*Authors Note: I apologize for the super long delay in new content. I was detained by a nefarious computer that had decided for three weeks it wasn't going to play with me anymore (curse those nefarious creatures…) and on top of that had parts supplier problems, and to top if off college and preparing for my eventual move to another university has bogged me down badly. But my system is up and running (sooo sweet!), so this 'shouldn't' happen again for a good long while.

To reward you for your patience, I'm making this especially long (course I said that with my Soldier story and I ended up with three chapters…hmmm) during my Spring Break.

Also, I'm trying out a new idea, where a writer does a crossover with two stories that the writer has written. So for a little while I'll be crossing over for a bit my Self-Insertion story, A Soldier in Tokyo with this story. Tell me what you think on how it turns out, and I hope I don't loose to many of you (it'll help if you read A Soldier in Tokyo first before continuing, it'll help keep things straight for you). If you chose to read the other story first, be forewarned, it's not for the faint of heart (or to be more precise, for those who can't handle swearing) but trust me, it'll be worth it for you to read that one if just to follow the two temporary new character additions to this story.

I must also thank the two (out of five) beta readers who took the time to not only read my first rough draft, but to make comments and suggestions on it as well. Thank you very much, your comments and suggestions were very helpful, and helped get me to refocus.

My apologies again, and Enjoy! And the word for today boys and girls…is…nefarious. -_^

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RBL_M1A2Tanker

DBZR1/2

Chapter 11: Crossover

At the moment that Kuno had taken up his stance, three other people walked around the corner of the house; a 5'6 redheaded male, a slightly taller dark-skinned man of Mid-East descent, and a blue-haired young woman.

For the time being the new arrivals went unnoticed as Kuno and Trunks faced off. Kuno held his bokken in a ready position before him, while Trunks merely had his arms crossed, a superior smirk on his face.

"Come now. You have been challenged. Do you not draw your blade in preparation for battle?" Kuno taunted.

His smirk a little wider, Trunks replied, "Oh I'll draw it soon enough you overblown windbag."

"You dare to insult the great Takewaki Kuno? You shall feel my vengence fully for this!" With that Kuno charged, his wooden blade seeming to he a hundred at once, blurring at the high speed he swung.

From the near the corner the Middle Easterner let out a whistle and mumbled something, to which his redheaded companion shushed him.

The sound of wood on metal reverberated throughout the dojo as Trunks deftly pulled his sword and blocked with the flat of his blade. With one hand on the hilt and the other on the opposite flat side Trunks deflected the bokken away to the side.

As suddenly as he attacked, he pulled back, nodding in silent admiration. "I must say I'm impressed. No one has withstood my prowess with a blade before." Ranma and Akane's eyebrows rose at this, while Trunks just smirked, holding the blade flat side out.

"And you used the flat of your blade too. Your skill is indeed admirable. But mine shall triumph! Yatayatayata!" Again Kuno attacked, hundreds of blades again, all blocked again. The smirk on Trunks face never faded the whole time.

"Fight me knave! I shall vanquish you for the honor of Akane Tendo!"

Ranma rolled his eyes as he mumbled, "Oh brother." Goku scratched his head, eyebrow raised slightly in confusion. From the corner of the house, the redhead could be seen shaking his head and mumbling something, to which his companion nodded and replied. The young girl just looked on in an awestruck silence.

Apparently, Trunks had enough of Kuno's antics. "You just don't get it do you?"

Kuno pulled back, bokken at the ready as he said dumbly, "Eh? What's that? You speak in riddles?" Most everyone in the area slapped a hand to their face in frustration while Trunks responded.

"You idiot! I'm blocking everything you throw at me, how much more proof that you need that you can't beat me?" He held the sword in the same postion as before, although held high in response to the last slice before Kuno backed away. From the side Ranma muttered under his breath, "A lot more than that I'm afraid."

"You cower in fear of my prowess! That is why you cannot strike!" He laughed loudly, his eyes seeming to take on an insane look as Trunks looked at him dumbly.

"You're such a fool Kuno." The red-head muttered as he shook his head. "Well, was nice knowing you." He figured that maybe if Trunks killed him, maybe the world would be saved of his stupidity. One can hope anyways.

Once again, Trunks seemed to be following the same track as the red-head. "You are so stupid! What do I have to do? Kill you before you get the picture?" Kuno shook his head mightly.

"Your skill is great, yet in the face of champion such as I. Nay, you cannot possibly kill me!"

