Joining 5: Battle and a New Enemy
Written December 2002
By: Arinson Tidochi
I own neither Dragon Ball Z nor Ranma ½, and I don't have any money anyways, so please don't sue me. I'm not making any money out of this fanfiction, I'm just doing it for fun.
"What kind of bag do you want, paper or plastic?" "I prefer scrotum." KB (Quite disturbing huh? That's a real quote)
"The pain is going to hurt now." KB
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It was an extremely strange setting; it almost seemed like a carnival. However instead of the usual people going on the rides only spirits were around, like some kind of spirit carnival. Off to the side just outside of the blast radius a large crater could be seen that was roped off. The crater was extremely large with a diameter of about two miles. Some kind of loud group gathering seemed to be taking place.
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"Does anyone have any idea what happened here?" One spirit chirped to another. "No idea." Responded another. "Just a few hours ago some huge ball of energy fell from the sky and blew up! No one was hurt, because we're all dead anyways, but it caused some huge property damage!"
Another spirit floated up. "I heard that they caught the one responsible!" An exited murmur erupted through the crowd. "Really what did he say? The one responsible was caught." Erupted through the crowd as everyone tried to confirm it.
The spirit with the information was surrounded by a large group. "What did you see?" Everyone asked at once. The spirit was really proud to have all of the attention. (There weren't many opportunities for things like this in the home for infinite losers after all). Puffing out his spiritual chest, he began to speak.
"I saw it with my own eyes. This girl wearing bright golden robes fell from the sky! She was obviously a witch. She had to be the one responsible. Who but a magic user would have the power for something like that?"
Again an exited murmuring filled the crowd. "Did Goz and Mez get her?" The spirit with the information suddenly grew quiet. "Yes they did, and they have her in custody now. They say that as soon as she wakes up, she's going to be on trial for the crime. And we'll get to watch!"
A loud chirping sound that was almost like cheering filled the entire crowd. "So, who's going to be the judge?" The spirit bobbed up and down. (Kind of like a shrug) "I don't know. But whoever it is it outta be a lot of fun huh?"
************************************
Akane was twisting and screaming to herself in her sleep. She saw Ranma, and the person that she now recognized as Goku, struggling. She couldn't tell what it was, but she could see that no amount of physical strength could match it. Slowly they were swallowed up by the awesome darkness that somehow seemed to drive the creature, and then it just disappeared. She ran over to Ranma, and gently picked him up and cradled his head in her arms. Her tears seemed to wake him. Her tears of sadness turned to ones of joy, until she saw the look in eyes. They weren't the beautiful eyes of Ranma that in her sleep she could admit that she loved. They were horrible, otherworldly and almost demonic somehow. And she knew that in that moment, she was too late. She knew that she could have saved him, but that she was too slow. She knew that because of her mistake, he would forever be lost to her.
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Akane awoke with a start with a full coating of sweat covering her face. "What was that dream?" She asked herself. "It was like the vision I had of The Man of Light, I mean Maple. It was so real; it felt like I was really there." She put both of her hands to mouth. "Maybe it was another vision! I have to get to Ranma!"
Akane paused for a moment to notice her surroundings. She was sitting in an ill-lit cell on a little hard bench. There was no bathroom (They weren't used to living prisoners) but a large bucket and a few towels were handily provided. There was a large opening leading to a dark hallway but she could sense a massive spiritual ward placed upon it.
"Where the hell am I?" she asked herself. "The last thing I remember is trying to teleport back to my room from that snake place." She put her chin on her hand. "I think. I think I screwed up and fell off." She looked around again. "Before I help Ranma, I need to figure out where I am first."
Akane slowly stood up, as if she was in pain. "I guess that would happen after lying on a stone bench for X amount of time." She thought without humor to herself. "I think I'll try to relax these sore muscles." She formed an image of her body, but only relaxed, in her mind. She then tried to form an image of the door in her mind.
Nothing came.
"That's odd." She thought to herself, puzzled. "It was getting to be so easy for me, why can't I think of it?" She tried again. Still nothing happened. "Something's dampening my magic." Akane said out loud.
"That's right little missy." A loud hoarse voice agreed with her from outside her cell. "Who said that?!" Akane yelled out, afraid.
A large burley form stepped in front of the cell. "I'm Jake the ogre, pleased to meet you." Akane stared at him in shock. "You're an. an ogre?" She asked, not believing what she was hearing.
The creature gave a hoarse laugh. "Well, what else do you expect to be guarding jails on the first plane of hell? I can tell you that there are much nastier critters then me on the lowers levels, next to them I'm a pretty nice guy." He pointed to her neck. "We could tell right off that you're a witch, so I placed a little collar on you to suppress your magic. Crafted it myself I did." He added proudly.
Akane stared at him for a moment, and then became ticked. She stomped unceremoniously right up to the edge of the cell and stared him in the eyes. (Stared up about two feet into his eyes, to be precise.) "What's the big idea locking me up in a place like this?" Her hand did a sweeping motion of the room. "Dim lighting, no food, and a bucket instead of a toilet! I can't live like this! What are you holding me here for anyways!?"
Jake chuckled. "Wow, a feisty one aren't you?" He started to pace in front of her cell. "About 14 hours ago a huge blast came down and did massive amounts of property damage to the country side in general. You fell down about six hours after that blast took place. It was obvious that you were a magician of significant caliber, so it was assumed that you were responsible. You will soon be held on trial for the crime."
Akane stared at him in shock. "I've already been down here for eight hours?" She paused for a moment. "Wait, you're going to put me on trial because I showed up six hours after a huge blast took place? You can't build a case against me based off of flimsy evidence like that!"
The ogre shrugged and smiled at her. "Hey, that's obvious. We're just doing it because we're bored. Each level of hell has some kind of punishment, and the punishment for the first level is just that there's nothing to do but silly little carnival rides for all eternity. You gotta give us a break here miss."
Akane raised her fist in rage, the veins in her head bulging. "I'm in a hurry here; I don't have time to entertain some poor little souls who are bored! Why don't you just go somewhere else for your entertainment?" With those last few words her temper broke down and she fell to her knees crying.
The big ogre looked down at her helplessly and awkwardly. "Don't cry little missy. We let you keep your robes after all. I mean, it's not like we had anything to replace them with. And look, they don't have a bit of dirt on them!" Her crying kept up at the same pace.
"Hey, I think we've got some real food preserved around her somewhere." He said, still trying to cheer her up. "Look, King Yemna always takes the cases like these. I'm sure he'll just throw this one out. He's fair like that you know?"
Akane stopped crying and looked up at him. "Really?" she asked. Her eyes were filled with water and so beautiful that even the ogre's heart of stone softened a bit.
"Yeah. I'm sure you'll be out of here in no time!" The ogre responded awkwardly.
Akane managed a smile and stood up. She then bowed to him. "My name's Akane Tendo. Thanks for you're support Jake, I really appreciate it." The ogre bowed back to her. "The pleasure's all mine missy Tendo."
Akane chuckled, but her face turned sad and downcast again. She walked over and took a seat on the bench. "Ranma. Please wait for me." She thought to herself.
"I'll go get you something to eat." Jake said, and then walked off.
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It was a desolate setting, only rocky type formations as far as the eye could see. The heroes now known to be Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin were standing staring at a conflict that was taking place. Piccolo was still missing his right arm.
Vegita was looking pissed and was standing off to the side with his arms crossed. Nappa looked like he was powering up, and his bulging muscles were surrounded by a yellow light. Ranma was looking at him somewhat apprehensively, the first time that his mask of confidence had been broken.
Nappa growled and lowered his body to the ground a little bit. "I can see that you're scared kid. Finally figured out what you were getting yourself into?"
Ranma leaped off of the rock and smiled at him. "Not at all. I was just instructed not to defeat you until Goku showed up. However, if you're going to insist on going all out I might not have any choice. I'm going to have to up myself to my full power and take you out."
Nappa smiled cruelly back at him. "You're bluffing you little weakling. I am the general of the entire saiyajin army and you're just a little human dog. The only person that will be doing any taking around here is me, and that's when I'll take you to the next dimension."
But Ranma wasn't listening. He lowered his arms to his sides and an aura burst up around him. He then yelled; a shout so great that all stone within twenty feet of him reverberated the sound and cracked. Nappa was startled by it and stumbled. Vegita merely frowned and floated out of the area.
The aura around Ranma flared, growing brighter in intensity. A wind picked up around him and his clothes blew dramatically. His pig tail blew up above him and flapped in the breeze. Ranma's muscles began to pulse, but didn't expand as was the tendency when powering up. Instead they became tighter and denser in appearance.
Within a span of about twenty seconds it was over. The wind died down and Ranma's aura disappeared. Smiling widely, Ranma looked confidently over at Nappa. "Alright big guy, I'm ready for you."
"Nappa!" Vegita yelled out, surprised and pissed. "My scouter is reading 10,000!!!!!"
"What, 10,000???!!!!" Nappa yelled back at him. "That's not possible! 10,000 from a little human runt?!"
"Heh, you don't seem so eager to fight me now." Ranma said light heartedly. "So why don't you two just go back from wherever you came and just leave the earth in peace?"
Nappa looked back at him. "You little dog, I'll kill you with my own two hands! I don't care what your power level is!"
Ranma shrugged. "Guess not. Oh well, it will certainly be a lot more fun this way. Just don't come whining to me when you get hurt." He fell back into a fighting stance.
Vegita stared at him through his scouter. "That smile." He thought to himself. "And his apparent love of fighting. If I didn't know for certain that only four of us survived the destruction of our home planet I would have sworn that this boy was a saiyajin. He could have walked freely on our planet without standing out if it wasn't for his lack of a tail."
The rocks below Nappa's feet shattered and flew off behind him as he launched himself at Ranma. "Prepare to get a pummeling that you'll never forget!" he yelled.
Ranma jumped up quickly and flew into the air before Nappa got to him. "Hah, you think that'll let you escape?!" Nappa yelled up at him, launching himself up into the air.
"I'll have the advantage up here." Ranma thought to himself. "After all the Anything Goes style does specialize in mid air combat."
Nappa flew at Ranma and began to throw a flurry of punches, which Ranma promptly dodged. Ducking below one particularly clumsy attack, Ranma threw a punch directly into Nappa's solar plexus. All he got was a light grunt.
"The guy takes hits like Ryouga." Ranma thought to himself. "But if it's possible he's much dumber then even Ryouga. I need to drag this fight out as long as possible to give Goku time to get here; I can't just beat him with one strike."
Piccolo and the others watched Ranma from the ground. "How's he doing Mr. Piccolo?" Gohan asked. "Do you think he can win against Nappa?"
