Champions of the Universe Original Draft

by Joshua The Evil Guy

AUOne particular Buffy has a destiny very different from the others. Crossover with the entire Dragonball universe, and several other thrown in too. This is the original draft of Champions.

2. The Training

The Training:

"OK, enough lollygagging around. Let's get a move on!" Goku shouted at them as he stepped back from the door and pointed them through it. Squinting her eyes in mistrust, Buffy silently walked through, followed closely by the others.

When they were outside the chamber, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles immediately noticed the sheer size of the place they had been taken to. They appeared to be on a platform, who knew how high up, that various people and species in general were walking on, sort of like in the movie Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, in that cloud city thing. Well, they were definitely in a city. All around them and their platform were massive buildings, skyscrapers, and other connecting platforms, some of which connected to the skyscrapers and buildings, and others that just connected to other platforms. And littered throughout the sky were numerous aircraft, ranging from slow moving giant box crates, to fast moving tubes and people sized craft.

"Holy schnikes!" Xander exclaimed as they all tried to take it in.

Goku looked around. He had had a similar reaction when he had first arrived here. But now, after nearly thirty years, it kind of wore off. Especially since he spent most of his time on the inside of these buildings and structures. He never had time to enjoy the scenery anymore. Oh, well. That was why he took to training new recruits. Better than doing all the rest of what this place was doing.

But whatever. These kids were here for a reason, and he was here to teach them that reason, and in as little time as possible. There was no time for "smelling the roses" as the saying went. "Hey!" he shouted at them.

"Let's GO!" when he had their attention.

"What's your rush?" Buffy complained, as they picked up the pace.

The man introduced only as "Goku" merely raised an eyebrow and led them on. His quick pace forced even Buffy to jog in order to keep pace with him. She tried several more times to get him to speak to her, or at least explain what was going on, yet he remained as silent as Angel in a broody moment. Soon they came to…a portal was the only way to describe it. It was about ten feet tall and in general circumference, since it was a giant black hole in the wall of the building they were next to. Goku made a slight motion with his hands, indicating that they should wait there, Xander and Willow didn't really have a problem with that idea, due to the fact that as soon as they stopped, they bent over, clutching their sides and out of breath.

Buffy couldn't blame them, they weren't used to the long haul at a quick pace, and even she was pretty winded by what seemed to be a two mile run from the room they had arrived in. There was also something funky about the air and the gravity in general. It was heavier than usual and the air was humid and hot. Geez, hadn't these people ever heard of air conditioning?

Whatever it was that Goku was doing, he had apparently finished as he walked back to the group of tired humans. When Buffy turned to greet him, she was surprised to see the black hole in the side of the building was now a hole into a somewhat large room.

"If you don't mind, just jump through and we can get you settled in." Goku was saying, indicating the portal.

"Hold on just a minute! What the hell is going on here? Who are you? And what is this, this place! Gawd, what is this place?" Buffy was asking in total disbelief.

Goku only looked at her with something like pity, only more insulting. "I'll take it that you almost said no. Figures. Don't worry girl, you'll get your answers soon enough. Just jump through and we'll get you settled into your room," was all he said.

"No, I don't think so! I want some answers, and I want them now! We aren't going anywhere until you, or somebody answers them. Now either you start talking, or I might get angry, and trust me spiky, you don't want to see me angry." Buffy said in her "Slayer" voice.

Now the stranger, Goku, looked confused and slightly, no make that majorly annoyed as he considered what the blond human had just said to him. "Spiky?" he asked incredulously. Then he rolled his eyes up, remembering his hair. "Oh. Well whatever girl. Just jump through, We're short enough on time as it is, and if you want the whole tour or the two cent one that'll leave you high and dry, it's your choice. But if you keep wasting time, you won't have that for much longer. Now jump through." Goku ordered.

"That does it!" Buffy yelled as she launched herself at the taller, visibly stronger, and strangely calm man. She landed solidly with her foot against his chin. She was actually surprised that she had managed to complete the flying kick. So far in training with Giles she had only managed to do it twice, and even then both were far from perfect. It made little difference as she barely made the guy move his head, before the stronger gravity took over and she barely managed to get her hands underneath her in time to do a flying backwards handspring.

Once she landed nimbly on her feet, she launched herself at him again, staying on the ground mostly though, and hitting him with her best kicks and punches she could throw at him. He only raised his right eyebrow in a similar fashion to a wrestler she had seen once on WWU. Finally, Goku's patience wore out and he picked up the small blond girl by the arm she threw a punch at him with, and physically threw her through the portal.

"Buffy!!" the other three humans shouted, and all three ran surprisingly quickly and jumped through the portal, almost as one.

"Well, geez, if that's all it took…" Goku muttered as he levitated himself and flew through the circle, which faded back to black as soon as he was through.

As the last individual came through the red circle on the wall, it de-energized and was just a big red spot on the wall, with a flat black square next to it on the left. The four humans, including the blond girl he had thrown through, were piled on the floor right in front of him. Fortunately he was flying, so there was no issue of being crowded.

"Ahem!" he coughed loudly, making them aware of his presence.

Slowly they sorted themselves out and untangled from each other and stood. After this, Goku landed right behind the blond girl that had attacked him. He liked her. She was no doubt the reason as to why the Powers had sent them here in the first place. She was also head strong and thought she was strong enough to take anybody out, or at least make them regret they fought with her. Hoo boy was she in for a shock.

"Ahem," he said again, though much quieter. The girl jumped, then turned around and combo'ed a powerful punch and kick at him. He easily, almost too easily, dodged the kick and grabbed her fist. He squeezed very lightly, enough to make her know he was strong, but not enough to break her fist. And also that she knew he was still holding back.

"All right, grunt, who, grunt, are you?" she asked, trying to remove her fist from his.

"I told you. My name is Goku. I'm your trainer for the next six weeks. I take it that you are…" he paused as he pulled a small devise from his jacket pocket, that opened to a long flat panel, which he apparently read some information from. "…Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer of the year 1997 in Sunnydale, California, of Dimension 2ZXEC-A.U.237-4561-659.1 in Universe of Spectral Grid 2, 35. The rest of these weaklings must be your team. I think I have my work cut out for me." Goku answered, maintaining his grip on her hand with the other.

"Uh, would you mind letting go of me, Goku." She asked strenuously.

"OK." He said rather cheerily, releasing her hand. "And by the way," he added, dead serious, "don't ever call me spiky again, got it?"

She only nodded, her eyes squinted in distrust. Absentmindedly, she was stroking her fist, but not out of discomfort or pain, but of imaginative uses for wiping that smug grin off her "trainer's" face. "OK, Goku, what's the deal? Ten minutes ago, I'm watching some alien blue thing tear a huge vampire in half, then the Powers That Be, no less, show up and shout out about some story about two kids that apparently control all of existence. Then they "invite" me into this little tournament of there's, which excuse me if I'm right, but sounds a lot like a rich man's street fight. Then they blackmail me, saying that I was destined to say yes, and that if I don't I might not be able to handle the stronger demons that I'll have to fight. Then, as soon as I turn around to say yes, we're in an empty room and thirty seconds later you show up and throw me through a hole in the wall! Now all I want is some answers, I'm sure you can handle that, right?" Buffy turned the question into an insult by adding, "For one as bright as you seem to be anyway."

Goku's grin lost its pleasantness and decided to play along with the girl. He scrolled down the list on his Global, and read up on the others. Their codenames had already been assigned, as had their position, their schedule, and their conditioning workout. Yeesh, he didn't have it that tough when he had got there. Apparently this girl had a lot of potential, and the Council wanted to bring it out, as soon as possible. That meant half killing the girl and her friends. He felt slightly sorry for the blonde Slayer, Buffy. Slightly.

"OK, what do you want to know?" Goku asked, as he stepped back from Buffy and slowly walked to the other side of the room, letting them realize, as their eyes followed him, where they were. It was a fairly large room, maybe twenty feet high, and domed. There were beams, steel colored but in such a crazy place nobody could say that it was actually steel, going from the walls to the center point of the dome. And on the walls was a faded white padding, going from the floor to seven feet up them. Inbetween the steel beams, on the wall part with the padding they were even with the rest of the wall, were a number of doors, and then the red spot they had just come through. There were maybe six doors altogether and they all looked like the doors from Star Trek: The Next Generation, except blue. Then there was the room itself.

It was about the floor size of the school gym, and included a bar in one corner that they took to be a kitchenette or something similar. In the middle of it, underneath the spotlight in the center of the dome, was a plush carpeted area with furniture similar to what they saw in the room they had arrived in. A comfortable looking black leather, or similar material, couch; six chairs, two recliner-like, and the rest just for sitting on, and next to the carpeted area was a large circular table that was gray and looked like it was made of plastic, but later when Buffy touched it, it felt like porcelain. There was also a workout area set aside and other things that might have been decorations if not for what they had already seen told them otherwise.

"OK, first question:" Buffy announced, "Where are we? All that the Powers said was that we would be training for the next six weeks in some place that the forces of Good had set aside to help them in the tournament. How much of that is true?"

Goku grimaced a little and decided then and there to never tell her, unless directly asked, about his suspicions of corruption within the Compound. "That's the basic story of it. It's called the 'Compound'. And it is actually its own universe that said "Forces of Good" asked the Powers to make for them. These forces of Good are called the 'Council'. They're inter-dimensional beings, meaning that they exist higher than normal reality, but no where near the levels of the Powers and what some people have called the Powers That Be. This Council then selected the greatest warriors of light, and the most powerful, of several separate realities, brought them here, told them the story that the Powers not doubt already told you, and asked them to not only fight in the Tournament, but to train all the new recruits that would be coming in. By this dimensions standards, that was over 200,000 years ago. Since then, a pretty good curriculum has been set up, and we haven't lost a Tournament for nearly three hundred years. Ofcourse the only sure fire way to win the Tournament is to either have one team beat everything Evil throws at them, or to not let so much as one of our fighters die. That hasn't happened for 150 years." Goku told them.

They all looked at each other and exchanged the various "What have we gotten ourselves into?" looks, then Buffy turned back to Goku. "OK, second question: What's your story in all of this? Were you one of these original fighters slash trainers?"

Goku shook his head no. "No, I was like you, a recruit from my own universe. But in my universe, I at least had a history and partial training in the fighting and martial arts that are taught here. Before I was brought here, I was a pretty good fighter. For the past twenty-two years, I've been the best. Now, I teach the new guys. It gets me some time off, and away from home longer than a night or two every three months."

"OK, hold on." Buffy interrupted. "First, you've been here for 22 years?!!"

"No, thirty actually. It took me almost eight years to develop enough of a reputation, and my body to deserve it. Every tournament I've entered I've won. Meaning that I survived and came out alive of the Final Round. Well, except for my first few tournaments, those I didn't do too well on. And I didn't even make it to the Final Round until my fifth year here. That roughly translates to 20 tournaments that I got my ass kicked around the ring that even "Evil" had to take pity and let me live each time."

Buffy was confused for a moment, then thought of another question. "How does that work? I mean, the whole Tournaments thing? When are they held, like every other week or so? And twenty tournaments in five years? For all of Evil and Good to fight and kill each other? How long do these Tournaments last anyway?"

"Whoa there! Slow down." Goku interrupted her. "OK, the Tournaments? Well, the actual Tournament is held about every three months or so, and you can base it on your own home universe's sense of time, even if it may be different for everybody else. But that's just the actual tournament of Good vs. Evil. There are also preliminary tournaments held here in the Compound between all the fighters here. Here, its non-lethal and you're out when you're K.O.'d. But those preliminaries are designed to say who actually gets to go to the big Tournament. Some, like me, who've won more Tournaments than I care to remember, has an automatic go. Others, newbies like yourselves, have to work it for the first few years. The preliminaries are held about halfway between the real Tournaments. Usually about a month and a half or so, depending if it's a leap year or not."