"Wanna bet?" With that Trunks changed his grip on the blade from being pointed with the point down and flat side out, to the point up and the flat in. He came made a small jump, covering the distance between the two fighters, blades whirling quickly. A sheen of sweat could be seen on the kendoists face as he discovered that he'd vastly underestimated his opponent, barely able to parry the strikes in time.

"I see you were holding out on me. Fear not my tigress! I shall defeat this foolish child who dares to face me!" The words sounded hollow though as he continued to step back, slowly backing up nearby where the new arrivals stood. It was then that the others noticed them, but they didn't say anything, since it seemed Trunks had everything under control.

"Tank? What's he doing…oh yea!" Ranma reminded himself that he had training to do with the red-headed out-of-place soldier, and a match with his partner. He berated himself mentally for forgetting that today was the day they'd planned on it when Trunks spoke up, breaking up his thoughts.

"Heh, that's what you think. I'm still holding out on you. And now, it's time to end this." With that, Trunks slipped his blade into his scabbard, and side-kicked Kuno the rest of the way to the concrete wall, leaving a Kuno-sized imprint in it. He brushed his hands off, saying, "Well, that's that." He started to walk away, when he heard a weak voice.

"Nay…you…have not…bested me!" He turned around, and saw that the man had managed to pull himself out of the wall and take up a stance again. Kuno charged, going to power where skill and technique had failed, slicing hard at the point where Trunks' neck and head joined. Trunks ducked, and the blade missed easily.

For his troubles, he was punched this time back into the wall. Trunks shook his head, and turned away, only to hear….

"Face me you coward! You cannot defeat…the mighty Blue Thunder!" A crash of thunder fills the air, causing Goku to launch himself into the sky and see if he could figure out where the source of thunder was coming from. Trunks turned back once again, this time incredulous.

"Man! What does it take to get through your thick head?" The young lad charged his opponent, sending him to the wall a third, and he hoped, final time. He waited a couple minutes as Kuno seemed to stare back blankly.

"Sheesh. He's hard-headed." Trunks muttered, then turned away and started to take a step when he heard….

"Nay…the Blue…Thunder," Yet another crash of thunder, "…is…not…beaten!" Goku landed, scratching his head madly, having been unable to find the source of the strange thunder. Kuno was battered and bruised, holding the bokken almost limply, yet once again out of the wall and standing…sorta tall. He gazed almost blankly at his opponent. Or was it opponents now? "Do my eyes deceive me? There are three of them now! Surely he believes that numbers will finish me where skill did not!" Kuno analyized, quite incorrectly.

"This shall finish all three of you!" He cried, although he really couldn't see his target anymore, even as he brought back the blade and swung with all his might.

Would have been one hell of a blow too, if it had hit. However, his aim was so far off, he didn't notice that Trunks was a good five feet further away than his blade could reach. However, Tank and his companions weren't.

"Down!" He yelled, diving for the dirt while his friend tackled the girl. The blade just barely missed, and Kuno spun around once before he got his footing back, wobbling slightly.

Tank was angry now. He stood up, yelling tersly, "You stupid ass! You nearly hit three non-combatants! What kind of honorable fighter do you believe yourself to be?"

The slightly out of it Kuno turned in the direction of the voice, not recognizing it off the bat, and retorted, "This is none of your concern. Now be gone with you, I shall deal with you after I have finished my opponent. My prowess cannot go unchallenged!"

Furious, Tank stomped towards the fool, fists clenching and unclenching, muttering rapidly, "I'm going to kill him. I'm really going to kill him. This man must die. He mustn't be allowed to taint the gene pool in anyway shape or form." He muttered many other things, many of them that would curl the hair of a grizzled sailor as he closed in on the man who now was possibly as good as dead. He could hear some other voices from outside his vision, but he was locked on Kuno.

Alarmed, Ranma started to charge forward to stop him when he saw Tanks male companion shake his head emphatically. He almost looked afraid. Or maybe it was more anticipation for what was going to happen? Beside him Goku saw the look as well, but was going to put a stop to it anyways, when Kuno, still a bit punch drunk, saw the looming presence approach and swung at it. Trunks saw the swing starting and had just stepped off into his leap when Tank responded.

No one, that is, no one but the Siayans, were quite certain afterwards just what happened next. They didn't tell either as they were watching what happened.

Things seemed to slow down at that moment in time. In a smooth, fluid motion, Tank ducked below the rushing blade, feeling the breeze pass just over him as the blade barely clipped his hair. As deftly and as naturally as if he'd been doing it all his life, he pulled the cylinder off his belt and pressed the small plate on it, and a blue-white blade ignited from the tip with a snap-hiss, slicing the bokken neatly in half before Kuno had finished his swing.