Piccolo nodded slowly. "Nappa yes, I think he'll win. But it's Vegita that I'm really worried about."
"Could that small guy really be all that dangerous?" Krillin asked, looking over at him incredulously.
"You of all people shouldn't judge people by their size Krillin." Piccolo said, not even looking at him.
"Good point." Krillin said, embarrassed. He started to rub the back of his head. "Ranma's really strong and all, but I'll be happier when Goku gets here."
"Me too." Piccolo silently admitted about his old rival. "Me too."
Piccolo looked over at Vegita and examined his face. "I see anger. and that's all." Piccolo realized. "He is not at all afraid or even intimidated by this Ranma's obviously great power. That means that somehow, he must be even stronger, but how is it possible for someone to be that strong?" Piccolo looked over at where Ranma was confronting Nappa. "It's obvious from the boy's expression that he realizes it too. That's good. He may talk a good fight but he always keeps in mind the nature of what he's up against."
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The setting was snake way. A flaring blue aura was moving at an incredible speed bouncing to and from the road.
"I can't believe my new power!" Goku said to himself. "I feel like I'm twice as strong as before! But even so I'm still no where near where that Captain Ginyu was. He was just outrageous." Goku brooded to himself for a moment. "I hope that my friends are alright. I hope the same for Ranma and that girl."
"I'm much faster now! At this rate it should be another hour max before I get back. I've got to get to earth!"
Goku ran off at a blazing speed.
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"Heh, now this really reminds me of fighting Ryouga." Ranma thought to himself. He and Nappa almost seemed to be dancing through the air with Nappa attacking and missing constantly.
"Stay still and take it like a man!" Nappa yelled at him frustration. "You're fighting like you're a little girl!"
"Whoa, daja vu!" Ranma thought to himself. "Well, if that's the way you want it." Ranma stopped moving and just hovered in mid-air. Nappa paused, almost looking startled by his sudden stop, but then smiled. He threw out a punch directly at Ranma's head, which Ranma just caught with his left hand.
"What, let go!" Nappa yelled, throwing a punch with his opposite hand, which Ranma promptly caught as well. Ranma looked down at him confidently. Nappa smiled, "Now I've got you you little runt! Dodge this!"
Nappa opened his mouth and sent out a beam of energy in one extremely fast move. Ranma's eyes widened as if he were a deer caught in the headlights.
"Ranma no!" Krillin and Gohan yelled out together. Piccolo just watched silently, his face emotionless.
Ranma quickly dived bent backwards still keeping his hands on Nappa's, and at the same time used his telekinesis to give the attack an upwards arc. It missed, shaving off about an inch from the end of his hair.
"This guy is too dangerous." Ranma thought to himself. "Sorry Kami, I can't drag this out anymore, it's time to finish this."
Nappa tried to bring his arms together to crush Ranma, but found himself off balance. They began to grapple in mid-air, a strange battle for leverage that took place in three dimensions.
Ranma was the first one to try using legs as well. "I'll make the big guy feel this one." he thought to himself. He brought up his right leg and with the speed of the chestnut fist kicked both of Nappa's kidneys several hundred time.
"I'd say that Nappa's time is up." Vegita thought to himself, staring with disgust up at the large saiyajin gagging. With a shoving motion, Ranma released Nappa's hands and pushed him towards the ground. Completely out of wind, Nappa couldn't resist the motion and hit the ground hard, falling onto his hands and knees leaving indentations in the ground.
Ranma slowly lowered himself to the ground, staring at Vegita the entire time. "I think that your friend is done here. Why don't you leave and take him with you?"
Vegita stared down at Nappa. "How can you show such weakness, try to have a little pride."
Nappa looked up at Vegita, obviously frightened. "I'm sorry Vegita, please forgive me."
Vegita threw back his head and started laughing. "Nappa, you forget yourself. I am the prince of the entire saiyajin race. I can't allow such a pathetic trait as that of mercy have any influence upon me." His face grew serious. "Especially with those who fail me."
Vegita grabbed Nappa's arm and threw him up into the air. Ranma and the others stared in shock, too surprised to do anything.
A huge aura sprang up around Vegita. "I will make sure that you never embarrass me again!" A beam came out of Vegita's entire body and shot up and Nappa.
"Vegita you doooogggg!" Nappa yelled, eyes bugging out. He disappeared in a mid-air explosion.
"I can't believe this." Ranma said, staring in shock. "He killed his own friend just because he couldn't beat me. That's crazy." He looked over at Vegita. "Man, his power is huge!"
"I was right about him." Piccolo said out loud. "He was confident. Nappa is like a weakling compared to this Vegita." Krillin and Gohan were both shivering in fear, staring at Vegita.
Vegita powered down again, and then flew up into the air to the same level as Ranma. A cruel smile filled his face. "Well, now that the unpleasantries are taken care of I suppose we can I get to business. Am I correct in assuming that you want to fight me?"
Ranma nodded, his face completely serious. "Yeah, you're right. Unless you want to give up and leave now."
Vegita laughed. "Always joking to the end." He lowered his head and stared directly into Ranma's eyes. "You know better then to ask that. Besides, I'm going to guess that you don't want me to leave. You want to test your might against me, see how strong you really are. Is that right?"
Ranma nodded and smiled. "You got me, I really wanna fight you."
Vegita smiled as well. "All right, so you're ready to have a go of it?"
"Yeah but not here. Let's go somewhere else." "I think I saw some habitation approaching this place." Ranma thought to himself. "With the kinds of attacks that this guy is capable of, it would probably be best to get farther away."
Vegita shrugged. "Wherever, we can fight wherever you want. It's all fine with me."
"Wait Ranma!" Piccolo yelled out, and then flew up to him. Ranma turned to Piccolo. "Yeah?" Piccolo looked him in the eyes. "You must realize that he's strong, much stronger then you. I was wondering, what are you planning on doing?"
Ranma shrugged. "I don't really have any plan in particular. I'll just wing something."
Piccolo chuckled. "I suppose that does seem like your style." His face became serious again. "I want to help you but I realize that I don't have the strength. It's because of this that I want to wish you good luck."
Ranma nodded. "Hey, thanks man. What was your name?" Piccolo grinned. "Piccolo." Ranma held out his hand. "I'm Ranma Saotome."
Piccolo looked down at his hand with an annoyed expression on his face.
Ranma looked at him for a moment, confused, and then looked embarrassed. "Oh right, sorry about that." He then held out his left hand. With a smile Piccolo shook it. "Well met Ranma."
"Are you ready Ranma, or are you going to be chatting all day?" Vegita asked.
Ranma grinned at Vegita. "I'm ready."
With Ranma leading, the two of them flew together, quickly disappearing against the mid-day sky.
"What an extraordinary boy." Piccolo thought to himself, staring after Ranma and Vegita.
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"This is perfect." Ranma thought to himself, flying above a large stone island, about five by ten miles in dimensions and twenty feet or so above the ocean surface. "I can't sense anyone's life energy for at least fifty miles all around this place."
"So this is your choice?" Vegita asked. "Well, we might as well get started." He flew down to the island and landed. He then took off his scouter and threw it off to the side. Ranma landed opposite him, close to fifty feet a way.
"Hey, I'm ready if you are." Ranma said, stepping back into a fighting stance.
Vegita then went into his own stance, holding his arms at the ready.
They both paused for a moment, examining each other.
"You know Ranma, this is such a waste." Vegita said. "I could really use a warrior of your talents, even if you are only a human. I've got a proposition for you. I'll use the dragon balls here on earth to make both of us immortal, and then we can go to Namek and use the wish to turn you into a saiyajin. You would have as much power as you wanted; I know that strength is what you want. Then we could rule the universe together. Nothing would be beyond your grasp!"
Ranma shook his head. "Naw, it sounds like a pretty good deal but I don't really want to be immortal or a saiyajin. I'm happy with being just a human. And anyways, what's the point of fighting if there's no risk? It would make things too easy. Sorry, I'm going to have to turn you down."
Vegita laughed. "Respectable decision, but you'll regret those words." Both Vegita and Ranma stood facing each other for a moment longer. They could hear some seagulls cawing in the distance; they acted as some kind of unspoken trigger.
The two warriors charged each other.
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"Well, they're gone now." Krillin sighed. He then turned to Piccolo, "So who do you think will win? Uh, Piccolo, aagggh!" Krillin stared in shock in Piccolo, who looked like he was powering up.
"What are you doing Mr. Piccolo?" Gohan asked, staring at him.
"Rrrraaaaagggghhh!!!" Piccolo yelled. Suddenly a new arm identical to the old shot out of the empty spot.
"I'll never get used to that no matter how many times I see it." Krillin said staring at him.
"I didn't know you could do that Mr. Piccolo. That's incredible." Gohan said, also staring at him.
"To answer your question Krillin, I have no idea who will win. But I do know that the odds are stacked against Ranma."
"You think so?" Krillin asked, somewhat disappointed.
Piccolo nodded. "Yes I do. Vegita's power is double that of Ranma's. Though Ranma has proven himself to be extremely resourceful against Nappa, the truth is that Nappa was an inferior warrior. I'm not sure if cleverness of any quantity will help him against Vegita. Besides, Vegita is much more intelligent then Nappa. It is unlikely that any of the same types of tricks will work against him."
"I suppose that makes sense." Krillin said.
"Thank you for helping me Mr. Piccolo. I know that you were trying to save my life when Nappa attacked." Gohan said, looking up at him admiringly. Piccolo grunted and turned his head away. "I'd rather not talk about that."
Krillin walked up and dragged Gohan off to the side. "Look Gohan." He said. "Piccolo has this big thing going on about being the successor to Piccolo the demon king. He kind of wants to conquer the earth, and doesn't like to let on to feelings of any kind."
Gohan looked at him with wide eyes. "Is that true? I didn't know." He looked over at Piccolo, even more admiration in his eyes. "Wow, the demon king? That's really cool." For the observant Piccolo's ears began to twitch and his frown turned into a scowl.
Krillin face faulted. "Cool is not the word that I would use."
A strange voice spoke "Why hello Piccolo."
"Who said that?!" Piccolo yelled, turning around. What he saw was a man of close to 5'10 wearing solid black robes. Nothing could be seen under the hood except for a pair of glowing blue flames where the eyes should be. On each hand he had black gloves and he was wearing some kind of black boots
"Simply call me Mire. I was wondering Piccolo if you could tell me the location of the Dragon Balls. I couldn't help but overhear Vegita's brilliant conclusion that you are responsible for their existence."
Piccolo stared at him incredulously. "If you want the dragon balls then you're out of luck, they're not coming back for another year. Now why don't you leave here before you make me angry. I've had enough combat for the day, and personally I'm not in the mood to kill you."
