40
Aftermath 2
–10 years later.
-Tournament
"Dad said I could enter the tournament too!" The young boy that was about 8 years old taunted his older siblings. He grinned widely and his blue eyes sparkled as he bounded around the room.
"You have to pass the preliminary's," spoke a boy about 10 years old. His eyes were black and held a lot of distain for his little brother at the moment. He stood with his arms crossed and was leaning against a wall. His dark hair, in the right light, had a hint of purple in it. He was not pleased with his little brother at the moment. Of course, he wasn't happy about the fact that his pesky little brother would be entering now too.
"Kiss my ass! Garnet!" The little boy said and stuck his tongue out.
Garnet pressed his arms tighter into his chest and grit his teeth. "Watch your mouth, Topaz!" He was really annoyed by his brother. He promised dad that he would only fight in the ring today. No fighting with his brother. He really wanted to break his promise.
"Quit it you two," Crystal said but kept looking out the window. He shook his head at his sister. She had insisted on coming to this tournament. He was on par with her right now, or at least, she was allowing him to think that but then of course, everyone else wanted to enter as well.
He was thankful that not everyone was entering. That would have been a zoo. It just wouldn't have been as fun, without defeating a few people that thought he was a little weakling. He knew that he looked older than 10 but he still looked like a kid.
"But…" Topaz tried but Crystal just waved her hand at him and ignored that pouty expression on his face. "Go bound off the wall somewhere else will you?" she said and continued to stare out the window.
He shook his head at his sister. She was so weird. She wouldn't tell anyone who they were looking for. All she would say was, "I will know him, when I see him." So comforting.
Flint was in the room as well, waiting to go out and test for the preliminaries. He looked at Topaz with the same level of annoyance as he felt. Even thought Flint was older than him by 8 years, he considered him his best friend. He had become a serious guy in the past years. He was a little over protective of Flare at times. She didn't need anyone to protect her. She was strong enough to take care of herself. Flint had told him once that he couldn't bare to be without her and that he just about lost her once and he would not allow it to happen again.
That was why she was in the stands with the other adults. She allowed him to be that protective.
Then there was Cyrus who was looking out the window with Crystal. Cyrus was entering the tournament, despite Soyna nearly forbidding him. (The argument had been fun to watch) It had been Goten that finally convinced her to let him do it. Cyrus was huge and could hold his own in any battle as far as he was concerned. The guy was a brick house. He couldn't go gold, but then, he didn't really need to. He just seemed to have the strength in him. He had his green hair tied back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. The size of him was imposing enough. He even had a bit of stubble on his face when he forgot to shave and he forgot to shave a lot.
None of the adults were entering. Well, everyone but Goten. Goten after all was now the reigning champion. The only reason for that was because he didn't have to fight Soyna, who has told him many a time(and proved it) that she could still kick his butt. He was pretty sure he could beat Goten now. Yeah, he was stronger now but he could go to level 4 now. A surprise that he couldn't wait to show Crystal. All the other adults just said that they had their turns at tournaments. He was surprised that grandpa didn't want to enter. All Vegeta said was that it was time for the younger ones to step forth. Even though he could see Goku wanting to enter he did not. He hoped he didn't turn out like that when he got old.
There were a couple of guys from Goten's gym that were entering and he was pretty sure they would qualify but he was not worried about them.
He was worried about who the hell they were supposed to be looking for. Crystal wouldn't give him any description of the guy that they were supposed to be looking for!
"Garnet?"
He looked to see Gem calling him from the door. She looked so much like mom now, but in a scary way. Of course, she didn't dress anything like mom, in her little black mini skirt and black belly top… fashion sense from Crystal…and her hair in this remarkable straight style that gave her a goth look with her pale skin. Gag. Of course, the big clunky boots she wore with it, didn't help. He didn't know why dad allowed her to dress like that?
"What?" he snapped at her.
She screwed her face up into an angry look. Great. All he needed was to get her mad at him.
"I don't know if I should tell you now." She said and stood there with her hands on her hips. "Apologize!"