Tank, still lowered, pushed off the ground, leapt over the Kendoist, and did a spinning roundhouse kick into his kidneys, sending him into the wall yet again. Kuno hit so hard that he actually bounced off, allowing Trunks to have a cushiony airbag when he arrived a moment later, sending Kuno back into the wall a final time.

The rest of the wooden blade finally fell the ground.

Time sped back up, as Tank glared at the highly imbedded and quite out cold Blue Thunder, breathing deeply, trying to cool down. His muscles in his back and arms were knots of steel, and refused to yield at first, and then slowly they finally uncoiled, as his temper started to abate. The lightsaber in his hands hummed away, forgotten for the moment.

Ranma, Ryoga and Akane were surprised. "How…he…wha…" That was all their minds could process at the moment. They'd trained with the older man before, but he'd never done anything like that. Tank was a relative newcomer to the martial arts world, and while he was catching on quickly in skill and ability, what he'd done was a lot more than was expected of him. "That was almost as quick as me." Ranma thought to himself, wondering how the older man had improved so much in only a couple days.

Nabiki, camera clicking away, was smiling deviously. "I'm making a killing today!" Was her thought…well, besides the obvious Yen signs and how many of them she'd get off of the sound thrashing Kuno had received today.

Kasumi numbly said, "Oh…my." And she went back inside.

Cologne, Goku, Trunks and Goten just looked at the redhead, whose eyes were still flashing slightly as he cooled off.

Cologne looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Hmmm, such skill in one so obviously new to the Arts is rare. And that weapon…in all my long years I have never seen such a thing." She came to a conclusion. "I must be watchful of him. I should have been paying more attention as he and Son-in-Law trained, but it's too late for that now. He could be a threat."

"Wow…that was neat!" Goten thought excitedly. "I've never seen a light sword before. I wonder if he'll let me try it?" He looked at the man for a moment, but then sighed heavily, "No, not right now. He doesn't seem too happy. Maybe later." He brightened up a bit at that.

Tank finally seemed to notice their stares, and gazed back. Some of them turned away, so intense was his gaze. He waited a couple moments till he trusted his ability to speak, shutting down the saber as he waited. "Sorry everyone. I just can't stand a arrogance, or stupid stuff." Some of the others thought a moment, then decided to go along with it.

"Excuse me buddy…but I have to cool off a sec. I'll be right back." Tank tossed to his friend, and then jumped up and over the wall to… 'cool-off'.

Silence filled the area as everyone processed what happened. Finally, Goku asked, "Ahh…shouldn't we do something about him?" He pointed to the still imbedded Kuno.

That snapped everyone out of their thoughts as Akane and Ranma, along with Tanks friends went over and pulled the Broken Black and Blue Thunder of Furikan High out of the wall. Ranma turned to the guy, picking up that he was strong, and asked, "Who are you?"

The other man looked up from checking Kunos' injuries and stared blankly, as if remembering what he was there for, before replying, "I'm Barsoum. Who're you?"

"Ranma Saotome." Barsoums' face broke out in a grin.

"Oh yea? You're the guy who's been training Tank?" Barsoum finished checking Kuno over, while Cologne bounced over to poke and prod here and there.

Ranma nodded as he replied, "Yup. You're his sparring partner?" A nod.

Cologne finished up, saying, "This is all that we can do for him. He'll be fine in a few days, but for now he'll have to let his body rest."

The others nodded, when Goku walked up to them. Bending down, he gently picked up the beaten seventeen year old and brought him inside to lay him on the futon.

Outside Ranma and Barsoum were looking each other over, sizing their opponent up when a shadow leapt over the wall. They glanced up and saw Tank just before he landed, much calmer than before.

"Hey man…where'd you go?" Barsoum asked, while Ranma said, somewhat wryly, "What did you do?"

"Don't know, and nothing, on both counts." He answered as he walked up to them. He looked at Akane, noticing the still slightly blondish bangs and cocked his head. "What's with the hair?" He asked.

Akane sighed, "It's a long story."

"Only gets shorter by telling it." Tank retorted.

"The same could go for you you know." Ranma shot back.

"Whaddya mean?" Tank blinked, confused. Barsoum answered before Ranma could.

"I think he means whatcha just did dude." Ranma frowned a bit, but nodded.

