was where Goku had gotten off to.

"No we are not playing hide and seek" I decided.

I willed myself higher into the air, and then I looked around. I could sense that the Saiyan was close by, I figured the hero was hiding somewhere in the clouds. Not due to fear, but because he was testing my Ki sensing ability.

While I couldn't pinpoint his exact position that didn't matter as I had enough fire power to flush him out. I focused my energy and started sending low level Ki blasts into the clouds. I imagined that from a distance that it looked like shooting stars were flying past Snake Way and then exploding inside the layer of clouds. Even from my angle the effect was oddly pretty.

Gothic is this a good time to talk?

Despite the fact that it was a telepathic communication I knew exactly who was speaking into mind.

"Not really" I replied to King Kai "I'm trying to find a sneaky Saiyan".

I could no longer sense Goku so I figured that he was suppressing his energy. Since I didn't know how to do that this meant my sparring partner had huge advantage over me.

He's close by, very close.

Given that I had Sixteen in my head I was rather use to people talking directly to my brain so I wasn't too distracted.

Hey King Kai don't tell Gothic that I'm sneaking up behind him

That had been the Saiyan's voice. I'd know it anywhere.

I won't but he can hear you too, Goku

Faster than the eye could follow I span around and fired off some more Ki blasts at whatever was behind me. Only as it turned out there was nothing there.

You won't catch me that way

Now that he was using the telepathic three way call to taunt me I was starting to understand why Vegeata hated Goku so much.

I just wanted to remind you that the tournament is tomorrow, and also while your training is going very well you that you still haven't perfected the more subtle uses of Ki.

What King Kai had just said was true. I still couldn't initiate telepathic contact with another person, and mind reading was also proving to be tricky. However I intended to focus on those things after the contest so I didn't know why my teacher was bringing them up now.

"And what's your point?" I asked.

Most of my attention was on my surroundings so I wasn't devoting much tp mentally processing to my teacher's words.

My point, Gothic, is that Goku has. Which means he's reading your mind right now.

That explained why I couldn't hit the git, he knew where I was going to aim so he was able to move out of the way.

You must defend your mind as I taught you to.

Preventing someone from reading your mind, and therefore knowing what action you were about to undertake before you took it, was easier then most people might imagine.

You didn't have to create a barrier, or anything fancy like that, the most simple way was just a matter of forcing yourself not to think about what you were doing. That way you could surprise the person who was looking inside your head.

So I just started blasting in random direction, never taking the time to aim, it was all totally random and it worked. Goku powered up to avoid one of my energy attacks, and he came right at me. Which was exactly what I had wanted him to do.

I teleported away at the last second and re-materialised only a few meters to my left. Which resulted in my sparring partner flying right past me, and I was just about to blast him when he suddenly vanished.

The next thing I knew I was landing on the Serpent Path in the most painful way possible; head first.

If you two break Snake Way then how will people reach my planet!

I wasn't sure if that had been an actual question that King Kai had wanted an answer to, but it hardly mattered as I was too busy avoiding Goku's knee to care.

Because of this it took me a moment to realise that I'd dropped down from Super Cyborg.

::You Are In Danger::

That warning was too little too late. I got kneed right in the back while I was rolling over to try to avoid the Saiyan's attempt to to punch me in the head.

Well he's not wrong. You are going to lose this fight.

::Affirmative He Will Lose::

Oh hi Sixteen. How you are you doing?

::I Am Fine:: ::How Are You?::

At this point the voices in my head drove me crazy, it was simply too much to handle while trying to fight, and I got very upset.

"Hey Gothic are you..." Goku started to say.

A wave of silver energy blasted out in all directions and the Saiyan was sent flying away from me as I went back to being all Super Cyborg.

If you break that road I will make you repair it!

This did nothing to calm me down, and while I figured that I would regret it later I did damage more of Snake Way while trying my best to blast Goku.

Lucky for him the annoying alien was able to get in close and when it came to fisticuffs the Saiyan the edge. Which was why I ended up dropping off the edge of the Serpent Path.

