Welcome to the afterlife, son!



Chapter Ten: Vegeta versus Maraiako!



Last time...

 "Masenko-HA!" Piccolo yelled, and the two beams collided.  At first Piccolos Masenko struggled against the Super Bear attack of Arrar, but then, within seconds it made its way towards the Grizzlorian fighter.

Arrar had no chance to evade the blasts coming right at him, and the explosion from the impact catapulted Piccolos opponent out of the ring where he hit a concrete wall.

The fight was over!

Piccolo was declared winner by the alien announcer guy and winked at the crowd. This had been fun... ...



Now the continuation...

After Piccolos' victory over Arrar the afterlife tournament continued, while Piccolo walked back to where the other Z-Fighters were standing.

They congratulated him to his victory, and the Namekian warrior admitted that this fight had been fun. Even Vegeta admitted that Piccolo had shown them and the crowd a good fight, and that was the hugest compliment one could await from the still pride-driven Saiyan Prince.

Gohan patted Piccolo on the back and congratulated him to his awesome increase in power. He himself had grown considerably in power through his death, but what Piccolo had shown them in his fight had been really impressive.

"Thanks, kid." Piccolo said after Gohans' congrats. "After Kami had decided to merge with me into one being my power shot through the roof. But yours is no piece of cake either, Gohan." the Namek said.

Gohan nodded.

"Wish I had been as strong when I fought the Androids, but sadly the power-increase came not until I had died, and by then it was too late. But I will raise my power constantly, and should we ever be able to return to Earth I will rip those tin-cans apart!" he said with so much venom in his voice that the others looked at him.

He however did not care. They had not live this constant nightmare for several years. Always running and hiding, training to become stronger, hopefully strong enough to beat the darn tin cans...

After some deep breaths Gohan managed to calm down. His fathers was right, there was nothing he could do any more for Earth besides becoming stronger. And he knew he had some hidden potential in himself he had failed to access until now, he knew it!

Since his childhood he knew that he had these powers, enough proof of this existed. And he would find a way to access it, damn it!

Meanwhile the next fight was announced, and the Z-Fighters watched with interest as one of those fighters could be the next opponent of either Goku, Gohan, Vegeta or Piccolo.

This fight would be decided between Tantar, a speedster from the South quadrant, and Marak, a harmless looking Frog-like creature from the East quadrant.

"And now ladies, gentlemen and everything else, I am proud to present the next fight! Coming from the South quadrant and known for his incredible speed, I give you Tantar! Lets hear it for him!!!" the alien-announcer guy exclaimed, and the crowd cheered loudly as Tantar walked onto the platform.

"And in this corner, proud to present the East quadrant, I give you Marak! He has participated in quite a few tournaments, not making it quite to the finals, but he is determined to change it! Let's heat it for Marak!!!" the announcer yelled, and once again the crowd cheered as the Frog-like creature walked onto the platform.

The two fighters looked at each other with determined expression and fell into stances. Seconds later the Grand Kai gave the signal.

"You know the rules! Fight!!" the announcer-guy exclaimed and the fight was on.

Nothing spectacular happened in this fight, some blows were exchanged, but Tantar, the speedster proved to be too fast for Marak to hit him properly. Every time Marak tried to hit Tantar the speedster zoomed out of the way, and Marak was getting frustrated soon.

After some unsuccessful attempts in hitting Tantar he had obviously had enough. Suddenly he just stood there in the middle of the ring and started to quack! And all of a sudden he started to inflate like a balloon! Tantar, at first totally surprised zoomed towards the still growing Marak and hit him several times, but it was like hitting gum! The blows had absolutely no effect, as Marak kept on growing further!

What a crazy competition! Gohan thought, standing besides the ring, this is more like a circus than anything else!

"Hah hah! You may be faster than me, but soon all your speed won't help you as there is nowhere to run besides outside of the ring!!" Marak exclaimed, and as much as Tantar tried, he had to admit that Marak was right. All his manoeuvres were of no use, and slowly but steadily he was pushed out of the ring. He reared up one last time and tried to use all of his speed to catapult Marak out of the ring, but it was like he had just ran against a wall of gum! The speedster bounced back and landed outside out the ring!