Tank sighed himself, and stepped over to the porch to sit. "No long story there. I just don't know. It was like…instinct at work. Before I had thought to do something, I'd done it." He looked up, shrugging, genuenly at a loss. Cologne sat perched on her cane, staring down with her piercing stare while Ranma and Barsoum both probed.

While they were talking, Akane walked over to the nearly forgotten young woman, and asked, "And who're you? Are you a friend of his?"

The girl turned to Akane, thinking a moment. "Well…yes and no. I really don't know him that well, we just met a short while ago." Akane laughed a short laugh.

"Yea, me too. What's your name?"

"Ami Mizuno."

"Akane Tendo. Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise." They smiled at each other when Tank called to them.

"Hey Ami? You don't have to stay if you don't want to."

Before she could respond, Akane interjected, "Why not? This is our place, not yours after all." She really didn't get along too well with the man, but that was natural. She didn't get along with men in general, so he took it in stride, more-or-less.

Tank sighed, "I could be a real pain here, but I've done that already to Kuno. Not that he didn't deserve it, but still." Most of the Nerima residents couldn't find any argument to that. "Point is, you're correct, yet I was allowed to bring one other person with me. A little rude of me to bring more people when they weren't expected, don't you think?"

Akane pondered that, finding that he had a point of his own. She decided to ignore it though. "Well, she's here now isn't she?"

Ami, stuck on the sidelines, finally managed to jump in before a full-blown argument ensued. "That's ok. I only followed here to talk over some things with him." She turned to the still seated ex-soldier. "If you don't mind, I'd like to meet you in a couple days, at the usual place, if that's ok with you?"

Tank thought, and then nodded. "Works for me. I'll see you then."

"Right." Ami smiled amicably, bowed to everyone else, and made her exit.

Goku came out from inside, with Kasumi in tow, saying, "He'll be asleep for a good long time I think." To his surprise Tank stood and bowed slightly to him.

"Ahh…thanks, but you didn't have to bow to me." He said, chuckling a bit as he scratched his head.

"Actually, I was bowing to Kasumi. My apologies for earlier." Tank covered for his little lapse easily enough. Kasumi blushed a bit, saying, "That's quite alright."

Barsoum wrapped an arm around his companion, saying, "Would you excuse us a sec?" He yanked Tank away before anyone could answer.

* ** * * * *

"What was that about? I thought you said we couldn't hit on the Tendos?" Barsoum hissed. "You trying to keep them all for yourself or something?"

Tank frowned, but didn't struggle out of the grip. "No man! I goofed, and bowed to Goku when I wasn't thinking. I told ya we can't mess with the timeline. You think I'm crazy?"

"Yes. Especially after what you did earlier. And when are you ever thinking?"

Tank grimaced, "Look, I really don't know what happened there!"

"Why didn't you tell me that was a God da-.." Tank interrupted with a harsh, "Not now man! Right now we have a match and some training to do! And with DBZ folks here, we better get what we can!"

Barsoum sighed, letting go in acceptance. "Alright. But don't pull that again alright? Kinda scared me a bit."

Tank looked at him in surprise. "You? Scared? Yea right. You're the one who was chasing a squirrel after all."

Barsoum grinned slightly, "Ok, so I wasn't. But the squirrel thing was just crazy, not scary anyways."

Tank pondered, and then conceded the point as they went back to the others.

* * * * * *

"So who's that guy?" Goku asked as the two were speaking in hushed tones.

"He's a foreign exchange student from America. He comes here to train every couple days. I'd forgotten that today was the day we'd train." Ranma answered.

"Oh, that's great. He's not bad. Still a little rough, but he's got potential!" Goku said. Goten and Trunks could only nod, while Cologne kept her comments to herself, although they were along the same lines as Gokus'.

Ranma took that moment to point out, "He's only been training a few months. He didn't have much experience before he came to me." The Saiyans looked at him, somewhat surprised.

"You mean that he's that good after only a few months?"

Ranma nodded. "Yup. Although what he did today was…"

"Different." Ryoga spoke up. They looked at him as he continued. "I've fought with him before, and while he was decent, he wasn't a match then. But…that was only about a week ago."

He turned away from looking at the subject of the conversation and at them. "If he'd fought then like he did now against Kuno, I'm not sure who'd have won."

"Oh common Ryoga. You'd have taken him, I'm sure of it." Ranma said, positive about it.

The Lost Boy turned to him. "Tell me Saotome, do you think you'd have beaten him if he could do that before?" Ranma opened his mouth to speak, then stopped.