"As for how long the Tournament is, it usually lasts about two days here for us. For your own universe, its about one night. The preliminaries last about five days here, but again, only a night in your universe. So, what do you think so far? We haven't even seen where we'll be spending most of our time." Goku spun around, showing the room off.

"These are actually your quarters for your stay here. Despite all the obvious preparation for your arrival, these were the only quarters that were available, and they were made for at least six people. Don't worry though. Oh, and the bedrooms are through the respective doors. If you want, you can program to open with your DNA, or voice pattern, or just set them on low motion, otherwise the air will be opening and closing them for you." Goku explained.

"Wait a minute. What do you mean, "despite all the obvious preparation for our arrival"? You've been expecting us?" Buffy asked, slightly taken aback by the news.

"Well, yes. The Powers don't just drop people off in those comfortable waiting rooms and expect us to handle everything about them instantly. They tell us of possible new arrivals. One doesn't show up, we know they said no. As you can see, a schedule and special curriculum have been set up just for you." Goku explained, handing the Global to Willow, who took it, a fascinated look on her face, and read it. She then passed it on to Buffy, who paled dangerously close to "vampire" skin. Goku casually noticed that the screen was currently on her own workout schedule.

Buffy, feeling more than a little overwhelmed handed the modified palm pilot, or whatever the hell it was, over to Giles, who worked some of the touch pad commands and read his own schedule. He coughed slightly, and handed it to Xander, then removed his glasses, rubbed his nose, and put the glasses in his pocket. Buffy had never seen him do that before.

Xander, not one hundred percent understanding what he was seeing, glances at the gray device and hands it back to Willow, whom then returns it to Goku.

"You aren't actually going to get us started on…on, on that-that…that," indicating the Global, "are you? Today I mean." Buffy seemed really nervous about it for whatever reason.

"No, today is purely meant to get you settled in here. Tomorrow is when we start the schedule. And in case you were wondering, tomorrow, for most people around here, starts at 12:00 A.M. So, what do you want first; the tour, or some demonstrations of what you'll be learning here?" Goku asked.

Buffy was about to answer, when Willow beat her to the punch, "I think the tour would be a good idea, don't you Buffy? I mean, we have six weeks to learn and see demonstrations of what we'll be learning, but this is probably our only chance to actually see this place. And it's plenty big enough without the tour, ya know?"

Buffy nodded her head, conceding and understanding what Willow was saying. "I guess it's the tour then. Where do we start? How about the bathrooms?"

Goku smiled, getting the hint. He glanced at his Global, and pointed at a door to his right. It was blue like all the others, and had a black keypad, like all the others, but stenciled in gold was the English word "SLAYER" right above the keypad. "Right through that door, on your left through the second door. It's more like a glass panel that rises up when you turn the knob." He told her.

Immediately she made way for the door indicated, and surprisingly Xander followed her. "Uh…Xander?" Goku said, checking through his "files". His codename was Warrior: X. Goku knew why. For any fighters that didn't already have a codename, a title, even just a nickname, they were given the codename Warrior, followed by a letter or number that was chronologically assigned. They eventually were given a proper codename, and so the numeral or whatever was retired. Xander here was given X. Funny how that shortening of his name from Alexander to Xander made that work for him.

Xander turned to look at his trainer. His trainer. He liked that thought. Goku then pointed at a door opposite the one Buffy was heading to. It was blue, but as he moved closer to it, he could see the red stencils, "WARRIOR X". He turned back to Goku. "Warrior X?" he asked, obviously confused.

Even Buffy stopped to look at the dark haired man at that one. Goku looked kind of sheepish for a minute or so, then explained, "Well, rather than get confused with long and often confusing names in each creatures language, we decided that codenames would be assigned that about everyone can pronounce. Don't worry about a language problem though. You've got an appointment in the Clinic in about three hours, and you'll be implanted with translating devices that will allow you to decipher all forms of all communication, no matter the planet or universe."

Xander just stared at him, and then repeated, "Warrior X?"

Goku just shrugged, and decided to tell him later about how the naming system went. Buffy and Xander decided they couldn't wait much longer and went inside their respective rooms. "What am I called?" Willow asked, she seemed the most at ease with this situation. Goku looked at her and smiled a friendly grin at her. She smiled back, and Goku wondered if he should tell them he had a girlfriend back home.

"Witch. For now anyway," he answered.

"For now?" she asked, a questioning look replacing the smile as she stepped closer to him. Goku moved closer as well, and then took a seat in one of the recliners, which instantaneously conformed to his body.

"Well, for right now, that's your level of spell casting, as I understand it. I'm more of the 'Chi Master' fighter types, not really into magic and so forth. But since you started using magic, what, how long ago now? Two years, three?"

"Well, uh actually I started about three months ago. Just after the end of school. I got Amy to help me get started, and she showed me all the basics. Then Giles gave me a book of spells and rituals that helped me out big time, and I learned a whole lot. Like, for example, I just did a spell just tonite, or was it last night…maybe it was tonite but more like thirty minutes ago. Anyway, I did this really cool fireball spell that got rid of two vampires for the price of one. I nearly fainted after the spell, though, it's exhausting using that kind of magic when you're not used to it. But I didn't faint and Buffy was there to catch me. She's always doing that, you know, catching me when I'm about to fall, or get attacked by some incubus demon. Not that I've ever been attacked by an incubus demon, cause those are like sex demons that rape every woman they see, and no, I have never met an incubus demon. Obvious because I'm still a…you know…and I plan on staying that way for a long time too, not until I'm married. Though I really don't plan on getting married, at least not too soon. I don't even have a boyfriend and you kind of have to have a boyfriend before you can have a husband, or get married at all really. So what's your story? You said earlier that you liked being away from home. Was that true? I think that you would like your home more than here. At least at home, well, if you're like Buffy, maybe not, but at least some of the time not everybody is trying to kill you and destroy the world or learning how to do it anyway. So why…?"

"Do you want the answer or not?" Goku asked, stopping her before she got a second head of steam. During her babbling, Buffy and Xander had returned and caught the little witch babbling. They smiled, and just listened to her until Goku stopped her.

Willow looked much embarrassed at being caught babbling by the man that was supposed to teach them how to fight. "Sorry," she muttered softly.

"Don't apologize. It's kind of cute actually, but if you actually want the answer to any of your questions, you need to know when not to be talking. Anyway, back to the first question, your codename may change if your power as a spell caster grows. And the fact that you've been practicing witchcraft for three months and can already throw fireball spells says a lot about your potential. The highest spell caster title is Arch-Mage, and there are only four here that hold that position. You'll actually be tutored under two of them. If you're as powerful as you've shown to be, by the end of this first week, you may be Sage, or even Wicca. But by the time that you leave the compound, your codenames are stuck, so if you want to be better than Witch, you have to do very good. I think the highest magic codename given currently is Power Mage, aside from the four Arch-Mages ofcourse. The only thing more than Power Mage but less than Arch-Mage is to be considered a Master of the primary arts that you've studied. Then you'll be called the general name of that art. For example, which branch of magic are you studying now? Alchemy, Sorcery, black arts? What?"

"Um, I think Amy called it Wicca." Willow answered kind of quietly.

Goku's eyes shot up like rockets. "Wicca?" he asked in a surprised voice.

"Um, yeah, I think so. Yes, I'm studying Wicca. Why?" Willow asked, confused by his response.

"Oh, it's just that, from what I understand of these things, Wicca is the study of all of nature and how to either manipulate it, control it, or be one with it. It also deals strongly in supernatural energies. I don't think that there's been a Wiccan for over a millennia here. The last one trained one of the Mage's and even she isn't considered to be a Master over it. If you want to reach that level Willow, you've got a lot of work to do." Goku informed her.

"Oh. Wow," was the only response the little witch had to give.

"OK, so uh, what's the difference between Wicca, and Wiccan? The only thing different is an 'n' on the end of the word, right?" Xander pointed out.

"The difference, as I understand it, is that Wicca is a level of power where you are equalized with all elements, arts, studies, and powers in the universe, or in our case, multi-verse. Wiccan means that the person has complete mastery over the study of Wicca, as well as more than fair competency in all other mystical arts. Basically, if there would ever be a Wiccan again, he or she would have the complete understanding and knowledge of just about everything taught here. Only the combined might of the four Mages would be able to beat such a person if they actually let loose with their power. Unfortunately, Evil just happens to have such creatures of power in the Tournament. At least this year they will."

At this information, everyone got kinda quiet, trying to absorb and understand this new information. Then Buffy decided to get them back on track. "So, uh you were saying something about a tour. How about we get started, unless anybody else has to take care of any "business" before we get going?" She looked at each in turn, and Willow and Giles only shook their head.

Nodding, Goku stood up and directed them to the red spot on the wall. "This is a Matter Transfer Conveyer Portal, or MTC for short. The one that we went through is actually on the outside of the building that we're in. But even these smaller short range ones can take you just about anywhere inside the Compound. To activate them, just put your palm on the black panel next to them, wait for it to recognize you, and then state aloud and in a clear voice your destination. Main Gym, Third Floor, New Trainees Tour Section," he said, demonstrating as he spoke.

The red spot on the wall suddenly began to glow, like a really big stoplight. Then, Goku added, "Five. You also have to tell it the number of passengers so that it won't close as soon as the first person goes through. Why don't you guys go first and I'll be right behind you? Just so you can trust me…" he then stuck his arm through the glowing red spot, then pulled it back out, as though he'd just put it through an open doorway.

Buffy just shrugged and stepped through, quickly followed by Willow, Xander, and Giles. Goku was mildly surprised that the others seemed to blindly follow Buffy, no matter what. Good thing that he was the only fighter on his world, from Good or Evil. He doubted that he could've handled the kind of responsibility to look out for a team. But he was only fifty or so years old, even if he still looked twenty. He had a lot of time left. Maybe one day, he'd know what it was like. He hoped one day that he would, but at the same time, feared it. He stepped through.

Once on the other side, Goku found them once again in front of the portal, but at least they were standing this time. They were staring through the two story high clear For-lass. For-lass being short for Force field enhanced Stainless Plastic Glass. Behind the For-lass was the Main Gym, where most of the warriors, fighters, and so forth spent time training, working out, or just hanging out.

Buffy was in shock, and she wasn't the only one. The sight before them was beyond their comprehension. A huge, no make that ENORMOUS room stood beyond what looked like a clear barrier of some kind. There were what must have been thousands of creatures from all over the cosmos in there. Only about a hundred or so were human, at least it looked that way to the new recruits at first. Then they saw this one man fly straight up and shooting beams and blasts of energy at somebody else on the floor, who almost easily dodged or blocked every one of them. There were also things being done on the other side that boggled the mind and could never be described in the English language.

"Whoa." Buffy said deadpan. Giles repeated her in, "Oh my," and Xander, "Cool!" Everyone half turned to the dark-haired youth, but he was caught up in the sight.

"This," Goku stepping forward, pointing at the view "is the Main Gym. It's where we'll be spending most of your training. But actually this is the Open melee room. We'll be spending it in more of a closed room. Just us and the fists. Right around the corner there, " he pointed to the left, "is the Inventory Shop. There's one on just about every floor of every building in the Compound, except ofcourse for living quarters. It's where we'll get your gear. Come on."

He led the way around the corner, and they found themselves suddenly in front of a hole in the wall sports gear shop. At least, that's what they all took it to be at first. Then they saw the octopus alien creature in the middle of it. It was purple.

"Hey Ralph!" Goku said in greeting as they came up to the store. "Where's Barf? I figured it was his duty shift today."

The purple octopus alien thing burbled something back and made slightly agitated movements with its tentacles, but Goku seemed to understand it as though that were a response of some kind. He nodded and said in a sympathetic voice, "Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope he gets feeling better. I'm sure that you do to." The last sentence had a touch of sarcasm to it, Buffy could tell.

"Ahem" she coughed, getting her trainer's attention. He lost the impish grin he'd been wearing and straightened a bit more.