"We have a ringout! Tantar has landed outside of the ring, and that makes Marak the winner!" the announcer exclaimed, and the crowd cheered. However not as loudly as for the previous winners, for this fight had really been kind of boring.

As well Vegeta as Gohan, Goku and Piccolo were quite sure that they would be able to achieve an easy victory about this frog...

Marak deflated to his original size, winked one last time to the crowd and exited the ring. This time he had managed to get to the next round, and he was quite proud...

Right after Marak had left the ring the next and final fight of Round 1 was announced, and Vegeta was already cracking his knuckles. Yeah, some exercise would do him good...

He smirked, and this smirk would have made his opponent Maraiako run for cover had he seen it. The Saiyan Prince was looking forward to this fight, and like before every fight his blood became heated up by the warsong that was coursing through his veins.

"And now Ladies, Gentlemen and everything else, I have the honour to announce the last fight of this first round!! It will be decided between two old acquaintances of this tournament!!! And in this corner... I give you Vegeta, the Prince of all Saiyans!!! He has participated in the last two afterlife tournaments, and was only stopped by Pikkon on one occasion and by Goku on the other!!! He has already displayed remarkable strength and uncanny skills!!! Let's hear it for Vegeta!!!" the alien-announcer guy exclaimed and the crowd roared in anticipation at what they would be seeing soon.

They had seen Vegeta fight on these previous occasions, and the Saiyan Prince had impressed them deeply. He had nearly beaten Pikkon in his first tournament appearance, and last time he had only been stopped by the superior strength of Goku. This would be one hell of a fight...

Others however were not so impressed with Vegeta...

"What? This little man made it to the finals?? What do they have for a competition up here?? A circus??" one man, known as... you guessed it... Hercule Satan nearly yelled.

His 22 years old daughter covered her face so that no one saw the bright red blush her face had taken because of the shame she felt. This could simply not be... she would have died of shame if she had not been dead already...

But once she had recovered enough she turned to her father and yelled

"NOW SHUT THE HELL UP, DAD!! HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING UP HERE???! IT'S NOT THE SIZE THAT'S IMPORTANT!!! THIS 'LITTLE MAN' AS YOU CALLED HIM COULD PROBABLY SQASH YOU WITH ONE FINGER!! DIDN'T YOU SEE WHAT IT TAKES TO STAND YOUR GROUND IN THIS TOURNAMENT?? THIS IS NOT SOME KIND OF KINKY COMPETITION LIKE THE ONES WE HAD ON EARTH!!! GOT IT??!"

Hercules' face had turned a chalk-white colour. Never had he heard his daughter so angry, and he gulped audibly before nearly sliding out of his chair. The others sitting besides them were once again laughing, and this time Hercule knew that they were laughing about him...

Every Z-Fighter had heard what had been going on up on the ranks, and Gohan smirked. Yeah, he liked this woman more and more. She stood up against others, even if it was what Gohan guessed her own, stupid father. This woman had fire, and he turned towards her and gave her a smile.

She caught his look and actually blushed before smiling back.

She blushed! I'll be damned! Seems she likes me... Gohan thought before he saw the look on her fathers face. Videl followed his gaze and

"Not one word, dad!" she said loud enough for Gohan to hear, and it was all that Gohan could do from rolling on the floor laughing.

He smiled before concentrating on the happenings at the ring again. The announcer had stepped into the middle of the ring and continued announcing.

"And in the other corner, equipped with a battle-weight of 2 tons and incredible strength, I am proud to announce one of the veterans of this tournament... you all know him... Maraiko!!!" the announcer exclaimed, and a giant dinosaur-like creature made its way into the ring.

Both fighters surveyed each other, as they had never before fought against each other. On one occasion Goku had made short work of Maraiko, and Vegeta was sure that he was able to do the same without working a sweat.

"You both know the rules!!! Fight!!!" the announcer exclaimed as the Grand Kai had given the signal.

Vegeta and Maraiko blurred out of existence in an instant, and the fight was joined...

And all who were not able to watch the fight, and that were a lot of spectators and fighters, looked at the magical screens. Vegeta was still in his basic form, but nevertheless the combatants were exchanging blows at jackhammer speed.

For Vegeta this exchange of blows was merely a warm-up, and he did not have to think about blocking his opponents' moves, his reflexes even in the basic Saiyan form were more than good enough.

