Sorry for the delay in updating. Things have just been way too busy for me lately. Been trying to set myself a schedule to write some every other day, so hopefully the next update will not take as long.

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Lord Jarod hung in the middle of the air, still gripping the front of Vegeta's outfit. The stunned expression on his face giving way to anger, "But how? I saw you fall from the loss of energy. You should not be able to stand, much less fight."

Gohan smiled slightly, "Once the crystals were destroyed I was able to recover my power. You and Vegeta fought so long I was able to take a nap and regain my full strength."

Jarod looked back over at Vegeta who was still hanging limply in his grip, but had that same infuriating smirk on his face. "Never underestimate the abilities of a Saiyan warrior."

Jarod growled deep in his throat and with a powerful swing, threw Vegeta towards the ground and leapt to attack Gohan. Vegeta flew towards the ground at an incredible pace and he tried to brace himself for a very abrupt and painful landing. But at the last minute, Coombra had managed to pull himself back up and jumped in the way to lessen the impact on Vegeta.

Gohan for his part didn't even move at Jarod charged him. His yellow hair swaying softly in the breeze, and his teal eyes fixed on the blur approaching him, he didn't even blink when Jarod smashed into him at full speed. Jarod went into a furious series of punches and kicks that had Gohan's body bouncing all around. The painful assault went on for several moments before Jarod dropped back a little to try and catch his breath. He scowled in frustration at the fact that Gohan was still floating there with his head bowed, but otherwise seemingly uninjured.

Then Gohan lifted his head and looked Jarod in the eyes once again, "Sorry, I am not warmed up yet. This will take a couple more minutes." Then he motioned to Jarod to continue the attack. With a deep breath Jarod blurred into action and once again started pummeling Gohan with a furious series of kicks and punches.

On the ground the Quazar Quartet watched as Gohan took a beating without even making an effort to defend himself. Coombra echoed the thoughts of the others with his soft query, "What is he doing up there?"

His answer came from Vegeta as the prince sat up among the stones littering the ground, "Don't worry about the brat, he can take it." Then the prince took off one of his gloves and felt around just inside the outer edge, finally he pulled a bean from the glove and quickly stuck it in his mouth and chewed. His wounds healed over and then he was able to stand up. He stretched and flexed a few times to make sure everything was in order then sunk back to the ground in a cross legged position and assumed a pose of meditation.

During this time, Gohan seemed to finally come to life. He blocked a punch and then started dodging everything Jarod threw his way. After a moment of that Gohan started to add a few quick little jabs back at Jarod, forcing him to keep his guard up while throwing punches at Gohan. Not that it helped, Gohan pulled an arm back and started a slow punch towards Jarod's face. The warrior raised his arms in a crossed-wrist block and got ready to throw a kick back at Gohan. But Gohan finished his attack with a load yell and a short blur of the fist. A burst of power from the punch blasted through Jarod's block and threw him back in the sky. Before he recovered his wits and balance he became the victim of a long series of punches and kicks from Gohan.

Then Gohan sent Jarod to the ground once more with a powerful kick and paused in the air. He turned around in the air like he was looking for something and finally focused on Jarod again as the older warrior was pulling himself out of the rubble. Jarod sneered at Gohan as he floated back up next to him. "Vegeta claimed you were a better warrior than him, so far I am unimpressed. You have decent power, but your skills are limited."

Gohan shrugged. "I do well enough with what I have." And threw a short blast of energy at Jarod that caught him in the chest and exploded. As the smoke cleared, he smiled. "Besides, I have a few tricks I have not used yet."

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Back on the ground the Quazar Quartet watched in amazement. Yardra was the first to speak, "That kid is almost as strong as you, Vegeta. How do you Saiyans get that much power?"

Vegeta smiled slightly as he glanced up at the sky and then closed his eyes again. "Our Saiyan heritage gives us almost unlimited potential. Only a few have ever learned unlock that potential. Right now Gohan is only fighting at around half strength."

Several gasps were response to Vegeta's calm statement. "Half strength? Why? Shouldn't he be giving it all he has? After all, Jarod beat you and you were at this strength."

Vegeta shook his head, "The boy does not have pride to be a true warrior. But he has good instincts, so he is probably fighting Jarod at this level to get a true measure of his opponent's strength. It's one thing to watch a fight, another to be in the fight."

After a moment of silence, Yardra asked another question. "Vegeta, during your part of the fight I saw you look over your shoulder several times like you were expecting to see something off in the distance. I have now seen Gohan do it a couple times as well. Is that maybe some trick Jarod is using?"