The man started laughing. "Kill me? Oh do you really think that it's so easy? Well I'll tell you the truth, I'm not really here to kill anyone, or at least anyone here on earth. Once I make a wish I'll be more then content to let this world be and never come here again."
Piccolo frowned at him. "That's good to hear. But I told you that the Dragon Balls are gone and besides; when they come back we'll have a different use for them. So why don't you just go home and leave us be?"
"I don't like him Mr. Piccolo." Gohan said, standing behind him. "I get a funny feeling just looking at him."
"This guy has some kind of demonic power." Piccolo thought to himself, staring into the blue flames that seemed to represent the man's eyes. "My history of being a demon makes me more aware of things of that nature."
"I'm with you Gohan." Krillin said. "This guy is majorly creeping me out. And the worst thing is that I can't detect any energy at all coming off of him. It's like he's not even alive."
"So a year is all it takes? Hmm, I have a theory." The man pulled off his right glove to reveal a hand made completely out of bone.
"What?!" Piccolo yelled, staring at it. An instant later Piccolo was paralyzed, his body locked in limbo.
"Are you alright Mr. Piccolo?" Gohan yelled.
"Time Pass!" The instant the man said that a small clock appeared above Piccolo's head. It paused for a moment, and then the hands turned into a blur that couldn't be followed by the naked eye.
"Stop that!" Krillin yelled, throwing out a ki blast. It passed right through the man, as if wasn't even standing there. "What, impossible!" Krillin yelled.
"My turn!" Gohan shouted, and then threw out his own ki blast, with the same results.
"You're wasting your time." The strange figure said, amused by their failures. "Do you think that such basic spiritual attacks will work against me? It is a very simple thing to ward oneself against such attacks. Ahh, I think it's done." He canceled his spell, sending Piccolo falling to the grown.
He turned his back to the Z warriors. "I wonder if it worked." He held out both of his hands. "Yes, I can feel seven new sources of great energy activating themselves across the world!"
"Destructo disk!" Krillin yelled, throwing a disk of energy at the back of the dark mage. It met similar results.
"Save your energy." He ordered. "I've arranged for a more suitable playmate for you. I do hope that you enjoy him."
Piccolo stumbled to his feet. "I'm not going to let you get the Dragon Balls!"
The man laughed, "I'm afraid that you don't have any choice!" A circle appeared between him and Piccolo that was lined with strange runes. It was completely filled in with a black that seemed to suck in all light. Out of this darkness a form was manifesting itself.
"I invited a greater demon to our little party to keep you company. I do so hope that all of you enjoy yourselves." Darkness wrapped around him and he disappeared.
Krillin and Gohan stared at it in fear. "Oh no. I think we may be in over our heads." Krillin said. "Man, this sucks. That's the second the time today."
"I think Krillin may be right." Piccolo growled to himself.
************************************
The setting was snake way. A large and old fashioned building could be seen. A blazing blue form could be seen approaching it.
"That's it, that's the end!" Goku shouted to himself. "I've got to get there!"
He charged through the door and into the central lobby. An extremely large man (twenty or thirty feet) looked down at him curiously from his desk.
Kami appeared in front of Goku. "Hurry! Things have just become more complicated!" Goku nodded and grabbed his shoulder. The both of them disappeared.
"Never thought that I would see him again." King Yemna said, then shrugged and returned to his work.
********************************
"Damn he's fast!" Ranma yelled to himself, barely dodging one of Vegita's attacks.
Vegita was charging forward, quickly darting back and forth and delivering a flurry of punches. Ranma was backpedaling, desperately trying to keep out of his range. "All I'm doing is dodging." Ranma said to himself. "Sooner or later I'm going to get hit. I've got to fight back."
Ranma ducked below an overhead strike, his hair being brushed by the air off of the punch. Shifting his weight to his back foot, he drove a punch into Vegita's mid section.
He hit, but at the same moment he could feel Vegita's arm slam him in the back, sending him flying about twenty feet until he could stop his momentum. "Shit, that hurt me a lot more then him." Ranma thought to himself. He looked up at Vegita, who was smiling. "He did that deliberately! He was going for an exchange and let me hit him, knowing that his attack would deal more damage. This isn't good."
"What's the matter Ranma? Getting cold feet so early after all of your big talk? I suppose that Raditz was right about you. You really are just a weakling with a big mouth."
Ranma returned to his feet and fell back into his fighting stance. "Heh, don't think that what you've seen is all I've got. I still have plenty of tricks up my sleeve."
Vegita began to laugh. "Of course you do, I was counting on it! But don't think that your tricks will allow you to defeat me." Vegita went into an offensive fighting stance. "So are you ready for round 2?"
Ranma didn't even have time to nod.
Faster then the eyes could follow Vegita flew directly at Ranma. Ranma quickly flew into the air "Mokou Takabisha!" He yelled, launching a column of energy down at Vegita. Vegita merely swatted it aside causing a crater of about twenty feet in diameter. In the next instant he threw his own energy back up at Ranma. Ranma quickly drew up his hands and blocked it, causing smoke to obscure his exact position.
"No good!" Ranma yelled to himself. "He's too used to dealing with standard energy attacks for them to be at all effective! There he is!" In the last instant Ranma dived, barely avoiding an overhead kick thrown by Vegita who had risen above him.
Ranma did three flips through the air. "He's right behind me." He thought to himself. Ranma suddenly flipped so that he was suspended upside down facing Vegita who was right side up. "Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!" He yelled, and launched a flurry of several thousand punches at Vegita's upper body.
Smiling, Vegita started his own flurry of punches. On every strike their fists met in mid-air. "Dammit!" Ranma yelled. "Take this!" While still exchanging punches he quickly brought down both feet and kicked Vegita in the face. Vegita flew to the ground and landed on his feet, each foot digging several inches into the stone.
Doing several flips, Ranma landed on the ground about twenty feet in front of him. Vegita wiped a little blood from his face, and smiled cruelly at Ranma. "Very impressive of you to actually draw blood, but this is the last time."
"That's what you think." Ranma said, smiling confidently back at him. "I think I bruised my knuckles." He thought. "Frontal assaults simply do not work against this guy. I've got to try something else."
Vegita started to walk towards him. "I've been playing with you up to this point, but I think it's time that I started fighting for real. I wont ask you if you're ready, because I don't give a damn if you are or not."
"Alright." Ranma thought, again returning to his fighting stance. "I'm sorry Ryu, but there's no other way. With the earth on the line, I have to draw on everything I know." His face became set and determined. "It's time for the forbidden techniques."
************************************
It was a small and dark cell. All that could be made out was a set of robes that were glowing with a gentle but beautiful light and two silvery earrings.
"Why did this have to happen?" Akane asked herself. She smiled grimly. "Well, I suppose it was my own stupid fault for trying to travel when I was so tired."
"Akane." A voice echoed in her mind. "Who said that?" She asked in fear. "Man this place is creepy, now I'm hearing voices."
"Is that all I am to you Akane? A voice to be heard but ignored?" Someone asked out of the darkness. "Show yourself!" She said loudly. "I wish I had my magic right now." She thought. "But I guess I'll have to deal with this the old fashioned way." She came to her feet and went into a defensive fighting stance.
A voice chuckled. "This reminds me of the first time we met Akane, in that dark tunnel. Do you remember?"
Akane's mouth fell open in shock. "The Man of Light, I mean Maple? Is that you?" She smiled happily and spun in circles, looking for him. "Where are you? Oh I'm so happy you came here, are you going to rescue me?"
She could feel him shake his head. "No, I'm sorry. The main reason that I'm here is to support you. These walls are warded against magic, so I can't send my form here, only my voice."
"So you can't get me out of here?" Akane asked, disappointed.
"I'm afraid not. As foolish as the laws are you are captured and held by due process. I've been trying to get the laws changed for several centuries now but the committee keeps delaying it. I suppose that all I can do is tell you to do your best, and to escape as soon as possible. If you are too late then, horrible things will happen."
Akane put both of her hands on her mouth. "Horrible things, do you mean like with Ranma?"
She could feel him nodding. "Yes, with Ranma and with Goku as well. Even those two warriors who's hearts are so strong as to defy reality itself will be corrupted by a dark force of awesome power. Akane, you are the only one who can stop this from happening."
"How? How can I stop it?!" She asked, completely terrified.
"My vision of the future is foggy but there is one thing that I can make out. In your future is a shadow of the past that you must conquer Akane." The voice said gently. "You must move with all haste because you see Akane, when I look into the future I see failure."
"Failure?!" She almost screamed. "You mean I will fail?"
The voice sighed. "Not to get you down, but that is the most likely result of this current set of circumstances. However, the future is not set. If you move with haste there is still a chance that you can prove my vision of the future to be wrong."
"But how?" Akane asked looking around herself. "Maybe if I didn't have this collar or wasn't in this cell then I could escape, but right now it's just impossible." She began to break down into tears. "This is too much, I'm just so helpless." She thought to herself. "Held here for the entertainment for a handful of damned souls while Ranma needs me in the real world."
She felt a hand gently wipe away her tears and then lift up her chin. Looking up she stared into a pair of eyes composed of golden fire that just floated in mid air. Looking into them she could feel a sense of awesome calm fill her heart and soul, a feeling of general well-being.
"You cried then too." The voice said again quietly. "Composed so much of both fire and tears. Perhaps that's why Ranma loves you so much."
Akane's heart caught in her throat. "He loves me?" She asked herself.
"And perhaps that's what drew me too you. That fire and those tears. Many people run throughout their lives struggling to feel like they matter but you are one who has been blessed with a chance to make a difference Akane. I knew I could feel something emanating from your heart when I released your seal though even I couldn't place my finger on it at the time. But I think that I'm finally beginning to understand. I must go now Akane. Remember my child, I love you. Never forget who you are or what you are fighting for."
The eyes disappeared and in a single instant his presence was gone. Even as tears were rolling down her cheeks her face became set and determined. "I won't give up." She said to herself. "Ranma, please wait for me."
*******************************
The setting was Kami's lookout. The strange and gentle quiet that filled the air in this place was a sharp contrast to the chaos that was happening on the earth down below. Mr. Popo could be seen pacing back and forth nervously. "Oh I do hope that Kami will return with Goku soon." He thought to himself.
In a blaze of light Kami and Goku appeared. "So what's up Kami?" Goku asked. "What complications are you talking about? Are my friends dead, am I too late?" Kami shook his head. "No, not all of them. Piccolo, Gohan and Krillin are still alive. Another warrior by the name of Ranma that had trained here in the room of space and time saved them. Even as we speak he is fighting against the stronger of the two saiyajin warriors, by the name of Vegita."