"For what? What do you want? I am trying to get prepared for the tournament here!"
Topaz started to bound around again and announcing that he was going to enter the tournament. He would deal with the little pest later.
She took a few steps forward and made definite stamps with her feet. "Well, Mr. Grumpy. I thought you would like to know that Cara is here."
He pulled himself off the wall and uncrossed his arms. Cara? Here?
"Cara?" Topaz picked up the name, "Is she the one with the long yellow hair?" he took a swat at his brother and he bounced away. "and the violet eyes! And the butt…." Topaz ran off laughing as he sent a few energy blasts in his direction.
"Yeah, I believe that is the one," Gem said with an amused look on her face and her hands firmly behind her back. "So apologize!"
"Okay. I'm sorry already," he sighed. "Thanks for telling me." He ran his hand through his hair. Did it look okay? Damn. Why was he wearing the black gi? He should have brought the green one, or even the blue one.
Gem pulled her arms from behind her back. "I brought the blue one." She said with a smile.
He couldn't help but blush as she handed it to him.
"You are to young to fall in love." He looked to see Grandpa Vegeta had joined them. He limped as he walked into the room. His leg always seemed to be hurting him lately. He would never tell him how he hurt it and it bugged him at times. "Keep your head straight in the arena." He didn't say anything else as he went over to the window where Cyrus and Crystal were spying on the crowd and pointing to the people that were already trying to get entered. He wished he had known his grandfather before his grandmother, (that he would never know) they say he was a different man. He didn't see anything wrong with his grandfather and strived to be like him.
He blushed further.
Gem laughed at him. She was the only one of his siblings that he could really talk too. Even out of his parents. He could always talk to Gem, even though, she could be flaky, but she was better than the rest.
"Go change. She will be sitting with me," She said and turned on her heel and left the room. "And I won't introduce her to dad as your future wife."
He glared at her.
"That's my job," Topaz said with a goofy grin.
He refrained from wanting to strangle his little brother and just smiled at him. "I hope I fight you in the first round."
Topaz just stuck out his tongue and left the room.
…………….
There were 16 pairings. He was rather disappointed that he was not paired up with Topaz yet. He wanted to shut his over eager little mouth up.
He blushed as he looked up at the crowd to see the adults all cheering them on. Goku sitting there looking as if he were going to jump out of his seat next to his fragile great grandmother ChiChi sitting back and talking with Bra. Vegeta sat behind Bra and beside his granddaughter Violet and his grandson, Boxer. He was not much of a figher at all and seemed to be taking after Raymond. He was quite a nerd.
Gohan and Videl were sitting with Fry and his new girlfriend. Maybe she was the one. She was a little ditzy in his mind, but each to their own. Benot was there with his wife and their new little one. Rose was holding the small little ball with pale blue hair. They named the kid Bulma. So nostalgic. Legen was there also with his girl. He was going to enter but then he said that he would have to break the date with her.
He was never going to let a woman control him like that.
Then there was Junior sitting with Marron on his lap. Gag. Those two were always so mushy. She was pregnant right now and her stomach was huge. You would think they would cut that stuff out!
The only ones he couldn't see in the crowd was Goten and Soyna, but being the reigning champion, he was sure that he was up in the suite and getting ready to come down and make the great speech about how he was looking forward to the championship fight with whomever come through the turret.
He really wanted it to be him. He wanted to show his uncle how much he had improved.
Then there was his mom and dad. Dad in his pressed suit and mom in her best dress. Gem was sitting beside them and Dad… Oh man… dad was questioning Cara! Great. Worse, mom was talking with Cara's mom. He groaned. She wasn't here just because of him, even though he did ask her to come watch him fight. Her brother was in the tournament as well. He was thankful that he wasn't paired with her brother on the first round. Carl looked tough, he had even seen him fighting in Goten's gym, but he was nowhere near as strong as they are. He wouldn't want to defeat him to easily… Cara may not like him then.
He looked at the line up list.
1 Cyrus. ( he was happy to be in the first place and had an eager smile for the audience. Hell, he even had his own little cheering section of girls who were oohing and awing about him…gag! He encouraged it too! Just like his father did!)
