Four days later Vegeta and Gohan pulled into orbit around another planet. They transmitted their ID to the station in orbit and were told there was currently a 12 hour wait for the next trial. So they ate, got some sleep, cleaned up and ate again. Then they docked their ship next to the station and wandered on board.
There were not nearly as many people on this station as the last one. And most of them stayed in groups with their own kind. As they walked through the halls Gohan noticed most of the looks they were getting were less than friendly. "These people need to cheer up a little. We are not here to hurt them."
Vegeta just shook his head, "These warriors have worked long and hard for the power and abilities they have. And they know anybody that is here could be just as strong as they are. So that doesn't encourage then to get friendly with others."
"But, if you learn something about your opponent before the fight, you might know something that will help you overcome them during the fight. So it would be good to learn all that you can."
Vegeta looked at Gohan in surprise. "You have been listening to me after all."
"With my mom after me to learn everything I can? I can't help but listen and remember as much as possible."
Just then they entered the hanger for the next test. An official turned to face them. "Ah, the Sayian team. Welcome. Please board the shuttle it will be lifting off in a minute.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The door of the shuttle opened and they found themselves looking down into a fairly dark cave. After a moment they started down and quickly found themselves in pitch blackness.
"At least it is normal gravity this time."
Vegeta did not respond but instead powered up a little and created an aura around himself that shed some light so they could at least see without walking into a wall. "Stay alert, this test is obviously meant for more than just our eyes."
Gohan nodded and followed Vegeta deeper into the cave trying to see if he could feel any power levels around them. After a couple more minutes of walking they found themselves in a large cave. Vegeta raised his power level some to shed some more light as they looked around. There were a couple more tunnels heading out of the cave and they were trying to decide if they should split up when they started to hear a buzzing that seemed to echo through the entire cavern.
They both dropped into a fighting stance as they suddenly heard something go whipping through the air right near them. Gohan powered up and added the light from his aura to see if the could spot anything. They could not see anything but they started hearing buzzing coming from several spots around them and they all seemed to be moving. Then Vegeta gasped as something hit him in the arm, not that hard, but enough to get his notice. Then there was another hit on the back of his head, a little harder and it was enough to move his balance off a little. Then another hit in the leg knocked him to the ground. Gohan started to turn and help Vegeta when he got hit several times knocking him to the ground as well. They both jumped back to their feet and Vegeta growled in frustration. "How can we fight what we can't see?"
Gohan thought to himself. "There must be a way. Maybe if I try…" He powered up some more and formed his Ki into a shield around himself, then closed his eyes and tried to sense the Ki's of the attacking things. But no luck, he could feel them hitting against his shield but could not sense anything.
Vegeta copied Gohan's shield and started to move towards the tunnel they come in, "Fall back, we need a moment to figure out what is going on here."
Just then a ghostly voice floated through the cave. "If you leave this cave you will fail the Trial of Skill."
Vegeta yelled in frustration and started throwing dozens of Ki blasts all over the place. Gohan had opened his eyes and starting watching Vegeta's attack so he could dodge any energy balls that came near him. Then Gohan saw one of the balls explode in mid-air. As he blinked away the flash of the blast he saw something that looked like a large insect drifting down from the spot of the blast. It looked like it had been stunned and as he watched it seemed to wake back up and start beating its wings again. The beating quickly became a buzzing like they heard all around them and then the creature vanished into thin air.
"Vegeta! Stop for a minute!" Gohan flew towards the Sayian stood right behind him. "I think I know what we are fighting. They seem to be some type of insect about a foot long that can become invisible. I saw one get hit by a blast and get stunned for a moment. If we can hit another one maybe we can hit it again real quick and knock it out."
Vegeta nodded and said "Keep your eyes open. I will keep my attack going, but I can't do it for much longer."
Gohan charged his own blast and floated right above Vegeta and tried to watch as much space as he could. With a yell Gohan suddenly fired off his blast at another one that had been hit, but it woke up and dodged before it could be hit by Gohan.
"Faster, Brat!"
They tried a couple more times and finally Vegeta could not keep up his attack and dropped his arms panting with the exertion. Without thinking he also let his shield drop and was quickly hit by several punches. Before he could do anything Gohan dropped next to him and covered his shield over both of them.
"I am not sure this is working. We need to figure something else out."
"You are just too slow. If you could just throw your blasts faster we would be done with this by now. Even a third-class baka like you should be able to understand that."
"Fine. If you are so sure you can do it, why don't you show me?" Gohan started to power up some more getting close to limit they put on themselves, not to go over what they showed the scanner back when they signed in. Vegeta raised his shield and flew up over Gohan and replied, "Whenever you are ready, boy."