"Anyway, we need the usual requisitions. Four model five's; seven model seven's with maybe two or three backup ready. A, well, uh how about a modified number four model five. We'll need only about three of them. And for the last, make it three model six's with T's instead of Tanks. And ofcourse, two make seven's. Oh, and they might need your number in case there's anything that they'll need in the future." Goku listed out.

The creature made some more bubbly noises and its tentacles were suddenly scrambling around, apparently getting everything that Goku had just asked for. When the creature stopped "talking" Goku grinned again and tried unsuccessfully to suppress a chuckle. A moment later, there were about seven wrapped packages and bags on the counter. Goku grabbed them all and thanked the octopus.

"What was that all about?" Buffy asked as she was handed one box and a wrapped clear bag that had something like black clothing inside. They turned from the shop and began to walk back to the MTC.

"Oh darn it! I forgot the make seven's. Hang on, I'll be right back." Goku exclaimed, finished handing out his packages and ran back to the shop. Three seconds later, Goku was back, holding a box that he handed to Giles, and two swords in sheaths. One, with a gold trimmed hilt he handed to Buffy. The other, with a red trimmed hilt he handed to Xander.

"These are ours?" Buffy exclaimed as she took the sword. "I didn't think that a street fight allowed weapons."

"Well, this isn't a street fight, as you'll eventually find out. But there are just as few rules. In the tournament, you use whatever you've got, short of a mass destruction weapon. Those are pretty much the only weapons not allowed, but it won't matter since that entails only two things ever known or found. A black hole, and a fission cannon, large scale. Swords, guns, blasters, shields, some even use tanks and starships. It's all fair. Meaning that there is no unfair, so don't expect there to be any kind of referee. You either win, you let him or it quit, or you die. It's always that simple."

"Oh." Buffy replied.

She put the other packages under her arms and while walking, tried to get the sword out of the sheath. It wouldn't budge. Goku, seeing what she was trying to do, said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Why not?" Buffy asked, stopping to ask.

"Because the make seven is made out of the densest material the Compound knows about. The sheath is actually a device that pummels it with anti-graviton particles, making it a whole lot lighter than it would be normally, just so you can carry it. You might be able to get it out, but from what I've seen so far, you wouldn't be able to hold it at all." Goku told her.

Buffy, always one to take the challenge, "Mind if I try out that theory?"

Goku smirked in wry and pitied amusement. "Go ahead, I got time." She handed him her other two packages and took the sheath neck by one hand, and the hilt by the other. After ten seconds or so, even Xander could see the strain Buffy was putting into moving the sword. Finally, Goku suggested, "Try holding it horizontal. Might make it easier."

She immediately did, and tried again. Slowly, very slowly, the blade began to emerge from the black sheath. It was gray, but a polished gray, and reflected the lighting well. Again, everyone could see the strain in the Slayer's arm, but her face was perfectly calm and almost relaxed. After a minute of pulling, the blade, the four-foot katana was removed from its sheath.

And immediately dropped to the floor with a loud clang. This time all appearances of calm left Buffy as she used both hands on the hilt and much to Goku's surprise, lifted the blade slowly to eye level. After a minute or so of holding it as such, she raised it some more, and took the blade through a familiar kata, practice movement, that Giles had shown her that went well with this type of blade. Her movements were very slow, but precisely controlled, and Goku was nevertheless impressed, despite the simpleness of the moves she was performing. 'I guess Slayer's really are stronger than normal humans.' Goku thought.

"OK, you've made your point and I'm sure that I made mine. So if you still want that demonstration before your Clinic appointment, then we'd better get going." He told her. She stopped moving and then almost casually spun the sword on her wrist, picked up the sheath, and replaced the blade. Taking back her packages, she smiled, and Goku knew that her arms were no doubt killing her.

Ninety minutes later, the group was back in the main gym. They had gone back to the quarters to drop off their stuff, and then shown the eating area called the "Movable Mess". Named first and foremost because of it being a giant floating barge that you couldn't transfer to, but had to fly to. Buffy chose to fly with Goku, while the rest took the closest thing to a Taxi this place had. She was still talking about the experience.

After seeing the Mess, Goku showed them the park, the recreation area, and the Primary Building where the Council resides and where they filled out Buffy and groups paperwork. They each signed once to a contract that said the exact same thing that the Powers had told them they were getting into.

The fifty-cent tour over, Goku took them back to the Gym for the demonstration he promised them. Except they weren't behind the For-lass, they were out in the middle of a cleared area with all the other fighters and etc. standing at attention, all staring at the new recruits. If Buffy had felt like the new kid on her first day at Sunnydale high, she now felt like she was stark naked and pimply and geeky on her first day of life. Or at least like she was being watched, and she really didn't like that.

"OK, first demonstration. You have to be strong. And I don't mean super strong, or really strong, I mean strong." Goku shouted to them from where he was. They were on the sidelines, with a clear view of the entire arena, but there were several groups of other fighters on either side of them. Buffy and Willow both assumed them to be there in case the demonstration got out of hand.

Suddenly, as Goku finished his announcement, a huge, (remember how big huge is?), black sphere just dropped out of the ceiling right where Goku was standing. It was like a bowling ball about to squish a virus. Except that at the last possible second, Goku put his right hand above his head and caught it! As easily as Buffy might catch a basketball, or a Nerf ball really. The humans stared in amazement, and Willow's mouth actually opened in shock.

Then, the amazing thing is, Goku tossed the giant metal ball in the air, and did a mid-air up kick against the tiny portion of it that was against him, and the ball flew, no it shot through the air and into an equally sized blue spot on the distant wall. Goku was standing in his exact same spot by the time that the ball disappeared.

He looked back to the shocked people on the sidelines and shouted the next part of his demonstration. "Next, you have to be fast. And not fast enough, not just faster than, but fast." And as he finished those words, every fighter in the gym shot a single blast of energy, of one form or another, at the man standing there. Buffy almost cried out a warning, and Willow audibly gasped, but there was no time to do anything as the blasts were fired, they shot with the speed of light towards their trainer, and then…

And then he was just gone, not even there by the moment all the energy blasts connected on that point. There would have been an explosion, had it not been withheld by a force field that appeared in the nick of time. Less than a second after that, Buffy felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see what Willow wanted, but saw Goku instead. Her eyes widened, and then bulged more when he seemingly disappeared from in front of her. Her trained Slayer eyes caught a brief flash of what might have been movement in several places around her and the gym in general, but her eyes weren't fast enough to keep up.

After several more seconds of this hide and seek, where Goku would appear before one of them only to disappear less than a second later, he reappeared back out in the middle, where the blast and force field had quit. "How'd he do that?" Xander asked aloud.

Goku spoke again, "Then, you have to be tough. And tough like nothing you've ever seen. Gentlemen, if you will please demonstrate." Goku indicated two humanoid creatures that stepped out from the crowd. Buffy thought they looked human enough, except one had vivid purple hair and stood close to nine feet tall, while the other was bald, tan, and unnaturally thin. He also had black eyes that had no pupils and blinked sideways.

Goku flew up into the middle of the air once the other two "gentlemen" were in place. Then he just hovered there. The two creatures began to mutter words that the human's didn't immediately recognize, but found that they could understand, because while it was being said in a slightly different language, both were still human languages.

The big purple haired man brought his wrists together and just behind him, and began to shout or chant or call out or whatever in a very loud voice; "KAAH…MAY…HAAAH…MAYYY…"

And as he reached this point, a bright white ball of energy formed between his opened palms. Meanwhile, the skinny bald guy had his hands interlocked before him, and he was floating in the lotus position. He was definitely chanting, but as the chant came to a close and the other man got to the MAYYY point, he shouted in a loud crystal clear voice a command of some kind, oh yeah, and he was glowing red:

"DHALSIM'S YOGA SPIRIT ATTACK!!!"

And at the exact same time, the purple haired man brought his hands forward, as well as the glowing white ball of power, and said the final word of his attack:

"HAH!!!!"

Then the most amazing thing yet happened. The ball of energy shot out in a beam of white energy, and from the bald guy, a giant dragon shaped form of fire energy shot out from him and both headed for Goku, who only hovered in the air, not indicating for a second that he was about to move. In fact if anything he appeared amused.

It almost seemed to go in slow motion at one point, for Buffy anyway. Unconsciously, her hand slipped into Willow's, and at the same time Xander's too found the fiery haired girl's other hand. And then the inevitable happened; the two energy attacks collided dead center on Goku. Buffy was sure that he hadn't moved away or anything. As the two energies hit their target, there was an explosion of light, and almost everyone there had to cover their eyes, or at the least blink. Then the light really did turn into an explosion, so loud that Buffy thought she was deaf if not for the ringing in her ears. As they continued to watch, the explosion lent way to a billowing cloud of smoke. And it was fast moving to cover everything.

Buffy noticed Willow beside her, she was chanting some Latin spell or something. 'This is not the time for spell casting Willow,' Buffy thought. Yes it is came an almost immediate response. Buffy blinked and tried to figure out what had just happened. But she did not have time as she noticed the smoke cloud less than twenty feet away. Buffy had been caught in a dust storm once when she was a kid, she knew how dangerous and unpleasant they could be. She attempted to brace herself, and covered her eyes once again. Suddenly Willow's chanting reached a shouting climax and Buffy swore there was another flash of light.

The next thing anybody knew, the smoke cloud covered every inch of the floor of the Main Gym. Except for one area where the smoke was going in every direction to avoid it. The spot that Willow, Buffy, Xander, and Giles stood in. Slowly, over the next minute or so, the smoke slowly dissipated, and revealed almost everybody covered with a small covering of dust. Almost everybody except for the new recruits who were surrounded by a mystical barrier.

When Buffy looked up, she didn't see smoke, she didn't feel dust in her eyes or lungs. Rather she saw the smoke stop, just stop less than ten feet from them, and then stay that distance away from them on all sides. "Willow?" Buffy asked. When her friend didn't answer, Buffy turned to her, concerned. What she saw concerned her even more. Willow was standing straighter than an ironing board, and her eyes were glowing slightly. Not any specific color, but they were definitely glowing.

"Willow?" Buffy asked again. The little witch didn't respond until the smoke had mostly dissipated. Then, it was only to take a deep breath. Buffy noticed that Giles had both of his hands on Willow's shoulders.

"Giles, what are you doing?" she asked, slightly miffed.

Giles looked confused for a moment, then saw where his hands were and after a moment to think, stuttered out a response. "Well…uh, that is, I believe that Willow created this barrier to protect us from the smoke cloud, and uh, she might not have been powerful enough alone, so she, well, I believe she focused our power into her spell as well."

Buffy looked down at her hand and noticed as if for the first time that it was holding Willow's, and on the other side, she could see Xander also holding Willow's hand. "OK, I guess that's a good way of looking at it. Xander…what are you looking at?" Buffy asked when she saw Xander just staring straight ahead, with his mouth open in shock. Xander, in response, only pointed at whatever he was looking at.

Buffy looked where he pointed and her own mouth dropped down. The next second, Willow let out a gasp, and her eyes stopped glowing and the barrier disappeared. Surprisingly, at least to her, she didn't faint, or even feel like fainting. Then she noticed the others holding her hands and looking into the distance, in shock.

Willow immediately went to panic mode. Did her spell cause this? Did she do this? How could she reverse it? What would she do now? What were they looking at? All these questions and more came to her mind, and when the last one was asked, Willow looked herself, and she joined them in a state of shock.

What they saw was Goku, still floating exactly where he had been and the only indication that he had been hit by the two energy blasts at all was he had three more strands of hair over his forehead. The transition from panic mode to babble mode was always easy for Willow, especially now.

"How…how did…he…they…the two…big explosion…they hit…he…I…shield…but he…how…did he…no, I…I saw him get hit, I saw him get hit. He did not dodge or disappear or anything, he got hit! Him getting hit is what I saw! How? How did he do that? Buffy?" Willow babbled.