"Really, that's great!" Goku's head lowered and he looked towards the ground. "I met some complications too. On the way down Snake Way a warrior of incredible strength who called himself Captain Ginyu attacked me. He used an evil kind of magic. A young girl healed me and told me to protect this Ranma, but it sounds like he doesn't need my help."
Kami's eyes widened. "A powerful fighter who is also mage?" He walked to the edge of the lookout. "Goku, I want you to extend your senses to earth. Tell me, what do you see?"
Goku nodded and walked to the edge. Closing his eyes, he calmed himself. "I sense two huge powers maybe two or three hundred miles away. One of them seems to be much stronger then the other."
Kami nodded. "Yes, the weaker one is Ranma." "The weaker one is Ranma?!" Goku said loudly. "I should go help him!"
"Ranma can take care of himself, at least for the moment." Kami said. "Tell me Goku, what else do you sense?"
Goku closed his eyes again. "I sense three large powers in one place. I think that they are Piccolo, Gohan and Krillin. Wait a moment, there's something there with them." Goku's face became contorted. "It's magic! It's a horrible and twisted creature of magic! It's power is huge!"
"That is correct Goku, I have sensed it as well. There is only one possibility; someone must have summoned a demon to the mortal world."
"A demon? Do you mean like Piccolo the Demon King?" Goku asked, turning to him.
"No, not like Piccolo. This is a greater demon, summoned from some pit of the abyss. It possesses an extraordinary power, likely enough to destroy a living world. Now that it is here it will attempt to take the souls of our respective friends."
Goku stared at him. "I have to go to them, they need my help!"
"Yes, you must go Goku, but there's something that I want you to take with you." He pulled a vial of water from inside his robes. Goku looked at it. "Hey, isn't that the Super Holy Water that I had to drink as a boy to beat Piccolo?"
"Yes, that is correct. The fact that you drank it will make you somewhat resistant to the demon's dark powers. However, you should not count on this, it has been many years and its effect may already be wearing off. However, if you can get the demon to drink this water I believe it should be enough to banish him to his home plane."
Goku nodded and took the vial. "Thanks Kami. Now I just need to pick up some senzu beans and I'll be on my way."
"Be very careful Goku." Kami said. "Demons cannot summon themselves. I sense that there is a dark plot taking place here beyond even the presence of the saiyajins." His voice lowered. "And I sense that the dragon balls have been reawakened."
"What?!" Goku asked. "But how?"
Kami shook his head. "Unfortunately I do not know how, but it may have something to do with the demon. However now your only concern should be for your friends. I will tell you if I discover anything. Again please be careful Goku."
"I'll be careful." Goku said, and then ran to the side of the lookout and dived off.
Goku allowed himself to freefall for a few hundred feet until he could see the top of a tower. "Karin!" He yelled. "Are you there Karin?"
"Yeah I'm here, who is it?" A gruff voice asked. A white cat hopped over to the edge of the tower. "Oh it's Goku."
"I need some senzu beans Karin!" Goku yelled at him, still freefalling.
"I've got three, here you go Goku." The cat yelled, throwing a small pouch at Goku as he flew by. Goku deftly caught them in mid-air. "Thanks Karin!" He yelled falling out of sight. "Flying Nimbus!" His voice could be heard from far below.
"Goku, you're a wild man." Karin said, shaking his head.
***********************************
A rocky and destroyed landscape. Three warriors were facing off against a hole of extreme darkness. Though the sun was yet high in the sky, the pit made it seem like twilight. In the darkness a large and grotesque shape was emerging. Its form was twisted, almost seeming to mock the humanoid bodies of those that observed it. Blood red eyes stared at the forms that were around it. "It's hungry", they realized together. "I'm hungry", it agreed. "It has been many years since I've set foot on the mortal plane. I want to feed."
The creature was large, close to twenty feet tall. Its form was twisted and wavy. Its arms were twice the size of its legs; any scientist would have told you that it was too large to even stand up. Its body was filled with twists and bends where there was no reason for them. It had dull reddish-black scales covering its body and huge talons at the ends of its arms. The eyes were set deeply in its animal like head. They were a dull red, yet a flash of intelligence could be seen within them.
************************************
"That thing is huge!" Krillin yelled, staring up at the form of the monster that was standing before them. "And the worst thing is that I can barely get a reading on it. I almost can't sense its power!"
"This is scary Mr. Piccolo." Gohan said, clinging to the green man's leg. "Impossible." Piccolo said to himself, turning around. "That power, I can feel it. It's huge!"
"Hey, you're not making me feel any better here Piccolo." Krillin said, almost annoyed. "Why not try to take a positive spin on things for once?"
"I'm not talking about the demon you fool! Can't you sense the awesome power coming from Kami's lookout?"
"Hey you're right!" Krillin said. "I can feel it. It's awesome!"
"It's my dad!" Gohan said, tears in his eyes. "He's finally here!"
"Yes, I believe that it is Goku." Piccolo said. "Unless I miss my guess he has as much power as Vegita now. He's coming right for us!"
A large roar erupted from behind them. "We can't worry about that now; we have to hold together until Goku gets here!" Piccolo yelled. "Krillin, Gohan, get on either side of it. When it moves to attack one of us the other two will back him up with energy attacks. Whatever you do, don't let it get next to you! Its claws probably have some kind of venom; absolutely do not engage it in close combat."
"Gotcha!" Gohan and Krillin yelled together, springing to either side of the creature. With Piccolo they had it surrounded on three sides. "Man I'm glad he's on our side." Krillin thought, looking admirably at Piccolo. "He's always got a plan."
"Piccolo was willing to die to save me." Gohan thought. "So I'm going to be willing to die to save him. We're all in this together." He looked up into the air, almost misty-eyed. "We just have to hold on until my dad gets here. Then everything will be alright."
********************************************
"Prepare to die!" Vegita yelled, launching himself forward.
"Gotta do it now!" Ranma yelled to himself. "It's time for the Umisen- Ken!" Ranma fell back into a relaxed pose and took an apathetic look to his entire body. "What is that fool doing?" Vegita asked to himself as he ran along.
An instant later Ranma was gone. "What, where did he go?!" Vegita yelled. "He's not nearly that fast, what kind of trick is this?"
"The body is a house." Ranma said to himself, observing Vegita panicking. "If you can get inside then the opponent is already defeated. But this guy is more like a castle." He chuckled to himself. "Never thought that I'd be using my pop's techniques against the prince of an alien race to save the earth." His face became serious again. "I've got to do something huge to hurt this guy; none of the standard attacks will work. I guess it's time to use the Umisen-Ken and the Yamasen-Ken together."
"Why don't you come out Ranma? That is, unless you're afraid." Vegita began to laugh. "I remember that Raditz said something about you being a girl, but I know now that it must have been just an insult, and I can see where he's coming from. With all of your prancing about, you really do fight like a girl."
Vegita's eyes widened. "There!" he yelled, dodging to the side. In that instant two large vacuum blades shot past where he was just standing. Each one cut a gash of considerable size in his side with the armor being completely ineffective at stopping them. Ranma was standing still and was looking very startled. "How did he know?" He asked himself in shock.
Vegita laughed. "Do you want to know boy? Once when I was on one of my missions I encountered an entire fighting force which used the art of invisibility to fight against its enemies." An evil smile filled his entire face. "Needless to say, I quickly learned how to fall back on senses other then sight or hearing to know the location of my opponent. I suppose you could say that I've encountered someone who used that exact tactic before."
"Only one trick left." Ranma thought grimly. "I didn't want to have to fall back on this one, but it's all I've got. This will be the ultimate representation of the Umisen-Ken." He smiled again. "I'm ready for you!" He eyed the water a short 100 meters away. "I've got to get over there to make my move."
An instant later Vegita was standing next to him. "Shit!" Ranma thought to himself, but was too slow. Vegita upper cutted him in the stomach, collapsing Ranma to his knees. Picking him up by one of his feet, Vegita began to quickly spin in circles.
"This is not good." Ranma thought to himself. His mind a maze of pain. "Are you ready for free flying lessons Ranma?" Vegita asked. He suddenly stopped and released Ranma, sending him bouncing across the rocky island.
Before Ranma had a chance to stand up, Vegita was already standing over him. Smiling he kicked Ranma, sending him about twenty more meters. "Almost there." Ranma thought to himself. The edge of the island was only five feet away now.
"I see that you're watching the water." Vegita said, looking down at Ranma. "Don't tell me that now of all times you want to go swimming?" He started to laugh. "Well, I suppose we can allow that. Just don't get in over your head." He smilied cruelly. "Oh wait, I suppose it's too late for that now. You've been in over your head all along haven't you?"
He reached down and grabbed the back of Ranma's neck, picking him up. Ranma hung limply, as if he were unconscious.
"I'm disappointed that you didn't put up more of a fight boy." Vegita said, looking at him. "I was expecting such to have such a fun time fighting you, but all you had to offer was a few cheap tricks." Frowning, he threw Ranma into the water. "Well, I suppose that's enough. It's time to go finish off those other three."
"Alright, it's now or never!" Ranma thought to herself as she floated through the water.
Vegita heard a splash behind him. "That boy's still alive, impossible!" Vegita yelled, turning around, only to find himself two feet away from a red haired girl who was smiling brightly.
"Impossible is not the word." She said. Her hands became a blur that was impossible to follow. Too startled at seeing her there, Vegita didn't have time to react.
"Agggghhhh!!!" He screamed as he was impaled by three vacuum blades. Vegita fell to his knees and coughed blood.
"How do you like that?" Ranma asked, breathing hard. "Now just to change back." She thought to herself. Reaching over to the water, Ranma used telekinesis to bring up a small quantity of water, and then used to ki to warm it up. Ranma then changed himself back. "My girl side actually did me some good for once." He thought to himself.
Vegita stayed on the ground coughing up blood for a moment longer. He then slowly looked up. Ranma shivered when he saw the awesome hate in his eyes. "Oh-oh." He thought. "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea."
"You fool!" Vegita yelled. "I am the prince of all saiyajins and you dare to do such a thing to me?!" Vegita flew up high into the air and began to gather a vast amount of energy. "We'll see how you like the Gamit gun! Run if you can boy or girl or whatever you are. But even if you do, your entire world is going up in smoke!"
"Oh damn! I think this guy's serious!" Ranma yelled to himself. "I can't match that kind of power yet, I need more training!"
A smile crossed Ranma's face. "On the other hand, maybe there is something I can do. It's a little unorthodox, but that's never stopped me before."
Once again, thank you Ranko!