Gohan closed his eyes for a moment and then with a yell, let loose with dozens of blasts throwing them as fast as could. Vegeta was surprised for a moment at the number Gohan was throwing but he quickly charged shots in each hand stood ready. He soon saw a hit and quickly threw one of his shots at the spot but missed. He growled under his breath and started watching again.
After Vegeta missed several times, Gohan finally stopped firing blasts himself and dropped to his knees trying to catch his breath. He did manage to keep his shield up but with several more hit on it suddenly he started to lean over to side about to fall over. Vegeta landed next to him and grabbed Gohan's hair to keep him from tipping over. "Got any more bright ideas down there?"
Gohan took a moment to catch his breath. "Somehow we need to get closer when we hit them. They are too fast to fight at a distance."
"And how do we do that, baka?" Vegeta scowled and then turned thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe if we could herd them into a corner." Vegeta started looking around for a good place to try and trap them in.
But Gohan had not heard Vegeta's last comment. He has his eyes closed while trying to think for a moment. "They get close enough when they are hitting us. Too bad we can't stun them when they hit us."
Suddenly, Vegeta get go of Gohan's hair and he dropped to hands and knees. With surprise he looked up at Vegeta only to see Vegeta looking at him with a wicked smile on his face. "I knew I brought you along for a good reason. Expand your shield to cover us both for a moment."
Gohan jumped to his feet and did so. Vegeta dropped his shield, took a couple deep breaths and powered up a little more bringing up another aura around him, one that seemed to be crackling with energy. Vegeta gave Gohan another wicked grin and then jumped up into the air. Almost immediately Vegeta was hit and his Ki shield flared in response, throwing a blot of energy at the thing that had touched it. Gohan had the quickest glimpse of one of the bugs before Vegeta spun in place and landing a solid punch that slammed the bug into the far wall hard enough to leave a dent in the wall. The bug slid to the floor and lay there in a heap.
Vegeta yelled out in victory and screamed, "Come get me you useless little pests!" When his shield flared again he struck out with his foot and connected again with another bug dropping to ground knocked cold.
"Neat Vegeta! I didn't know you could do that with your Ki!"
"Just a little trick I came up with when I was fighting for Freiza. I had a sparring trainer for a while that like to use lots of little punches to piss you off. I decided to even the score for once. I haven't needed to use it since then." Vegeta punched at another bug but missed him this time. "But this is still hard on your energy, so get your butt up here and help me."
Gohan nodded, thought for a second about how to make his shield and with a yell built a wall of fire around himself. He was hit almost immediately and jumped forward a bit to hit the bug floating in front of him stunned. "Three down and bunch to go!" He was hit from behind and without thinking reached out and grabbed, catching a bug by the leg. It woke with a jerk and started trying to fly away but Gohan held on tight. When Gohan pulled it closer to get a better look at it, the bug turned invisible but was still in Gohan's grasp unable to get away. Gohan backhanded another one that hit his shield and shook the one he held onto. After a second the bug turned visible again and grabbed the body of it with his other hand. He focused his attention on it for a moment. "So they do have Ki signature, it is just so weak we could not feel it because they are being swamped out by our Ki's."
"Stop kissing that damn bug and help me get the rest of these things. There can't be too many of them left now."
Gohan shook his head and said to the bug, "Sorry, little guy. But we need to finish up here." With that he slammed the bug to the floor and checked to make sure it was knocked out. Then he turned and attacked the next one that hit his shield. After a couple more minutes there were 10 bugs lying on the floor and Gohan and Vegeta were not being attacked any more. Vegeta dropped his shield and floated to the floor. "This damn prize better be worth all this effort. Or I am going to beat the crap out of everybody running this thing just to get my satisfaction. Come on brat, we are done here."
Gohan had dropped his shield too but stayed floating in the air. "I don't think we are done quite yet, I still hear that buzzing. I think there are a couple more flying around in here."
Vegeta turned back with a frown. "Why are they not attacking us then?"
"I don't know. I guess we will need to find them."
"And how will we do that? We can't sense them and that damn buzzing echoes too much to make anything out."