"I'm right there with ya Red," responded the blonde Slayer.

After a moment or two, Goku "disappeared" again and reappeared right in front of Willow. They finally let go of their hands and Giles removed his. Willow was staring wide eyed up at the unscathed man, and he was glaring intensely at her. Enough so that Buffy decided that she didn't like it.

"How did you do that? Those blasts were massive, almost nothing could've survived that!" Buffy asked in an attempt to get him off Willow's case.

"I told you, tough." Goku responded, not taking his eyes from Willow. "Now you tell me something, why did Willow set up a mystical barrier? I figured even Xander could've handled something as small as dust."

Buffy would've answered to that, but Willow beat her to it. "Hey! Dust clouds can be pretty dangerous you know, and besides, what if we were blindsided or something. Just because we're supposed to be tough, fast, and strong by the time we leave doesn't mean that we are right now! So what if I did set up a barrier, it practically took all I had to do it anyway! And it worked, and I already did it and you can't do anything about that, can you?"

Goku smiled. If Willow didn't know any better, she'd have thought it was a proud smile. Then Goku spoke. "Well, no I can't do anything about that now. All I can say is that I'm impressed. And there is one more thing that I have to show you. Yes, you need to be strong, and fast, and tough by the time you leave, but you also need one more thing, and it might be a good idea to get that before you even come here."

"What's that?" Buffy asked.

Goku, instead of answering, disappeared and immediately reappeared in the middle of the floor. "Power," he stated loud enough for them to hear. Then he went into a modified horse stance, his legs spaced evenly beneath him and his arms drawn back by his sides. Then he began to yell.

"Hhheeeeeeeyyaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!" the sound reverberated throughout the building. But that wasn't the impressive thing. The impressive thing, Buffy noticed first, followed quickly by Willow, Giles, and Xander was the last to even catch a clue about sensing it. As soon, if not sooner than the dark haired man had started shouting, Buffy's stomach clenched. She vaguely recalled a long forgotten lecture by her first Watcher. The Slayer has the ability to sense and find vampires naturally. It reacts to their un-naturalness, their inhumanity. To her, that first time it was just cramps. Then she was able to get past the pain and able to focus it into a sixth sense sort of. More like an early warning of anything coming up where she couldn't see it, vampire or not.

She suddenly felt the cramps again. But it wasn't responding to vampires or anything like that. It was responding to Goku, and whatever he was doing. As she focused, she realized that she could get past the pain with this as well, and she realized something else as well. Goku was getting stronger, more powerful, and she knew it in her very marrow.

Willow could also detect Goku's growing strength, though she didn't feel it as a part of her anatomy or as anything Buffy felt it like. Rather she sensed it through her magical abilities and the effects of what he was doing on the surrounding environment. As they all watched, the air around Goku took on a blurry effect, like heat waves from the road, only much, much more intense and far closer.

Giles sensed Goku's growing strength much the way Willow had, through the magical talents he had acquired from his rebel days in college. Xander was the last to sense anything, and for him, it was like a presence, an impenetrable shadow on his mind that continuously grew bigger and darker. Whatever it was, it scared him.

And then the most truly amazing thing happened. Goku transformed. There was a flash of golden light, and when the Slayerettes looked again, Goku was standing there surrounded by a golden glow. But he was different. His hair was golden blond, even more than Buffy's right after she came out of the bathroom. And if they could look closely enough, they would see that his black brown eyes were now a vivid blue sea green. His hair, where it had been wild before, now it was all going straight up, except for the two or three bangs left there on his forehead. Surrounded by the golden light, he looked awesome.

"Holy schnikes!" Xander exclaimed. Everyone was staring at the amazing sight in the middle of the arena. And more than half of them could feel the strength and "power" of the entity that was Goku.

"Giles, what the hell just happened here?" Buffy asked, turning to Giles for an answer as she always did.

Giles stared amazedly at the golden man that had guided them for the past two hours or so. He too felt the strength and sheer level of power that he exuded, and possibly held, though Giles severely doubted that he could ever sense this man's true power. After a full two minutes of silence, Giles answered Buffy's question. "I have no idea Buffy. I have no idea."

After maybe five minutes of standing there, powering up, Goku held his power level steady and "flashed", or ran faster than sight, over to his new trainees. To everyone else, he merely stopped glowing but did not turn back to the way he had been. And everyone could feel how powerful he was.

When Goku reappeared before them, even Buffy had to jump. Willow and Xander screamed, while Giles let his breathing accelerate enough that his heart tried to beat its way out of his chest. "What? Did I scare you?" Goku asked in a teasing tone.

"What the…what the hell happened? What happened to you? Who are you!??" Buffy got out all in a rush. Again, she had subconsciously put herself between the "threat" and her allies.

"Oh, nothing much. I just powered up and transformed into a Super Saiyan." Goku answered back as though it were casual as knocking on someone's door before coming in.

"OK, back up, what the hell is a Super Saiyan?" Buffy accused.

Goku smiled that same pitying smile he seemed to like giving her, and dodged the question with, "I'll explain everything. I promise, and I always keep my promises. But for now, we might as well show you the Arboretum, it's a nice place to visit and calm down after a rough day. Even you'll like it Buffy."

Before Buffy could respond to the obvious attack on her attitude, she stopped. She was sensing something far more familiar to her, even this close to the star fire that was Goku. It was close, otherwise she never would have felt it. Focusing down, she barely managed to pinpoint the location and the source. Vampire.

Quickly double-checking, without letting it be overtly obvious that she was checking, Buffy felt for the back up stakes she kept in her jacket and pants leg. Turning so that it would look as though she were walking away in a huff from Goku, she was actually, maneuvering the stake in her jacket into her right hand and turning her body so that she faced the vampire that was less than five feet from Xander.

Goku found it odd that the girl who was so full of attitude and outright rebellious actions towards authority, wouldn't respond to the obvious jibe. That's when he noticed her reaching out with her senses. He found it odd that she already had an adaptation of the ability to sense other powers. She seemed to be searching the crowds, and when she found it, a pale, but big looking human barely five feet from Xander's back. Buffy's whole demeanor changed. He could even feel a slight flare of her own power. Then she turned her back on him, as though too angry for words, but he caught that she turned towards the man who was slowly inching closer to Xander. She also reached for something in her jacket, he was sure of it. The next things that happened even he didn't expect.

Buffy, just before walking her perfected, "angry, fuming, storming off" routine, caught Giles' eyes and gave him a meaningful look that not many could've misunderstood. His returning nod was barely a twitch of his chin and he also started scanning the crowds. Then, taking four very quick steps that took her very close to Xander, she casually noticed that the vampire had slowly moved closer to Xander, before she took a final step that ended with her leg in his gut.

Xander, as he had planned on doing since he caught Buffy and Giles exchanging looks, dived and ducked away from Buffy as soon as she passed him. Before anybody could react further, Buffy kicked the big pale guy twice more, and then performing a perfect leg sweep. Before he could even get up, she pulled him up by the scruff of his collar, and threw him across the clearing in the crowd over next to Giles, who picked the vampire up himself and punched him, and then broke its neck. Keeping it down for a few moments longer anyway.

"Hey! What the heck are you guys doing?" Goku shouted. He tried to step up to Buffy but was shoved away by a surprisingly strong human that soon attacked Buffy, who was more than ready for it.

She began blocking and punching at an almost casual pace for her. She was almost amazed that vampires could ever be this easy. Then a punch caught her off-guard for a moment and she flew back nearly ten feet. Unfortunately, she was caught…by another vampire. He was already "vamped out", the term that Buffy used to describe the yellow eyes, rigid forehead, and sharp fangs that represented the demon half of the vampire. He smiled at her, not a pleasant smile, if anything about these guys was ever pleasant, and thought about lunging for a bite, but didn't do much after that as her leg suddenly knocked his head down a vertebrae on his dead spine.

Twisting away from the demon that had caught her, Buffy kept up her momentum and performed an arching roundhouse the knocked the vampire to the ground. Three vamps so far, she counted to herself. She noticed that Willow was staying as close as the little wicca could stand next to Goku, and Xander was trying to help Giles with the vampire that had thrown her. Deciding to end this before it got any more dangerous, Buffy knelt to the vampire she had just knocked down and finally revealing the stake in her hand, drove the wooden object through the demon's heart, effectively turning it to dust in the next five seconds.

Finished with that one, she ran to the one that Giles had broken the neck of and staked it through the back as it was staggering to its feet. Running past it, she took out her other stake and jumping over the battling three, tossed it to Xander, who easily caught it, but was almost just as easily knocked away in the next second. Giles also was cast aside, leaving Buffy to fend herself from the massive vampire.

Goku tried once more to intervene, "Hey! Stop it! Willow, what is going on?" The redheaded witch beside him merely shrugged and answered as casually as he had spoken to them, "Vampires," as though that one word answered all his questions. Actually, it did.

"Oh," he commented as he watched Buffy begin a complex series of rapid punches and kicks, which the large vampire had little trouble keeping up with it seemed. After maybe a minute more of this, with everyone watching the Slayer work, deciding that with the way she was going that if anybody interfered, they'd just get knocked flat on their butts. Then, Goku felt Buffy's power flare for just a moment or two, and suddenly the fight seemed to be going in her favor as she started pummeling through the undead creature's defenses faster than it could raise them. Finally, Buffy kicked the vampire to the ground and threw, with stunning precision and accuracy, the stake in her hand into the creature's heart, turning it to dust in the next second.

The group, Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles, regathered next to each other and congratulate on the victory. At least that's how it started out.

"Way to go Buff!" Xander exclaimed. "That was one tough vamp, and I thought he nearly had you there. Nice jump by the way."

"Thanks," she responded, "but compared to Spike, that guy was easy. Tell you what really bugs me though, is how three vampires got here and knew exactly where we were, and for that matter, why would they attack us? Seeing what Goku just did, and the fact that we're supposed to be able to do that, you'd think that they'd start by turning some of the other fighters here. It doesn't make much sense."

The others were obviously just as troubled as she was over this, until Goku stepped in, still a Super Saiyan. "Oh, don't worry too much about that. It was to be expected, and I figured if I'd warned you, then you might not have been as good as you were." He was saying.

"What are you talking about gold boy?" Xander quipped.

Goku gave him a humoring grin and continued, "I'm talking about the fact that the gym is more than just a gym. It's a training hall. Sometimes training means fighting enemies. So, using somewhat advanced technology, the main computer created synthoid manifestations of vampires. And had them attack you to test your fighting prowess."

"You mean those vamps were fake?!!" Xander shouted as they neared the MTC for the Main Gym floor. Goku only nodded.

"Well, fake enough. They were real in the sense that they could actually kill you if you don't defend yourself, but no, they were not case in point real vampires. I might've come in and helped, but you looked like you were on a roll Buffy," Goku remarked as he pointed his right hand back to where they had come from, and suddenly an intense beam of yellow energy shot from his hand to a fourth vampire that the gym seemed to have made another of to keep them from leaving. It barely had time to register the attack before it was swallowed in the intense light and let loose an unearthly scream as it was vaporized on the spot.

Shrugging, Goku set the coordinates for the MTC and stepped through, the others staring in amazement at all they had just witnessed. Then one by one, Buffy first, they stepped through, following the Super Saiyan.

After another hour, in which the golden haired Super Saiyan showed them not only the arboretum, but took them to several viewing points throughout the complex where they had the possibility of actually seeing a large number of the buildings and structures created inside this pocket universe. He also took them to "street level", a portion of the compound that was a maze of twists, turns, and overall garbage around the bases and foundations of most of these buildings. A good portion of the higher and "intenser" training sessions would be conducted out here. With them anyway.

Then finally, Goku, still Super Saiyan, announced that it was time for their Clinic appointment. It was finally getting to Buffy, who was the most disturbed by the fighter's raging power. So while they were still some minutes away from the MTC, she voiced her annoyance.

