The tension is building. The finale is drawing near. Hang on to your seats. It's going to be a bumpy ride! P.S. Thanks again for all your reviews.

Chapter 10

While Bulma was forcing Dolt to show her the way to the holding chambers, five separate battles were going on at once.

Piccolo and Arrack had both forgotten about fighting technically. They were going at it, tooth and claw! Arrack slashed at Piccolo, leaving three deep claw marks across his face. Piccolo grabbed his hand, before he could pull it back. Arrack went to punch him but Piccolo caught his fist in his other hand. Not giving him a chance to use his eye lasers, Piccolo pulled Arrack in close to him and sank his fangs into the wolf-man's upper arm. Arrack howled in pain, but wasted no time in striking back. He slammed his knee into Piccolo's gut and wrenched his arm free of his mouth (loosing a good bit of flesh while doing so).

He sped behind Piccolo and trapped his head in a hold. He tightened his grip on the namek's neck and began twisting.

Piccolo could feel his neck begin to bend at a dangerous angle. He could also hear Arrack laughing in his ear.

"Any last words, Greeny? Or do you want me to call you Piccolo?"

Piccolo gritted his teeth, his face contorted in pain. He answered in a choked voice.

"My friends call me Piccolo. But to you…"

His arm suddenly stretched up above his head. He reached over his back and grabbed hold of Arrack's armor. Bending forward, he flung the surprised alien to the ground while still keeping hold of his armor.

Arrack lifted his head to see an evil grin spread across Piccolo's face.

"To you, I am the Demon King." He turned and used his extended arm to throw Arrack up towards the high ceiling. His arm returned to its' normal length and he opened his mouth, letting a wide beam of energy shoot from it. The beam hit Arrack dead on and reduced the evil warrior to dust and a few singed hairs.

While this had been going on, Umgero had pulled out all the stops in his attempt to beat down Buu. So far, it was to no avail. He now stood, bruised and bloody, with his arms hanging by his sides. Buu was still standing in the same spot he'd been in from the beginning, his fists up and a playful smile on his face.

"I see… you are… somewhat skilled." Umgero said while breathing heavily. "It seems I… shall have to… take drastic measures."

He stood with his legs apart, elbows by his sides and fists clenched tightly. He closed his eyes and spoke quietly,

"I call upon the power of my ancestors. I make your strength my own, so that I may crush all before me!" His eyes snapped open. His pupils had narrowed to slits. Shockwaves started coming off of his body, which was convulsing violently. His muscles bulged, his teeth elongated into fangs, huge wings sprouted from his back and he seemed to double in size.

Buu watched the transformation, the power radiating off of Umgero blowing his cape back. Suddenly he heard a sound which received all of his attention. It was his stomach growling.

"Oh, Buu hungry." He looked around for any available food source but could find none. Finally he gave a little shrug and pointed his head tentacle at the towering Umgero. A pink beam shot out of it and hit the monster. He wobbled for a moment, and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared, sitting on the floor was a super-sized bowl of noodles! Buu waddled up to the bowl and picked it up.

"Yum! Prefer chocolate, but Buu trying to cut down." He made some chopsticks magically appear in his hand and dug in.

18 and Quiver flew on parallel flight paths, shooting energy balls at each other. 18 was having an easier time dodging the balls than Quiver, due to her smaller size. Quiver had several burn marks on his body and armor, and was starting to lose his temper.

He placed his hands together, above his head, and fired a huge energy wave at 18. She had to drop to the floor to avoid it. She looked up and saw that Quiver had disappeared. She quickly looked behind her and jumped back, out of his reach, as he came out of the floor and tried to grab her. As she went back, she fired off an energy wave that hit Quiver in the face! He stumbled back with his hands over the burnt area.

18 landed a safe distance away and couldn't help but smirk at the glare Quiver gave her as he took his hands away from his burnt face.

"Maybe that will teach you to keep your hands to yourself." She said with her arms crossed.

Quiver just grunted and fired an energy wave at her. 18 dodged to the right to avoid it, then to the left as a second one came at her. The third came faster and was in her face before she could move!

Quiver laughed at the resulting explosion.

"And maybe that'll teach you to -"

He stopped as 18 came running out of the blast with her arms crossed in front of her. She came right at him with her fist drawn back and punched him in the stomach. Of course, her fist just passed harmlessly through his skin.

Quiver gave another laugh as he raised his own fist.

"Don't you ever learn?"

He was about to strike when he saw the look in her eyes. They were lazily half-closed and had a coldness behind them that seemed to freeze Quiver on the spot. He then realized that 18 hadn't removed her fist from inside his body.

"As a matter of fact," The android said with a slight grin. "I do."

18 opened her fist and bolts of electricity shot from her palm. They easily traveled through Quiver's separated particles and the alien was cooked to a crisp within seconds.

18's expression didn't change as she withdrew her hand from the burnt husk which collapsed to the floor and crumbled into dust at her feet. She just calmly blew the ashes off of her palm and let them drift onto the top of the mound.

Krillin hit the floor and rolled into a kneeling position. He'd taken quite a few hits from Mingen and looked pretty beat up. He just hoped that his acting had been good enough so that Mingen wouldn't realize he'd taken the hits on purpose.

Mingen watched the short human climb painfully to his feet. He looked about ready to finish off. Lining his mirrors up in front of him, he raised his hands above his head and began gathering ki into them. Krillin looked up and grinned.

"Just what I was hoping for."