By: Arinson Tidochi
I own neither Dragon Ball Z nor Ranma ½, and I don't have any money anyways, so please don't sue me. I'm not making any money out of this fanfiction, I'm just doing it for fun.
"What kind of bag do you want, paper or plastic?" "I prefer scrotum." KB (Quite disturbing huh? That's a real quote)
"The pain is going to hurt now." KB
************************************
It was an extremely strange setting; it almost seemed like a carnival. However instead of the usual people going on the rides only spirits were around, like some kind of spirit carnival. Off to the side just outside of the blast radius a large crater could be seen that was roped off. The crater was extremely large with a diameter of about two miles. Some kind of loud group gathering seemed to be taking place.
************************************
"Does anyone have any idea what happened here?" One spirit chirped to another. "No idea." Responded another. "Just a few hours ago some huge ball of energy fell from the sky and blew up! No one was hurt, because we're all dead anyways, but it caused some huge property damage!"
Another spirit floated up. "I heard that they caught the one responsible!" An exited murmur erupted through the crowd. "Really what did he say? The one responsible was caught." Erupted through the crowd as everyone tried to confirm it.
The spirit with the information was surrounded by a large group. "What did you see?" Everyone asked at once. The spirit was really proud to have all of the attention. (There weren't many opportunities for things like this in the home for infinite losers after all). Puffing out his spiritual chest, he began to speak.
"I saw it with my own eyes. This girl wearing bright golden robes fell from the sky! She was obviously a witch. She had to be the one responsible. Who but a magic user would have the power for something like that?"
Again an exited murmuring filled the crowd. "Did Goz and Mez get her?" The spirit with the information suddenly grew quiet. "Yes they did, and they have her in custody now. They say that as soon as she wakes up, she's going to be on trial for the crime. And we'll get to watch!"
A loud chirping sound that was almost like cheering filled the entire crowd. "So, who's going to be the judge?" The spirit bobbed up and down. (Kind of like a shrug) "I don't know. But whoever it is it outta be a lot of fun huh?"
************************************
Akane was twisting and screaming to herself in her sleep. She saw Ranma, and the person that she now recognized as Goku, struggling. She couldn't tell what it was, but she could see that no amount of physical strength could match it. Slowly they were swallowed up by the awesome darkness that somehow seemed to drive the creature, and then it just disappeared. She ran over to Ranma, and gently picked him up and cradled his head in her arms. Her tears seemed to wake him. Her tears of sadness turned to ones of joy, until she saw the look in eyes. They weren't the beautiful eyes of Ranma that in her sleep she could admit that she loved. They were horrible, otherworldly and almost demonic somehow. And she knew that in that moment, she was too late. She knew that she could have saved him, but that she was too slow. She knew that because of her mistake, he would forever be lost to her.
********************************
Akane awoke with a start with a full coating of sweat covering her face. "What was that dream?" She asked herself. "It was like the vision I had of The Man of Light, I mean Maple. It was so real; it felt like I was really there." She put both of her hands to mouth. "Maybe it was another vision! I have to get to Ranma!"
Akane paused for a moment to notice her surroundings. She was sitting in an ill-lit cell on a little hard bench. There was no bathroom (They weren't used to living prisoners) but a large bucket and a few towels were handily provided. There was a large opening leading to a dark hallway but she could sense a massive spiritual ward placed upon it.
"Where the hell am I?" she asked herself. "The last thing I remember is trying to teleport back to my room from that snake place." She put her chin on her hand. "I think. I think I screwed up and fell off." She looked around again. "Before I help Ranma, I need to figure out where I am first."
Akane slowly stood up, as if she was in pain. "I guess that would happen after lying on a stone bench for X amount of time." She thought without humor to herself. "I think I'll try to relax these sore muscles." She formed an image of her body, but only relaxed, in her mind. She then tried to form an image of the door in her mind.
Nothing came.
"That's odd." She thought to herself, puzzled. "It was getting to be so easy for me, why can't I think of it?" She tried again. Still nothing happened. "Something's dampening my magic." Akane said out loud.
"That's right little missy." A loud hoarse voice agreed with her from outside her cell. "Who said that?!" Akane yelled out, afraid.
A large burley form stepped in front of the cell. "I'm Jake the ogre, pleased to meet you." Akane stared at him in shock. "You're an. an ogre?" She asked, not believing what she was hearing.
The creature gave a hoarse laugh. "Well, what else do you expect to be guarding jails on the first plane of hell? I can tell you that there are much nastier critters then me on the lowers levels, next to them I'm a pretty nice guy." He pointed to her neck. "We could tell right off that you're a witch, so I placed a little collar on you to suppress your magic. Crafted it myself I did." He added proudly.
Akane stared at him for a moment, and then became ticked. She stomped unceremoniously right up to the edge of the cell and stared him in the eyes. (Stared up about two feet into his eyes, to be precise.) "What's the big idea locking me up in a place like this?" Her hand did a sweeping motion of the room. "Dim lighting, no food, and a bucket instead of a toilet! I can't live like this! What are you holding me here for anyways!?"
Jake chuckled. "Wow, a feisty one aren't you?" He started to pace in front of her cell. "About 14 hours ago a huge blast came down and did massive amounts of property damage to the country side in general. You fell down about six hours after that blast took place. It was obvious that you were a magician of significant caliber, so it was assumed that you were responsible. You will soon be held on trial for the crime."
Akane stared at him in shock. "I've already been down here for eight hours?" She paused for a moment. "Wait, you're going to put me on trial because I showed up six hours after a huge blast took place? You can't build a case against me based off of flimsy evidence like that!"
The ogre shrugged and smiled at her. "Hey, that's obvious. We're just doing it because we're bored. Each level of hell has some kind of punishment, and the punishment for the first level is just that there's nothing to do but silly little carnival rides for all eternity. You gotta give us a break here miss."
Akane raised her fist in rage, the veins in her head bulging. "I'm in a hurry here; I don't have time to entertain some poor little souls who are bored! Why don't you just go somewhere else for your entertainment?" With those last few words her temper broke down and she fell to her knees crying.
The big ogre looked down at her helplessly and awkwardly. "Don't cry little missy. We let you keep your robes after all. I mean, it's not like we had anything to replace them with. And look, they don't have a bit of dirt on them!" Her crying kept up at the same pace.
"Hey, I think we've got some real food preserved around her somewhere." He said, still trying to cheer her up. "Look, King Yemna always takes the cases like these. I'm sure he'll just throw this one out. He's fair like that you know?"
Akane stopped crying and looked up at him. "Really?" she asked. Her eyes were filled with water and so beautiful that even the ogre's heart of stone softened a bit.
"Yeah. I'm sure you'll be out of here in no time!" The ogre responded awkwardly.
Akane managed a smile and stood up. She then bowed to him. "My name's Akane Tendo. Thanks for you're support Jake, I really appreciate it." The ogre bowed back to her. "The pleasure's all mine missy Tendo."
Akane chuckled, but her face turned sad and downcast again. She walked over and took a seat on the bench. "Ranma. Please wait for me." She thought to herself.
"I'll go get you something to eat." Jake said, and then walked off.
****************************************
It was a desolate setting, only rocky type formations as far as the eye could see. The heroes now known to be Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin were standing staring at a conflict that was taking place. Piccolo was still missing his right arm.
Vegita was looking pissed and was standing off to the side with his arms crossed. Nappa looked like he was powering up, and his bulging muscles were surrounded by a yellow light. Ranma was looking at him somewhat apprehensively, the first time that his mask of confidence had been broken.
Nappa growled and lowered his body to the ground a little bit. "I can see that you're scared kid. Finally figured out what you were getting yourself into?"
Ranma leaped off of the rock and smiled at him. "Not at all. I was just instructed not to defeat you until Goku showed up. However, if you're going to insist on going all out I might not have any choice. I'm going to have to up myself to my full power and take you out."
Nappa smiled cruelly back at him. "You're bluffing you little weakling. I am the general of the entire saiyajin army and you're just a little human dog. The only person that will be doing any taking around here is me, and that's when I'll take you to the next dimension."
But Ranma wasn't listening. He lowered his arms to his sides and an aura burst up around him. He then yelled; a shout so great that all stone within twenty feet of him reverberated the sound and cracked. Nappa was startled by it and stumbled. Vegita merely frowned and floated out of the area.
The aura around Ranma flared, growing brighter in intensity. A wind picked up around him and his clothes blew dramatically. His pig tail blew up above him and flapped in the breeze. Ranma's muscles began to pulse, but didn't expand as was the tendency when powering up. Instead they became tighter and denser in appearance.
Within a span of about twenty seconds it was over. The wind died down and Ranma's aura disappeared. Smiling widely, Ranma looked confidently over at Nappa. "Alright big guy, I'm ready for you."
"Nappa!" Vegita yelled out, surprised and pissed. "My scouter is reading 10,000!!!!!"
"What, 10,000???!!!!" Nappa yelled back at him. "That's not possible! 10,000 from a little human runt?!"
"Heh, you don't seem so eager to fight me now." Ranma said light heartedly. "So why don't you two just go back from wherever you came and just leave the earth in peace?"
Nappa looked back at him. "You little dog, I'll kill you with my own two hands! I don't care what your power level is!"
Ranma shrugged. "Guess not. Oh well, it will certainly be a lot more fun this way. Just don't come whining to me when you get hurt." He fell back into a fighting stance.
Vegita stared at him through his scouter. "That smile." He thought to himself. "And his apparent love of fighting. If I didn't know for certain that only four of us survived the destruction of our home planet I would have sworn that this boy was a saiyajin. He could have walked freely on our planet without standing out if it wasn't for his lack of a tail."
The rocks below Nappa's feet shattered and flew off behind him as he launched himself at Ranma. "Prepare to get a pummeling that you'll never forget!" he yelled.
Ranma jumped up quickly and flew into the air before Nappa got to him. "Hah, you think that'll let you escape?!" Nappa yelled up at him, launching himself up into the air.
"I'll have the advantage up here." Ranma thought to himself. "After all the Anything Goes style does specialize in mid air combat."
Nappa flew at Ranma and began to throw a flurry of punches, which Ranma promptly dodged. Ducking below one particularly clumsy attack, Ranma threw a punch directly into Nappa's solar plexus. All he got was a light grunt.
"The guy takes hits like Ryouga." Ranma thought to himself. "But if it's possible he's much dumber then even Ryouga. I need to drag this fight out as long as possible to give Goku time to get here; I can't just beat him with one strike."
Piccolo and the others watched Ranma from the ground. "How's he doing Mr. Piccolo?" Gohan asked. "Do you think he can win against Nappa?"