"Goku, I don't suppose that you've noticed that you are still a, what did you call it? A Super Saiyan? And I don't know about the others, but I can sense whatever it is, and it's starting to give me serious cramps, so unless you want to see me in the state "my time of the month" puts me in, then I would kindly suggest that you change back or whatever it is that you do, OK?" she sarcastically asked of him.

Goku only shrugged, and without a word, his hair changed back to black and fell back to its familiar wild routine, and his eyes back to basic black. Buffy visibly relaxed after this and everyone guessed as to how much it was really bothering her when she mumbled a serious, "Thanks," to him.

Willow was concerned about what Buffy had said though. "Buffy, what do you mean, you could 'sense' him?" she asked using her concerned friend voice.

Buffy just shrugged and tried to explain it as best she could to her friends and trainer. "Well, you know that the Slayer can sense vampires, right?" Giles and Willow nodded, while Xander looked skeptically at her.

"You're kidding right?" he asked, totally not believing. Buffy just shook her head and continued.

"Well, the first time that I felt a vampire, when my first watcher sent me down a dark alley, alone with nothing but a stake, I began to feel really bad cramps. After the vamp was dusted, my watcher explained that it was an ability to track and sense vampires. After a long time, having lived in Sunnydale where vamps are practically everywhere, I began to kind of get used to the cramps, and could actually turn it into a sort of vampire radar. Anyway, during the demonstration, when Goku was doing whatever he was doing to the air, it was so strong that it brought the cramps back." She finished.

"Oh," Willow and Xander synced.

"Um, Buff, I, uh, I, you know, I kinda felt something too," Willow stutteringly admitted.

"What do you mean Will?" Buffy asked, curious despite herself.

"I…I don't know exactly what he, um, you were doing Goku, but I…I don't know. I could feel the energy you were raising, and the effect that it was having on the environment around you, and us. And when you…you transformed, it…it, it, it was like, like…" Xander hit Willow solidly on the back, "like your power nearly quadrupled after that. I don't get it. What exactly did you do?" she asked begging to know. After a moment, she mouthed a 'thanks' to her lifelong friend.

Goku was silent for a time, but he did eventually answer. "Well, Willow, actually, I'd like to think that my power, as you put it, more than quadrupled. I'd like to think that it exponentially increased as I willed it." He said cryptically.

"How did you do that?" Buffy asked instantly.

Goku gave her a curious look before continuing on walking. He answered some moments later. "I'll tell you what, I'll explain the finer mechanics of what I did, if you tell me how you did it."

"What?! I didn't do anything like that! I don't glow, and I don't know how to transform into this…this Super Saiyan!!" Buffy exclaimed angrily.

"I wasn't talking about transforming," Goku explained gently. "I was talking about, when you were about to take out that vampire sim back in the gym. You raised your own power level by a marginal, but significant amount."

"Oh," Buffy muttered, ashamed. Then, realizing what her trainer had said, she did a double take and asked, amazed, "I did?" Goku smiled and nodded.

Buffy thought for a moment about the fight barely an hour ago, how when she had sensed the vampire, all of her senses suddenly became focused on finding it, and every single one of her muscles tensed, just slightly, preparing for the adrenaline rush needed for fighting the undead creatures that she was called to destroy. It was strange, what she had felt then felt nothing like what Goku had done, but then, she wasn't Goku, so she couldn't know what it had felt like for him. Well, now was as good as anytime to find out.

"I'm not sure. I can't really imagine how I felt then could be anything similar to what you did, but…" Buffy tried to explain.

"Well, that may be because of the fact that I did it on a far larger scale. Like I said, you only raised it a marginal amount, but enough for me, who is highly trained to sense such fluctuations in an entity's power, even at extremely low levels, to notice it. Why don't you tell me how it is that you first sensed the vampire?" Goku asked of her, believing that it was never too early to start some training.

Buffy thought about her answer for a moment before replying. "Well, I'm a Slayer, and according to my first Watcher, and Giles," she paused, smiling as mentioned Watcher blushes with the recognition, "say that the Slayer is supposed to be able to sense the vampires. I've been working on it ever since I came back from summer vacation. I got it down to where I can tell if a vampire is nearby if it's less than ten feet away, and on occasion, I can tell if how many there are, and once I was even able to tell a different type of demon from the hoard of vamps it was with." Buffy boasted proudly. Goku nodded in understanding, or at least he seemed to.

"How old are you Buffy?" he asked suddenly.

Surprised at the question, she was flustered for a moment before answering, "Sixteen, why?" She did not receive an immediate response. Goku stared at her for a few moments, continuing to walk. Then he nodded, as though some thought had made an understanding sense. He turned to Giles, "Watcher, do you think you might be able to explain to me, exactly how Buffy's "6^th sense" works?"

Buffy was annoyed by the use of Giles' title rather than his name. "Hey! His name is Giles! And I don't appreciate it when people insult my friends, including my Watcher, by ordering them around!" she accused.

Goku then did an amazing thing. He blushed. And grinned sheepishly at Buffy and the flustered Watcher. Then ducking his head in embarrassment, he said to them, "Sorry Giles. And Buffy, I…I, uh, I kind of forgot his name. So when I forget people's names, I use their codenames. Everyone's has already been assigned, as you know. I'm sorry Giles, but, you've just kind of been there, but I'm sure we'll be good friends, at least good enough for me to learn your name." He joked, smiling, hoping that they would catch on. Nobody laughed.

Giles did smile, in sympathetic understanding. Then he returned to the Saiyan's question. "Um, well, actually, I am not one hundred percent sure about all of Buffy's abilities. There is ofcourse the enhanced strength, as well as a heightened immune and healing system. She can also learn to use almost any weapon instantly, provided she ofcourse has some practice swings," the Watcher gave her a chiding parental look. She just returned it with a childish immature look, sticking her tongue out at him.

Continuing, "She also has the ability to resist most forms of vampire mesmerism. Though in most cases it is indeed a myth, provided the vampire is old enough, like the Master, then they do indeed have a form of mesmerism."

"That's funny, cause aside from the Master, I don't remember fighting any vampires with 'mesmerism' powers," Buffy interrupted.

Giles gave her a look, which made the younger girl blush at her outburst, which in turn caused Goku to smile at it. Giles continued, answering Buffy as well, "Spike, a recent vampire that had come to Sunnydale, who by the way has killed two Slayers already, has mesmerism powers, as well as his mate, Drusilla, and Angel once confided in me that he too has discovered that he has hypnotic abilities. He also said that Buffy was completely immune to them."

They all turned to Buffy, expecting her reaction, she just shrugged her shoulders, but knowing exactly the time that Giles was speaking of. Taking that as some form of answer, Giles finally got to the point of Goku's question. "As for Buffy's "6^th sense" as you put it, her ability to sense vampires and demons, there is little more known about it, other than what the Slayer describes to her Watcher, and that it is very accurate when fully tested."

"Tested?" Goku asked.

Giles, distracted by something, "Hmm? Oh, well, the counsel, the Watcher's counsel, has every so often tried to study this phenomenon of the Slayer's powers. As I understand it, they would blind fold the Slayer and place her in either a very crowded and noisy room, or in a sound proof chamber. They would then take captured and weakened vampires and various other demons to within range of what the Slayer said she could sense. It was a very long time ago, but I believe the chronicle said that the most any Slayer was able to sense accurately was between 100 and 90 meters away. But then, the counsel only tested with vampires in those stages." Giles finished and turned to the man that was their trainer.

The taller man had a thoughtful look on his face as he considered what Giles had told him. He stopped, the others stopped around him, wondering what he could possibly be thinking. Then he told them.

"Buffy, do you remember what I felt like when I was powering up back in the gym?" he asked her, his face quite serious.

Buffy nodded, remembering. "I don't think I'll ever be able to forget it," she answered solemnly. Goku nodded and told them, "Stay here. I want to try something. I'm going to go behind one of these buildings and transform to Super Saiyan, powering up exactly as I did in the gym. I want you all to stay here, and if you sense me Buffy, then point out which building, and try and focus on where exactly I am. And you two," he said pointing at Willow and Giles, "no helping her. I know that both of you have some magical talent, and that no doubt helped you to sense me before, but this is testing Buffy's powers, not yours. We'll work on your own sensing abilities later, but for now, we're working with Buffy. OK?" The two nodded.

Nodding himself, Goku chose a direction, and in a flash he was in the air and disappeared behind on of the corners. Several seconds later, Buffy, Willow, and to a smaller degree, Giles felt something. It was similar to what they had felt and seen in the gym, but because they couldn't see the source, their senses didn't quite fully detect it.

But Buffy's did. For whatever reason, the second that Goku started to "power up" as he had put it, she felt her cramps start up again. As she focused herself past the pain, only rubbing her stomach lightly as any indication, she focused down on what her "6^th sense" was telling her about what she was feeling. It was huge, almost identical to before, and as she continued to focus, and the pain lessened, she began to think of this type of "blip" on her radar as Goku. Closing her eyes in concentration, Buffy bit down the rest of the pain and forced herself to identify the "blip's" location.

She turned slightly in the direction and 'felt' which building, what corner, and to a much smaller degree, how much power the blip had. Opening her eyes, she turned her head to the building that she sensed Goku behind, he was hiding on the corner exactly opposite from the corner facing them. She smiled.

Willow suddenly exclaimed. "Ooh! I found him, he's there!" she said pointing excitedly at the building that Buffy had correctly identified that her trainer was hiding behind. Suddenly, the blip practically disappeared off her radar. She wondered what happened, until she realized that he had just returned to normal. No longer powered up.

She wondered if she could sense him when he was like this. Closing her eyes again, she focused and searched for anything similar to what 'felt' like that big blip that was on her screen just moments ago. A second of concentrating, she suddenly found him. He was moving like lightning, practically straight at them, but not without bouncing off a few buildings too. Focusing all her other senses, opening her eyes, with her new sense, her head jumping around like at a ping pong tournament, she could barely make out movement wherever she looked, and she knew that she heard whistling, or some kind of wind sound as well.

She kept this up, beginning to get a serious headache, when Goku finally reappeared in front of them. "Well?" he asked dead serious. Willow answered first, pointing at the building, "That one!" she exclaimed, very excited. Until Goku gave her an identical look to the one Giles had given Buffy before.

Buffy nodded and pointed at the same building. "That one alright. On the corner opposite us. I could also, when I concentrated, follow some of your movements after you powered down." She answered like the prize pupil, which she felt like since she was now in a school all about fighting.

Goku smiled and nodded in approval. Willow looked confused. "Actually, I thought you were inside the building," she commented.

Goku shrugged. "Buffy's right, I was on the corner opposite. Close to the wall, but definitely outside, sorry Willow." Willow only nodded, and accepted that she would have to train really hard if she was supposed to help Buffy in this fighting tournament thing. She made a promise then and there to herself that she would work herself tired and beyond to be good enough for Buffy. It would be much later until she came to realize the double meaning of that promise, for both her life, and Buffy's.

"OK, that time, I was the exact distance that I was away from you in the gym. This time, I want you to try and guess direction, position, and distance," Goku told Buffy. She nodded, but asked a quick question. "How far away were you this time?" she asked. "20 meters" he replied. Nodding, she went back to her standing position and closed her eyes, concentrating on Goku the entire way as he flashed from point to point through the buildings.

At some point she lost him entirely and couldn't find him until he started powering up again. Once he was at what she called "Super Saiyan" level, she tried to calculate in her mind how far away he was. Keeping in mind that the first two times were 20 meters away, she tried simple addition, and moved on to multiplication. After maybe a minute, she was amazed at her guess; 100 meters!!! As she continued to concentrate, she realized that she could sense many more things about Goku that she initially could. Must be the practice she mused.