The sonic waves produced by the blows were so strong that they would have blown the spectators from the seats, but the Grand Kai had made special preparations this time regarding the fact that a lot of powerful fighters would compete in the tournament.

Uranai Baba, the old witch, had once again cast a shielding charm that surrounded the whole tournament ring, and once the blows became to heavy the energies being released were absorbed. This way the spectators were safe, and a happy crowd was a good crowd…

Aforementioned crowd was watching the ongoing fight with rapt attention on the magical screens, and the Grand Kai congratulated himself to another stroke of genius. This tournament would be the best ever…

Down in the ring Vegeta decided to take the fight up a notch. This Maraiako was as strong as he looked, but Vegeta did not see need to transform into a Super Saiyan. This way he would have been able to end the fight in a second, but in his opinion he was more than able to so even in his normal form.

But Maraiako had obviously trained, for he augmented his power-level to match the Saiyan Princes'. Vegeta and Maraiako exchanged blows at breakneck speed, and suddenly Maraiakos' tail lashed forward and managed to hit the Saiyan Prince with enough force to send him flying upwards.

After a few hundred yards of flight Vegeta was able to stop his uncontrolled flight as he powered up even more. Now he was officially angry. This runt had managed to hit him! How lackadaisical! His face contorted in rage, and the crowd who could see his reaction on the magical screens already pitied Maraiako…

The Saiyan Prince flew towards the ground where Maraiako was standing, obviously preparing some kind of energy attack. Vegeta did not care and powered up even more, still in his normal Saiyan form. Naturally Maraiako sensed this power-up coming from the Saiyan Prince and noticed that he was outclassed by now.

He gulped, but seconds later a determined expression entered his face. He would fire his attack and weaken Vegeta enough to win! Yeah, that he would do!

"THUNDERREX ATTACK!!!" he exclaimed once he had gathered sufficient energy to fire his attack, and a giant yellow beam exited his palms at jackhammer speed.

Vegeta sensed the attacks power and smirked. Instead of firing his own energy attack to cancel Maraiakos' attack out he did something far more spectacular: he just backhanded it away into the 'space' above where it exploded harmlessly, but with enough force to crack some celestial bodies.

The crowd cheered loudly, for they had sensed how strong the attack of Maraiako had been, and the Saiyan Prince had simply deflected it! Awesome!

Vegeta however did not even hear the cheers coming from the spectators, although one special spectator had nearly hidden himself under his seat in face of the powers this little man as he had called him possessed. What were those guys was the only question he could come up with, while his daughter watched the fight with a thrilled expression…

The Saiyan Prince flew straight at Maraiako who was readying himself for the next exchange of blows. He fell onto the dinosaur in a firestorm of blows, and the other fighter was barely able to block the last punch that had been aimed for his horned face, and was now breathing heavily from the strain.

Vegeta was in much better condition, for he had trained himself even to fight full out in his basic Saiyan form. Once again the crowd cheered loudly, and as if on cue Vegeta increased the tempo even more and hit Maraiako s' defences with Earth-shattering blows which the giant dinosaur was nearly unable to block.

Also Maraiako noticed that Vegeta was just too strong for him, but he would go down fighting. Thus he launched himself at the Saiyan Prince again and decked his opponent with a blurry of punches and kicks, followed by a roundhouse-kick-punch-combo.

Vegeta smirked while he blocked everything thrown at him with ease, and then decided to take matters into his own hands once again. He appreciated that Maraiako was still fighting back, and he would honour him by winning by ring-out.

Thus the Saiyan Prince leapt forward at his opponent and sent another hailstorm of punches at Maraiako which were driving the giant dinosaur back. Maraiako was not surprised at the attacks strength, he was however surprised that those blows did not seem to take anything out of his opponent.

Vegeta was still breathing normally, while he was panting like there was no tomorrow. Maraiako had to admit it, Vegeta was among the favourites to win this tournament, and once he had lost (he knew he would, it was only a question of time) he would admit that he had lost to his better.

Suddenly Vegeta fazed away, and Maraiako started a frantic search for his opponents energy. When he found it however it was too late, as he had no time to react any more. For Vegeta had grabbed hold of his tail, and he could not do anything to escape this firm grip of the Saiyan prince.