Piccolo nodded slowly. "Nappa yes, I think he'll win. But it's Vegita that I'm really worried about."
"Could that small guy really be all that dangerous?" Krillin asked, looking over at him incredulously.
"You of all people shouldn't judge people by their size Krillin." Piccolo said, not even looking at him.
"Good point." Krillin said, embarrassed. He started to rub the back of his head. "Ranma's really strong and all, but I'll be happier when Goku gets here."
"Me too." Piccolo silently admitted about his old rival. "Me too."
Piccolo looked over at Vegita and examined his face. "I see anger. and that's all." Piccolo realized. "He is not at all afraid or even intimidated by this Ranma's obviously great power. That means that somehow, he must be even stronger, but how is it possible for someone to be that strong?" Piccolo looked over at where Ranma was confronting Nappa. "It's obvious from the boy's expression that he realizes it too. That's good. He may talk a good fight but he always keeps in mind the nature of what he's up against."
*******************************************
The setting was snake way. A flaring blue aura was moving at an incredible speed bouncing to and from the road.
"I can't believe my new power!" Goku said to himself. "I feel like I'm twice as strong as before! But even so I'm still no where near where that Captain Ginyu was. He was just outrageous." Goku brooded to himself for a moment. "I hope that my friends are alright. I hope the same for Ranma and that girl."
"I'm much faster now! At this rate it should be another hour max before I get back. I've got to get to earth!"
Goku ran off at a blazing speed.
***********************************
"Heh, now this really reminds me of fighting Ryouga." Ranma thought to himself. He and Nappa almost seemed to be dancing through the air with Nappa attacking and missing constantly.
"Stay still and take it like a man!" Nappa yelled at him frustration. "You're fighting like you're a little girl!"
"Whoa, daja vu!" Ranma thought to himself. "Well, if that's the way you want it." Ranma stopped moving and just hovered in mid-air. Nappa paused, almost looking startled by his sudden stop, but then smiled. He threw out a punch directly at Ranma's head, which Ranma just caught with his left hand.
"What, let go!" Nappa yelled, throwing a punch with his opposite hand, which Ranma promptly caught as well. Ranma looked down at him confidently. Nappa smiled, "Now I've got you you little runt! Dodge this!"
Nappa opened his mouth and sent out a beam of energy in one extremely fast move. Ranma's eyes widened as if he were a deer caught in the headlights.
"Ranma no!" Krillin and Gohan yelled out together. Piccolo just watched silently, his face emotionless.
Ranma quickly dived bent backwards still keeping his hands on Nappa's, and at the same time used his telekinesis to give the attack an upwards arc. It missed, shaving off about an inch from the end of his hair.
"This guy is too dangerous." Ranma thought to himself. "Sorry Kami, I can't drag this out anymore, it's time to finish this."
Nappa tried to bring his arms together to crush Ranma, but found himself off balance. They began to grapple in mid-air, a strange battle for leverage that took place in three dimensions.
Ranma was the first one to try using legs as well. "I'll make the big guy feel this one." he thought to himself. He brought up his right leg and with the speed of the chestnut fist kicked both of Nappa's kidneys several hundred time.
"I'd say that Nappa's time is up." Vegita thought to himself, staring with disgust up at the large saiyajin gagging. With a shoving motion, Ranma released Nappa's hands and pushed him towards the ground. Completely out of wind, Nappa couldn't resist the motion and hit the ground hard, falling onto his hands and knees leaving indentations in the ground.
Ranma slowly lowered himself to the ground, staring at Vegita the entire time. "I think that your friend is done here. Why don't you leave and take him with you?"
Vegita stared down at Nappa. "How can you show such weakness, try to have a little pride."
Nappa looked up at Vegita, obviously frightened. "I'm sorry Vegita, please forgive me."
Vegita threw back his head and started laughing. "Nappa, you forget yourself. I am the prince of the entire saiyajin race. I can't allow such a pathetic trait as that of mercy have any influence upon me." His face grew serious. "Especially with those who fail me."
Vegita grabbed Nappa's arm and threw him up into the air. Ranma and the others stared in shock, too surprised to do anything.
A huge aura sprang up around Vegita. "I will make sure that you never embarrass me again!" A beam came out of Vegita's entire body and shot up and Nappa.
"Vegita you doooogggg!" Nappa yelled, eyes bugging out. He disappeared in a mid-air explosion.
"I can't believe this." Ranma said, staring in shock. "He killed his own friend just because he couldn't beat me. That's crazy." He looked over at Vegita. "Man, his power is huge!"
"I was right about him." Piccolo said out loud. "He was confident. Nappa is like a weakling compared to this Vegita." Krillin and Gohan were both shivering in fear, staring at Vegita.
Vegita powered down again, and then flew up into the air to the same level as Ranma. A cruel smile filled his face. "Well, now that the unpleasantries are taken care of I suppose we can I get to business. Am I correct in assuming that you want to fight me?"
Ranma nodded, his face completely serious. "Yeah, you're right. Unless you want to give up and leave now."
Vegita laughed. "Always joking to the end." He lowered his head and stared directly into Ranma's eyes. "You know better then to ask that. Besides, I'm going to guess that you don't want me to leave. You want to test your might against me, see how strong you really are. Is that right?"
Ranma nodded and smiled. "You got me, I really wanna fight you."
Vegita smiled as well. "All right, so you're ready to have a go of it?"
"Yeah but not here. Let's go somewhere else." "I think I saw some habitation approaching this place." Ranma thought to himself. "With the kinds of attacks that this guy is capable of, it would probably be best to get farther away."
Vegita shrugged. "Wherever, we can fight wherever you want. It's all fine with me."
"Wait Ranma!" Piccolo yelled out, and then flew up to him. Ranma turned to Piccolo. "Yeah?" Piccolo looked him in the eyes. "You must realize that he's strong, much stronger then you. I was wondering, what are you planning on doing?"
Ranma shrugged. "I don't really have any plan in particular. I'll just wing something."
Piccolo chuckled. "I suppose that does seem like your style." His face became serious again. "I want to help you but I realize that I don't have the strength. It's because of this that I want to wish you good luck."
Ranma nodded. "Hey, thanks man. What was your name?" Piccolo grinned. "Piccolo." Ranma held out his hand. "I'm Ranma Saotome."
Piccolo looked down at his hand with an annoyed expression on his face.
Ranma looked at him for a moment, confused, and then looked embarrassed. "Oh right, sorry about that." He then held out his left hand. With a smile Piccolo shook it. "Well met Ranma."
"Are you ready Ranma, or are you going to be chatting all day?" Vegita asked.
Ranma grinned at Vegita. "I'm ready."
With Ranma leading, the two of them flew together, quickly disappearing against the mid-day sky.
"What an extraordinary boy." Piccolo thought to himself, staring after Ranma and Vegita.
*******************************
"This is perfect." Ranma thought to himself, flying above a large stone island, about five by ten miles in dimensions and twenty feet or so above the ocean surface. "I can't sense anyone's life energy for at least fifty miles all around this place."
"So this is your choice?" Vegita asked. "Well, we might as well get started." He flew down to the island and landed. He then took off his scouter and threw it off to the side. Ranma landed opposite him, close to fifty feet a way.
"Hey, I'm ready if you are." Ranma said, stepping back into a fighting stance.
Vegita then went into his own stance, holding his arms at the ready.
They both paused for a moment, examining each other.
"You know Ranma, this is such a waste." Vegita said. "I could really use a warrior of your talents, even if you are only a human. I've got a proposition for you. I'll use the dragon balls here on earth to make both of us immortal, and then we can go to Namek and use the wish to turn you into a saiyajin. You would have as much power as you wanted; I know that strength is what you want. Then we could rule the universe together. Nothing would be beyond your grasp!"
Ranma shook his head. "Naw, it sounds like a pretty good deal but I don't really want to be immortal or a saiyajin. I'm happy with being just a human. And anyways, what's the point of fighting if there's no risk? It would make things too easy. Sorry, I'm going to have to turn you down."
Vegita laughed. "Respectable decision, but you'll regret those words." Both Vegita and Ranma stood facing each other for a moment longer. They could hear some seagulls cawing in the distance; they acted as some kind of unspoken trigger.
The two warriors charged each other.
**********************************
"Well, they're gone now." Krillin sighed. He then turned to Piccolo, "So who do you think will win? Uh, Piccolo, aagggh!" Krillin stared in shock in Piccolo, who looked like he was powering up.
"What are you doing Mr. Piccolo?" Gohan asked, staring at him.
"Rrrraaaaagggghhh!!!" Piccolo yelled. Suddenly a new arm identical to the old shot out of the empty spot.
"I'll never get used to that no matter how many times I see it." Krillin said staring at him.
"I didn't know you could do that Mr. Piccolo. That's incredible." Gohan said, also staring at him.
"To answer your question Krillin, I have no idea who will win. But I do know that the odds are stacked against Ranma."
"You think so?" Krillin asked, somewhat disappointed.
Piccolo nodded. "Yes I do. Vegita's power is double that of Ranma's. Though Ranma has proven himself to be extremely resourceful against Nappa, the truth is that Nappa was an inferior warrior. I'm not sure if cleverness of any quantity will help him against Vegita. Besides, Vegita is much more intelligent then Nappa. It is unlikely that any of the same types of tricks will work against him."
"I suppose that makes sense." Krillin said.
"Thank you for helping me Mr. Piccolo. I know that you were trying to save my life when Nappa attacked." Gohan said, looking up at him admiringly. Piccolo grunted and turned his head away. "I'd rather not talk about that."
Krillin walked up and dragged Gohan off to the side. "Look Gohan." He said. "Piccolo has this big thing going on about being the successor to Piccolo the demon king. He kind of wants to conquer the earth, and doesn't like to let on to feelings of any kind."
Gohan looked at him with wide eyes. "Is that true? I didn't know." He looked over at Piccolo, even more admiration in his eyes. "Wow, the demon king? That's really cool." For the observant Piccolo's ears began to twitch and his frown turned into a scowl.
Krillin face faulted. "Cool is not the word that I would use."
A strange voice spoke "Why hello Piccolo."
"Who said that?!" Piccolo yelled, turning around. What he saw was a man of close to 5'10 wearing solid black robes. Nothing could be seen under the hood except for a pair of glowing blue flames where the eyes should be. On each hand he had black gloves and he was wearing some kind of black boots
"Simply call me Mire. I was wondering Piccolo if you could tell me the location of the Dragon Balls. I couldn't help but overhear Vegita's brilliant conclusion that you are responsible for their existence."
Piccolo stared at him incredulously. "If you want the dragon balls then you're out of luck, they're not coming back for another year. Now why don't you leave here before you make me angry. I've had enough combat for the day, and personally I'm not in the mood to kill you."