But before she could really identify all of the new things she had begun to sense, he dropped his power level all of a sudden and began to return to them, along a very jagged route. She tried following him again, yet all of a sudden, it was like she just lost him. It wasn't until he felt like ten feet away that she could sense him again.

Opening her eyes, she saw him flash back in front of them, and look at her expectantly. She pointed to an area to the right and back of where they were currently standing, and said, "There, between two buildings it felt like, like in an alley, or behind some really big shade. And it felt, at least I added it up in my head, like it was about 100 meters or so away. That right?"

Goku raised an eyebrow, clearly impressed. "That's right. If you want to get exact, then 102.3 meters. But that's very good Buffy." Looking at his Global, he quickly began walking again in the direction of the MTC. "We'd better get going. We're going to be pushing how "on time" we are as it is."

The others began to jog, keeping up with the Saiyan as he strode quickly to get them to their appointment on time. Buffy decided to ask the question she had now, thinking that they might get too busy if she waited till later to ask.

"Goku, I do have a question," she informed him.

"What's that?" he asked, absently.

"The last time just now, when you were going out to power up, and even as you came back, I tried to track you, as, you know, as you are. But I lost you both times. Do you think that this ability to sense might be screwing up somehow? I mean, I know that I only just discovered what it can really do, but if it's blitzing now, then what's to say that it won't when I develop it some more?" she voiced her concerns.

Goku smiled, and even chuckled a little as he broke into a slight run himself, still allowing the others to keep up. "Heh, actually Buffy, there was absolutely nothing wrong with your senses. I was actually hiding my power level, as I went from my hiding place to the group. Just to see how well you might be able to focus. I'll ask for details later, but right now," he said as they came up to the black MTC, "you've got a doctor's appointment, and believe you me, they do not like to be kept waiting."

He entered the coordinates and then a picture of a very nice waiting room appeared in the black portal. Buffy entered first quickly followed by the other three. Goku waited until the portal closed, and then reopened it to a different place before stepping through himself. He appeared in the control room/observation room adjacent to where his new charges would be…operated on. Sadly, it was the only way to install the translating device to the brain, but all the same, Goku didn't entirely trust it, as he knew that there might be a protest from Buffy and her team. Proving him right, a slight explosion of voices could be heard through the supposed soundproof walls of the control room.

Buffy was somewhat surprised at the normalcy of the room she had just entered. She heard, as well as sensed the others enter behind her. Having just learned a cool, and potentially valuable new trick, Buffy wanted to use it as much as possible, first to get used to it, and second to hone it so that she could use it to its maximum potential.

Normally she wasn't like this, but after everything she had seen in the past few hours, not to mention all the day dreams she'd been having about the upcoming fights, and her laser sharp memory of what Goku's palm-pilot had told of her schedule, every advantage she had, the better off she was.

As she looked around the waiting room, she was afraid to sit down, remembering when Goku had come in at the exact moment that she had laid on the couch earlier. 'Speaking of Goku…' she thought as she looked behind them at the closed MTC, '…where is he?'

"Hey, you guys," Buffy said breaking everyone out of their own thoughts, "anybody see if Goku came in behind us? He's not here."

Almost immediately as she said that, a hydraulic door that they had not noticed yet suddenly whooshed open and two very tall and tough looking robots walked in. They stood about three feet above Xander, who was the tallest of the group at six feet. They were humanoid enough in the appearance of having a torso, two arms, two legs, and a head, but the arms were metal pipe thin, the legs were double jointed and backwards like a cats, and the head was like Robocop's head, minus the human mouth and the fact that a red bar of light occasionally flickered across the visor. The torso was just a simple tube that expanded out at the arms and legs to connect to. As for hands, well, they just seemed to be tentacles that shot out of the thin metal pipe arms.

So when the mentioned appendages suddenly shot out and wrapped themselves around Xander and Giles' waists, lifting them in the air, all hell broke loose as expected. "Aaaahhhhh!" both men screamed as they suddenly found themselves held immobile by something unknown. "Giles! Xander!" Buffy and Willow screamed together.

Buffy immediately raced forward and grabbed the tentacle thing around Xander and pulled with all her strength in an attempt to remove it. "GOKU!!! HELP!!" She screamed at the same time, the metal ropes completely unmoving. Willow, meanwhile was trying another tactic against the robots, magic.

Finally, Buffy made some headway, and the tightening metal tubes wrapped twice around her friend were torn apart at the seams in her bare hands. She wasn't exactly surprised at this since it had taken everything that she had, and it looked like the only thing holding the coils together were the wires that worked them on the inside. Xander fell to the ground and he struggled to regain his breathing after the thing had nearly squeezed his lungs out of his chest.

Buffy, not wanting to chance that this thing would grow new tentacles, or have some other way to come after Xander or herself, she solidly kicked the thing in it's torso and faster than it could react, followed up with a sweep the knocked it back and down for a little bit. Wanting to end it so that she could go and help Giles and the others, Buffy struck out at what she hoped was a vital part of the robot, the head.

Jumping up, Buffy spin-drop kicked the visor with such force that it shattered and crumbled at the impact and immediately the thing stopped moving. Watching for a brief moment to ensure the robot would not be getting back up, she got up and turned to help her friends, only to see Willow finishing the spell she was casting, which seemed to turn the offending machine into a large pile of green Jell-O. Much to the chagrin of the older watcher.

"Nice goin' Will," Buffy commented with a laugh.

The redheaded witch just blushed and smiled sheepishly, choosing to try and help Giles out of the mess she made rather than laugh about it. Xander on the other hand… "You know G-man, I probably should have noticed this before, but green is a very nice color on you! Maybe you should start wearing that instead of tweed!"

The elder watcher just stood and glared at the younger warrior, albeit covered in a green slimy Jell-O substance. "Xander, I do not know how many times I must tell you this. I detest it when you call me…"G-man" and I would be much appreciative if you would forever refrain from doing so again. Now-now help me out-out of this-this-this…"

"Jell-O." Willow provided. Giles just glared at her, and together the two teens helped the green covered man to stand without slipping. Buffy just laughed hysterically at the whole scene.

"I notice that you aren't helping any," Giles reprimanded.

Buffy just shrugged, still grinning, and then lamely retorted, "Not my mess." Buffy turned away before her three team members turned devastating life-threatening glares at her back. After a minute to get more or less comfortable again, Buffy turned back to the others, all business.

"I don't get this place. First thing when we get here is end up in a very comfortable room that makes it look like we'd be there for a while, two seconds after we do, they send in the toughest fighter I've ever heard about, let alone seen, who insults us and makes us jog like two whole miles before beating me up and throwing us, rather roughly through a portal of unknown origins. Then a couple hours later we're fighting vampires again, and told that we have to practically kill ourselves to get strong enough to even survive in this tournament. Now, at our Doctor's appointment no less, we're attacked again, this time by robots. Geez, does the training ever stop?!!" Buffy whined/outlined.

"Wait-wait-wait-wait a second guys!" Willow said suddenly. Everyone turned their attention her. "What if-what if-what-what-what…" "Will, do you need another slap?" Xander interrupted. Willow shook herself and finished her thought, "What if those…things were-were…were our…nurses?"

Everyone stared in shock at the revelation presented to them. They all looked down at their assailants, and realized that despite the surprise, strength, and capabilities of them, they weren't exactly hard to beat. Meaning that they weren't there to test the team's strength or give them a workout.

Buffy summed it up best in, "Uh oh." Two seconds before the same hydraulic door opened, and this time a dozen of the robots filed out before surrounding the group. "Ditto," Xander muttered before he, Giles, Buffy, and most importantly Willow were literally paralyzed with over two dozen tentacles covering each limb of their body.

"GOOOOKKUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!" Buffy screamed at the top of her lungs, which was quickly echoed by Willow and Xander, Giles choosing to grunt in his struggles. After several minutes of struggles and screams, the robots or whatever they are spared a tentacle each to wrap over each screaming teenager's mouth, before finally moving them, wrapped and all, through the hydraulic door and into a too dark room to see anything. Then before they were even aware of it, they were unconscious.

Seven Hours later

Buffy slowly became aware of her surroundings. An unfamiliar ceiling, a comfortable, but unknown bed, and walls that looked familiar, but she did not immediately recognize. She moaned quietly, the soft sound echoing in the egg like room. Slowly, taking ginger care so as not to be dizzy, the young Slayer sat up and got a better look at a room that she had barely glanced at before. Looking to the right of the bed, she saw the glass panel with the shower faucet knob to the left of it that she had gone through earlier just after she had arrived actually.

Shaking her head she actually took in the time to study her room for the next six weeks. The bed that she was currently lying on was pretty much a standard rectangular bed, except that it was maybe one size larger than 'King size'. The sheets, which were the only things, aside from surprisingly sturdy pillows, on the bed, were a dark forest green color, her favorite she noted. Currently the sheets were tucked into the bed, she seemed to have been placed on top of them and not tucked in for anything.

The room itself was almost a miniature model of the 'living room'. It was domed, sort of, but rather than go high above her head at a point, the ceiling, at a certain point along the wall, lost the sharp slope it had been going at and went into a nice curve along so that everything looked smooth, but it wasn't like living in an egg. She also noted that the room lacked any outstanding decoration, save a desk on the right of the bed, a dresser along the wall to the left of the bed, and the glass panel door to the bathroom. The room, for the most part was a soft gray color, while the carpeted color was a grayish brownie color. The furniture, desk and dresser, matched the walls, causing the bed, glass panel, and the door to the 'living room' to be vividly noticeable. The bed more so than the others.

It wasn't until Buffy stood up from the extremely large bed that she noticed the changes in her own person since being attacked by the robotic nurses from…wherever the hell they were. Instead of the comfortable, yet snug clothes that she had been brought here in, she was wearing loose, very loose, faded blue pajamas. Well, that was the best description for them. They actually felt more like a hospital gown than any number of pajamas that she had ever worn. Save for the breeze.

A sudden thought crossed her mind, and quickly she reached her hands behind her, feeling the back of her new clothing. Thankfully, she felt material covering her butt and her backside. They weren't actually that bad, very comfortable in fact, if not for the fact that it was the only thing that she was wearing. Looking down at herself again, she was surprised to see that the faded blue outfit more closely resembled a hospital doctor's "scrubs" rather than the patient gowns that it felt like. She was also bare foot, making her appreciate the carpet all the more.

Deciding that she would get no answers sitting around here, she moved to the door, and almost ran right into it since it didn't open. Remembering what Goku had told them about the doors, she decided to have it voice recognized, since she didn't feel like touching her thumb to some small plate every time she wants to get in.

Recalling how Goku had said to set the doors, she said in a clear, commanding voice, "Voice recognition: Buffy Summers, command: Open."

Needless to say, she was a little surprised when a metallic voice responded from somewhere in the ceiling, "Require Code Name for Command authorization."

"Code name?" Buffy asked, confused.

"Code Name." Was repeated as statement.

Buffy thought for a second or two and almost slapped herself. "Slayer," she said in a huff. A second later, a computer-typical beep of approval sounded followed by the doors opening just like they did on Star Trek: NG. Buffy sighed and stepped through, and stopped as soon as she saw Goku sitting on the couch in their 'living room', staring at her as she came out of her room. For some strange reason she suddenly felt self-conscious, though she didn't really have a reason to feel such.

"Um, hey," she greeted shyly, her trembling hands trying to find something to do with themselves before finally settling across her chest.

Unsmiling and raising his hand in greeting, Goku responded, "Hi." Strangely, his voice sounded abnormally dull to her. Very unusual from what she had seen of the intense trainer so far. 'Wonder what's going on?' Buffy thought to herself, moving to sit in one of the chairs opposite Goku, right before another door hissed open and Willow stepped out wearing the exact same outfit that Buffy had woken up in.

"Hey Will, how ya feelin'?" Buffy asked, sitting down, the alien chair immediately conforming to her body with a comfortable aired feeling.

"Um, actually kinda…uh, good I guess. I had a slight headache when I woke up, but it's gone now." The redheaded witch replied. She quietly made her way to the other recliner.