Thankfully for me I could fly, and I was able to prevent myself from falling into Hell. Goku didn't see me save myself so when he came racing towards me we met as I was coming up, or to be more precise his face met with my fist as I'd been flying Superman style.

I couldn't laugh hard enough as the sight of the might Super Saiyan rubbing his face.

"Hey, Gothic, we're only training" the hero said "You don't have to hit me so hard".

I struggled to contain my mirth.

"Don't blame me I wasn't trying to hit you" I explained "You ran right into my fist".

By this point both of us had powered down so when we decided to start training some more it took a few moments to charge up again. This involved lots of screaming and bits of debris flying into the air. I was sure it looked somewhat impressive, but when powering up I felt a little silly.

It stopped feeling silly when Goku's fist came flying towards my face and I was forced to start dodging. I moved at an incredible speed as I ducked and weaved in order to avoid the Saiyan's attempts to hit me.

While this was going on our feet were taking us up and down Snake Way, and before long we were teleporting to different parts of the path. Then Goku vanished from my sight totally.

Once more I reached out with my Ki senses and I transmitted myself to where my sparring partner was, and I found myself at the Check-In-Station. I was standing on King Yamma's massive desk and the big ass god guy looked at me with an expression of great annoyance. As for me I felt very small right now.

"Hi there" I greeted "Did you see a guy with spiky black hair?".

The huge guy didn't say anything he just pointed at a door.

"Thank you" I said.

I started tracking Goku again and I found that he was running the Serpent Road, and he was moving so fast that all I could see was a blur I doubted that I would be able to hit with a ki blast so I teleported ahead of him so that I blocked the path with my body.

"Kamehameha!" I then heard.

The massive wave of energy was heading right for me so I took off into the sky as fast as I could, and to my surprise the Kamehameha followed me. It managed to follow me even when I did a loop to loop so I figured that there was only one way I escape this deadly attack without teleporting again.

That won't work.

I ignored King Kai's warning while increasing speed. I was now flying towards Goku and while the Saiyan knew I was coming he was just standing there as if he was no danger whatsoever.

He knows this trick

Since it was an old one I had already figured that he would see it coming. Which was why I was planning a distraction.

"Solar Flare!" I yelled.

With my eyes closed I teleported up into the air and then I watched as the energy blast struck Snake Way. Part of the path had been destroyed by the Ki attack and the chunks of stone fell into clouds below. I figured they would land in Hell, but since everyone down there was already dead I did not care.

What I did care about was if I had killed Goku, but since I could still sense his energy I soon knew that he was fine. I had to wait for the dust to find out for sure, and when I could see clearly I discovered the Saiyan hadn't been planning to dodge the Kamehameha.

Somehow he had learned to mimic my shield technique. He was surrounded by a sphere of golden energy that had protected him from the Kamehameha and he was able to float in the air while using it.

You idiots broke Snake Way!

"In my defence it wasn't me who fired off a Kamehameha" I pointed out "I was just trying not to get hit".

My teacher didn't care who was to blame.

After the tournament you will both repair Snake Way, or there will be no more training for either of you!.

I felt like a scolded school boy.

"Don't worry about it King Kai" Goku said as he floated up to where I was "I'm sure we can fix Snake Way in no time".

I wasn't so sure about that as it had to be some sort of magical road, on the other hand this was the afterlife so the person who had built it had to be around here somewhere. We could ask them for help.

"Let's call it a day" I then decided "You should go home to your wife and son".

And I'd go back to living with in a house with a talking bug, a monkey, and an upset blue deity.

"Okay Gothic I'll see you later" Goku said before he used Instant Transmission "Bye!".

Since I could no longer sense the Saiyan I knew he'd gone back to Earth, and for a moment I was tempted to try and follow, but since I had no idea what would happen if I managed to make it back to the material universe I resisted the urge.

Instead I focused on King Kai's energy and teleported to his planet while hoping that he wasn't too mad at me.