"He's right Son-in-Law. His rage was so great, it's hard to say just what he would have done in battle." Cologne said wisely.

At that moment the other two returned, and the conversation was dropped for the time being.

From the pond Genma just bubbled, still out cold.

A rather large amount of that going around lately it seemed.

************

In the DBZ world…

Gohan was searching high and low for the Dragonballs, while the rest of the gang gathered at the Lookout, hoping that they would be safe there.

Weeeeell….safe from attack maybe. Safe from ludicrous staring though…that's another story.

Vegeta, Tien, Bulma and Videl all just looked on in shock at the changes that had come across both Krillin and 18…and they looked back at them, as shocked as they were at the changes that had come across them.

Krillin still had the full head of black hair, and the same face. Only difference was that now, instead of being a five-foot tall, toned man, he was a six-foot tall, very beefy man. And he spoke with a deeper voice in an odd Austrian accent. 18 had gone from being a petite blonde, to…well...still petite but…

Lara Croft comes to mind when describing her new 'attributes.' This really was an understatement due to her breasts being at least one or two sizes larger than before. She had much greater bounce in her bust than she used to, and even with a very strained sports bra on, they still moved about more of less of their own accord. "I always thought I was a little on the small side, but this is ridiculous! I'm going to have to change my whole wardrobe if this becomes permanent. I can't go around like this!" She self-consciously pulled her trademark black shirt down, unable to tuck it in for obvious reasons, so it showed off her flat stomach a bit.

Naturally, Master Roshi had been the first to notice the changes between the two. He should be landing somewhere in the general vicinity of Siberia anytime now. Granted, she had been under a state of undue stress and undress, but she felt she did a pretty good job in restraining herself from killing the old lecher outright.

"Look," Krillin started to explain, his shirt barely covering the now rippling muscles. Course his clothing in general barely covered him, made for a much shorter and smaller man after all. "We were just having a little fun, and I said something about how I was going to pump her up, and next thing we both knew, ahhh…I had." He couldn't help but smack his meaty hands together on the 'pump' part. 18 blushed slightly in response.

Tien couldn't help but laugh as he asked, "Do you often pretend to be Arnold?"

"Shaddap there candystripe." Krillin fired off, killing Tien's smile instantly. It was a little hard for him to forget the new hairstyle he had, as he had to brush it out of his face several times. They had tried to cut it, but the stuff just grew back in mere moments.

Piccolo walked out, with Dende and Mr. Popo following. They'd been appraised of what had been going on for awhile now, but seeing the changes in person had been a little distressing to the three normal residents. They'd had a little time to recover though, and took Krillin and 18's arrival and appearance in stride.

Dende addressed them, "Don't worry, Gohan will be back soon with the Dragonballs, and we'll be able to set things right. I hope."

Vegeta turned towards the Guardian sharply. "What do you mean, 'you hope'?" He strode purposefully towards the young Namek, who didn't back away, but became far more anxious. Not that he could be blamed, not with a half-cocked Saiyan closing in.

"Well, you see…there's someone who's more powerful than me who's doing this." He explained.

It was less than Vegeta wanted to hear. With no real effort, he transformed into a Super Saiyan, the wind blowing away from him. "Who is this person? I'll force him to change everything back!" He yelled, the glow around him intense.

Bulma couldn't help but toss out, "Right before you destroy him right?"

"Exactly." Vegeta said matter-of-factly.

"There's really nothing we can do Vegeta." Piccolo spoke up for the first time. "This being is able to cause changes here in our dimension, but is safe from retaliation because he's in another dimension of his own."

Grunting with some frustration, Vegeta calmed himself, relaxing from being a Super Saiyan. Most everyone's blood pressure dropped as well, as Dende continued to explain.

"Shenlong is powerful yes, but whether he has the power to undo a higher God's power…" He shrugged. "It's really too hard to tell without actually asking the dragon."

"Where's Kakarot then? Where did he go?" Vegeta asked, arms crossed.

"He managed to find out where the boys went, and, using the Instant Transmission, was able to go where they were. Which just so happened to be…"

"In another dimension, right?" Bulma finished. Dende nodded. "So we have to wait for him to return then." Another nod.

"It'll take Gohan some time to find all the Dragonballs, even with the radar." Krillin pointed out, to which no one could disagree.

"Guess we'll just have to wait for Goku and Gohan to get back, and we can set things straight again." Bulma surmised, still feeling a little self-conscious about her age…or lack of it.

Again, no one could disagree.

To be continued…