A couple of silent minutes after that, seemingly at the same time, Xander and Giles' doors both opened and both men, squinting at the somewhat brighter light of the room, stepped out and took in the surroundings. They also had the strange garbs. "Uh, mornin', or whatever the heck time it is," Xander muttered to the girls. Giles just nodded to those already seated and made way to the one of the chairs.

After several minutes more silence, Willow commented aloud. "I kinda feel like when I was a kid and just woke up from a nap, and it was raining outside. Well, no rain, but the nap part is true."

The statement met only silence. For a strange reason they all kinda felt that way, peaceful in a way that they hadn't felt since they were all children. Finally Buffy, always the first to lose patience over just about anything, blew the question on everybody's minds. "All right Goku, what's going on? We go into our doctors appointment, we accidentally beat up/destroy our nurses, by the way sorry about that," Goku only smiled and waved off the apology, "and then all of a sudden a whole army of nurse-bots come in and the next thing I know, I'm waking up in 'my room'. What happened? I thought you said it was just a check up or some thing."

"I never said that," Goku stated. "What I said, maybe not exactly but close enough, was 'you were going to the Clinic, where you would get translating devices installed.' You did."

As the revelation of what he'd said sunk in, Buffy quirked a brow and looked around on herself and around the room, and at the others. "So, uh, where are they?" she asked him. Rather than answer, Goku moved his right hand up as though to scratch his ear. He did, but once he did, his hand went to the back of his own skull, which he then tapped noticeably.

Confused, and it showing, Buffy moved her own hand to the back of her head, expecting to feel some kind of mechanical device like with the Borg on Star Trek, even though none of the others had anything on the back of their heads. She didn't find a device or anything out of the ordinary popping out of her head. Instead, as she felt her scalp, she felt a straight line of what felt like scar tissue, running along the back tip of her head to the base of the skull. Scar tissue that she couldn't really remember getting.

Suddenly it all clicked as Buffy's eyes went wider than saucers as the truth hit home. Slowly, she removed her hand from her head, staring in muted shock at Goku. He grimaced and sadly nodded his head. He couldn't meet her stare as her shock shifted to anger and outrage.

As their declared leader stared down at their trainer, the others slowly came to the realization that Goku had hinted at, and they probably should have known from the beginning would be the case. While Willow and Giles were far easier at accepting it, both having undergone surgery (appendix, tonsils, etc) before, Xander and Buffy were a little less than comfortable with the fact.

"Wait, wait-wait-wait-wait just a second here!" Xander exclaimed, after checking to feel his own scar. "You-you mean to say that-that, that th-th-they…you did brain surgery on US!!"

Goku didn't react, not in the least, and it was this silent admission that gave them the answer. "Why?" Buffy asked in a voice full of hurt and betrayal. The dark haired alien folded his hands before him, covering his mouth as he thought of the best answer. Finally he just gave the one the doctors gave him and everybody else when asked the same question.

"It's the only way to install the translating devices. The translators are actually little larger than the thinness of a dime, and at levels not even that. The "translator" is actually a thin sheet of interconnected synapses that are programmed with the combined knowledge of every language, mood, dialect, gesture, and innuendo of every single species here, as well as on Evil's side. For some reason the original designer of them thought that it might be a good idea if Good and Evil knew how to insult one another when fighting." Goku explained quietly.

The group was quiet after this, slightly digesting this new information. Finally Buffy and Xander both decided that it was too trivial, not to mention already done, to hold a grudge for. Besides, it took care of the language problem that had been on Buffy's thoughts. "OK, never mind that. Besides, it takes care of the whole language barrier problem. But wasn't there some way besides surgery?" Buffy asked.

Goku just slightly shook his head to the negative. "No, ever since the 'translator' was developed, the Council has made it a requirement that every fighter, no matter whether they fight or not, gets a translator installed. I don't know how long ago it might have been, but the real plus is that sometimes you find yourself speaking some language you never even heard before you came here. That is if you can call it a plus," Goku responded sourly.

As Buffy considered this statement, Willow caught the one phrase that she had missed. "What do you mean, 'no matter whether they fight or not'?" Willow asked. "You mean we can actually choose not to fight?" she added hopefully.

Goku smirked slightly and shook his head. Putting his hands on his knees he replied, "No Willow. There are a limited number of fighters that fight every three months at the main competition. It changes every tournament, mostly due to the number of fighters available by each side. I have no idea how they go about choosing the number each year, but all I know is, I show up, I get my fight schedule, and I fight my opponent and try to win the tournament. It's the ones that are inbetween; the preliminaries I told you about earlier that choose which of Good are going in. Only the best, meaning the top however many are entering this time get to fight in the main tournament. Oh, and a word of warning, if you don't fight by the third tournament from the time that you come to the Compound, the Powers either remove their immortality, or they just kill you. I've never been one not to fight, but either way, I'm still not stupid enough to tempt my luck by missing out unless I have a valid excuse."

"Oh, OK, so all we have to do is fight in the preliminary tournament held here, and if we don't win then we don't have to go to the big tournament where we, uh, have to uh, kill or be killed?" Willow asked nervously dancing around the thought of having to kill another being that wasn't a vampire or something pure evil.

As though reading her mind, Goku assured her, "Don't worry Willow, there's a reason they call it Evil. Most of whom you might be facing are going to be demons or Warlocks, probably from various Earth's and Hell's. And, no, you don't have to fight in the preliminary tournament."

"Oh, good," Willow sighed with relief.

"Because you're automatically going to the main tournament for the next fifteen tournaments," he added.

Every eye in the room was automatically on him. He almost seemed to shrink down a little under the stares. "What?!!" Willow screeched. The nervousness lessened only to be replaced by a growing concern as Goku sighed as though bearing some indefinable weight.

Goku sat back and looked at each of his new students in turn. "While you were in…at your Clinic appointment, I went to the Director's building, where you signed those forms earlier," they all nodded, "And I tried to find out why you had been given such an intense schedule, I mean I was three times as strong as all of you, magics and all, combined when I first came here, and I never had it this rough. Usually if the recruit shows promise we'll intensify the training to maybe something close to what yours is right now, but… Apparently the Powers expect you to be in the very next tournament, and in order to make sure that you'll even qualify, I'm going to be putting two of you through training that would make me pass out after the first week, well when I first got here anyway. Now I think I can keep up with it, I hope."

All of the humans subconsciously gulped at the same time as he explained this. Buffy was the first to accept it, after all, she had been the one that had gotten them all involved in this anyway. So, taking a deep breath Buffy asked the one question she dreaded the answer to more than any other. "So, when do we start?"

The others all looked at her like she was completely bonkers, save Goku, who held a look of understanding, and still some pity for her. "Tomorrow," he answered. "After you get some sleep. I'll be here to get you all up for your assignments." Quietly he got up and started to the exit, but was stopped by a question from Willow.

"What do you mean you'll only be putting two of us through th-that workout? Which two?" she asked concerned for her friends, or for herself.

Goku grimaced and decided to explain. "I'll personally be training Buffy and Xander, because I can push Buffy the hardest out of all of the Trainers here, and I can probably get Xander to at least her current level by the time we're done. Willow, since you're studying magic, you will personally be trained by two of the four Arch Mages I told you about earlier. Giles, mostly because of his physical age can't really be fully trained in either aspect, but we'll all be together for group training sessions, which will take up most of the evenings for the next six weeks. Don't worry Giles, we have something special planned for you. It'll help you a lot, but sorry," he said with a grin, "I'm not allowed to say."

"Oh," Willow muttered.

Starting for the exit again, Goku was saying, "Now you all had better get a good night's sleep. You're going to need it for tomorrow."

"Well I'm not particularly tired right now, especially since we've been sleeping for the past…" Buffy trailed off as she tried to guess at how long they'd been out.

"Seven hours." Goku supplied.

"Huh?" the blonde asked.

"You were knocked out exactly seven hours ago. But you've been unconscious, not asleep. There is a difference. Believe me, I know." Goku elaborated.

Suddenly Buffy smiled as she sat back down on the couch. "Well I never really could go to sleep without a bedtime story. How about the rest of you?" she shared a grin with Xander and Willow as she asked. They quickly emulated her in expression and turned to the Saiyan.

"Nope, never could sleep a wink unless I heard "How the Little Engine Could" at least twice, maybe even ten times," Xander responded with a wider grin at the older man.

"Me either," Willow added, smiling. "Course I was usually the one that ended up reading "The Little Engine that could" to Xander ten or twenty times a night."

"Oh, by the way, in case I never did, thanks for that Wills," Xander half turned to her.

Willow only brightened her smile and nodded her approval and thanks for the statement. Goku meanwhile was turning the gears over in his head as he realized what Buffy was doing. When he had it figured, he smirked ruefully and turned to the Slayer, "So is this your roundabout way of asking me to tell you more about myself?" he asked.

Buffy gave him a lopsided grin and raised an eyebrow, impressed. She turned to the others, "He's a quick one ain't he?" Interestingly they all, including Giles broke out laughing.

"At least he got it quicker than Angel did!" Willow called out between giggles.

At the name 'Angel' Goku tensed, not expecting to have to tell them the secret so soon. Giles, who had quit laughing at the same statement, noticed Goku's reaction and asked him about it. "Goku, what's wrong?" That stopped the laughter all together as all attention was back on Goku.

"Oh boy," he muttered under his breath before grabbing one of the other chairs and sitting back down, backwards.

They were all quiet, waiting patiently for their trainer to explain what was bothering him. Finally it became obvious that he wasn't going to say anything without a push. "Goku, is there something wrong?" Buffy asked, her concern obvious in her voice.

Goku breathed a heavy sigh and squeezed his eyes tight, as though bracing himself for some unknown pain. Finally he breathed out, "Could I tell you later?" he asked, his words pleading. Buffy scrunched her face in concern, but shrugged and nodded her head, saying, "Yeah sure. Besides, you're the trainer. And if it'll help, I'd much rather know your story rather than hear something that'll probably depress me further."

Goku grinned at the humor and nodded. "OK, my story huh? Well, I guess to understand any of it I'll have to start at the very beginning. Roughly about five hundred years ago on my home. There's a lot of back-story you see. I mean if you would try to explain the concept of Slayers and Vampires to an alien, who had never even been to Earth, let alone knew of it's legends, just imagine the time you'd have huh?"

Seeing the nods of agreement, especially from Giles, Goku grinned once again and began his ancient tale.

"I suppose for you to understand any of my history, you have to know the whole story. That's unfortunate because it really began over five hundred years ago. I told you that I was a Saiyan, well that's only partly true, because I'm only partly Saiyan. I'm more like 1/8^th Saiyan, the rest human."

"I guess it really began on a planet very far from Earth. Nobody can really know what it was called since it was destroyed a little over five hundred years ago. On this planet was where the Saiyan race was born. Saiyan's are natural fighters, from the day they are born to the day they die, preferably in battle, they strive to be stronger, always facing opponents that are stronger than them, otherwise what's the challenge? Well at some point the Saiyan king struck a deal with an intergalactic gangster, who was powerful enough, without weapons mind you, to destroy every planet in the universe, named Frieza. The deal was, that Frieza would not destroy the entire Saiyan race if they worked for him. Specifically going to worlds and wiping out their populations so that he could sell the planets to whoever wanted them. The way that the Saiyan's worked, they would send one of their infants, which was already as strong as an adult human, in a space pod to the planet they wanted to wipe out, and that Saiyan child, truly aggressive and blood thirsty as all Saiyan children were from the beginning, would be left to wipe out that planet. The true reason for this lies in the Saiyan's secret weapon, their tails."

"Their tails?" Buffy interrupted, confused.