"They do have a Ki, but it is so weak we can't pick it up with us powered up like this. Trying lowering your Ki as far as possible and maybe we can find them." Gohan dropped his aura and pushed his Ki down as far as he could get it go and stood very still. Vegeta did the same thing on the other side of the cavern and the place was plunged into complete blackness. Gohan was trying to focus on the slight energy he was picking up when suddenly a shout echoed through the cavern. "HIAAAAA!" Gohan jumped several feet into the air and powered up in a defensive stand without even thinking about it. Then he heard Vegeta's voice. "Ha! Thought you could sneak up on me you damn little bug? They will teach you to mess with the Prince of all Sayians!" There was a moment of silence, then, "Aw, did I scare you Gohan?" There was a definite smirk in the voice.
Gohan dropped back to the ground and said, "I have never liked very dark places." A chuckle came back through the darkness at him as he dropped his power back down and tried the find the last bug.
He concentrated for a minute and finally heard the bug flying around near him, so he crouched down a little and waited for the bug to come closer. As it got closer, Gohan found he could sense it now and got a good idea of its location. With a leap he jumped several feet through the air and snatched it on the first try. He landed almost without a sound and then smiled to himself. He closed his eyes and let his senses stretch out again until he found Vegeta. Walking carefully he headed over that way until he was only about 5 feet away.
He paused for a moment when Vegeta spoke up, "Why are you over here? Not afraid of the dark are you?"
Gohan responded by powering up his aura of light and thrust the bug into Vegeta's face. "Surprise!"
Vegeta stumbled back a couple steps with a look of shock on his face which quickly changed over to anger at Gohan's laughter to his reaction. "You baka brat! I should beat you into a bloody pulp for that!"
Gohan pulled in his laughter but keep smiling. "Why should you be the only one to have any fun here?" He turned and pitched the bug into the nearest wall fast enough to leave a nice bug shaped dent in the wall.
While Vegeta stood there scowling at Gohan trying to decide if was going to respond to Gohan with words or fists, a voice floated through the cavern. "Congratulations Warriors! You have completed the Trial of Skill. Please return to the shuttle at this time."
Vegeta just decided to stalk out of the cavern instead. Gohan followed behind him still smiling.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
When the shuttle docked back at the station, one of the officials met them just outside the hanger. "Most well done. We had never seen that technique with the Ki shields before but it is a clever way to get the job done."
"You were watching us?" Gohan asked.
"Of course, we have to watch to know if you complete the trials or not." The official smiled, "And to make sure nobody gets too badly hurt in the trials also. We don't want to kill anybody here."
Vegeta replied, "Whatever. Now, I am hungry. Do you have any real food around here?"
The grin on the official grew bigger, "We were warned by the first station, so we are ready for you. All the food you could want, right this way."
There were not nearly as many people on this station as the last one. And most of them stayed in groups with their own kind. As they walked through the halls Gohan noticed most of the looks they were getting were less than friendly. "These people need to cheer up a little. We are not here to hurt them."
Vegeta just shook his head, "These warriors have worked long and hard for the power and abilities they have. And they know anybody that is here could be just as strong as they are. So that doesn't encourage then to get friendly with others."
"But, if you learn something about your opponent before the fight, you might know something that will help you overcome them during the fight. So it would be good to learn all that you can."
Vegeta looked at Gohan in surprise. "You have been listening to me after all."
"With my mom after me to learn everything I can? I can't help but listen and remember as much as possible."
Just then they entered the hanger for the next test. An official turned to face them. "Ah, the Sayian team. Welcome. Please board the shuttle it will be lifting off in a minute.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The door of the shuttle opened and they found themselves looking down into a fairly dark cave. After a moment they started down and quickly found themselves in pitch blackness.
"At least it is normal gravity this time."
Vegeta did not respond but instead powered up a little and created an aura around himself that shed some light so they could at least see without walking into a wall. "Stay alert, this test is obviously meant for more than just our eyes."
Gohan nodded and followed Vegeta deeper into the cave trying to see if he could feel any power levels around them. After a couple more minutes of walking they found themselves in a large cave. Vegeta raised his power level some to shed some more light as they looked around. There were a couple more tunnels heading out of the cave and they were trying to decide if they should split up when they started to hear a buzzing that seemed to echo through the entire cavern.
They both dropped into a fighting stance as they suddenly heard something go whipping through the air right near them. Gohan powered up and added the light from his aura to see if the could spot anything. They could not see anything but they started hearing buzzing coming from several spots around them and they all seemed to be moving. Then Vegeta gasped as something hit him in the arm, not that hard, but enough to get his notice. Then there was another hit on the back of his head, a little harder and it was enough to move his balance off a little. Then another hit in the leg knocked him to the ground. Gohan started to turn and help Vegeta when he got hit several times knocking him to the ground as well. They both jumped back to their feet and Vegeta growled in frustration. "How can we fight what we can't see?"