A white aura surrounded his body as he sped up towards Mingen. The pale fighter wondered what, in the universe, that human was trying to accomplish by charging at him. He gave a little shrug and was about to fire his energy wave, when Krillin pulled up short, right in front of his lined-up mirrors.

He brought his hands up to either side of his forehead, palms in, fingers spread.

"Solar Flare!"

Pure light shot out of Krillin's body, straight through the mirrors and straight into Mingen's eyes! Traveling through the mirrors amplified the light so much that the alien's retinas were fried upon contact.

Mingen dropped the energy he'd been holding and clamped his hands over his burnt eyes, shrieking in pain. His mirrors stayed frozen in place, perfect for Krillin to launch his final attack.

"Kamehameha!"

The beam blazed through the mirrors, increasing in power as it went. By the time it reached Mingen, he didn't have a chance. The wave vaporized him and then exploded against the hangar ceiling, amazingly not leaving a scratch.

Vegeta's fist smashed into Lance's face, causing the fighter to cough up a gob of blood and teeth. Before he even had time to clear his head, he received a knee to the gut. Vegeta grabbed a handful of his hair and lifted the battered alien's face, so that it was level with his.

"By your look of surprise, I'm guessing that you didn't know we saiyans get stronger after every battle."

Suddenly, Lance's hair looped around Vegeta's wrist! Lance flicked his head back, swinging Vegeta into the wall behind him.

"And I'm guessing you didn't know that we Kyushins always have a trick up our sleeve!"

Using his head, he swung Vegeta around and around. Suddenly, the hair around his wrist loosened and Vegeta went crashing to the ground.

Getting to his feet, Vegeta shook his head.

"Defeat first, gloat second! I've got to remember that!" He then looked up, to see Lance reaching over his shoulder for his cloak!

'Oh, great! Now what?' He thought desperately. Just then, a certain ki signature appeared, right next to him. "Kakarrot!"

Goku only had to look at Vegeta's face to know what he wanted. He instantly went super saiyan 2 and pointed both his arms out to his right.

Lance threw his cape at the two saiyans as they started going through a bizarre set of movements.

"Fu…"

The cloak spread out as it neared its' targets.

"Shun…"

The magic material wrapped itself around the pair just as their fingertips were about to meet. From inside the suffocating cloak, there came a muffled,

"Ha!"

Instantly, the cape expanded, like a balloon filled with two much air. Lance watched in disbelief as first one beam of light shot out of the dark cape and then another, and another. Finally, unable to contain the raw power inside of it, the cloak exploded in a blinding flash of light. Lance covered his face from the light. When he looked again, he saw that Goku and Vegeta had disappeared and, in their place, stood a person he had never seen before.

The stranger looked up at Lance with a stern expression on his face. He then vanished and before Lance could even look around, he reappeared with his fist in the alien's gut! Lance staggered back, clutching at his stomach. He painfully raised his head to look at the fighter.

"Who the hell are you?"

The fighter's expression didn't change as he answered.

"I am Gogeta. And I am your end."

For some reason, Gogeta's very voice caused Lance's body to seize up in fear. With a desperate scream, he hurled ki blast after ki blast at him. The echoing explosion caused all the other fighters to look up.

As the smoke cleared, there wasn't a trace of Gogeta. Suddenly, Lance heard his voice right next to him.

"Not bad, but your aim was off."

Gogeta struck out with his arm, backhanding Lance across the face and sending him flying away. He raised his hand, pointing his palm towards the air-born fighter, and fired off a single ball of energy. The moment it touched Lance, it exploded and the shockwave knocked all of the other fighters off their feet. Lance was no more.

Gogeta landed on the floor and was approached by the others.

"Alright, Goku – err, I mean Gogeta! Err, well it's great to have ya back!" Said Krillin.

"It's not over yet." Said Gogeta. "We've still got Slug to take care of."

Just then, everybody stiffened. Their eyes widened and their bodies began to shake involuntarily.

"Do you feel that!" Said Krillin, his voice trembling.

"That feels like -" Piccolo began but was unable to finish.

"Big power!" Buu actually had his eyes open as he spoke.

"Come on! I can sense the others there too! We've got to get there now!" Gogeta held his arm out and everyone placed a hand on it. He put his index and middle finger on his forehead and, a spilt second later, they were all standing in a different room.

The first thing Gogeta saw was Dende, Mr. Popo, Videl, Bulma and Dolt. They all looked terrified and Bulma actually had tears in her eyes. He turned around to face the object of their fear.

Snail was standing before them with that calm smile on his face as always. Gogeta's attention was immediately drawn to what he had in his hand. Hanging by Snail's side, being gripped by the back of his jacket, was Trunks' limp form. Seeing the discomfort in Gogeta's face, Snail grinned and threw the boy towards him. Gogeta caught Trunks in his arms. He was bleeding from a nasty cut on his forehead and his clothes were in tatters. Gogeta could still sense a spark of life in him though. He looked at Snail with eyes that could shatter steel.

"Now don't look at me like that." Said Snail. "I didn't touch the lad."

He then stepped aside and Gogeta nearly dropped Trunks at what he saw.

Gohan and Goten stood outside the open door to the chamber. The shining white ameron crystals could be seen behind them. Their hair stood up as if they were super saiyans, but was coloured white. The same went for their eyes. Their pupils couldn't be seen and their eyes held no emotion, neither did their blank faces.

Snail's fangs showed as he smiled at the speechless Z-fighters.

"Well, these boys have come along very well. I only have one more trial for them." His eyes narrowed evilly and his smile broadened. "A field test."