The man started laughing. "Kill me? Oh do you really think that it's so easy? Well I'll tell you the truth, I'm not really here to kill anyone, or at least anyone here on earth. Once I make a wish I'll be more then content to let this world be and never come here again."
Piccolo frowned at him. "That's good to hear. But I told you that the Dragon Balls are gone and besides; when they come back we'll have a different use for them. So why don't you just go home and leave us be?"
"I don't like him Mr. Piccolo." Gohan said, standing behind him. "I get a funny feeling just looking at him."
"This guy has some kind of demonic power." Piccolo thought to himself, staring into the blue flames that seemed to represent the man's eyes. "My history of being a demon makes me more aware of things of that nature."
"I'm with you Gohan." Krillin said. "This guy is majorly creeping me out. And the worst thing is that I can't detect any energy at all coming off of him. It's like he's not even alive."
"So a year is all it takes? Hmm, I have a theory." The man pulled off his right glove to reveal a hand made completely out of bone.
"What?!" Piccolo yelled, staring at it. An instant later Piccolo was paralyzed, his body locked in limbo.
"Are you alright Mr. Piccolo?" Gohan yelled.
"Time Pass!" The instant the man said that a small clock appeared above Piccolo's head. It paused for a moment, and then the hands turned into a blur that couldn't be followed by the naked eye.
"Stop that!" Krillin yelled, throwing out a ki blast. It passed right through the man, as if wasn't even standing there. "What, impossible!" Krillin yelled.
"My turn!" Gohan shouted, and then threw out his own ki blast, with the same results.
"You're wasting your time." The strange figure said, amused by their failures. "Do you think that such basic spiritual attacks will work against me? It is a very simple thing to ward oneself against such attacks. Ahh, I think it's done." He canceled his spell, sending Piccolo falling to the grown.
He turned his back to the Z warriors. "I wonder if it worked." He held out both of his hands. "Yes, I can feel seven new sources of great energy activating themselves across the world!"
"Destructo disk!" Krillin yelled, throwing a disk of energy at the back of the dark mage. It met similar results.
"Save your energy." He ordered. "I've arranged for a more suitable playmate for you. I do hope that you enjoy him."
Piccolo stumbled to his feet. "I'm not going to let you get the Dragon Balls!"
The man laughed, "I'm afraid that you don't have any choice!" A circle appeared between him and Piccolo that was lined with strange runes. It was completely filled in with a black that seemed to suck in all light. Out of this darkness a form was manifesting itself.
"I invited a greater demon to our little party to keep you company. I do so hope that all of you enjoy yourselves." Darkness wrapped around him and he disappeared.
Krillin and Gohan stared at it in fear. "Oh no. I think we may be in over our heads." Krillin said. "Man, this sucks. That's the second the time today."
"I think Krillin may be right." Piccolo growled to himself.
************************************
The setting was snake way. A large and old fashioned building could be seen. A blazing blue form could be seen approaching it.
"That's it, that's the end!" Goku shouted to himself. "I've got to get there!"
He charged through the door and into the central lobby. An extremely large man (twenty or thirty feet) looked down at him curiously from his desk.
Kami appeared in front of Goku. "Hurry! Things have just become more complicated!" Goku nodded and grabbed his shoulder. The both of them disappeared.
"Never thought that I would see him again." King Yemna said, then shrugged and returned to his work.
********************************
"Damn he's fast!" Ranma yelled to himself, barely dodging one of Vegita's attacks.
Vegita was charging forward, quickly darting back and forth and delivering a flurry of punches. Ranma was backpedaling, desperately trying to keep out of his range. "All I'm doing is dodging." Ranma said to himself. "Sooner or later I'm going to get hit. I've got to fight back."
Ranma ducked below an overhead strike, his hair being brushed by the air off of the punch. Shifting his weight to his back foot, he drove a punch into Vegita's mid section.
He hit, but at the same moment he could feel Vegita's arm slam him in the back, sending him flying about twenty feet until he could stop his momentum. "Shit, that hurt me a lot more then him." Ranma thought to himself. He looked up at Vegita, who was smiling. "He did that deliberately! He was going for an exchange and let me hit him, knowing that his attack would deal more damage. This isn't good."
"What's the matter Ranma? Getting cold feet so early after all of your big talk? I suppose that Raditz was right about you. You really are just a weakling with a big mouth."
Ranma returned to his feet and fell back into his fighting stance. "Heh, don't think that what you've seen is all I've got. I still have plenty of tricks up my sleeve."
Vegita began to laugh. "Of course you do, I was counting on it! But don't think that your tricks will allow you to defeat me." Vegita went into an offensive fighting stance. "So are you ready for round 2?"
Ranma didn't even have time to nod.
Faster then the eyes could follow Vegita flew directly at Ranma. Ranma quickly flew into the air "Mokou Takabisha!" He yelled, launching a column of energy down at Vegita. Vegita merely swatted it aside causing a crater of about twenty feet in diameter. In the next instant he threw his own energy back up at Ranma. Ranma quickly drew up his hands and blocked it, causing smoke to obscure his exact position.
"No good!" Ranma yelled to himself. "He's too used to dealing with standard energy attacks for them to be at all effective! There he is!" In the last instant Ranma dived, barely avoiding an overhead kick thrown by Vegita who had risen above him.
Ranma did three flips through the air. "He's right behind me." He thought to himself. Ranma suddenly flipped so that he was suspended upside down facing Vegita who was right side up. "Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!" He yelled, and launched a flurry of several thousand punches at Vegita's upper body.
Smiling, Vegita started his own flurry of punches. On every strike their fists met in mid-air. "Dammit!" Ranma yelled. "Take this!" While still exchanging punches he quickly brought down both feet and kicked Vegita in the face. Vegita flew to the ground and landed on his feet, each foot digging several inches into the stone.
Doing several flips, Ranma landed on the ground about twenty feet in front of him. Vegita wiped a little blood from his face, and smiled cruelly at Ranma. "Very impressive of you to actually draw blood, but this is the last time."
"That's what you think." Ranma said, smiling confidently back at him. "I think I bruised my knuckles." He thought. "Frontal assaults simply do not work against this guy. I've got to try something else."
Vegita started to walk towards him. "I've been playing with you up to this point, but I think it's time that I started fighting for real. I wont ask you if you're ready, because I don't give a damn if you are or not."
"Alright." Ranma thought, again returning to his fighting stance. "I'm sorry Ryu, but there's no other way. With the earth on the line, I have to draw on everything I know." His face became set and determined. "It's time for the forbidden techniques."
************************************
It was a small and dark cell. All that could be made out was a set of robes that were glowing with a gentle but beautiful light and two silvery earrings.
"Why did this have to happen?" Akane asked herself. She smiled grimly. "Well, I suppose it was my own stupid fault for trying to travel when I was so tired."
"Akane." A voice echoed in her mind. "Who said that?" She asked in fear. "Man this place is creepy, now I'm hearing voices."
"Is that all I am to you Akane? A voice to be heard but ignored?" Someone asked out of the darkness. "Show yourself!" She said loudly. "I wish I had my magic right now." She thought. "But I guess I'll have to deal with this the old fashioned way." She came to her feet and went into a defensive fighting stance.
A voice chuckled. "This reminds me of the first time we met Akane, in that dark tunnel. Do you remember?"
Akane's mouth fell open in shock. "The Man of Light, I mean Maple? Is that you?" She smiled happily and spun in circles, looking for him. "Where are you? Oh I'm so happy you came here, are you going to rescue me?"
She could feel him shake his head. "No, I'm sorry. The main reason that I'm here is to support you. These walls are warded against magic, so I can't send my form here, only my voice."
"So you can't get me out of here?" Akane asked, disappointed.
"I'm afraid not. As foolish as the laws are you are captured and held by due process. I've been trying to get the laws changed for several centuries now but the committee keeps delaying it. I suppose that all I can do is tell you to do your best, and to escape as soon as possible. If you are too late then, horrible things will happen."
Akane put both of her hands on her mouth. "Horrible things, do you mean like with Ranma?"
She could feel him nodding. "Yes, with Ranma and with Goku as well. Even those two warriors who's hearts are so strong as to defy reality itself will be corrupted by a dark force of awesome power. Akane, you are the only one who can stop this from happening."
"How? How can I stop it?!" She asked, completely terrified.
"My vision of the future is foggy but there is one thing that I can make out. In your future is a shadow of the past that you must conquer Akane." The voice said gently. "You must move with all haste because you see Akane, when I look into the future I see failure."
"Failure?!" She almost screamed. "You mean I will fail?"
The voice sighed. "Not to get you down, but that is the most likely result of this current set of circumstances. However, the future is not set. If you move with haste there is still a chance that you can prove my vision of the future to be wrong."
"But how?" Akane asked looking around herself. "Maybe if I didn't have this collar or wasn't in this cell then I could escape, but right now it's just impossible." She began to break down into tears. "This is too much, I'm just so helpless." She thought to herself. "Held here for the entertainment for a handful of damned souls while Ranma needs me in the real world."
She felt a hand gently wipe away her tears and then lift up her chin. Looking up she stared into a pair of eyes composed of golden fire that just floated in mid air. Looking into them she could feel a sense of awesome calm fill her heart and soul, a feeling of general well-being.
"You cried then too." The voice said again quietly. "Composed so much of both fire and tears. Perhaps that's why Ranma loves you so much."
Akane's heart caught in her throat. "He loves me?" She asked herself.
"And perhaps that's what drew me too you. That fire and those tears. Many people run throughout their lives struggling to feel like they matter but you are one who has been blessed with a chance to make a difference Akane. I knew I could feel something emanating from your heart when I released your seal though even I couldn't place my finger on it at the time. But I think that I'm finally beginning to understand. I must go now Akane. Remember my child, I love you. Never forget who you are or what you are fighting for."
The eyes disappeared and in a single instant his presence was gone. Even as tears were rolling down her cheeks her face became set and determined. "I won't give up." She said to herself. "Ranma, please wait for me."
*******************************
The setting was Kami's lookout. The strange and gentle quiet that filled the air in this place was a sharp contrast to the chaos that was happening on the earth down below. Mr. Popo could be seen pacing back and forth nervously. "Oh I do hope that Kami will return with Goku soon." He thought to himself.
In a blaze of light Kami and Goku appeared. "So what's up Kami?" Goku asked. "What complications are you talking about? Are my friends dead, am I too late?" Kami shook his head. "No, not all of them. Piccolo, Gohan and Krillin are still alive. Another warrior by the name of Ranma that had trained here in the room of space and time saved them. Even as we speak he is fighting against the stronger of the two saiyajin warriors, by the name of Vegita."