2 Bolo (a round dark skinned man with no hair that looked like a real creep. Cyrus would finish him up real quick.)
3 Super Wolf. (He couldn't belief the silly costume on the guy)
4 Tiger. (How appropriate. A cat and dog fight.)
5 Garnet. (He had really wanted to beat his brother. He would enjoy putting him in his place… again)
6 Neko (a young dark haired man that looked and acted like he was a military man.)
7 Flint (He hoping to fight his father in the final bout. He was hoping one day to take over the gym from his father.)
8 Marius (an annoying blond man with a flashy smile and a cheering group of women that really need to raise their standards)
9 Topaz. (He was still overly happy about being allowed to compete.)
10 Lucien (another guy from Goten's gym. He had shown great promise and even recently had learned how to fly. He thought that he worked there now.)
11 Marsha (the only other girl in the tournament. A big girl with long braids draping down her back. She reminded him of one of those Nordic opera singers. Rather scary, actually. It was odd that both girls ended up being pared up. Marsha did not like the look of Crystal in her snug spandex outfit and loose sweater that she wore over top of it.)
12 Crystal. (She sure looked calm but he knew her better than that. She was looking at every guy in the tournament and she was chewing her nails. She was nervous. He wished she would give in a clue for what they were supposed to be looking for. It had to be the guys in Neko, Broots, Jones, Brandon or Marius)
13 Brandon. (A tall thin man that looked uncomfortable. He kept looking at his watch. He wouldn't last long. He didn't even look like a fighter!)
14 Carl. (Cara's brother didn't look that bad at all. He was eyeing Crystal a little bit, but then, all the guys were doing that. Sickos.)
15 Jones (He was a creepy looking guy with long black hair and pale eyes that gave him the shivers. He was the only guy not looking at Crystal.)
16 Broots (this guy was very into how Cyrstal looked. Man. He hoped that adult hood didn't make him turn into a slobbering idiot.)
Goten came out with Soyna on his arm.
The crowd cheered and Goten waved. Soyna just held onto the other arm. Goten also had a female following and you could see some of the girls glare at Soyna. Goten didn't seem to see that or care. Soyna saw it. She didn't seem to care that much, but she didn't like the idea of another woman with Goten. He asked her once what he thought of the masses. She just laughed and said. "Goten wouldn't cheat on me. He is to stuck but women can be devious. I am just making sure. We have gone through to much together to have it ruined by a tart."
He related to his … well… aunt quite a bit. She didn't put up with any garbage and went right to the point. He trained with her a lot. He never seemed to catch up to her speed, but he was at her strength, he hoped. She was good at hiding stuff and holding back and not making it seem that way.
Goten started to talk. The usual speech. Bla, bla, bla… boring. He just wanted the tournament to start and was glad when they finally told them to go back to the waiting room and do whatever it is that you need to get read for the fight.
…………………..
Cyrus and Bolo. Of course Cyrus won. Bolo was not even a contest for Cyrus.
He tried really really hard not to clobber Topaz. Crystal finally got him to calm down.
A couple of the contestants were complaining about children being allowed in. "Well," Crystal said. "If you know your history, you will know that Mr. Satan was the champion for a long time and once his five year old granddaughter, showed how harmless a child could be. Well. Pan is our mother, so you better watch your step." At least it shut them up.
Super Wolf and Tiger took a little while to fight each other but the Tiger dude won. Super Wolf's costume had been his down fall. Capes, were not the best thing to fight in.
Garnet was glad to get in the ring. He could take out the aggression that he had been bottling up inside to attack this Neko guy. He didn't appreciate his family cheering him all to loudly and annoyingly from the audience. But he won. Of course. He felt kind of bad that he accidentally broke Neko's jaw. He didn't mean to do that…. He just didn't have much practice fighting humans. He would have to work on that.