Vegeta shook his head. "No. From time to time I thought I felt another power like Jarod's somewhere out there. I thought maybe that is why he was so sure of himself, because there was more than one like him and the others were coming to fight as well."

"I never sensed anything during the fight, so if somebody is out there, they are hiding themselves rather well." Then Yardra closed his eyes and stretched out with his senses. "I can't find anything. Can you tell me what direction to look in? That might help find our mysterious power."

Vegeta reviewed the fight in his head and after a couple minutes he pointed. "That way. Towards the tall tower in the distance."

Yardra focused his energies in that direction and was still not able to come up anything. But during that time, Gohan had glanced around again and looked directly in the direction that they were searching in. After a moment Yardra decided to try something else and floated up into the air and started a large circle around the fight. As he passed between Jarod and the mysterious tower he suddenly felt the surge of power himself, but with his more defined senses he realized there was something different going on.

Yardra landed and spoke quietly. "I don't think it is another fighter, just energy. It might even be the power the arena drained out of us before it was destroyed. Too bad there is no way for us to get that back. We will recover in time ourselves, but that energy would be of use now." The others nodded and turned back to watch the fight going on over their heads.

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Gohan and Jarod continued exchanging blows for several more minutes before backing off and catching their breath. Gohan had started his power level off a little below what Jarod was showing and had been working it up as the early stages of the fight progressed. Now he was a little stronger than Jarod and debated his next move. 'Should I go for more power? Vegeta tried that and was not able to completely overpower this guy. Of course, I can take it to the second level, but what if that is not enough?'



After a moment Gohan decided fight at this power for while to extend his reserves while Vegeta had a chance to recover his strength. 'At least, if I can't take him out, Vegeta will have another chance.' Meanwhile Jarod had started his attacks again and Gohan was dodging without apparent effort or thought. As he continued to mentally debate his strategy, his Sayian instincts and training had taken over and was moving his body around the sky.

Lord Jarod, for his part, realized that Gohan was not paying attention to the fight and decided to make the young warrior pay for his insolence. He changed the pattern of his attacks and slowly starting backing Gohan towards the nearby rubble of a building to try and trap him in place. After several minutes he was ready to spring his trap and after a momentary pause, threw a powerful punch that he intended for Gohan to duck under and get himself caught by debris around them.

But instead of ducking, Gohan raised a forearm and stopped Jarod's punch cold. Jarod felt a moment of surprise when Gohan's eyes snapped back to focus and looked at him. There was no emotion on Gohan's face, not anger, fear, or worry. No sign of pride or joy at his abilities to fight, just simple determination. Gohan was wearing a mask of concentration that the best warriors and athletes used to bring out their best performance.

Normally, Lord Jarod was not a perceptive man. He relied on his strengths and the fear in others to control people. He never sought to understand anyone, to learn their hopes and dreams, fears and nightmares. He thought such knowledge was useless to true leader. It only interfered with a ruler's abilities to use people like the pawns in his game that they were. But this time, for just an instant, as Gohan locked eyes with him, he felt the terrible depths of Gohan's power and for the first time in many years, felt his own sense of fear and felt the touch of death brush against his heart.

Before Jarod could even register the fear that touched his soul, Gohan reached out and grabbed him by the wrist. Then in an almost casual move, Gohan swung around and slammed Jarod down into the rubble he had tried to catch Gohan in. Quickly Gohan lifted the larger warrior out of rubble and slammed him down several more times. Jarod senses were reeling from force of the impacts and before he could recover to defend himself, he found himself in a bone crushing headlock.

With one arm twisted uselessly towards the sky and his neck being bent at a painful angle, Jarod tried to break free but found that Gohan's grip could not be broken by all the strength Jarod had to call on. With a mighty push of his Ki, Jarod slammed himself and Gohan backwards intending to knock Gohan off his back. But this did not work as Gohan calmly put his feet out and caught them before they slammed into the ground.

With a growl of frustration, Jarod put his feet down and pushed off, moving forward as fast as he could aiming for more of the demolished buildings nearby. He dove headfirst into the nearest one and quickly starting flying a wild, random pattern as he smashed through building after building trying to shake Gohan off. After several minutes finally turned to a solid block of stone nearby and rammed it with full speed. This time however, instead of blasting his way through it, he let his body be crushed to a stop by the mass of the object. Gohan was caught by surprise by this and his grip was broken as he flew forward several more yards and then he hit the ground and came to a rolling stop.