"Really, that's great!" Goku's head lowered and he looked towards the ground. "I met some complications too. On the way down Snake Way a warrior of incredible strength who called himself Captain Ginyu attacked me. He used an evil kind of magic. A young girl healed me and told me to protect this Ranma, but it sounds like he doesn't need my help."
Kami's eyes widened. "A powerful fighter who is also mage?" He walked to the edge of the lookout. "Goku, I want you to extend your senses to earth. Tell me, what do you see?"
Goku nodded and walked to the edge. Closing his eyes, he calmed himself. "I sense two huge powers maybe two or three hundred miles away. One of them seems to be much stronger then the other."
Kami nodded. "Yes, the weaker one is Ranma." "The weaker one is Ranma?!" Goku said loudly. "I should go help him!"
"Ranma can take care of himself, at least for the moment." Kami said. "Tell me Goku, what else do you sense?"
Goku closed his eyes again. "I sense three large powers in one place. I think that they are Piccolo, Gohan and Krillin. Wait a moment, there's something there with them." Goku's face became contorted. "It's magic! It's a horrible and twisted creature of magic! It's power is huge!"
"That is correct Goku, I have sensed it as well. There is only one possibility; someone must have summoned a demon to the mortal world."
"A demon? Do you mean like Piccolo the Demon King?" Goku asked, turning to him.
"No, not like Piccolo. This is a greater demon, summoned from some pit of the abyss. It possesses an extraordinary power, likely enough to destroy a living world. Now that it is here it will attempt to take the souls of our respective friends."
Goku stared at him. "I have to go to them, they need my help!"
"Yes, you must go Goku, but there's something that I want you to take with you." He pulled a vial of water from inside his robes. Goku looked at it. "Hey, isn't that the Super Holy Water that I had to drink as a boy to beat Piccolo?"
"Yes, that is correct. The fact that you drank it will make you somewhat resistant to the demon's dark powers. However, you should not count on this, it has been many years and its effect may already be wearing off. However, if you can get the demon to drink this water I believe it should be enough to banish him to his home plane."
Goku nodded and took the vial. "Thanks Kami. Now I just need to pick up some senzu beans and I'll be on my way."
"Be very careful Goku." Kami said. "Demons cannot summon themselves. I sense that there is a dark plot taking place here beyond even the presence of the saiyajins." His voice lowered. "And I sense that the dragon balls have been reawakened."
"What?!" Goku asked. "But how?"
Kami shook his head. "Unfortunately I do not know how, but it may have something to do with the demon. However now your only concern should be for your friends. I will tell you if I discover anything. Again please be careful Goku."
"I'll be careful." Goku said, and then ran to the side of the lookout and dived off.
Goku allowed himself to freefall for a few hundred feet until he could see the top of a tower. "Karin!" He yelled. "Are you there Karin?"
"Yeah I'm here, who is it?" A gruff voice asked. A white cat hopped over to the edge of the tower. "Oh it's Goku."
"I need some senzu beans Karin!" Goku yelled at him, still freefalling.
"I've got three, here you go Goku." The cat yelled, throwing a small pouch at Goku as he flew by. Goku deftly caught them in mid-air. "Thanks Karin!" He yelled falling out of sight. "Flying Nimbus!" His voice could be heard from far below.
"Goku, you're a wild man." Karin said, shaking his head.
***********************************
A rocky and destroyed landscape. Three warriors were facing off against a hole of extreme darkness. Though the sun was yet high in the sky, the pit made it seem like twilight. In the darkness a large and grotesque shape was emerging. Its form was twisted, almost seeming to mock the humanoid bodies of those that observed it. Blood red eyes stared at the forms that were around it. "It's hungry", they realized together. "I'm hungry", it agreed. "It has been many years since I've set foot on the mortal plane. I want to feed."
The creature was large, close to twenty feet tall. Its form was twisted and wavy. Its arms were twice the size of its legs; any scientist would have told you that it was too large to even stand up. Its body was filled with twists and bends where there was no reason for them. It had dull reddish-black scales covering its body and huge talons at the ends of its arms. The eyes were set deeply in its animal like head. They were a dull red, yet a flash of intelligence could be seen within them.
************************************
"That thing is huge!" Krillin yelled, staring up at the form of the monster that was standing before them. "And the worst thing is that I can barely get a reading on it. I almost can't sense its power!"
"This is scary Mr. Piccolo." Gohan said, clinging to the green man's leg. "Impossible." Piccolo said to himself, turning around. "That power, I can feel it. It's huge!"
"Hey, you're not making me feel any better here Piccolo." Krillin said, almost annoyed. "Why not try to take a positive spin on things for once?"
"I'm not talking about the demon you fool! Can't you sense the awesome power coming from Kami's lookout?"
"Hey you're right!" Krillin said. "I can feel it. It's awesome!"
"It's my dad!" Gohan said, tears in his eyes. "He's finally here!"
"Yes, I believe that it is Goku." Piccolo said. "Unless I miss my guess he has as much power as Vegita now. He's coming right for us!"
A large roar erupted from behind them. "We can't worry about that now; we have to hold together until Goku gets here!" Piccolo yelled. "Krillin, Gohan, get on either side of it. When it moves to attack one of us the other two will back him up with energy attacks. Whatever you do, don't let it get next to you! Its claws probably have some kind of venom; absolutely do not engage it in close combat."
"Gotcha!" Gohan and Krillin yelled together, springing to either side of the creature. With Piccolo they had it surrounded on three sides. "Man I'm glad he's on our side." Krillin thought, looking admirably at Piccolo. "He's always got a plan."
"Piccolo was willing to die to save me." Gohan thought. "So I'm going to be willing to die to save him. We're all in this together." He looked up into the air, almost misty-eyed. "We just have to hold on until my dad gets here. Then everything will be alright."
********************************************
"Prepare to die!" Vegita yelled, launching himself forward.
"Gotta do it now!" Ranma yelled to himself. "It's time for the Umisen- Ken!" Ranma fell back into a relaxed pose and took an apathetic look to his entire body. "What is that fool doing?" Vegita asked to himself as he ran along.
An instant later Ranma was gone. "What, where did he go?!" Vegita yelled. "He's not nearly that fast, what kind of trick is this?"
"The body is a house." Ranma said to himself, observing Vegita panicking. "If you can get inside then the opponent is already defeated. But this guy is more like a castle." He chuckled to himself. "Never thought that I'd be using my pop's techniques against the prince of an alien race to save the earth." His face became serious again. "I've got to do something huge to hurt this guy; none of the standard attacks will work. I guess it's time to use the Umisen-Ken and the Yamasen-Ken together."
"Why don't you come out Ranma? That is, unless you're afraid." Vegita began to laugh. "I remember that Raditz said something about you being a girl, but I know now that it must have been just an insult, and I can see where he's coming from. With all of your prancing about, you really do fight like a girl."
Vegita's eyes widened. "There!" he yelled, dodging to the side. In that instant two large vacuum blades shot past where he was just standing. Each one cut a gash of considerable size in his side with the armor being completely ineffective at stopping them. Ranma was standing still and was looking very startled. "How did he know?" He asked himself in shock.
Vegita laughed. "Do you want to know boy? Once when I was on one of my missions I encountered an entire fighting force which used the art of invisibility to fight against its enemies." An evil smile filled his entire face. "Needless to say, I quickly learned how to fall back on senses other then sight or hearing to know the location of my opponent. I suppose you could say that I've encountered someone who used that exact tactic before."
"Only one trick left." Ranma thought grimly. "I didn't want to have to fall back on this one, but it's all I've got. This will be the ultimate representation of the Umisen-Ken." He smiled again. "I'm ready for you!" He eyed the water a short 100 meters away. "I've got to get over there to make my move."
An instant later Vegita was standing next to him. "Shit!" Ranma thought to himself, but was too slow. Vegita upper cutted him in the stomach, collapsing Ranma to his knees. Picking him up by one of his feet, Vegita began to quickly spin in circles.
"This is not good." Ranma thought to himself. His mind a maze of pain. "Are you ready for free flying lessons Ranma?" Vegita asked. He suddenly stopped and released Ranma, sending him bouncing across the rocky island.
Before Ranma had a chance to stand up, Vegita was already standing over him. Smiling he kicked Ranma, sending him about twenty more meters. "Almost there." Ranma thought to himself. The edge of the island was only five feet away now.
"I see that you're watching the water." Vegita said, looking down at Ranma. "Don't tell me that now of all times you want to go swimming?" He started to laugh. "Well, I suppose we can allow that. Just don't get in over your head." He smilied cruelly. "Oh wait, I suppose it's too late for that now. You've been in over your head all along haven't you?"
He reached down and grabbed the back of Ranma's neck, picking him up. Ranma hung limply, as if he were unconscious.
"I'm disappointed that you didn't put up more of a fight boy." Vegita said, looking at him. "I was expecting such to have such a fun time fighting you, but all you had to offer was a few cheap tricks." Frowning, he threw Ranma into the water. "Well, I suppose that's enough. It's time to go finish off those other three."
"Alright, it's now or never!" Ranma thought to herself as she floated through the water.
Vegita heard a splash behind him. "That boy's still alive, impossible!" Vegita yelled, turning around, only to find himself two feet away from a red haired girl who was smiling brightly.
"Impossible is not the word." She said. Her hands became a blur that was impossible to follow. Too startled at seeing her there, Vegita didn't have time to react.
"Agggghhhh!!!" He screamed as he was impaled by three vacuum blades. Vegita fell to his knees and coughed blood.
"How do you like that?" Ranma asked, breathing hard. "Now just to change back." She thought to herself. Reaching over to the water, Ranma used telekinesis to bring up a small quantity of water, and then used to ki to warm it up. Ranma then changed himself back. "My girl side actually did me some good for once." He thought to himself.
Vegita stayed on the ground coughing up blood for a moment longer. He then slowly looked up. Ranma shivered when he saw the awesome hate in his eyes. "Oh-oh." He thought. "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea."
"You fool!" Vegita yelled. "I am the prince of all saiyajins and you dare to do such a thing to me?!" Vegita flew up high into the air and began to gather a vast amount of energy. "We'll see how you like the Gamit gun! Run if you can boy or girl or whatever you are. But even if you do, your entire world is going up in smoke!"
"Oh damn! I think this guy's serious!" Ranma yelled to himself. "I can't match that kind of power yet, I need more training!"
A smile crossed Ranma's face. "On the other hand, maybe there is something I can do. It's a little unorthodox, but that's never stopped me before."
Once again, thank you Ranko!