Flint and Marius was another short fight. Flintwas announced as Goten's son. He had a small crowd of women. He just started going to the gym with his father on a regular basis now and was considered new in the field of fighting. If they only knew. Flare couldn't go gold. He tried, but he couldn't. It pissed him off not that he was lacking in skill in anyway, but he wanted to beat at least one his parents. Flint won the battle without much of a struggle. He blushed at the family cheering him loudly as well.
Parents could be so embarrassing.
Then Topaz was out of his hair to fight with Lucien. Lucien knew quite a bit of Topaz tactic's so it lasted for a little bit, but the brat won. Topaz was stronger and they even put on a little bit of a flight show, but that was where Lucien lost it all. Topaz was a much better flyer than him.
He had kind of hoped that Lucien would have won.
Would have taught the brat a lesson.
Then Marsha and Crystal were up. Crystal was blowing kisses to the crowd to her large amount of male fans. I wanted to puke. Gag. Marsha did a very scary rushing attack. Very scary rushing attack but Crystal wasn't phased at all. He was pretty sure it would have startled him, but she just rolled Marsha off her hip and threw her out of the ring. Her fan's cheered. Gag!
"Are you all like this?" It was that Brandon fellow. He was looking a little pale as he watched her do her little arm waves and kisses to the crowd.
"What do you mean," Garnet asked him.
"So flippant about fighting?" Brandon said. He looked a little startled.
"What? Do you want us to be serious about it?" He chuckled as he remembered one of his grandfather's comments. "We like this planet and don't really want to destroy it right now."
The poor guy sure paled at that comment.
He had to cover his mouth to hide his smile.
Then Brandon when out with Carl. Garnet was curious to see how well Carl would do in this tournament, not just because he was Cara's brother… well, maybe that was the reason.
Crystal was watching the fight with the same level of curiosity. He had forgotten about the fact that there were supposed to be looking for someone. Was one of them the guy that she was talking about?
"Is he out there?" He said behind her shoulder causing her to jump slightly as she did that. She glared at him briefly but then looked at the fight where Carl and Brandon were circling each other.
"I don't know. I think so," she said and chewed on her nails. He grabbed her hand from her mouth.
She looked at him startled. "You are so nervous."
She let out a sigh and looked back to the ring. "I have dreamt about this for 3 years now. 3 long years. I don't know if I am ready for this." She licked her lips as the fight began. Brandon was stronger than he looked. So was Carl.
"This guy isn't a threat, right?" He asked.
"Well, he could be." Crystal said. She let out a sigh. "I hate it when my dreams are vague like that. It took me so long to get over…" she stopped herself when she realized that she was talking to her little brother and flushed.
Cyrus was over his shoulder now as well and he was looking at Crystal with concerned eyes. "Are you sure he was supposed to show up here?"
"Of course!" She said. "He'll show himself!"
She turned back to the fight and went on chewing her nails.
Disgusting.
……………..
The second round of things.
Cyrus easily defeated Tiger.
Garnet didn't have too much trouble with Flint. He was much faster, not stronger, but he had a huge speed increase over him. Flint accepted his defeat as he was thrown out of the ring but he still wasn't happy about it.
Topaz was pouting about loosing to Crystal and complaining that it wasn't a fair that he got paired up with her. And Brandon won his battle with the weirdo Broots. Broots also got a slap from Crystal as he was trying to get some sympathy over loosing the battle.
Garnet enjoyed that.
The attention was drawing closer to Brandon now. Crystal and Cyrus were talking amongst themselves. A conversation that he was not allowed in.
Brandon was looking nervous.
He should be. He was fighting Crystal next.
………..
The third round.
Garnet nursed his wounds. Cyrus gave him a sound beating and had nearly destroyed the ring in the process. It didn't help to have his mom yell down that he did his best. It was so humiliating and Cara had witnessed it all. He couldn't crawl under a rock soon enough.
He really thought he could beat Cyrus. He wasn't sure if he could beat Crystal, but he really thought that he could beat Cyrus.
"This should be interesting," Cyrus said as he helped him out of the ring. "Brandon and Crystal should be fighting now."
"What the hell is going on?" he asked. He didn't care if he was rude. He lost. He was mad and humiliated and now, he didn't want to be left in the dark!