Gohan thought to himself. "There must be a way. Maybe if I try…" He powered up some more and formed his Ki into a shield around himself, then closed his eyes and tried to sense the Ki's of the attacking things. But no luck, he could feel them hitting against his shield but could not sense anything.
Vegeta copied Gohan's shield and started to move towards the tunnel they come in, "Fall back, we need a moment to figure out what is going on here."
Just then a ghostly voice floated through the cave. "If you leave this cave you will fail the Trial of Skill."
Vegeta yelled in frustration and started throwing dozens of Ki blasts all over the place. Gohan had opened his eyes and starting watching Vegeta's attack so he could dodge any energy balls that came near him. Then Gohan saw one of the balls explode in mid-air. As he blinked away the flash of the blast he saw something that looked like a large insect drifting down from the spot of the blast. It looked like it had been stunned and as he watched it seemed to wake back up and start beating its wings again. The beating quickly became a buzzing like they heard all around them and then the creature vanished into thin air.
"Vegeta! Stop for a minute!" Gohan flew towards the Sayian stood right behind him. "I think I know what we are fighting. They seem to be some type of insect about a foot long that can become invisible. I saw one get hit by a blast and get stunned for a moment. If we can hit another one maybe we can hit it again real quick and knock it out."
Vegeta nodded and said "Keep your eyes open. I will keep my attack going, but I can't do it for much longer."
Gohan charged his own blast and floated right above Vegeta and tried to watch as much space as he could. With a yell Gohan suddenly fired off his blast at another one that had been hit, but it woke up and dodged before it could be hit by Gohan.
"Faster, Brat!"
They tried a couple more times and finally Vegeta could not keep up his attack and dropped his arms panting with the exertion. Without thinking he also let his shield drop and was quickly hit by several punches. Before he could do anything Gohan dropped next to him and covered his shield over both of them.
"I am not sure this is working. We need to figure something else out."
"You are just too slow. If you could just throw your blasts faster we would be done with this by now. Even a third-class baka like you should be able to understand that."
"Fine. If you are so sure you can do it, why don't you show me?" Gohan started to power up some more getting close to limit they put on themselves, not to go over what they showed the scanner back when they signed in. Vegeta raised his shield and flew up over Gohan and replied, "Whenever you are ready, boy."
Gohan closed his eyes for a moment and then with a yell, let loose with dozens of blasts throwing them as fast as could. Vegeta was surprised for a moment at the number Gohan was throwing but he quickly charged shots in each hand stood ready. He soon saw a hit and quickly threw one of his shots at the spot but missed. He growled under his breath and started watching again.
After Vegeta missed several times, Gohan finally stopped firing blasts himself and dropped to his knees trying to catch his breath. He did manage to keep his shield up but with several more hit on it suddenly he started to lean over to side about to fall over. Vegeta landed next to him and grabbed Gohan's hair to keep him from tipping over. "Got any more bright ideas down there?"
Gohan took a moment to catch his breath. "Somehow we need to get closer when we hit them. They are too fast to fight at a distance."
"And how do we do that, baka?" Vegeta scowled and then turned thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe if we could herd them into a corner." Vegeta started looking around for a good place to try and trap them in.
But Gohan had not heard Vegeta's last comment. He has his eyes closed while trying to think for a moment. "They get close enough when they are hitting us. Too bad we can't stun them when they hit us."
Suddenly, Vegeta get go of Gohan's hair and he dropped to hands and knees. With surprise he looked up at Vegeta only to see Vegeta looking at him with a wicked smile on his face. "I knew I brought you along for a good reason. Expand your shield to cover us both for a moment."
Gohan jumped to his feet and did so. Vegeta dropped his shield, took a couple deep breaths and powered up a little more bringing up another aura around him, one that seemed to be crackling with energy. Vegeta gave Gohan another wicked grin and then jumped up into the air. Almost immediately Vegeta was hit and his Ki shield flared in response, throwing a blot of energy at the thing that had touched it. Gohan had the quickest glimpse of one of the bugs before Vegeta spun in place and landing a solid punch that slammed the bug into the far wall hard enough to leave a dent in the wall. The bug slid to the floor and lay there in a heap.
Vegeta yelled out in victory and screamed, "Come get me you useless little pests!" When his shield flared again he struck out with his foot and connected again with another bug dropping to ground knocked cold.
"Neat Vegeta! I didn't know you could do that with your Ki!"
"Just a little trick I came up with when I was fighting for Freiza. I had a sparring trainer for a while that like to use lots of little punches to piss you off. I decided to even the score for once. I haven't needed to use it since then." Vegeta punched at another bug but missed him this time. "But this is still hard on your energy, so get your butt up here and help me."