Goku nodded and continued. "A Saiyan's tail represents the Saiyan's greatest strength. Every Saiyan with a tail that sees the light of a full moon will transform into, for lack of a better term, a giant ape monster. Only the strongest of Saiyan's can control themselves in this form, all others are mindless ravenous beasts. And as you've no doubt noticed, I do have my tail, but also I am among those strongest and also, there's no moon in the Compound so no worries." Goku unwrapped the furry "belt" around his waist and all could see that it indeed was a tail, which was wagging much like a feline's tail rather than a monkey's.

"Anyway, one of these Saiyan babies were sent to Earth, the Earth of my reality keep in mind. His Saiyan name was Kakarrot, but when he was found by an elderly hermit, the hermit, named Gohan, named him "Goku". Before you ask any questions, let me finish. Goku at first was like all Saiyan children, extremely aggressive, blood thirsty, and downright mean. Then, one day, something happened, but Goku hit his head, and after recuperating, he was the best-behaved child this side of pure happiness. His adopted father, who he called grandfather, raised him in the mountains until the day that the hermit died, killed by some giant ape monster. After a time, Goku made some friends and traveled the world with them, looking for magical jewels, called 'Dragon Balls' that when you gathered all seven, they summoned a mystical dragon that would grant you any wish. After they had gathered the Dragon Balls, Goku went to train under another hermit, this one a martial arts master named 'Master Roshi'. Goku wanted to enter and win the World Martial Arts Tournament that was held annually. Well, Goku wasn't the only student Master Roshi was training. The second was a young human boy, about 13 years old who also wanted to win the Martial Arts Tournament, named Krillin. Together they learned the Martial Arts that Roshi taught and together they became some of the strongest warriors on the planet. Well, about thirty years down the line, Goku is married and has one son. His wife, Chi Chi, was the loudest most overbearing, controlling, and dangerous freak this side of Freddy Krueger, and even he would be scared of her if you got her mad. His son was named Gohan, in memory of the man that raised him. Gohan, being half Saiyan also had a tail. Over the years Goku had made a lot of enemies, but many more friends. A case in both was another alien child that was actually 'born' on Earth. His name was Piccolo, and he was a Namekian. I'll show you a holo later. Well Piccolo and Goku had a long-standing rivalry, and both were among the strongest beings on the face of the planet. Until Raditz, Goku older pure blood Saiyan brother arrived to discover why Goku hadn't destroyed the planet yet. Raditz then made the unfortunate mistake of kidnapping Goku's son, and then planning on destroying the entire planet himself. For once, Goku and Piccolo put aside their rivalry to face the evil Saiyan on equal terms. Unfortunately, Raditz still whooped their asses. Until Piccolo revealed a new technique he had been working on. Fortunately it was enough, but the sad part was that in order to keep Raditz from dodging it, Goku had to hold him in place. So Goku was dead. But being dead works a funny way on my world. It's exactly like being alive; you just have a halo above your head. Heck, before I joined up with the tournament I myself was dead at least twice. The only way to be brought to life, at least the only way that we ever knew of was to wish somebody back to life with the Dragon Balls. So when Raditz made his final threat that two stronger Saiyan's would be arriving on Earth a year down the line, the 'Z fighters' as they called themselves started to train, and train hard. Piccolo, having seen that Gohan had the greatest potential out of all of them, personally trained the 8-year-old half-Saiyan. A year down the line, Goku was brought back to life after having trained with a big-time guru on the other side, and came back in the nick of time, just to see Piccolo sacrifice himself to save Gohan from being killed. This is important because there was another Namekian on the planet, and that was Piccolo's father and the creator of the Dragon Balls, named Kami. So Goku faced off with the two Saiyan's, the Saiyan Prince Vegita, and his flunky sidekick who I don't really remember the name of right now. Doesn't matter though because Vegita killed him because he wasn't doing his job right and killing Goku. So Vegita entered the fight, and it was pretty much a stand off until Goku actually managed to blast the other pure Saiyan into orbit. That wasn't all though. Vegita came back, slightly injured, and revealed that he could transform and still win, just by creating an artificial source of full moon light. Needless to say, the paralyzed Goku, (not permanently, just because he put so much energy into his attack that he couldn't barely move, and not without some major hurtin'), was quickly outmatched. Leaving it to his son Gohan, and his best friend Krillin to finish off the giant hairy beast. Somehow, not sure how exactly, Vegita's tail was cut off and he reverted back to his human form. Then Gohan's tail grew back. Finally Vegita was beaten, and Goku, not wanting his best friend to become a murderer, let Vegita leave peacefully in his space pod. Over the next three or so months, Goku healed up, and Bulma, his friend that originally dragged him into looking for the Dragon Balls all those years ago, with some help found the intergalactic spaceship that Kami, the Namekian had arrived to Earth in. Then with Gohan and Krillin, Bulma left to search for Namek, the home world of Kami and Piccolo, hoping that they possessed the technology of the Dragon Balls. Well they did, but unfortunately, the Z fighters weren't the only ones to have heard about the Dragon Ball technology. Frieza also had and had personally come to Namek to get his wish of Immortality. Well, after a whole month of traveling and living on Namek, Krillin and Gohan were faced with some tough choices. Apparently Vegita had recovered earlier than expected and was already on the planet, showing off some new moves the Z fighters had shown him. Then, at the end of the month, Goku in his own spaceship built by Bulma's father, arrived on the planet just in time to save Vegita, Gohan, and Krillin from being killed by Frieza's executioner squad, the Ginyu Force. Goku defeated the flunkies with absolute ease, and even had fun doing it. Then after some minor trouble with the Ginyu force's leader, Goku was placed into a healing chamber by Vegita and the others, which would have him completely healed in 72 hours. Unfortunately, they still had to deal with Frieza. While Vegita was sleeping, Gohan and Krillin, along with a young Namekian healer named Dende they had made friends with, called the Dragon of the planet Namek and made their first two wishes, that all the fighters killed in Vegita's assault were brought back to life, and then that Piccolo would be transported to Namek. Before they could make the final wish however, the ruler of the Namek's, the maker of the first Dragon Balls, died, prematurely I might add. And so the dragon and the balls disappeared. So that left Gohan, Krillin, and an enraged Vegita to face Frieza, with Piccolo on the other side of the planet making it there as fast as he could. Apparently Frieza was the declared most powerful warlord in the universe for a reason. He had over three transformations, each which made him ten times stronger than the last. In the end, his power level reached well over five million. At each stage however, Gohan, Krillin, Piccolo who came in at the third stage/second transformation, and then Vegita fought him every step of the way. Until Goku was released from the healing chamber. At first it looked like Goku might actually be as strong as the final form of Frieza, but then when they actually began to fight it out, it became obvious that the ice-cold space monster was just playing with the Saiyan from Earth. So, using his final technique, something called a 'Spirit Bomb', Goku knocked Frieza down and out with it, but that didn't quite destroy the monster. No, it only made him madder. So, when the dust settled from the chunk of the planet that was taken out, Frieza, not saying a word, just standing there, killed Krillin in the blink of an eye before Goku and the rest. Enraged to a point beyond description, Goku transformed. Not into the ape monster, but for the first time in over ten thousand years of Saiyan heritage, Goku was the first Super Saiyan in existence. Then, Super Saiyan Goku and Frieza fought it out, Goku not only keeping up but giving Frieza a run for his money. Then King Kai, the big guru that had trained Goku on the other side, came up with a plan. With Piccolo and Kami alive and Kami back on Earth, the Earth Dragon Balls were active once more. So King Kai had the Earth dragon revive all the people that Frieza had killed, which included the maker of the original Dragon Balls. So the Namekian Dragon, having one more wish to fulfill, awoke on the planet Namek. Goku then had Dende wish that everyone on the Planet Namek, except for Goku and Frieza would be transported to Earth. That left the two godlike warriors to finish it once and for all. In the end, Frieza was cut into several big chunks, and Goku barely escaped the exploding planet in a space pod. A year later, Goku shows back up, in the exact spot that a stranger named Trunks said he would arrive in. Trunks was from the future, and had come back to warn Goku of his death and two androids that would destroy the world. You see, Trunks was also a Super Saiyan, meaning he was at least part Saiyan. Half-Saiyan it seemed, since he was Vegita's son. But also Bulma's son too. Anyway, skipping a whole lot of history that you might actually fall asleep hearing, Goku had one more son, Goten, and Vegita a daughter after Trunks. Oh, they did stop the Androids. Goten had three kids of his own, two sons and a daughter. Trunks had two daughters, and Gohan one daughter, first born, and one son. Goten's daughter had two sons of her own, the eldest of which had a son himself. Trunks' youngest daughter had one child, a daughter. This daughter also had one son, but with the eldest son of Goten's daughter. I'm that son. Reason I say it like this is because both my parents were killed when I was very young, so I never got to know them. People say that I look just like my Great Grandfather, as well as my Great great Grandfather." Goku finished running his fingers through his large spiky black hair. "I don't really see it, to be honest."

After he was finished, there was total silence in the large domed room. After several minutes, Buffy finally broke the silence. "Wow," she muttered in awe. "So you're the great great grandson of your Earth's greatest hero? And you're named after him? Talk about having big shoes to fill."

Goku shrugged, "I've done OK I guess. Coming to the Compound definitely helped out in a lot of regards. But in the end, I guess the original Goku had accomplished the most, even though by this point I've lived nearly twice as long as he ever did. Which is why I stay here a lot of the time now. There's just nothing to do on my world. That's the way it is with most of the experienced warriors here. After they win enough tournaments, they gather enough respect that they can have their entire Universe monitored for anything big, bad, or major and they can get there immediately to take care of it. After a while, the bad guys just stop trying, you know?"

Buffy shrugged herself and replied, "Not really. It's almost like every week I've got a new big bad to take down, and every other week another Apocalypse to stop. You know?" she added sarcastically.

Goku grinned and just said, "Give it a few years. Just give it a few years."

Buffy just shook her head and yawned unexpectedly. "Tired?" Goku asked. Buffy glared.

"Well whether you are or not, you all have exactly five hours to sleep, because in six hours, training begins. I'll be back to wake you all up and help you get ready for the day, but the only advice that I'm giving right now, is sleep. You can talk about everything later, since that's what most groups do when they first get here. Talk about it. Because of taking up so much timing today, we wasted a good portion of the day, meaning less time to sleep, and really sleep. Believe me, from personal experience, if you don't get enough sleep you'll be miserable and exhausted halfway through the first training session. So please, just get some sleep," Goku begged as he stood up and went to the MTC.

Buffy got up with him and followed him to the red portal. "All right Goku, we get the hint. We'll call it a night. By the way what time is it anyway?" she asked.

Goku hesitated before entering his coordinates. Turning to her, "Uh, that would take way too long to explain right now. But tomorrow, OK?"

Buffy nodded, and then leaned forward and hugged the taller warrior good night. "Good night Goku," she whispered. He held her but a brief moment before whispering back, "Good night Buffy. Pleasant dreams."

Then he set the coordinates, and disappeared through the glowing red circle. Buffy watched after him for a moment or two, and then turned back, appraisedily to her 'team'. "Well?" she asked quiet enough that they could still hear her.

"Well what?" Xander asked dumbly.

"Do we sleep, do we talk, or do we try and back out of this?" Buffy put forth.

The other three sat there, understanding what she was asking of them, and exchanged glances between them. Finally Willow answered for all of them, including Buffy, by answering with around a yawn, "We sleep, and try to do our absolute best to keep up with whatever it is that we're supposed to do."

Accepting this as final nomination, vote, and written law, they all got up and went to the rooms that they had come out of, Willow going for DNA, Xander going for human motion, and Giles doing what Buffy had done, voice activation. Though his open code was somewhat more…unusual than her simple word of "Open". Giles opened his door with, "Foris" and then Buffy heard him mutter another word, "Occludo" which then closed the door.

Buffy put it out of her mind as she made her way to her bed, the door closing behind her, and as soon as she managed herself under the sheets and her head firmly to a pillow, she was fast asleep, dreaming of tomorrow.