Cyrus wasn't upset at his rude mouth. (if mom had heard him, he surely would have slapped the back of his head. She complained about his attitude being to much like Vegeta's) He smiled at the thought.
"They will be asking for our assistance soon. At least that is what her dreams have been telling and… well… your sister has been having dreams about having a boyfriend as sappy as that sounds." Cyrus said.
He spoke before he thought about it. "She is such a tease. She doesn't even date and now she is looking for a boyfriend." She heard him and glared at him as she walked to the arena. He would pay for that comment later.
Cyrus laughed. "That is the reason she doesn't date. She already knows how it is going to turn out."
He never thought of that. That would be so annoying.
He looked at the Brandon fellow. He needed their help for something and he was going to end up dating Crystal. Dad would not like that. He was happy that Crystal wasn't seeing anyone. He had enough trouble with Gem's love life and the guy's constantly calling the house. Brandon didn't look like that bad of a guy. Nervous and… hey… he was wearing and energy booster on his arm! That wasn't a watch!
Cyrus shook his head as if he had read his thoughts.
Damn.
Boosters were not good things.
………..
Brandon lost. He was doing pretty good until his watch was mysteriously broken. Aka, a booster.
Then he was nothing but a flesh puddle (he like that image) at her feet. She helped him out of the stadium to the doctor (Raymond) as they prepared the ring for the big fight between Cyrus and Crystal.
"You knew about the booster the whole time and yet you let me use it?" he asked as Raymond was sticking up a cut on his arm.
"Yup," she said and sat there looking as if she were going to fall over. Could she show more cleavage? Gag me! She was turning all sappy. It was rather sickening. It was like watching mom and dad!
"Why?"
"There is no way you could have defeated me without it. You are not much of a fighter, are you?" Crystal said. He wasn't offended but let out a sigh. Did he blush? Gee, whiz there pretty lady… man… if he wasn't so curious about the guy he would have left the room.
"I was supposed to be a way to test your strength out. To see if you were actually still as strong as you were when… well, when you defeated Krad and Drak and Ligh. They were skilled fighters and never returned from this sector." Brandon said. "They may have not been the best leaders, but we were safe from other invaders."
Cyrus sighed deeply. "You want our help?" It really wasn't a question; it was more of a fact.
"We… my planet…" He was looking right at Crystal and his eyes were doing that sparkling thing. Garnet rolled his eyes but kept his mouth shut. He would grumble about it later. It looked like there would be that chance. "…We had a truce with the Wodah's. Drak and Krad left most of our people alone and used the planet as a sort of base. We were in the center of his empire, but… without them, were surrounded by people that want our home."
"They sent you as the ambassador of your people?" Garnet couldn't help it. The guy was acting weird. So was Crystal. Crystal was acting like a bubbly girl! Ew!
He got a glare from everyone.
Feel the tension. Like that was going to bother him.
"We are not really fighters. We are better at the strategy of things. My father was an advisor to Krad. He did not return from this planet. I was the nearest thing to a leader that our people had. We are not strong without the boosters. That is why I came here. You are the only warriors that have had any success of defeated them and thought that maybe… you could help us rid of the other enemies that want our planet." Brandon sighed.
Crystal gave him a sweet smile.
An announcement came from the arena. It was time for Cyrus and Crystal to fight.
"Well, we are up," Cyrus said.
Brandon looked startled that they were leaving.
Crystal smiled and nodded her head. "We will talk on this later… I have to beat up Cyrus first."
"In your dreams."
They laughed and started to walk to the arena.
"No going gold!" Cyrus said.
"Won't need too," Crystal rebutted.
"Hey!"
"Well, level 4 isn't gold!"
They were out of earshot now. Brandon looked like he was a deer stuck in headlights.
"What? They can't leave the tournament unfinished. There has been to much of that in the past years," Garnet said. "And the ring isn't totally destroyed yet."
He got a dirty look from Raymond. "You know, you spend to much time with Vegeta."
Garnet took it as a compliment.
………………………………..
One more chappy….Soyna