Gohan nodded, thought for a second about how to make his shield and with a yell built a wall of fire around himself. He was hit almost immediately and jumped forward a bit to hit the bug floating in front of him stunned. "Three down and bunch to go!" He was hit from behind and without thinking reached out and grabbed, catching a bug by the leg. It woke with a jerk and started trying to fly away but Gohan held on tight. When Gohan pulled it closer to get a better look at it, the bug turned invisible but was still in Gohan's grasp unable to get away. Gohan backhanded another one that hit his shield and shook the one he held onto. After a second the bug turned visible again and grabbed the body of it with his other hand. He focused his attention on it for a moment. "So they do have Ki signature, it is just so weak we could not feel it because they are being swamped out by our Ki's."
"Stop kissing that damn bug and help me get the rest of these things. There can't be too many of them left now."
Gohan shook his head and said to the bug, "Sorry, little guy. But we need to finish up here." With that he slammed the bug to the floor and checked to make sure it was knocked out. Then he turned and attacked the next one that hit his shield. After a couple more minutes there were 10 bugs lying on the floor and Gohan and Vegeta were not being attacked any more. Vegeta dropped his shield and floated to the floor. "This damn prize better be worth all this effort. Or I am going to beat the crap out of everybody running this thing just to get my satisfaction. Come on brat, we are done here."
Gohan had dropped his shield too but stayed floating in the air. "I don't think we are done quite yet, I still hear that buzzing. I think there are a couple more flying around in here."
Vegeta turned back with a frown. "Why are they not attacking us then?"
"I don't know. I guess we will need to find them."
"And how will we do that? We can't sense them and that damn buzzing echoes too much to make anything out."
"They do have a Ki, but it is so weak we can't pick it up with us powered up like this. Trying lowering your Ki as far as possible and maybe we can find them." Gohan dropped his aura and pushed his Ki down as far as he could get it go and stood very still. Vegeta did the same thing on the other side of the cavern and the place was plunged into complete blackness. Gohan was trying to focus on the slight energy he was picking up when suddenly a shout echoed through the cavern. "HIAAAAA!" Gohan jumped several feet into the air and powered up in a defensive stand without even thinking about it. Then he heard Vegeta's voice. "Ha! Thought you could sneak up on me you damn little bug? They will teach you to mess with the Prince of all Sayians!" There was a moment of silence, then, "Aw, did I scare you Gohan?" There was a definite smirk in the voice.
Gohan dropped back to the ground and said, "I have never liked very dark places." A chuckle came back through the darkness at him as he dropped his power back down and tried the find the last bug.
He concentrated for a minute and finally heard the bug flying around near him, so he crouched down a little and waited for the bug to come closer. As it got closer, Gohan found he could sense it now and got a good idea of its location. With a leap he jumped several feet through the air and snatched it on the first try. He landed almost without a sound and then smiled to himself. He closed his eyes and let his senses stretch out again until he found Vegeta. Walking carefully he headed over that way until he was only about 5 feet away.
He paused for a moment when Vegeta spoke up, "Why are you over here? Not afraid of the dark are you?"
Gohan responded by powering up his aura of light and thrust the bug into Vegeta's face. "Surprise!"
Vegeta stumbled back a couple steps with a look of shock on his face which quickly changed over to anger at Gohan's laughter to his reaction. "You baka brat! I should beat you into a bloody pulp for that!"
Gohan pulled in his laughter but keep smiling. "Why should you be the only one to have any fun here?" He turned and pitched the bug into the nearest wall fast enough to leave a nice bug shaped dent in the wall.
While Vegeta stood there scowling at Gohan trying to decide if was going to respond to Gohan with words or fists, a voice floated through the cavern. "Congratulations Warriors! You have completed the Trial of Skill. Please return to the shuttle at this time."
Vegeta just decided to stalk out of the cavern instead. Gohan followed behind him still smiling.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
When the shuttle docked back at the station, one of the officials met them just outside the hanger. "Most well done. We had never seen that technique with the Ki shields before but it is a clever way to get the job done."
"You were watching us?" Gohan asked.
"Of course, we have to watch to know if you complete the trials or not." The official smiled, "And to make sure nobody gets too badly hurt in the trials also. We don't want to kill anybody here."
Vegeta replied, "Whatever. Now, I am hungry. Do you have any real food around here?"
The grin on the official grew bigger, "We were warned by the first station, so we are ready for you. All the food you could want, right this way."