And Vegeta did what Maraiako had feared! The Saiyan began to swing him around his own center line and was gaining speed! Soon Maraiako got dizzy from that, and as much as he raised his energy to stop Vegetas' move he could do nothing!

It was to no avail, and once Vegeta had gathered enough momentum he let go of Maraiakos' tail, and the dinosaur fighter hurled with amazing speed from one end of the ring to the other, where he impacted against a far wall, outside the ring!

He landed quite ruggedly on his butt, but was still conscious. Maraiako got up, brushed the dust of him and gave the Saiyan Prince the thumbs up! The crowd cheered loudly at so much sportsmanship, and the Saiyan Prince gave Maraiako a smirk…

Then the alien-announcer-guy stepped into the ring.

"Ladies, Gentlemen and everything else, we have a winner!!! Prince Vegeta takes this last fight of Round one, and we can say that he won with ease! We can be astounded what he will show us in the next round!! Right now we will take a break as the fixtures for the next round will be decided!!!" he yelled, and the crowd cheered.

Some time passed by as the next fights were magically determined, and once they were the alien announcer guy stepped up in the ring again.

"Ladies, Gentlemen and everything else, the fights of Round 2 have been decided!!! And here they are!!!" he yelled, and the two guys who had rolled in the fixtures of Round 1 before rolled in another blackboard with the next rounds brackets.

Clearly visible written on it was:

Fight One: Piccolo (North quadrant) versus Vegeta (North quadrant)

Fight Two: Gohan (North quadrant) versus Jabadai (East quadrant)

Fight Three: Goku (North quadrant) versus Pikkon (West quadrant)

Fight Four: Alamba (East quadrant) versus Marak (East quadrant)

The crowd went into a roaring frenzy at seeing the fixtures of the next round. Especially the fights between Piccolo and Vegeta as well as between Goku and Pikkon would be very interesting. The spectators assumed that Jabaidai's chances to win against Gohan were at best remote, for they had seen what the young man could do.

This time East Kai was particularly proud of her fosterlings, for the first time in 2000 years fighters of her had made it to the second round. That was a miracle, and one she thought to celebrate properly. And one of her fighters would actually proceed to the next round! Yeah, this was awesome!

Meanwhile Vegeta had rejoined the other Z-Fighters, and had taken all their compliments in stride. He was too thrilled at the prospect to fight Piccolo to be grumpy. Finally a real fight! He could hardly await it. But this feeling was mutual, and also Goku could hardly await to face Pikkon once again... ...



to be continued...


== Hercule really got it in this chapter (Go Videl! Go!) and Vegeta won his fight against Maraiako with ease, but the West quadrants' fighters chances to win were remote from the first. Now the Saiyan Prince will be facing one of his comrades… Piccolo! Who will win? Stay tuned! ==


Thanks for reading! And be sure to review! With the right motivation I think I'll be able to release the next fight Wednesday or Thursday...



And as always a very special thanks to my beta, who is doing a great job! Thx!



REVIEWERS RESPONSES:


rjectkd89: Thanks! Will do so!


Candy the Duck: was just joking, :D
Glad that you like the fighting scenes, they're hard to write, but it's easy with the right motivation!


dabaka: Thank you! That's why I wrote this story, cause no one ever heard anything from Mirai Trunks and Gohan again.
As for the fight: the only similarity I could find was that both use the Masenko, which is logical because Gohan learned it from Piccolo. But I do try to use more variety, promise! And I will most surely not quit. As long as I have enough motivation I will continue, so much is for sure!


Anthony1: Glad that you liked the fight! Vegeta's was not as hard and challenging, though, but the next one will sure be!
Therefore this chappie had some Hercule torture, heh...


animeprincess1452: Thanks! I aim to please!


matt zero: Good to see you once again! And I'm glad that you like the story. As for your suggestions: scriblesthemdown They're good!


gaul1: Cool you liked it! And will do so! Me dislike tests, too! Hope it went well...


DBZ Chick1: I did my best and hurried, and thanks to the motivation you all gave me I succeeded. Hope you liked it...


Marshmellow13Dragon: Yeah, it was a tough fight. Hope you didn't hurt yourself when you fell down,
As for Gohan's hidden powers: no foreshadowing here, I'm afraid, heh...