Gohan quickly sat up and shook his head. Then he easily bounced to his feet and turned toward Jarod. Jarod was still laying on the ground trying to shake the dazed feeling he had when he heard Gohan's voice. "Wow, that was as fun as a rollercoaster. Can we do it again?"

Jarod looked up to see Gohan standing there with a smile on his face and a child-like sparkle in his eyes. Jarod responded with a wordless scream and threw a powerful Ki ball right into Gohan's face. But the quick little Saiyan leaned to the side and the blast shot past him and off into the distance. Jarod jumped to his feet and started throw Ki blasts at a furious pace at Gohan, but again the young warrior proved to be too quick. Gohan put a little distance between himself and Jarod and began to dodge around.

Gohan laughed and started to put on a little bit of a show, trying to get his body into the most twisted and strange positions as the Ki balls shot past him. He appeared to be making a game out of this and even added a little 'catch' to his actions. Every now and then, he would catch one of the Ki balls and throw it back in Jarod's direction.

Jarod quickly tired of this and flew towards Gohan engaging him once again in hand-to-hand combat. Gohan stayed on the defensive mostly, using his speed to dodge the attacks. He would throw the occasional kick or punch when Jarod let his guard down, but otherwise was conserving his energy. Jarod however, was wearing a scowl of frustration, as he could not seem to make contact with any of his attacks. He pumped more and more energy into speed but found that the young Saiyan was easily keeping up with him.

After a couple more minutes of this, suddenly Jarod completely paused in his attacks and pulled back from Gohan. Breathing deeply he studied the figure before him and then broke into a smile. "Very good young warrior. Your strategy was working for a few minutes there. You actually got me mad enough to try and over-extend my power recharge rate. If we had kept up like that I could have been weakened enough for you to finish me off. Instead, your inexperience will now cost you this fight."

Gohan frowned for a moment. "Okay, so you figured out that I was just trying to make you mad. But I don't see how that means I will loose this fight. Even trying your hardest, you could not hit me. Until you can do that, you can't win."

Lord Jarod smiled. "Ah, you are missing the fact that I have figured out your secret. It seems a shame to destroy your generator, since it seems to be much more efficient than mine, but I supposed I can just beat the plans for it out of you later." With that, Jarod stuck his hands out in front of him and formed a large Ki ball. It was almost 3 feet across and from what Gohan could see it looked like dozens of smaller balls all pressed together and then ringed in blue lightning.

Then without a further word, Jarod spun in a circle and released the ball partway around. Gohan gasped in horror as he saw it was heading right over the nearby city where millions of people lived. Gohan flared his Ki and moved to start after the massive attack thinking to save the people, but Jarod had other plans. He launched a new series of attacks at Gohan forcing him to dodge and protect himself. Gohan was just about to break free of Jarod when we saw the ball fly right over the city and keep going. Surprised he paused for a minute and watched as the attack flew over the large spaceport.

Then with a soft thud that Gohan could hear, the ball split up into all its smaller pieces and dropped to the ground in and around the spaceport. The entire area lit up with massive explosions that shredded all the ships sitting on the ground. The smoke cleared quickly thanks to a strong breeze blowing and soon the carnage was evident. Gohan reached out with his senses and only picked up a few weak life signs, some of which faded even while he was scanning.

Jarod has also been studying the spaceport. Now with another smile on his face, he turned back to Gohan. But he did not get the reaction he expected. Gohan was looking at the spaceport with a hard expression and turned towards Jarod. Jarod's smile faded when he saw Gohan was still there. "What? I destroyed your ship. Your power generator is gone, you should be begging me for your life about now. How are you keeping your power up?"

Gohan focused his cold stare on Jarod. "You killed all those people because you thought I got my power from a space ship?"

"I achieved my goal, your ship is gone and it won't be providing you a recharge any more. The people were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. You may be able to maintain the power you have already, but it won't last long. Might as well save yourself the pain and give up now."

Gohan just shook his head, "You really think I got my energy from that ship? I guess that shows you are not as smart as you think you are. Let me show you what I can really do." And then Gohan let out a yell as he began to power up once again. An aura of yellow flame burst into existence and began to swirl around the Saiyan.

Jarod fell back a few feet as in surprise as Gohan's power level started to increase. His mouth hung open as he watched the flicker of lightning surround Gohan. Then a massive burst of energy blasted through the air that signaled Gohan's transformation to the second level of Super-Saiyan. Gohan stood in the air for another moment letting Jarod study him then he sank into a ready position and met Jarod's stare.

Gohan waved one hand at Jarod, indicating that he was ready to begin again.